The 1972 Porsche 911s is a classic. Even to the uninterested or uninitiated   
it is a shape of beauty.

The thing about german sports cars is that they were designed as every day drivers. That means they could stand in the street and you could go to it, turn the key and drive. Over and over again.

Teutonic, efficient, reliable, with comfort and speed german sports cars could take a hammering they were so well made.

As for the Porsche 911s 3 years ago you could buy one for £25k. Over a day that figure rose to £150k. That day was in August 2011 when at an auction in Monterey Steve McQeen’s 911s sold for over a million dollars.

Pity. Many will now not be driven but kept in a rich person’s collection in a controlled environment. Just to be admired.

This car is made to be driven. You have to keep your wits about you. It demands your attention. It was known as a widow maker due to the weight hanging off the rear of the car and all the turbo charged power coming on very suddenly spinning the car around!

Now if you have a spare £25k the 1980s Porsche 911s is affordable? Same car, just about as exciting, safer to drive and values on the way up…………

……but then if you have much much more money and want the most modern version of the 911 go here!

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Sunset Segregation is when you work in an office where you are surrounded by colleagues from multi-cultural Britain. You talk about the work, the stress, the ups and downs of work life. You might even discuss your families, what you did over the weekend, and share confidences. You might even go out later for a drink or a meal.
But then you go home to your part of the city, to your end of town where the people who live there are like you.

To summarise we like being segregated. We like being with our own kind. We feel safe and secure.

It is ironic that to state the obvious and what is backed up by evidence is so difficult to say. The men in Rotherham grooming under age girls were mainly Pakistani. Jewish household income is twice the national average. The building industry is dominated by the Irish. Victoria Climbie was murdered by her Ivorian mother.

The underlying force propping up the taboo is race. Everyone fears race. Nobody wants to be accused of being racist. Yet we all racist. We all have prejudices about our own race and other races. To be prejudiced, to discriminate is an essential human trait. It helps us decide what is friendly and what is dangerous. It is a human instinct which is hard wired into us. It is to protect us in life and death situations in the jungle, on the plains, in the mountains thousands of years ago.

But like a lot of our instincts it is less useful in the modern world where we are physically safer and have more chance of surviving.

Sunset Segregation

Working in therapy groups with members of different ethnicities – with time and patience to create a secure safe environment – race can be thought about. It usually involves offending somebody, and anger. Once this can be survived race can be worked through to the person behind. In the end all the ethnicities in the group are transcended by the personality underneath. It sounds obvious: but there is a risk to talking about race which many of us feel we can ill afford. To offend a person in a public situation is difficult to come back from. It needs intelligence, space, safety and above all good will. No wonder we feel like not talking about race.

Sunset Segregation

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Caliphate
In his article “what Isis really wants” Graeme Wood describes how the West have miscalculated Isis and it aims. The West compares Isis to Al Qaeda but it misses the point of Isis and its objectives. Unlike Al Qaeda Isis needs a caliphate, a Muslim government with a caliph at its head.
To do this it needs territory, a caliphate – which is very different to Al Qaeda.

A state, a territory, a homeland, is like a magnet. It provides a focus for the cause and draws followers to its borders. The last Caliphate was the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century. Even this would be challenged as a caliphate as it did not enforce strict Islamic Law.

Al Qaeda never believed that it would see a caliphate in its lifetime. It operates in a cellular, diffuse way. Al Qaeda has no allegiance to place or country. Bin Laden was a modern person taking advantage of modern habits such as shopping in Walmart and eating at Pizza Hut.

Isis is not so modern. It places its heart in old Islam practised by the Prophet Mohammed and his earliest followers. It is also very religious, and very Islamic. What is said, is taken from interpretations of learned texts of Islam. Isis is lead by a ‘takfiri’ doctrine a messianic ideology that is committed to a form of religious cleansing of those who have abandoned Islam.

Isis is uncaring of its public image and the caliphate supports slavery as part of how it operates. Al Qaeda never talked about slavery. It wanted to court favour with the world. Isis is not interested with being in favour. The caliphate is a vehicle for salvation. Muslims who do not swear allegiance to a true caliph have failed to live a valid Islamic Life and should be killed. The caliph has to implement Sharia law – the way to lead a true Islamic life. It is not all beheadings and slavery. Part of Sharia law is to provide the population with free housing, food, and clothing.

Another major part of Isis is The Apocalypse. It fills a deep psychological need to for Islam to conquer all its enemies in the world. There will be the battle of battles fought at Dabiq. The traditional enemy was Rome but now the US has conveniently filled this role.

Its radicalism is unique. No compromise will do. Negotiation is not an option. To Isis any forms of compromise are acts of apostasy. There is no authority, religion, or country that can have authority over the Caliphate. The caliphate’s mission is not to destroy the US or kill Americans  but to enlarge the caliphate and attract Muslims from all over the world to live in it under true Sharia law.

Isis recruits on pointing out the meaningless and banality of living in the West and promising a life of meaningful living with an apocalyptic battle. Radicalism like drugs offers an antidote to the multiple choice and lack of direction of living in the West. At the end of his article Wood quotes Orwell

” Fascism is psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life … Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people “I offer you a good time,” Hitler has said to them, “I offer you struggle, danger, and death,” and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet … We ought not to underrate its emotional appeal.”

It seems struggle, danger and death with meaning have more to offer than the comfortable life of wealth and material riches in the Democratic West – without meaning.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Terry on Death

“DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch 

 Terry on Death

Terry on Death

Terry on Death

Good Omens Quotes

Debate UK?

On the Radio 4 flagship programme  “Today” on the 3rd March 2015 (@ 2hr 14min 30secs) – the interviewer and  the interviewee have a Debate UK 2015 style. The subject matter is highly topical and contentious. One side holding the morale decency high ground, accusing the other of apologising and advocating on behalf of murderers.

In reality neither is true. But this could not be explored. The debate did not allow it. If one side or other let go of their position they would have been to seen to lose. So Debate UK 2015 style continues to be a conflict of two opposing views, neither being true.

In fact the truth lies in the middle ground. The area of the grey, the subtle, the unclear and the complex.

The media has so little time to deliver its message that it has to be reduced to an argument, or a conflict where nothing really develops or is learnt. The General Public pick this up. They know what the end of the debate will be at the beginning of the debate. Why? Because neither side can give in and be seen as weak.

We instinctively know that if we were to employ these same tactics in our own lives we would be isolated, alone and without relationships. To express, explore, & ruminate are the methods of exploration and learning. These have no place in modern political debates.

No wonder we are also turned off politics. No wonder disenfranchised youth UK are seduced by the simplicity of religion and crusade.

In a way war is simple. You are on one side and won’t back down – just like the other side. Just like Debate UK.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Being tall is seen as good. Being short as bad. It appears that to be sexist, or racist is not
allowed but being heightest is.

This comment by the prime minister is not a surprise. Private education has always emphasised    
competition. The whole private school system is set up to instill winning and having an edge over the opposing team. Competition in teenagers breeds a nastiness when losing. In an environment where competition is encouraged in a solely male environment anything goes. A loss of face is shameful so losing is hard to bear in the public school system. Nastiness and unpleasantness when losing are inevitable.

The Square mile of the City is just an extension of the public school system. Win at any cost. Losing is shameful.

So for David Cameron an old Etonian to attack the speaker of the house over his height was natural for him. Being tall is associated with size and power.  The animal kingdom survives on power and size with some notable exceptions. Anglo Saxon culture generally being of tall stock admires the Tall.

Any other area where Tall is revered is sport. For obvious reasons.

Until physical power and strength of the Tall person is seen as dominating the talent, intelligence of a shorter person the Tall person will always be perceived as good or better.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

So for David Cameron an old Etonian to attack the speaker of the house over his height was natural for him. Being tall is associated with size and power.  The animal kingdom survives on power and size with some notable exceptions. Anglo Saxon culture generally being of stock admires the

Any other area where  is revered is sport. For obvious reasons.

Until physical power and strength of the person is seen as dominating the talent, intelligence of a shorter person the person will always be perceived as good or better.

Joni Mitchell wrote the following poem on Fame called the Fishbowl at 16 years old in 1959

Continue reading →

Swiss Bank
The HSBC revelations that it has hidden clients’ accounts, and had a policy of tax evasion has hit the headlines.

It turns out that the Swiss arm of HSBC has been dealing with African Diamond traders who have broken the law, dodgy eastern european bankers, corrupt arms dealers, and imprisoned drug dealers. The millions of pounds and dollars slushing through these accounts must have been too tempting.

We live in a strange time where money talks and the rich are richer and the poor are poorer. Never has the difference between rich and poor been so great.

What is a shock is that the news is a shock. But is it a shock? Swiss banks dealing with money with no questions asked. In 1964 UK prime minister called the swiss banks “The Gnomes of Zurich” referring to their reputation for secrecy and greed. Swiss bank.

Many films such as the Bourne series, the French Connection, Hannibal all refer to swiss bank accounts with large sums of cash in them. As cinema goers and film watchers we are conditioned to believe that Swiss Banks are secretive and therefore doing deals which are not legal. That was the whole point.

Is it a shock that in 1998 all banks were required to do checks on all clients before working with them? And now it seems they haven’t been. Really? After the 2008 crash and the constant chatter about the banks’ conduct, bankers’ bonuses and committees scrutinising the banks’ behaviour ever since.

Is it a shock that there is evidence and that we have found out what is going on? The press seem to think so. But
it is really in the press’ interest to communicate shock so that we buy their papers, go on websites, and tweet horror & disgust at the discovery. Perhaps this is what it is – just a media manipulation.
Create shock and it becomes newsworthy. Swiss Bank.

The shock also plays into the “what ..  me?” side of ourselves. Knowing we are doing something that we know others would not approve of. Creating shock and indignation in attempt to deflect others from the truth. To turn others away from what might be dubious is a good ploy to maintain innocence.
But not a shock.
Swiss Bank

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Food In Words Out
In the last 10 years the UK and particularly London has become one of the food centres of the world.
Quite an achievement from a past or milk bars and chicken in the basket meals in pubs. But now with a fascination for food and a multicultural society there is so much choice of food from around the globe.

One of the latest trends is Korean food. Great hotpots topped with a fried egg to raw octopus to kimchi to shredded beef marinated in soy sauce. Then these cuisines around the globe are mixed and blended together to create even more styles of food. Cookery channels and cookery programmes are all over the TV schedule. You could watch food 24 hours a day. There are so many different tastes and foods that gives us an amazing choice when we eat out.

We are all fascinated and transfixed by what we put into our mouths more than ever before. Do we taste food, treat it like fuel, or just consume it?

Conversely it seems we are in a time when we are not so bothered about what comes out of our mouths. Social media being the prime example of tweeting before thinking. There is now more written and communicated about anything that we can think of. Tweets, comments, blogs (like here), articles, texts, chat, and phone calls are so abundant compared to 5 or 15 years ago. Speaking, words, self-help, coaching, counselling and therapy are all talking.
Words, words, words and more words. More and more. Quantity over Quality.

Is this why we can feel so disconnected from ourselves and others? There is no real speaking just chat. Like being alone surrounded by the crowd.

We live in a world of mass consumption. It is a quick satisfaction. A short cut to feeling full and content. Food in words out.
We feel full and talked out yet feel still dissatisfied.
The art of pausing to think, reflect and feel is a challenge.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.