Octopus eats crab . . .
… holy shit indeed. That’s it, I got nothing!
Continue reading →on free speech
The sheer range of opinion on this planet means you can’t be inoffensive. It’s something that can only really be aspired to within homogenous groups or authoritarian societies.
Continue reading →my dysfunctions: a wonderful thing
Folks suffering from depression will no doubt appreciate how difficult it can be to put a positive spin on things when you’re in the doldrums and it’s something I have particular difficulty with myself. Often it’s written off as having a pessimistic personality type, and perhaps that’s part of it, taken to extreme’s though it can be extremely negative and self-defeating.
Continue reading →my dysfunctions: on negative thought patterns
As a result of my diagnosis I was referred to mental health services, personally I didn’t find them overly helpful*, however they did give me some insight into my condition. One of the elements they explained to me was what they euphemistically referred to as negative thought patterns, it’s a form of – the ever popular […]
Continue reading →on denial
Denial does not change reality for everyone else. Only for the one denying and those who are foolish enough to believe the fantasy Elle Casey, author First seen in a Christians Against Dinosaurs group on Facebook … it’s too funny!!
Continue reading →on democracy & nationalism
A precondition of democracy was the creation of a viable state with a monopoly of violence in a defined geographical area with a common culture. During the industrial revolution, these states became the focus of democratic struggles, first against foreign oppression, and then against internal oppression by the governing elite. Modern democracy arose out of […]
Continue reading →on nationalism and Scotland
… the Scots have been demanding greater democratic control of their affairs, not in order to prove their exceptionalism in an Orwellian sense, but in order to pursue this different philosophy of social organisation. In their attitudes to war, nuclear weapons and Europe, the nationalists are more internationalist than the Unionists.
Continue reading →on why you fail pt.2
yeah, so meanto upload this the othe rday with the main post . . .
Continue reading →on why you fail
We all make choices, sometimes we pretend that we “have no choice”. That’s a lie, that just means you don’t like the alternatives available. It sounds trite doesn’t it, doesn’t make it any less true though.
Continue reading →on your dangerous self
… the real self is dangerous: dangerous for the established church, dangerous for the state, dangerous for the crowd, dangerous for the tradition, because once a man knows his real self, he becomes an individual. Anon, Society of Astute Freethinkers. image via The Angry Arabs’ comments section
Continue reading →on what Scotland has become
Scotland has become something of a pilot paradise specialising in one offs, unworkable compromises, empty consultations, sticking plaster solutions, rubber-stamping and risk-averse policy – or rather policy which prefers the certainty of stagnation to the risk of success. We also do a pretty impressive line in exclusion, blame, judgement, personal abuse, and media sensationalism. All […]
Continue reading →on local democracy
… the average size of Scotland’s vast councils (163,000) would result in just two councils for the whole of Iceland. In fact – even after recent mergers – Iceland has 74 councils. The average council in Germany has around 7,000 inhabitants and occupies 15 square kilometres. The average Scottish council has 20 times more citizens […]
Continue reading →on an imagined community
Scots are what Benedict Anderson call an imagined community ‘because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their connection’ Lesley Riddoch, Wee White Blossom, 2015
Continue reading →on the Smith Commission Scotland
According to Richard Murphy, a prominent English economist and tax expert, under Smith ‘there is no opportunity to create economic growth, no opportunity to create redistribution, no opportunity to create outcomes in Scottish society that any Scottish Government would reasonably want to see. What’s the outcome? A mess, is the best answer’. “
Continue reading →Practicing my handwriting
It’s not a really a skill that gets much use in this era of electronic communication and social media. When was the last time you wrote a letter, not a note, a full-blown letter?
Continue reading →on building a movement
Like all the best revolutions there was no silver bullet, no single event, no starter pistol and no paid organisers clutching mission statements and clipboards. Well maybe a few – but mercifully most stayed inside Yes Campaign headquarters. Their early self-absorbed, apparent inactivity was a mistake. But like the error that prompted penicillin’s discovery – […]
Continue reading →my dysfunctions: on childcare
I doubt there are many parents who are so truly gifted that they find looking after their little loved ones a joy for every moment of every day, of every week, of every year. Undoubtedly some are better and some are worse, it’s a difficult job at times, a delight at others. Very much a […]
Continue reading →on heroes and villains
The ink smudges are what you get for taking your journal into the bathroom when you’re bathing a toddler . . . Incidentally, the picture started out as a fat bloke sitting in a chair, ended up as a pregnant women going into labour and a fat bloke looking on; strange but true.
Continue reading →on utopia; a journey, never a destination
on the similarities between ‘the left’ and neo-liberalism
on the defence of politics
“in defence of politics”, slightly oxymoronic wouldn’t you say?
Continue reading →on the engagement of the politically missing
During the Scottish independence referendum of 2014 there was massive voter engagement, particularly within the ‘yes’ camp, which saw the official Yes Scotland campaign group become little more than a campaign figure-head and distributor of materials as grass-roots organisations with their own visions sprang into life. Many of these groups continue to exist to this […]
Continue reading →Harder than I thought
In rebooting MadeStuff I had thought it might be a good way to talk publicly about some of the mental health issues I deal with on a day-to-day basis, in a semi-anonymous fashion. The opportunity for self-examination, self-help and hopefully, ultimately, some self-redemption and re-invention. It’s really tough though. Even in the written form I […]
Continue reading →on the future of political parties and government; by business, for business
on what Scotland aspires to be
on global capitalism as an apology for massive privilege and inequality
Once you cut through the rather flowery almost high brow language at the start of this piece the tone rapidly changes and some element of righteous anger becomes really quite, and understandably, clear. … “a brazen apology for massive privilege and inequality”, it’s difficult to argue with. Capitalism to a point is assuredly not a […]
Continue reading →on whether people measure up
Given recent events this quote seems somewhat apt. Not for any direct correlation with said events but because of how it speaks to not only how we should see others but how we should see and judge ourselves. Do we measure up on each of these points. Do we seek to understand the motives, behaviours […]
Continue reading →Je suis Charlie … here come the haters
Three simple words, and unless you’re French, two of them are a foreign language and one will be pronounced slightly differently. Yet regardless of your ability to translate there is no doubting what it is they refer to.
Continue reading →on ‘the people’ Vs ‘the state’
on the self-doubting Scots
on the absence of democracy
I find it rather telling, and no end concerning, that a 105 year old quote should remain quite so relevant today in what is meant to be a, “modern democracy”.
Continue reading →on the power of the past, jingoism
on the power of the past, jingoism
on football as a neo-liberal global capitalist trojan horse intent on propogating it’s nefarious cultural agenda … No! Really!!
on the neo-liberal state
I happened to be reading this section of the book shortly after George Osbourne had made the autumn statement on behlaf of the Conservative Liberal coalition government. The 1938 date came from a programme I was listening to on Radio Scotland at the time. Meanwhile the Guardian commented: George Osborne came under fire on Tuesday […]
Continue reading →on the productivity of the poor
on challenging ourselves
on the welcoming Scots
Because sometimes I am not understanding the words … it’s why we have dictionaries. Panglossian, adjective 1. characterized by or given to extreme optimism, especially in the face of unrelieved hardship or adversity.
Continue reading →on insulting the poor
It’s the sort of thing that should go without saying, but in an era where we have seen millionaire politicians claiming expenses from the public purse to maintain their duck houses and heat their stables whilst simultaneously demonising the most vulnerable in society, cutting their benefits and suggesting that they only heat a single room […]
Continue reading →on the myth of Scottish-ness
on hope vs optimism
If optimism is a passive virtue, then it follows that pessimism must be too, requiring nothing more than an individual or group to look at ‘something’ and shudder. Where hope is the act of an individual or group on themselves then fear must be something that is acted upon them by an outside force, individual […]
Continue reading →HAPPY NEW YEAR!
“Same shit different day”, I believe the expression is … … here’s to this year being better than the last one. May nout that’s for you go by you, slàinte. Have a good one xx
Continue reading →on why UK economic strategy is failing
Obviously, this is one reason among many.
Continue reading →on the self aggrandising UK in the face of harsh realities
If there is one thing the UK is good at, it’s harking back to, ‘the good old days’, of ‘Britannia Rules the Waves’, ‘We won the war’, the ‘glorious dead’, the ‘glorious empire’, etc etc etc [yawn]. What it’s not so good at is dealing with the current, and worse yet the future. Lots of […]
Continue reading →on violence reduction
on polluting your mind
on comprehension, duty, and death
The quote from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series above was actually what I had in mind as I penned the picture below.
Continue reading →on life in Scotland
on the Act of Proscription 1747
This is what is meant by a Union of Equals … some being less equal than others. More on the Act of Proscription.
Continue reading →on state Vs nation
see also this previous post.
Continue reading →on what is Britain? Oh yea, and alcohol.
Two seemingly unrelated quotes, and yet, they seem to go together aptly. More specifically the UK is a unitary state with extremely limited democracy (unelected head of state, unelected second chamber, large, quangos, and institutions), and what little democracy there is (House of Commons with limited policy difference between parties, First Past the Post elections, […]
Continue reading →on the ‘old firm’
When I originally penned this Jim Murphy had not yet ascended to the thorny throne of Scottish Labour, yet as I go to publish this it seems more relevant than ever as “the alpha ned” promises to repeal a widely supported piece of legislation and also encourage further drinking in Scotland’s football stadia. … since […]
Continue reading →Calum MacLean on indoctrinating the Scots
on culture
Was so happy with the tree in the last post that I did something similar again!
Continue reading →MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Merry Christmas fellow travellers … hope you have a good one xx I had a post up on the old site with the recipe for this cake, it’s all about the flavour, I’ll need to do that again :) Now. Get off the internet and enjoy some family time … unless you hate your family, […]
Continue reading →on increasing equality
So I drew that tree a few days ago, check out the garbage I was producing back in September when I started this journal … … quite the improvement I think!
Continue reading →on who leads change
In essence, don’t look to the ruling elites to make any real difference in your life for the better, not without taking something else away. Constant flux in leadership of a country will only benefit the masses, those at the top preach ‘stability. Indeed, it is a key argument for the maintenance of a monarch […]
Continue reading →on educational investment
Of course you might well argue that such large investment in one particular area will inevitably reduce spending elsewhere, and you’d be right, but then it’s a question of priorities. If we are to be judged by the choices we make for the future of the country then investment in education must surely rank up […]
Continue reading →on Norwegian independence
on Scots language
The absurdity of this judgement is laid bare when you contemplate that prior to the adjournment of the Scots parliament, Scots was the language of the law, Scots Law, something that remains intact to this day.
Continue reading →on language and learning
Not only can languages be easily learned under the age of six, but it has been shown time and again that learning a second or third language helps development and learning in other ways. The same is true of learning to read music and play an instrument.
Continue reading →on taxation … and fish people.
TAX THE FISH PEOPLE! MAKE THEM PAY!
Continue reading →on community involvement
Featured Image of Seydisfjordur via Pinterest.
Continue reading →on the benefits of community involvement
Find out more about the Fintry Development Trust and their projects. Featured image via Free Wide HD Wallpaper
Continue reading →on local governance and electoral turnout
See also, on collapse of civic engagement
Continue reading →on collapse of civic engagement
See also, on disempowerment of the individual. def “thole”: verb (used with object), tholed, tholing. Chiefly Scot. 1. to suffer; bear; endure.
Continue reading →on disempowerment of the individual
In the example cited above, a chap who knew how to fix the problem felt he was unable to as he might be charged with interfering with public property. It’s an example of how far the system has been removed from the people when they want to take responsibility for their environs but don’t feel […]
Continue reading →on the disconnect between people and their towns
When i read this it chimes with an earlier quote in the journal from Leopold Kohr, in essence that the larger a community grows the less cohesive it becomes as connections across the mass of people are diminished by the mass. We should hardly be surprised then if people then become disconnected at large with […]
Continue reading →on land ownership
Photograph, Eigg sunset on rum, via outdoorcapital.co.uk.
Continue reading →on exploitation by ‘nobility’
It’s good to see increasing awareness of the lie of ‘nobility’, that these people are little more than jumped up thieves … arguably that remains the case to this day, except that now they can hide behind their titles, monies and ‘ancient’ rights. The fact that so much of Scotland remains in the hands of […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on benefits of community ownership
Community ownership story in Guardian, also source of featured image.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on community
Stephen Reicher is Professor of Social Psychology and former Head of the School of Psychology at the University of St Andrews. and an expert in his field. Well worth listening to in other words.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on overcrowding
You can read previous posts on over crowding here. You can also read about more current overcrowding issues here. The featured image is from a series on overcrowding in prisons in El Salvador … not strictly speaking relevant, yet there is an element of being ‘trapped’ for many people who live in substandard accomodations.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on scapegoating the poor
If you listen to the mainstream media you might be forgiven for believing that all our financial woes lie at the feet of the disabled, the unskilled, the chronically ill, the unemployed, asylum seekers and refugees. Too often the poorest most vulnerable in society are scapegoated by those who would rather you looked anywhere than […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on overcrowding
I’ve referred previously to overcrowding in Glasgow. Here’s something you might find interesting.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on home ownership
Home ownership is often trumpeted as one of the greatest achievements of the Thatcher era, I’m inclined to disagree. What Thatcher did with the wholesale sell off of social housing was remove the financial burden of maintaining rapidly aging housing stock from the state and place it on the individual. It wasn’t always a cost […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on council solutions
This quote comes from a section discussing housing schemes that have been taken over by the local residents in what amounts to a community buyout. On the one hand you have these community organisations organising their own solutions to things like maintenance and disposal of waste, and on the other hand you have distant council […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on mortality rates in Glasgow
It’s striking that Scotland has the sick man of Europe reputation, something that seems to have always been that way. It’s true that Glasgow and other urbanised areas in Scotland have suffered from chronic over-crowding way way in excess of those seen elsewhere in the UK, something that dates back to emergence of the industrial […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – Mary Hepburn, WHRS, on the impact of deprivation
Mary Hepburn is an experienced health professional who has campaigned on these issues for some time, she’s definitely someone who should be taken seriously. Maternal mortalityy is an issue I’ve quoted and commented on previously, yet this is a further condemnation on the targeting of the most vulnerable by a callous and cold government. Just […]
Continue reading →Word of the Day – Pluviophile
I can remember aimlessly walking in the rain, not because I was finding any peace or joy in it though.
Continue reading →Climbing Cat is too cute
I have no idea where this picture originally came from, however, if you do know please leave me a comment so that I can credit the climbing kitty cat :)
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – impact of deprivation, and friends
There are parts of Scotland where deprivation is and has been a massive issue, where life expectancy ranks among the worst in Europe, this is widely known and for many it’s just another aspect on being Scottish, or more specifically being from particular post-industrial areas of the major towns and cities. What is less well-known […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on the spread of harm
. . . Talking of Bad Apples . . .
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on the personality of Scots
I have to say that it was also an image I clung to myself when I was younger and the self-mocking style is one I have retained, refined and made my own. Add in a pinch of my dry wit and dark humour and I’m sure people must wonder about me at times … is […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on Scotland, Independence, and Norway
Common Place Journal – on Scotland’s assets
It’s not so much that these facts are redacted, but there is almost a willful ignorance of them amongst great swathes of the Scottish population. Blame for this lack of knowledge lies in part with the individual, afterall we must all bear responsibility for our own ignorance, but also largely with the mainstream media that […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on USA and Russia
Common Place Journal – on uneven federations, and power imbalance
Common Place Journal – on relationships, victory and loss, and revolution.
Common Place Journal – on living standards
I think it would be fair to contend that rather than ‘progress’ failing to enhance living standards we must accept that simply raising standards can not ultimately lead to any greater satisfaction with life; particularly where those advances only serve to enslave us to our work in order to fulfil our ‘need’ to obtain and […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on community dispresal
Common Place Journal – on slavery
I don’t think it would be over-stating to describe modern society as a form of open prison in which people are enslaved to an idea and a vision of what they believe they should do in order to ‘improve’ their own lives, ultimately though much of what we do serves no one more than the […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on great powers & democracy, and love too
Have to admit, I was thinking about Mrs Madestuff when I doodled this. The whole thing was based around a heart that forms the basis for the heads and arms … I didn’t know what I was doing when I started out.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on the paradox of ‘large’ leaders
The quote, probably a mis-quote, underneath is from a song by Regina Spektor … correction, it’s definitely a mis-quote. That’ll teach me for trying to quote lyrics from memory.
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – a question of scale
Everyday we seem to learn something new about something that one government or another is doing that is at best morally questionable and at worst downright evil. From Guantanamo Bay and the illegal imprisonment of civilians to extraordinary rendition, through state sponsored and sanctioned torture and assassination to more mundane and domestic affairs that target […]
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on power v’s intellect
Black Dog – Little setbacks
It’s probably one of the toughest aspects dealing with my own mental health issues; just when I think I’m making progress something will come out of the blue and knock me right back down … a lot of the time it doesn’t even need to be a, ‘big something’, just unexpected and frustrating can be […]
Continue reading →Christmas Wreath – Archive 2009
I was just looking back through some of the madestuff archives from 5 years ago, 2009, and found these photo’s of the Christmas wreath we put together that year. It was made out of gold and silver sprayed pine cones, christmas tree beads, and cuttings from our spruce trees. If there’s one thing that sticks […]
Continue reading →Make your own gift boxes!
Wish I had more time and inclination to do this for our christmas gifts … wish I had christmas gift to put in them!!
Continue reading →Common Place Journal – on ‘obliteration’ of personal freedoms
This quote, again from Leopold Kohr, discusses individual sovereignty as Kohr seeks to highlight that democracy is diminished in large states as the power of the individual is diminished by the vast numbers of large countries. 1 voice in a sea, of say, 5 million is going to carry more weight than 1 voice in […]
Continue reading →