Uponnothing.co.uk

Last night, I was watching a very insightful documentary titled “The Fog of War”, focusing on the experiences of former US defence secretary Robert S. McNamara during the cold war. There was one scene that really struck a chord with me and started to get my blood boiling and wanting to go out and kill right wing American scum and their British lackeys.

The scene was where he reduced the impact of aerial bombing to a numbers game when responding to the question of the reasons why as a Lt Col in the USAAF, he advocated increasing the bombing loads and quantity of planes over German cities in 1944-45. His response was chilling to say the least – saying that it wasn’t a matter of killing more people but simply responding to the necessities of war.

I sat there thinking, what is the difference here between Osama bin Laden and McNamara? Just because one is dark skinned, bearded and has no state to back his authority, does that make the white skinned, suited government official any less complicit in a war crime? Some may argue that WWII wasn’t started by the Americans and they responded in kind. But then that’s the argument that Bin Laden has used in his justification of 9/11 – saying that America is complicit in the murder of thousands of Muslims across the globe. Of course, what Bin Laden did is abhorrent and no right-minded person can condone what he did, but why is it the same standards of morality do not apply to the West? Many millions of people around the world are 100% justified in viewing the “leaders of the free world” as nothing more than hypocritical criminals that have been directly or indirectly responsible for more loss of innocent lives than “terrorists” ever have.

But what else really struck me was the idea of numbers and statistics determining policy objectives (in the above case the continued bombing of German cities) rather than relying on intelligence and logic. Rather like the Vietnam war in which McNamara played a pivotal role, the use of body counts and numbers of bombs dropped, villages destroyed, and VC cells neutralised all contributed to the illusion that the US was winning the war. But this attention to figures and numbers at the expense of reality doesn’t appear to have been dimmed with the passage of time. When you add today’s spin doctoring it becomes even more apparent that reality has thrown in the towel when policymaking decisions are formulated. We are now a number driven society where the mighty digit determines who lives, dies, gets rich or lives poor. Numbers are everywhere, governing every aspect of your life from pin numbers to payslips – yet who sees the human face in all this? IT MAKES ME SOOOO MAAAD!!!! Listening to some half-wit retard telling me I don’t OFFICIALLY exist because they can’t seem to find any of my bank details, birth certificate or utility bill account. Yet you translate this to politics and it becomes even more apparent that our so called leaders have decided to focus on targets and stats to then say yes, we’re winning the war on drugs, health, social issues etc (have you ever noticed that since 9/11, everything is a war these days?) Who are they trying to kid? This is all about the pursuit of their ultimate objective – power. By drowning us in numbers, stats and minutiae the powers that be hope to overload us with information to such an extent that we can’t see the trees for the forest anymore. It also gives incompetent fools the ability to stay in powerful positions as no one can then ultimately prove if someone is performing poorly as the said individual can rattle office meaningless stats saying “Well the figures clearly show……”

My solution? An end to this reliance on targets and the re-establishment of common sense in public affairs. Yes, stats are important but they must not be held as gospel. They must always be backed up by on-site intelligence and information from the arena which the statistics relate to. So, for example, if figures are released that seem to show that crime levels are falling yet the ordinary person on the street knows differently, then re-check the stats and if necessary take active measures by looking at the grassroots level. If crime is still falling but the perception of crime is not – then address the specific issues raised (e.g have more beat policemen on foot) – not issue knee jerk responses such as “we’ll put another billion pounds of investment in the Police” as these are meaningless phrases to ordinary members of the public and amount to naught.

But then if these solutions sound obvious, then surely by now I would be living in a crime free paradise and could walk the streets late at night without being confronted by some lower species of life form wallowing in their own vomit as they claim to be my best friend shortly before I skewer his (or her) eyeball with a Phillips screwdriver and then turn in for the night…..Sorry, I digress.

But the point I’m making is that those in power don’t want to see obvious solutions as the way forward as then we would easily be able to see if they are performing or not and then hold them to account. They want power – not responsibility.

“Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today, by learning the lessons of yesterday”
(attributed to Malcolm X)