reblog – Page 2 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Why Animism and Polytheism are Radical Religions in Capitalist Societies

A good deal of animism and polytheism’s power, as it is expressed in outward form, is that it directly challenges the overculture’s directions to consume and produce for their own sake. Slavoj Žižek notes that products like Coke produce their own perpetual desire. In “The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”, he notes that Coke self-perpetuates by two ways, in that it makes one’s duty to consume and enjoy Coke, and that the consumption of it leads to the thirst that leads a person to want to consume it more. After all, it is a drink, but by its nature it produces further thirst rather than satiating it.

The paradox of Coke is that you are thirsty, you drink it. But, as everyone knows, the more you drink it, the more thirsty you get.

Polytheism demands us to understand that while pleasure, the satiation of thirst, and enjoyment may be side-benefits of…

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The 2.25 Million Hidden Unemployed People Reveals The Stark Truth: There’s No Fucking Jobs

This is well worth reading. Please read the original blog post that I’ve re-bloged before reading my comments. Thanks.

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For those of us on ESA because of mental health conditions it’s a frightening thought that the already meager allowance could be sanctioned if we don’t attend ‘medical treatment’ because obviously we don’t want to get better and go to work if we don’t.

I’m being sarcastic.

In January the idea of going to any form of treatment was impossible, purely because I couldn’t leave the house. If a person is that ill how are they expected to go to treatment?

I’ve had CBT in the past; it doesn’t work long term for some people, me included. Why go through the horror again, when long-term professional psychological assessment and treatment would be more appropriate? Because the government can keep the price down if they contract for a fixed number of sessions.

At some point I’ll have to go for an assessment with Maximus to see whether I need to be in the Work Related Activity Group or the Support Group. An employee of the DWP who knows me well said that I really need to get off ESA and into part-time work before then

…because I don’t want you to go through the trauma of the assessment.

Trauma

Before I had to stop working – was forced out of my job by unsympathetic management – I was working on a short term agency contract on the ESA enquiry line. I spoke with so many people who were in dire poverty because their ESA had been sanctioned or paid late. I spoke to people with serious mental health conditions who had been told they were fit for work by Atos despite being unable to leave the house unaccompanied, I spoke to people who were suicidal because they couldn’t deal with everything, because they were in dire poverty, because their lives had so suddenly changed.

The DWP is no longer fit for purpose, it kills people and attaches further stigma to those already stigmatized in our society. There needs to be serious reform, now.

the void

A senior DWP manager has a motivational meltdown on twitter.

According to the latest statistics there are currently 1.84 million unemployed people. There are also 1.3 million people working part time because they cannot find a full time job. Nearly half a million people who are officially employed work less than six hours a week. Over 100,000 so-called employed people are actually on unpaid workfare.

But even this only tells half the truth about the number of under and unemployed people in the UK. There are a staggering 2.25 million people who are ‘economically inactive’ and want a job but who are not included in the unemployment figures. That means the true number of unemployed people, if unemployed is defined as not having a job and wanting one – which is how it should be fucking defined – is over four million.

The reason you never hear of the missing…

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Some articles I feel like reblogging

Fat People Are Not the Problem — Fatphobia Is

Fatphobia: 5 Facts and a Guide for the Disbeliever

5 Reasons Not to Bring Up ‘Health Concerns’ in Fat Acceptance Discussions

6 Must-Read Expert Perspectives That Destroy the War on Obesity

Diversify Your Writing!

I’m sharing this post from story medic because I found it interesting and useful. All writers have their favourite way of writing, or personal writing ticks; I love semi-colons for instance. The advice regarding dialogue is also very useful.

Diversify Your Writing!.

On lady staplers and feminine weakness

This is a great commentary on the tendency of manufacturers to pinkify everyday products.

Sometimes I see stuff worth reblogging

http://amandaonwriting.tumblr.com/post/101078626970/writing-comic-fantasy-world

Five Fascinating Facts about Shakespeare

An educational and humourous list of facts in honour of the Bard’s birth and death day tomorrow.

Interesting Literature

As tomorrow, 23 April, traditionally marks the birthday of the most famous poet and playwright in the English language, we thought we’d celebrate Shakespeare’s 450th birthday by sharing five facts about him. We’ve tried to steer clear of the very obvious, partly because we’ve already written about Shakespeare several times before (see below for one example), but all of these facts have a Shakespeare link and are … well, facts.

1. He appears to have invented the girls’ names Jessica, Olivia, Imogen, and Miranda. Jessica is Shylock’s daughter in The Merchant of Venice, and the name was quite probably Shakespeare’s coinage (the idea being to create a Jewish-sounding name). Olivia appears in Twelfth Night, and Miranda is Prospero’s daughter in The Tempest. (The name Amanda was probably formed off the back of Miranda, so Shakespeare indirectly gave us that name, too.) Imogen was probably the result of a misprint:…

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Let’s Talk About Class: Hierarchies of Taste and Gender

I found this interesting and thought I’d share.

BINARYTHIS

Posh man: I ain’t one

Recently, I found myself at a wine-tasting session with a friend, only to be confronted with the embarrassing reality that I had no idea how to act “appropriately” in the situation. The whole thing wasn’t helped by the fact that I was wearing an outfit much like Julia Roberts circa Pretty Woman, as I sometimes care to do (it’s a great look). Trying to “be myself” rather than affect a more refined countenance turned out to be quite the faux pas in terms of the disdainful/pitying/embarrassed looks I got from other patrons. While on the one hand I was rather “f*** you” about it, it also later resulted in me crying into my pillow.

Ladette to Lady: teaching us how not to be working class