“Achilles glared at him and answered, ‘Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall’”
Brad Pitt delivering a Hollywood version in the mad but enjoyable 2004 film Troy…
This is going to be an assertive, even aggressive, post. I have relaxed one of my rules about not using foul language on this blog. If you like, this is a trigger warning (snigger).
The Ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about reality. Here’s the Athenian historian Thucydides…
“For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences—either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us—and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” [My emphasis] From The History of the Peloponnesian War 5:89
We appear to be living through a time when we are increasingly subject to the tyranny of the weak. I am not talking about physical strength but about strength of character. In the same way that certain ethnic minorities, women and the LGBTetc ‘community’ are encouraged by our morally-superior overlords to view themselves as eternal victims, I sometimes feel that the weak-minded are being encouraged in their weakness by the same people.
How many times have you seen a politician, celebrity or business apologise for giving ‘offence’? And how many times can the number of people ‘offended’ by tweets, comments or adverts be counted on the fingers of one hand? Earlier this year, LNER apologised to a ‘non-binary’ train guard because he was ‘offended’ by an announcement that began “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.” The sheer petulance of his response on Twitter (where else?) was astonishing in its arrogant sense of entitlement – “…this announcement doesn’t actually apply to me so I won’t listen.” You can just imagine him stamping his foot like Bonnie Langford back in the 70s. The only response LNER should have given him was a resounding ‘fuck off’ followed by a P45.
Police Scotland are apparently investigating the heinous crime of someone putting up stickers in Kirkcaldy! The feminist group For Women Scotland have put up stickers saying ‘Women won’t wheesht’ (Scottish slang for ‘shut up’) in protest at some of the madder ideas of the transgender lobby. ‘Gender critical’ feminists (ie: those who recognise basic biology) have been the brunt of so-called ‘cancel culture’ and men who believe they are women are very quick to take offence. A couple of years ago, billboards with the dictionary definition of the word woman – ‘adult human female’ – were denounced as ‘transphobic.’ The only possible response to ‘Woke’ fascists who proclaim their religious mantra ‘trans women are women’ is ‘are they fuck.’ And as for those precious individuals what demand that people make use of their ‘preferred pronouns,’ my answer would be ‘who the fuck are you? Queen Victoria?’ For your information, my preferred pronouns are ‘fuck off’ and ‘fuck you.’
Whilst I would never mock someone with genuine mental health problems, I can’t help but feel that the term is being overused at the moment. And misused too. Nor would I ever belittle someone suffering from trauma or post-traumatic stress. But to claim you are damaged by words on the internet or traumatised by statues seems to be the epitome of weakness. I read recently about a university lecturer who was accused of causing ‘harm’ to his colleagues by sharing a picture of the late Philip Mountbatten. If you are ‘harmed’ by an image on a screen, you really shouldn’t be allowed out on your own.
Like mental health, the words ‘hero’ and ‘brave’ have been downgraded. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were brave. Aldrin and Armstrong going to the Moon in a tin can and not knowing if they could take off again were heroes. The third man on the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins, died earlier this year. He said that a common question he was asked was whether he was lonely when the other astronauts left for the lunar surface. His considered reply was always to say that he was more worried about his friends than about himself. That strikes me as a heroic attitude. Much braver than going on a chat show and whining about being mistreated by your relatives.
The masters of offence taking, however, are religious people. In particular, those fascists who cloak their violent extremism behind the ravings of an illiterate* desert bandit. Samuel Paty paid the price with his life for daring to show cartoons of Muhammad of Mecca – an event that struck such a chord with me that I wrote three post about it, Islamism is Fascism, Update and Update #2. A teacher at Batley Grammar School has been driven into hiding for the same ‘crime.’ As I have remarked many times before, the hysterical reaction of these religious fanatics to any perceived slight shows that at some level they know that their beliefs are false. To murder someone over a carton shows that there are no depths to which these fuckwits will not stoop…
As Homer says, there can be no covenants between wolves and lambs. You simply cannot win with those weak-minded individuals who are determined to take offence at whatever you have to say. To be frank, the only way to deal with these people is to laugh in their fucking face.
Returning to Ancient Greece, I am reminded of a story about the Spartans. Exasperated with their stubbornness, Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) sent a message to Sparta saying “If I invade Laconia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.” The Spartans replied “If.” What is the worst thing a weak-minded offence-taker can do if everyone simply refusing to play their stupid games? The best Spartan-style response to their shrieking demands for apologies would be ‘Bollocks.’
* FYI – it is no insult to describe Muhammad of Mecca as illiterate. Islamic tradition asserts that it is proof of the miraculous nature of the revelation of the Koran – ‘recitation’ in Arabic – that Muhammad was able to read it. Such is the childish nature of the belief system allegedly followed by a quarter of the human race.
Mike's Place 
But is it also no insult to state the factual: he (PBUH) was a pedophile, marrying Ayesha when she was a child of 7, but (due to an excess of concern perhaps for the ‘society’ of the time), not fucking her until she was nine. Perhaps his favourite goat had just died, I don’t know, maybe it was a camel or a little boy.
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