HISTORY shows us that people have the capacity to shed their humanity and become something else. I refer to them as monsters. Dictionary definitions of monster tell us that it is: an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure; one who deviates from normal or acceptable behaviour or character; a threatening force.
There are many people in this world who fit such a description but my purpose is to highlight the monsters who threaten my nation and therefore my wellbeing and that of my family and loved ones. Britain is ruled by monsters, particularly a Prime Minister and government who display none of the accepted criteria that define humanity.
The real human being is a social being who recognises his/her interdependence on others and the need to consider others, which in turn requires the capacity for altruism.
The real human being can often be, but is not by nature, a selfish individual, and it is generally accepted that the concept of humanity includes respect, compassion, consideration, sympathy, empathy, affection and kindness etc to others.
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The real human being recognises that liberty is not the right to do as one pleases, but is restrictive, and that we restrict our own sense of freedom where necessary for the sake of others; we wear masks in a pandemic and become vaccinated, not just for our own sakes, but for others.
Such are what we term human values, the necessary qualities to enable peaceful and amicable interaction with other human beings. These are qualities that cannot be attributed to this Prime Minister, his government, and his party; ergo, they are monsters, who have reduced the Conservative Party to the status of a criminal organisation.
People choose to be monsters and are normally motivated in this respect by ideology. In the Tories' case it is the ideology of individualism and free-market economic neoliberalism, which justifies their lies, rapacious greed, and their disregard for law, decency, and the interests of genuine human beings. This allows them to comfort themselves that what they do is all right, because it is the rest of humanity that is not only wrong, but inferior, and unworthy of consideration.
In the case of the Tories, this is a by-product of their education, which instils in them the certainty of their superiority and the right to rule and dominate. Westminster’s monsters have chosen a path, chosen to become a threatening force to human values and our democratic system of law and governance. They follow a path designed by those Republican nihilistic monsters and anti-government forces that shaped and continue to support the 45th President of America, the greatest monster on the world stage since Adolf Hitler.
The American monsters did not breed our monsters, but they have given them focus, shown them the path and given them their justification for domination and exemption from those laws and behaviours that make social life possible. They have given respectability and permission for atrocious and anti-social behaviour.
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Johnson’s pathological lying betrays an illness, a pathogen that has infected all those within his orbit. That the Conservative Party is diseased is reflected in the conduct of its leading members; that in order to be a proper Conservative you must display all the symptomatic effects of the pathogen, the lying, the contempt for everyone who disagrees with you and everything you don’t like, the scorn you heap on opponents and the disregard for every form of constraint on your right to do and act as you please.
We need a powerful vaccine to protect us from the Westminster disease; it’s called independence.
Peter Kerr
Kilmarnock
FACING the spread of Omicron, the people of Afghanistan already endure hunger, economic collapse, state disintegration and a medical service overwhelmed by need.
This is unarguable and appears the policy of the Westminster government which, in concert with the United States, continues to withhold crucial aid from that country in an effort to cow the Taliban.
As British war has now failed for the fourth time in Afghanistan, food and medication are being weaponised in place of artillery and bombs.
This is more than a matter of shame; this is criminal.
Keith Aitchison
via email
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