Did you catch “Beyond Belief” on Radio 4 today? I say catch, not because I consider it a lucky find, but because it acts upon you like the flu, relentlessly pounding at your head and irritating you to the point of sweaty insanity.

To my knowledge this is the first time I’ve ever caught Beyond Belief, although I may have plunged previous installments deep into my subconscious, layering it upon the overwhelming tumor of mainstream media soon to kill me, consisting already of BBC abominations such as “Coming of Age” and Radio 1.

The debate today was regarding religious attitudes to childlessness in society. To my dismay the debate did not question whether or not those of religious faiths are fit to have children, (if it had then the history of Christianity would have done some serious damage to it’s cause), but instead questioned whether or not childlessness is a valid, ETHICAL, lifestyle decision.

May I take this opportunity to remind you that we are living in the 21st Century, Western World. What the fucking fuck? Maybe next week they’ll be discussing the pros and cons of slave rape. Fuck, maybe tomorrow the Daily Politics Show will poll the audience on whether or not Asians can be considered a renewable source of combustible fuel. ETHICAL? Seriously?

The show itself actually ended up being half an hour of painfully polite bollocks in which a Catholic idiot (a proud mother of six), a Jewish moron and an Atheist with no self respect rambled on about heritage, genealogy and the continuation of religious values. There was also some stuff about whether sex should just be for procreation but the generic responses were entirely predictable and left me with a feeling similar to that which you get from watching “Loose Women”.

Now I understand that this is a show who’s demographic is of some sort of religious faith. This may therefore excuse the presumptuous tone of the debate in question, however what really infuriated me was the closing sentiments from the Catholic breeder. She suggested that while you are free to do as you please, if you inhabit a religious world view in which the adoption of the religion is dependent on having children in a marriage, then choosing childlessness fails this tradition. In other words, “If the book says it, fucking do it.” I needn’t bother going through the bible and reading endless other ridiculous divine laws that no modern christian would ever conform to. I’ve no doubt you’re already thinking of plenty yourself. However I do wonder how Mrs immaculate-fucking-conception sees Islamic women forced into marriages, often leading to their subservient treatment. Should they knuckle down and respect their religious tradition.

Of course I am of the opinion that all of them should just grow up and abandon their Wacko Jacko fucking fairytale world but that is beside the point. Is this another example of some shouty mad Christian fuck spewing rancid Dogmatic laws with no regard for the thousands of others she ignores or disapproves of. Well… no. I don’t believe her reason for arguing this is anything to do with her religion. I believe she is just a traditionalist. When you get married, you have children. To insinuate otherwise is to bash her view of a romanticised ideal society and her fertile lifestyle choice.

I’ll finish this with my favourite piece of religious cowardice from the show, when the presenter asked our Catholic friend if another guest’s decision to have sex with her husband and prevent procreation, puts them in a sinful relationship. Her response – “I wouldn’t know.” Well, you do know. But to stick to the conviction of your ridiculous texts would seem foolish now wouldn’t it?

I got to thinking about Stroud last night and how such a pretentious fog clouds many aspects of peoples lives (art, food, entertainment, fashion, politics).

I’m aware that I undoubtedly appear overly critical and maybe naive to the possibility that maybe Stroud isn’t an anomaly and in fact this sort of ego-wanking, illogical, jargon-spewing bullshit is common throughout the country.

While it’s obvious that Stroud’s self-righteous sense of superiority stems from basic human inadequacies common to us all , it’s safe to say that this town has a high incidence of dickheads. Every Art Exhibition is saturated with shapeless colour-washed canvases in shades usually seen in splatters on the pavement after a Saturday night and photography events seem to be nothing more than an opportunity to take the photos you would usually discard because they’re out of focus or pointed away from your subject and actively display them to the public, along with an essay of buzz-words and post-modern linguistics to justify why you would do such a ridiculous thing. The underlying tone is, unless you speak fluent jargon or have a masters degree in bullshit you are not fucking welcome, so shut up and nod for half an hour you cunt.

So am I too judgmental? Well yes I suppose so, but it occurred to me the other day, if I ever start talking about computer games, the internet or programming with an air of enthusiasm or enjoyment I’ll always get knocked down and called a nerd or quietly sniggered at behind mugs of Chai-fucking-Tea. It’s not that such things offend me, but I’d get verbally raped if I were to make a similar snide remark or dissmisive jesture to an art student or Trustafarian waxing bullshit about their interests.

Why should such ridiculousness be given immunity to questioning just because it has the local consensus in favour with it? Is it that they just want to be considered interesting? Are they afraid of appearing ignorant? Why choose such outrageous pursuits to talk about and why should it be so protected? It’s similar to how the alternative medicine industry will always pursue legal and threatening action when somebody challenges their industry. It’s because it’s BULLSHIT and they know it.

All of this reminded me of the story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and the cities inhabitants feigning facsination and awe over absolutely nothing, just to reinforce their deluded understanding of inteligence. All that’s left is for someone to just burst out laughing and leave them exposed to the absurdity of what they so strongly maintain is real.

The first post