In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk
In his grief, he asked the angel hanging overhead,
his faceless confessor :
Why, Lord, do sinners’ ways so grossly prosper ?
How can you allow the Lie so fatly to preside ?
And the angel answered :
I invited you to my feast,
my laden tables… Continue reading The Angel Overhead
It is surely still natural to respect a conclusion that is reached through cogent argument. Each stage of the argument leads to the next stage, like a series of links in a chain. The conclusion is given its authority, its right to be heard and accepted, by the strength of the links that have led… Continue reading A Drawing of Conclusions
As 2016 comes to an end, I want to present an argument which I believe follows from the year’s events. Different elements of the argument have already been touched on here in recent posts.
I must begin with language and those first words of St John’s Gospel. In the beginning was [and was always]… Continue reading If the People is Sovereign, Lying to the People is High Treason
Can liberal democracy survive our tumultuous, bewildering, frightening, dangerous times ? Can it surmount them ? Can it direct the flailing social forces at work towards positive solutions, a viable human future ?
As things stand, it seems not to be coping at all. It is surely in great danger of allowing and even… Continue reading Can Liberal Democracy Survive our Tumult ?
During July, two articles by Andreas Whittam Smith appeared in The Independent newspaper on successive days. Here are the links to them: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/broken-democracy-spin-doctors-destroyed-uk-politics-theresa-may-repair-it-a7135146.html ; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fix-broken-democracy-smash-political-class-two-simple-things-a7137131.html
Whittam Smith co-founded The Independent and his two pieces are worth reading. They explore the Brexit campaign’s “victory” and contain proposals for starting a process of… Continue reading Democracy & the Lie: do they go hand in hand ?
I wish to report a strange man
of average height, indeterminate
skin colour but a knowing look
who sidled into town today
wearing an immaculate top hat
and shoddy trainers.
He said he was searching
for a convenient park
popular with the townspeople
where he could… Continue reading Report
Here in the UK, recent elections and this Summer’s cataclysmic EU referendum have been opportunities for liars, demagogues and PR specialists to practice their skills on the population, in order to sway it to their will. The phenomenon is not unique to the UK, nor of course is it unprecedented.
But the pervasive dishonesty… Continue reading Six Truth Works Three Tattoos
In the UK following its EU referendum, “the People’s Will” is a phrase now often being quoted with reverence as something unarguable, final, almost sacred, however uncomfortable.
The phrase is being quoted most often and with greatest reverence by the
The hyphen between
I and Thou
is our last stand
and foothold.
There’s nowhere else
to retreat to. No set answer
no fixed place. Centuries back
the desert fathers came here
and left strange word behind
This piece follows the recent UK referendum on our membership of the EU. Both the quality of the debate and the “decision” that came out of it have left many millions of people reeling and horrified.
But how was that decision arrived at ? Why do so many of us find it impossible to… Continue reading How can we Defend Free Speech from the Lie ?
Copyright © Rogan Wolf – Poet and Social Worker
In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk
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