LONDON LETTER OCTOBER 27th 2013: Religion, Politics and Sport.

It often surprises people visiting my apartment and who know that I am an atheist to see so many books related to religion. This ought not to be so surprising I have always been interested in the study of religion and it is not possible to make sense of human history without some understanding of religion.

 Religion, as often observed by Christopher Hitchens, religion represents mankind’s first attempt at philosophy, at seeking answers, at pulling together a defining narrative. I would add that apart from this consideration what makes the study of religion so attractive is that the language of religion is so rich with metaphor, simile and the wonderful imagery of myth.  

One thing that often strikes me when debating Christians is that more often than not they display an extraordinary ignorance of the roots of their own religion. In fact when seeking to discuss the historical roots of any religious belief with a believer it soon becomes clear that they are not interested in facts, they have faith and faith is enough.

A couple of year’s back I read Bart D Ehrman’s ‘Lost Christianities,’ subtitled The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. For anyone interested in the roots of Christianity and how the Christian Bible came to take the form it eventually took, this is required reading. Let me just say that it casts some doubt on the idea that the Bible represents the unmediated word of God.

Ehrmans book is also extremely interesting for the light that it casts upon the Gnostics. The Gnostics being far more interesting, and indeed tolerant, as a group than the early Christians; for those who like to compare Christianity with the evils of secular totalitarianism it is worth considering that had it not been for find of the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt we would know little about this sect, the early Christians having sought to erase Gnosticism completely from the historical record.

These thoughts have been inspired by visiting an exhibition on Zoroastrianism at the University of London on Friday. In my ignorance I had assumed that Zoroastrianism was a dead religion but found that it is still very much alive with pockets doted around the world, indeed there is a centre for Zoroastrian worship in North London.

Bonfire Night in England

Fire seems to play a central role in the religion. The spiritual significance of fire makes perfect sense. Fire feels alive, as anyone who has ever watched a dancing flame can testify; fire gives out warmth and provides light. In the midwinter months the naked flame from a candle, or better still an open fire takes on a powerful character. In the UK we will soon be celebrating bonfire night, which is surely the nearest thing to a festival of fire you can get without actually adopting the name.[1]

This exhibition also exposed my lack of knowledge respecting Persia, a region that has contributed vastly to the development of civilisation. I came away greatly wanting to learn more about early Persian culture.

Looking at my stats I now how far more readers outside the UK than within this benighted Kingdom. Consequently I have become concerned as to whether the issues discussed here might be too parochial. Though since people are choosing to visit the sight anyhow I suppose these issues must be of some interest to people from Baltimore to Beijing.

The truth is also that I no longer understand US politics; not that my grasp was ever that formidable. Still the goings on in Washington DC made some sense and could be translated into a British political framework of left and right. This is no longer the case. It seems now that a good 40% of the Republican Party are certifiably insane; when interviewing a member of the Tea Party one needs a copy of the DSM IV at hand explain why someone might manifest such a world view.

Russian politics does make sense to anybody who has seen The Godfather, whilst the politics of China can be best understood through the prism of 19^th Century capitalism. Engels would recognise the conditions of the working classes in China and,- if anyone from the Chinese Communist party is peeping in, -not in a good way.

I am now getting some readers visiting from The Peoples Republic, so either the censorship is not as severe as I had imagined or all my readers are Communist party censors. If any ordinary citizen from that country is reading this now I will say you are very welcome.   欢迎.

One thing that I do understand is the role sport plays in fostering international disharmony and bad feeling. There is a very silly phrase you will hear from time to time, and that is that politics should be kept out of sport. As if politics and sport had ever been separated, particularly since the 19^th century and the emergence of the nation state with the attendant growth of nationalist feeling; as George Orwell once remarked, possibly somewhat overstating the case:-

‘Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.’[2]

1936 Berlin Olympic Games

The degree to which nation’s boast of their sporting prowess is not only childish but is always tinged with chauvinism and often with the pleasure the strong feel when lording it over the weak. You only need to study the history of the Olympic Games movement to see this, the 1936 Nazi games in Berlin being the apex of this ugly phenomenon.

The recent London games were infused by a low key variant of this chauvinism, with the political class as a whole hitching a ride[3] on the coattails of successful Olympians.

Now Putin is seeking to use the coming games in Sochi to boost his own prestige. After that there will be the World Cup. If Russia performs badly in both however it will be seen as a national humiliation. Could anything be more absurd?

Incidentally one of the reasons I am more relaxed about the disgusting treatment of the Greenpeace protesters is that given the looming Sochi games Putin will not want the bad publicity of having the Greenpeace demonstrators in prison dominating the headlines. They will be released before the games. The game plan being simple, the protestors need to be frightened and humiliated and the message needs to go out to anyone thinking about emulating such a protest, either to raise environmental concerns or the issue of Russia’s repressive anti homosexual laws, that they will be met with extreme force.

One view that foreigners have, or are supposed to have, of this country is an admiration for the civility of our police force; Jolly coppers, happy to provide directions, the time or even to engage in chat.

Whilst the British police force is a great deal better than many, it is a lot worse than a few and has been tainted by corruption and abuse of power throughout its history. The major abuses in this last forty or so years is a long list and would include the Birmingham six, The Guildford four, Hillsborough, the handling of the Stephen Lawrence case, the death of Ian Tomlison and the undercover spying on legal protest groups, revealed in the book Undercover, [see below]. The police have always responded with the ‘rotten apples’ defence, i.e. any barrel is always going to contain a few rotten ones. After ‘plebgate,’ when the police attempted to frame a government minister, and indeed successfully forced his resignation, they have overplayed their hand. The rotten apples defence no longer works, and for once there seems to be a broad based consensus of the need to face down the police lobby and impose real reform.

One interesting feature of recent years has been the dramatic decline in crime, which of course has real implications for the police service.

Nick Cohen has a very interesting take on this. http://nickcohen.net/2013/10/25/with-crime-rates-plunging-the-police-are-pouncing-on-innocents-instead-and-attacking-freedom/

The devil, my mother used to say, makes work for idle hands. Marina Hyde in the Guardian exposes the reality behind the jolly coppers myth; - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/code-police-ethics-sign-me-off-til-march.

Interesting days ahead methinks respecting policing in the UK. I will be returning this issue.

Famously the Chinese curse is to live in interesting times. Well as the year winds slowly to a close we are entering what could well be the most interesting 17 months politically since January 1974. In that year there were two general elections, the first producing a hung parliament, the second a narrow Labour Party win. In May the following year a referendum was held to determine whether we should remain in the EU, or the Common Market as it was known in those days.

 In the coming period we will see the referendum on Scottish independence and a general election that will break all the existing rules about election outcomes and in which, as things currently stand, Labour look to be the largest party with a much reduced Liberal Democrat party holding the balance. In the meantime we face a period of continuing austerity with people’s living standards being eroded whilst the TV news tells of an ever improving economic outlook. It will be rather like living in an old style Soviet republic, being told of record wheat yields, yet there still being no bread to put on the table.   

Best Wishes Най-добри пожелания, 最良好的祝愿, Meilleurs vœu       

Die besten Wünsche, Наилучшие пожелания, Los mejores deseos, τις καλύτερες ευχές μου. 

Alex T

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[1] The actual ‘celebration’ is rooted in the defeat of a Catholic attempt to blow up Parliament and destroy the protestant hegemony. This celebration would surely have died out centuries ago but for the potency of the bonfire.

[2] http://orwell.ru/library/articles/spirit/english/e_spirit

[3] I would say free ride but for the enormous cost of staging this event.

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