The only thing we ever do.

                   The Gout- (James Gillray 1799.)   Rich Man's Disease.     The constancy of change is the only thing in the universe that never changes. Yet, ever since our ancestors gained pleasure from stability, human beings have attempted to keep things the same when things are going well.      It was only natural then, that the ruling class of Britain at the beginning of the 19th Century should attempt to sand-bag their castles against the inevitable rising tide of communication. Very quickly, powers realised that in a more open society you couldn't control the information so it was necessary to control the ideas.       Even at this early date, those making moves to secure a stable empire realised the need for good P.R., and  the century opened with a new country   called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  Irish opinion was, of course, not sought at all in the push for this new branding .     By the start of the 19th Century Britain's tree o

   George III is pulled over a cliff by the twin horses of obstinacy and pride as America burns.                          The horses trample both constitution and Magna Carta .          As the  18th century reached its mid-point, Britain's empire had cut its way into India and North America. When building any empire, it is vital not to have too much empathy, that is to say, too much communication with those people at the sharp end of your sword. Even though one fruit from the tree of knowledge was the technological ability to go abroad and more easily subjugate others, one simple result of empire building is communicative constipation. You must tell people what to do, rather than engage in discussion . People must take orders, and any insubordination is met with brute force. Information must be controlled and, consequently, ideas become stunted.      Britain's policy of mercantilism was an idea designed to enrich the mother country at the expense of the colonie

                                             Newton's telescope and ...                                              Hooke's microscope...                                                        as above, so below ?         The year of 1660 , saw the restoration of the monarchy with the crowning of Charles II. A country still dealing with the grinding of great religious tectonic plates and over ten years of Cromwellian puritanism accepted the new king as a necessary stabilising force.          The English tree of knowledge sprang forth refreshed; as 1660 also saw the founding of The Royal Society, or, to give it its more explanatory title:  The Royal Society of London for the improvement of Natural Knowledge .             England may have had a monarch once more, but the tide of communication could not be stopped.  This is evidenced by The Royal Society's motto: Nullius in verba (Take nobody's word for it.)  The idea  now  was to gain knowledge through experim

       '                                              Henry VIII.- Hampton Court?                                              No, it's just his new codpiece.      In its history, Britain (largely England for this period) has been invaded by Romans and Normans, and bossed about by Angles, Saxons and Danes. It has been riven by religious strife and convulsed by civil war and revolution. So how did this "miserable little island off the coast of France" as Frank Zappa called it, manage to develop, by the 19th Century, into the greatest power in the world?      One of the most important factors in tracing the development of British power is the English Reformation . This action would provide the broad root that would twist, turn and ultimately support the growth of the English oak over the next 100 years. For the step away from traditional thought freed up new information and new ideas,  and  growth is impossible without these things.       In 1527, Henry VIII ask

                                                                                              Sophia- Pneumatic        Every year, between the start of July and the end of August, Japan's Mt Fuji is alive with city-dwellers determined to conquer the famous peak. At this time, the shops on the slopes of the volcano do a roaring trade in small cans of oxygen as even the most unenlightened of Tokyo troglodytes recognises the need for this vital gas to keep our body working.            If, however, you were attempting to climb Mt Olympus in ancient Greece and felt the same need for a shot of 02, the locals would probably politely suggest that you suck in some of the plentiful supply of pneuma that is all around you, as that's clearly all that a body needs.                          Communication is always INFO ---------> IDEA           Wherever we may be from, all of our ancestors long ago looked up at the Sun, the Moon and the Stars and tried to offer each other expla

                                                    Happy Birthday !            The new British Royal Prince has barely been on the planet 24 hours but he has already been put to work. His job as Prince (name) of Cambridge has already been decided. Isn't this compulsory labour ? Won't his child-hood be shadowed by the expectation to act according to his job?   Shouldn't we at least ask him if he wants to be a Prince?            Not satisfied with child exploitation, British society will be grooming him for his future job that, in all probability, will be 40 or 50 years from now. It has already been decided that, at some point in the future he will become King. And we expect him to be King until he his dead.           So that's the little fellow's life mapped out for him then. How kind of us. No wonder we can't contain our excitement.           Before catching his first breath, before any chance to look around or smile at his mum, it has been ordered that

                                                                                 Pour encourager les autres.             In Stanley Kubrick's film Paths of Glory, Kirk Douglas plays a World War 1 French Colonel who refuses to obey a suicidal attack order. The Top Brass deal with this by choosing three soldiers at random to be executed. Within the system, the lower orders must obey the orders of their commanders no matter how ludicrous they are. For if the command structure were to falter, who knows what might happen?           Simply put, if command structures do break down then communication will break loose. It is in order to keep the beautiful twin beasts of describing and explaining in their cage that events like those depicted in the film have occured, and continue to occur, throughout history. Describing and explaining are not a danger to us, they are a danger to those in power and those that serve that power, and that is their threat. At the same time,  Bela Lugos

                                                                  What is it?           The part of communication that is giving information can be most easily expressed as: Describing and Explaining. We describe and explain whenever we give information, and from this information there is an idea, because communication always, and most basically, works as:                                              Information ---------> Idea         The information we choose to give affects the idea. We might describe former P.M. Tony Blair as "the right honourable ", or we can describe him as "a war criminal." The musician Prince has been described as " a supernatural Martian playing at Euterpe 's party" as well as "a paranoid little schizo with a bible in one hand and his cock in the other." And even such a relatively simple scenario as this-         -may be a woodlouse , a butcher boy , or even a 団子虫(dango mushi) or dumpling bug in Ja