The blog nears three and the last 18 years

Now the crickets are singing
The vesper bells ringing
The cat's curled asleep in his chair
I'll go down to Bill's Bar
I can make it that far
And I'll see if my friends are still there
Yes, and here's to the few
Who forgive what you do
And the fewer who don't even care



The blog nears three... On October 26 my blog 'All Too Human' ( www.blogspot/all to human) will be three years old. Last month the blog achieved a readership of over 83,000. Average readership is now running at about 3000 per day. The post on Monday on the threatening of Paul Lloyd has reached well over 5000. The blog is growing exponentially and will probably top one million by Christmas or early into the new year. We will be seeing an Instagram link, a Facebook page and a Twitter account launched by Christmas. We have become quite a significant blog within the Welsh blogosphere..
There are some excellent other blogs within Wales. One in particular is National Left and another Rudolfo Walsh's Glasses . Other political blogs include Peter Blacks which while often interesting is blended with an essence of bland moderation. On the Right we have political blogs such as the Layman, Jac o: the North and the "quaint libertarian" blog "The Burkean". Both the Burkean and the Layman (dubbed the Lieman by Phil Knight) . The Layman is perhaps the worst of the three lacking analysis, understanding and knowledge of history and culture. In addition it lacks the desire to inform or discuss subtle points. I suspect it's additional weakness may well be the laziness of its creator. The Burkean suffers from an ersatz and bland understanding of the 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke . It is far more informed that the Lieman yet it fails to appreciate context or even understand how Smith and Gibbon fits into the pattern of thought. It's delightfully eccentric articles and outlook of its 'Anders Brevik^ ponytailed Editor often makes me smile . There is however hard work in it's production and on comparison with the former blog is huge in scope.

The final right wing blog Jac O' the North offers even more contradictions. At times you cannot fault it's writer's investigative journalism However this is maimed by the addition of an Alt Right film by Steve Bannon. It's broflakes prejudice has made it seriously flawed over recent months. It has claimed at times that Newsnight on BBC is a left liberal programme and it's celebration of the Confederate Flag has made things worse. It is fond of claiming bullying by feminists of innocent men. Yet it has frequently mocked trans activists including the late Lily Jane Summers. I am afraid that recently it really has degenerated into the savings of a Welsh speaking Nigel Farage.
My own blog has many imperfections. Perhaps amongst the most prominent is my spelling largely caused by my partial sightedness and my mild dyslexia. However I have experienced many interesting debates and meetings over the last three years. I would also like to thank my team of observers who keep me informed of events. My little birds, Dire Wolves and Faceless men have worked very hard and continue to work well beyond the Wall and to it's South. From Sunday the blog will be mainly written on the X50 as we are on the move again. From then we will be living in Glanrhyd in Ystradgynlais . I began the blog as a member of the Green Party and now find myself a member of the Corbynista Labour Party, Secretary of Ystradgynlais Labour Party and national executive member of the socialist society Disability Labour . I have formally been registered as partially sighted and have moved three times during the writing of the blog. I have reached sixty and learnt much of my own blind spots and prejudice. Here's to the next ten years.

 "All Too Human" began. Its been an interesting one. Readership of the blog has nearly reached 750,000 . Its been three years of revelations and discovery. I look forward to the years ahead. I feel changes occurring both in myself and in the society and political culture all around me. There is fear and loathing acting on all of us. Today as I write we are just short of two years from the anniversary of the American Presidential election, The corrosive forces that run through post Brexit Britain are stirring in the the USA, In the UK post modern politics obscures direction and Zeitgeist. Here is what I wrote some time ago . For those who dont know me for those who think they do I urge you to reread them. For those who know me I quote the words of Leonard Cohen.......”“Here's to the few who forgive what you do, and the fewer who don't even

“My story is controversial and many will think that they know all about me, what has happened to me , what I am like and what the true nature of my personality is. There is much to read if you glance around the internet, talk to my friends, my detractors and my political foes. So between now and January I want to explain about the ideas that have kept me sane

Over a decade ago, I got divorced, went through bankruptcy , went through a dramatic decline in my material life and went from owning three houses to zero. My life mirrored the national Economy and out of the wreck stepped a new self, and just when I least expected it I met someone and formed a relationship that has been more significant than any other . It was the lightening bolt that to quote “brought out the best and the worst I could be”

I have long believed that while scientific knowledge is very useful and while despite this utility, it does not produce the most important kind of Knowledge. While we benefit from knowledge about atoms, radio waves , this information did not help me understand my human concerns. Perhaps it was Edmund Husserl who helped me understand this, who helped me consider myself a phenomenologist. I grasped that the “experiencing of” rather than the thing being experienced or on myself as a person having the experience. This “experiencing of “ created a new form of knowledge for myself that was unthinkable to science. Husserl rescued for me everyday experiences from the reductive limitations of Science and taught me a new and radical method of finding knowledge. This approach inspired me in many ways and I began to search amongst the many thinkers who felt that the scientific approach to the world was impoverished and partial. It was at this point I started reading Neitzche, Heidegger and Sartre.

Heidegger taught me that science was impoverished and that the entire Philosophical tradition was misdirected. To him, we must return to the fundamental mystery of existence Ever since Plato philosophers have been asking questions about the world – they have overlooked its most important fact. Namely that the world exists. They did not ask the question What is, is?.
Philosophers have said the following things, the world is made of our mental structures, the world is a phenomenon of our experience, the world is made of chaos and power, the world is a copy of a perfect realm, the world is the creation of God and finally that the world is a mathematical harmony.
I realised trying to read Heidegger that before anything else, any knowledge, any event or thing the world exists. Before any human centred Philosophy can understand our global problems we must challenge the the historical-philosophical prejudice of Descartes.. “I think therefore I am”.
I saw that Descartes “thinking thing” symbolise all the metaphors we use to think about ourselves as individuals notions such as the soul, the self, the agent and the individual. This all gives rise to an egotistical way of thinking. By looking at ourselves as some sort of thinking thing we implicitly place ourself, both individually and collectively at the centre of the world. To put it bluntly I realised that we were saying everything exists for us. Or perhaps one type of being, a human being, believes that all of being exists for it.

Rather than recognising our place within the world , our status as being one being amongst all other beings, we have turned the world into something that exists for and not existence because of the thinking thing we are. Lets call it technology. I inverted Descartes “I am therefore I think” . I became a Green activist.”I know I was an ecosocialist

As I climb onto the T6 this morning I reflect on these events. I smile and so sigh. I find myself living in Ystradgynlais. I reflect that over the nearly 60 years of my life that I have lived in nearly 25 different places. I smile and draw myself up for the next 60....the light grows as the bus roars towards Crynant common