Agents provocateurs?

Posted on 03/08/2024 by Jon Garvey

I learned how heavy-handed policing can turn peaceful protests into a violent confrontations (making for establishment-useful headlines) during COVID. And I learned how there are sometimes suspicious connections between the forces of Laura Norder and protesters of all shades during the BLM demonstrations. And so it is that I record an impression I’ve been gaining since viewing some of the footage of recent riots. Perhaps you can inform me if you’ve noticed the same, or whether it’s just me.

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Posted in Politics and sociology | 2 Comments

Privatised public opinion

Posted on 01/08/2024 by Jon Garvey

There’s a piece on the substack of the commentator known as Eugyppius, most of which is behind a paywall, but whose introduction alone gives food for thought.

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Posted in History, Politics and sociology | 6 Comments

Fifteen minute čitties

Posted on 23/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

My basic mental schema for the industrial revolution has been that it eventually brought great benefits, but only at the initial cost of millions of working people (including my Garvey ancestors) living in squalid and unhealthy conditions in city slums. Oliver Twist and all that. But I’m having to revise my ideas.

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Posted in History, Prometheus, Theology | 2 Comments

Providence meticulous, mysterious and momentous

Posted on 16/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just re-read Luther’s classic The Bondage of the Will, in which he refutes the ubiquitous belief that the (fallen) human will is balanced between good and evil, able to choose either. I’ve only just got it back after an Arminian friend borrowed it to refute it twenty-two years ago, seeking to achieve against Luther what Erasmus failed to do, and not succeeding, kept it on his shelf.

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Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 3 Comments

The deep roots of Englishness

Posted on 13/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

I’ve recently re-read Beowulf, which has been described as the foundation of English literature. And that’s partly true, but partly also it’s a record of what the English abandoned in order to become a nation worth celebrating.

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Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment

Peace, peace – but there is no peace

Posted on 10/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

If there’s one well-circumscribed subject that demonstrates the utter depravity into which our national life has sunk, it’s the treatment of Tommy Robinson, a dogged working-class fighter for truth who, if you’ve not done any research, you’ll only know as a far-right fascist. The following long-form interview with Jordan Peterson will disabuse you of the last impression.

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Posted in History, Politics and sociology | 12 Comments

Intelligence test

Posted on 07/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

The case for the UK’s suddenly catastrophic COVID response being led by the intelligence services (in cahoots with industry/NGOs) is well made here. To my mind, a perfect fit for what we know, which dovetails into pretty well every other mystery of those, and these, times.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Science | 4 Comments

WeAreNotWorship

Posted on 04/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

I play in, but am no longer in oversight of, our church’s music group. Regular readers will know I am somewhat underwhelmed by the state of the “Christian Worship Industry” nowadays, and I’m unashamedly returning to that theme today. It’s better than thinking about the election.

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Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Mind the gap

Posted on 02/07/2024 by Jon Garvey

I’ve written a bit on the “God of the Gaps” fallacy (ie that the accusation is itself a fallacy!) in the past. This post still covers most of the bases. But hearing a recent interview with Denis Alexander, of the Faraday Institute, in which he repeated the fallacy with pejorative reference (as one would expect) to the Intelligent Design Movement, made me think about it again after nine years.

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Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Verbal diarya

Posted on 25/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

Over the weekend, I had the notion that it might be worthwhile gathering the posts I did on COVID-related matters during the madness into a small paperback, and getting a few copies privately printed to hand out to friends as a kind of “war diary.” Everyone has their own baneful memories of those times, of course, some of which are slowly starting to heal. But my USP, I thought, might be of historical interest as a doctor who had just completed a book on propaganda and state deception when the business began.

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Posted in Politics and sociology | 4 Comments