Justice for the Critical Mass 182

Meanwhile Shami Chakrabarti

 of Liberty http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/ in the Guardian says ' while proud  to represent Liberty holding the flag in such incredible human rights company, my lack of personal sacrifice was rarely far from my thoughts.'http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/29/london-2012-danny-boyle-opening-ceremony . Good then, but she was carrying the flag of LIBERTY while 182 cyclists were being kettled. This went on all night, where protestors were beaten and arrested for their right  to use the roads. What sort of Wholesale assault on Human Rights is that? A lot of blatant hypocricy coming out of Liberty's  mouths. Does Liberty officially support the Olympics or something, and perhaps  too, the nations that are taking place that it usually strongly condemns? Scotland Yard has said it respected that people had a right to protest, but said officers must stop protestors who  disrupted guests from trying to reach the Olympic Park. Protecting corporate interests again, perhaps, business as usual. All hail the free Olympics.

Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride that takes place every last Friday of every month. It has been happening for the last 18 years, so the Metropolitan Police knew in advance that it was happening.
 The authorities response to me,  contradicts the idea that  the games would encourage people to participate in sport or that these are the greenest games ever. How ironic that cyclists featured so heavily in the actual opening ceremony too, while in the real world, counterparts were being arrested nearby.

Justice for the Critical Mass 182 Petition

They were fully in their rights to take to the streets as they always have

Here is a link to a petition set up to defend  those arrested and kettled

help stand for a police and legal system we can believe in.

please sign and share.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/metropolitan-police-criminal-justice-system-uk-justice-for-the-critical-mass-182

http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/

Fishing For Gold

So it's started then,
it seems the world has faith
in  this spectacle of celebration
this feast of people pride.

Critical opinion is tossed aside
homeless Londoners have dissapeared
they've been clearing up the town
streets have been erased, old maps have been rearranged.

It's all about the taking part I guess
not necessarily the winning
G4S have taken the money and run
in the spirit of peace and co-operation.

The Olympic idyll, adrift somewhere
amidst the corporation signs,
and the cries of sponsor, sponsor, sponsor
spin, spin, spin, the sick corpse of capitalism, waving every hour.

Perhaps no borders will be necessary,
long distances have been travelled,
hope and unity might prevail,
tales of adversity will melt our hearts.

Summers great sporting bonanza has commenced
rain clouds  are driven off, Londons famous gloomy skies
everyone celebrates, and all is good in the lie of the land.
or have we all been cajoled and misled.

Don't believe the hype myself, will turn the telly off
go and hide in the long green grass,
search for dreams that have not happened yet
go fishing for some gold.

Fit Les - The Official Fit Les Olympic Anthem

Renamed Fit Les, the colective formerly known as Fat Les, have just released this in time for the Olympics. Keith Allen explained to B.B.C Breakfast that the video was filmed using mobile phones and a camcorder, with help from members of the public.
The comedian ansd actor said that the song is not anti-Olympics, but rather the "Whoring" of the games by corporations.
The song itself is about excercising the right to be heard. It was born out of the fact that the Government has stopped peoples right to demonstrate in the lead up to the Olympics.
" I absolutely love the idea of Competitive sport, it's just the way it's been whored by corperations. " Mr Allen said.  Love him or hate him, I feel that sometimes Mr Allen is barking up the right tree.

And here is a link with some clarification on the impact Olympic Specific legislation may have on local people and anyone promoting protest or making political statements during this Summer's games.

Olympic Laws - A short Guide for Trouble Makers

http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/node/1799

Oh and  more than 40 groups are going to stage Olympics protests, it will be interesting to see how many are free to do so, to highlight the "corporate dominance" of the Games as well as the staggering cost of staging these games during a time of austerity.
Demonstrators will march through east London on Saturday, groups will include War on Want, campaigners against the siting of missiles, local environmental groups and Occupy London, and a whole host of others. I personally never really enjoy a spectacle that seems to be subjct to the whims of global corporations and financial institutions, which despite Mr Camerons bluster seems to be increasing  in this moment of time.
How the Olympics will sanitise its reputation after what is generally seen to be a fiasco is beyond me.
Perhaps it is only by really pulling together, and shouting enough is enough and showing our discontentment that we can make this Government of ours hear us.

Whose Games?
Whose City?

Truthfully , it hasn't even started yet, andeven though live in West Wales, and not remotely near the event,   I'm already sick and tired of the whole shenanagins.17 days where Olympic tales will be difficult to avoid, unless I bury my head in a sandpit.

Boris Johnson's Olympic Welcome

Let's just say, I'm not his biggest fan,
still incredulous that people actually voted for him.

Radical writer Alexander Cockburn dead R.I.P ( 6/6/41 -21/7/12

Alexander Cockburn, the acerbic left-wing journalist and author who though born in Scotland thrived in the political and cultural battlegrounds of the United States, died on Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany, where he had been recieving medical treatment, his family have said. He was 71, the cause was cancer said Jeffrey St Clair, a friend and colleague. Mr St Clair announced Mr Cockbrurns death on CounterPunch, the web site that the two men edited. Mr Cockburn had keept his illness a secret, Mr St Clair added, and continued writing until the end of his life. "His body was deteriorating, but his prose remainesd as sharp, lucid and deadly as ever," Mr St Clair wrote on the site. that Mr Cockburn had, at various times regular columns in ideologically disparate publications like the Nation and The Wall Street Journal and became known as an unapologetic leftist, condemning what he saw as the outrages of the right but also castigating the American liberal establishment when he thought it was to timid.
Born in Scotland, he grew up in Ireland, he began writing in about the U.S in 1973, he became a U.S citizen in 2009. He was vocally critical of Israels policies and treatment of Palestine. This led to accusations of ant-semticism by many, a claim he always denied, believing it was used as a method of intimidation for his criticism of Israel, so carried on speaking the truth as he saw fit. He was also highly critical of U.S foreign policy, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He remained a leftist on most issues, standing up for free speech and social justice, and the misuses of corporate power.He did however remain a skeptic about global warming and is also remembered now for his bitter falling out with his former friend, the late Christopher Hitchens.He had been secretely battling cancer for the last two years.
The world has been robbed of one of its most radical and uncompromising voices.

Jeffrey St Clair
writing in Counterpunch
about his friend Alexander Cockburn
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07121/farewell-alex-my-friend/

"Alex lived a huge life and je lived it his way. He hated compromise in politics and he didn't tolerate it in his own life. Alex was my pal, my mentor, my comrade. "e joked, gossiped, argued and worked together nearly every day for the last twenty years. He leaves a huge void in our lives. But he taught at least two generations how to think, how to look at the world, how to live a life of resistance. So, the struggle continues, and we're goin to remain engaged. He wouldn't have it any other way."

" They keep telling us that in war, truth is the first casualty which is nonsence since it implies that in times of peace, truth stays out of the sick bay or the graveyard." - Alexander Cockburn

" The first law of Journalism is to confirm existing prejudice rather than contradict it." - Alexander Cockburn

Alexander Cockburn interviewd by Tao Ruspoli  Parts 1 & 2

John Berger (b 5/11/26) - The Poverty of our Century

Aldous Huxley (26/7/1894- 22/11/63) - The Ultimate Revolution (1962)

I started this months posts with a bit from Aldous Huxley,
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aldous-huxley-2671894-221163-devils-of.html
I never really get  tired of him so here's a little more, below he gives a now infamous speech at UC Berkeley in 1962, titled : The Ultimate Revolution.
In his presentation Huxley gave gives historical evidence and future predictions, how the New World Order would be achieved by the ruling Oligarchy via their use of State Sponsored Terrorism to implement their desired Lock Step Police State to control the proletariat (that's you and me) by the fear  of ever increasing terrorism as a pretext  to the citizens of Western society willingly sacrificing their essential freedom and liberties for the promise of temporary security.
The fist 45 minutes is the speech and the next is followed by questions raised by the public and reporters.

Only what a lot of people are saying.

Has any British Policeman ever been convicted of murder?

Does the camera actually Lie?

Then again he worked for the Justice system did he not?

10 allegations of wrongdoin made against him in his career.

6 made by his own colleagues.

Just some thougths....... he died AFTER he was hit and NOT before.

Perhaps somethings in life are after all, utterly predictable?

   

Barrington Levy - Murderer

Lest we forget.

Ian Tomlinson

7/2/62 - 1/4/09

http://www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk/

Transport for London Olympics 2012

MAGIC MIRROR ON THE WING

In the alchemy

of the world's dream

nothing to climb to

nothing to cling to

or hide behind

the thread of time

tenacious on its path

like a comma paused over apostrophe.

And the birdsong whispers in the breeze

everything is as it was in the beginning

there's no need to do anything but breathe,

and be, silencing shots

ringing across the world,

waters break, waters deep

poised above the shadow

leaving reflection,  like a magic

mirror on the wing.

The Tree Of Knowledge -Terence McKenna (16/11/49 - 3/4/00)

Something a little different today
on Ian Curtis's birthday,
a fascinating talk by Terence McKenna, shamanic adventurer, he looked for old ways to recover value systems that have long been lost. He was looking at stategies in an often humourous way that lead to humanity's saviour. His journey was from a platonic philosopher to an all out psychedelic prostelizer. Out there he was, right out on the far perimiters. He became a powerful voice for the psychedelic movement and the emergent sociated tendency he called The Archaic Revival.  Poetically, dispensing enlightened social criticism  with new theories of the fractal dynamics of time, he deconstructs many aspects of the visionary lexicon, and then some, but unlike many lecturers I've listened to, do not end up drifting of to sleep. He engages us, rich, deep and poignant, revealing life in all its rich detail, with hypnotic cadences and perfect prankster timing, his power with language slowly unwinding and coiling around us until we are all mesmerised.
He allows us to think for ourselves, and to enjoy every moment of our lives, invites us to shed  inhibitions, free ourselves, go out and take another journey, enjoying our lives at its full capacity, enjoying every little thing that happens through our every day., do whay you fear, not what you are told, you are a god, a creator with unlimited potential. Yep he got a bit new agey, but never I feel in a too preachy way... makes me laugh which is always a good thing.
His book Food of the Gods essential reading.
Oh he also believed too that history will end by 2012, coinciding with the Mayan  Calender... hey I never said his prothesis's were all spot on , its up to us I guess to make our own conclusions. I guess we just have to find it out ,with a little D.I.Y.

Recorded live in Boulder, Colorado May 29-31st 1999....
Art: Michelangelo: The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Food of the Gods: Bantom Books,1993

Woody Guthrie ( 14/7/12 - 3/11/67) Happy 100th Birthday Woody , All you fascists are bound to Lose.

Woody Guthrie - All you fascists are bound to lose.

Woody Guthrie - Tear the fascist Down

Woody Guthrie -  Better world comiing

Woody Guthrie - Jolly Banker

Woody Guthrie - This land is your land.

BBC (ARENA, 1988)

http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

I'M GONNA TELL YOU FASCISTSYOU MAY BE SURPRISED

THE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD ARE GETTING ORGANISED

YOU'RE BOUND TO LOSE, YOU FASCISTS BOUNDTO LOSE

RACE HATRED CANNOT STOP THIS ONE THING

I KNOW YOUR POLL TAX AND JIM CROW AND GREED HAVE TO GO

YOU'RE BOUND TO LOSE! YOU FASCISTS ARE BOUND TO LOSE

ALL OF YOU FASCISTS BOUND TO LOSE

YOU FASCITS BOUND TO LOSE 

YOU'RE BOUND TO LOSE

YOU FASCISTS ARE BOUND TO LOSE

PEOPLE OF EVERY COLOUR MARCHING SIDE BY SIDE

MARCHING CROSS THESE FIELDS WHEE A MILLION FASCISTS DIED

YOUR BOUND TO LOSE

YOU FASCISTS ARE BOUND TO LOSE

I'M GOING INTO THIS BATTLE AND TAKE MY UNION GUN

WE'LL END THIS WORLD OF SLAVERY

BEFORE THIS BATTLE'S WON

YOU'RE BOUND TO LOSE,

YOU FASCISTS BOUND TO LOSE

Solidarity with the Striking Spanish Miners

The Spanish miners are now over a month of action against the Spanish Popular Party Government, and the International banking aristocracy. They are demonstrating against 60% cuts in subsidiaries, which are expected to result in the loss of 40,000 jobs.
An indefinite strike was launched on 31st of May when 2 sets of mining crew immediately withdrew  their labour whilst working in dangeous and unsanitary conditions,
They have been converging since Tuesday on Madrid, for huge protest rallies, joined by thousands of sympathisers in the city. One group of about 160 miners have walked all the way from the Northern Asturia and Leon Regions, as much as 250 miles away.
They are angry, passionate and well organised. Militant and disruptive, when attacked they will fight back, their will is strong. The governments position is a weak one, especially when it looks as if they have the people on their side. They are an inspiration to us all.

International Support for

the Asturian Spanish Miners

A Spanish Miners message from the burning barricades.

This is their civil War

Spanish Miners Battle Austerity 

Mahmoud Sarsak Free, Alive and Victorious

It was good to hear that Palestinian footballer  Mahmoud Sarsak who I wrote about here http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/release-mahmoud-sarsak.html was greeted joyously in Gaza yesterday, after he had returned home from an Israeli prison where he had been held for three years without charge or trial and without visits from his family. He was taken to a hospital in Gaza where he reemerged from an ambulance and kissed his parents and siblings.
In a press release for  U Free Network http://ufree-p.net/  Sarsak said that despite he was a hunger striker, he managed by his steadfastness to force the Israeli occupation to accept his condition that he launched a hunger strike for, adding ' My demands were represented in not recognising the non-combatant law, which was issued by the Israeli military court, and releasing me to my home city, Rafah in Gaza Strip."
He had  endured an epic three month hunger strike that had brought him close to death, which he agreed to end last month after Israel had agreed to free him. Concerning , the many  international and local support, he appreciated the role of all human rights organisations that had supported him. It is remembered that the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter  had contacted the Israeli authorities seeking help in his release, and the camnpaign succeeded in reaching several European organizations and parliaments.
With former Manchester United player, Eric Cantona and British filmaker Ken Loach  also among the many who signed a petition calling for his freedom., plus  numerous other world renowned football players and athletes.
A victory of sorts , but as I type Akram Rikhawi's hunger strike continues http://ufree-p.net/Details.aspx?Type_ID=3&Rotator_ID=221l  in an act of nonviolence that continues to inspire Palestinians and many others, sustaining their dignity under the most difficult and inhumane circumstances.
Amnesty International  is now calling for the release too of Samer al Barq and Hassan Safadi http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20221 with Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Ann Harrison saying

" While the long overdue release of Mahmoud al-Sarsak is a huge relief to his family and friends, it doesn't reflect any fundamental change in the use of administrative detention as state policy by the Israeli authorities. In fact it further underscores just how unjust, arbitrary and secretive this measure is."

" Israel must immediately end the use of administrative detenrion, and release all Palestinians held under any legal provisions allowing its use, or charge and try them fairly in a court of law consistent with international standards. In particular, the internment of Unlawful Combatants Law should be repealed.

"Palestinians detained without charge should be released or charged with recognisable offences and tried according to international standards.

" The Israeli authorities must also guarantee them, and all other detainess and prisoners on hunger strike,  regular access to independent doctors and lawyers. Samer al-Barg, who has been on hunger strike for almost 50 days, should be immediately admitted to a civilian hospital so that he can recieve proper medical care."

REMEMBER TOO THAT

4,700 Palestinians remain

in jail.

Lol Coxhill ( 19/9/32 - 9/7/12) Daring Musical Adventurer R.I.P

Sad to here earlier via http://exileonmoanstreet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lol-coxhill-rip.html that free improvising saxophonist and raconteur, Lol Coxhill had died after several weeks of serious illness.
I heard him first  I guess playing with the Damned, then as my tastes got wider, started hearing him all over the place, playing with all sorts of improvised groups. His saxophone could tease, growl, roar and squeak, he was a very adventurous  player, not afraid to take risks and push the boundaries.
Spotted by John Peel busking, the word got round about his talent, and he ended up playing  with all sorts of people, so good was he , that he could play along with anyone. Starting of with David Bedford, Kevin Ayers, and other associates of the Canterbury scene, he ended up playing with many of the greats of the improvised musical scene, Evan Parker, David Bailey, Trevor Watts,  Chris McGregor, David Toop, Harry Becket etc etc etcetera...... ever versatile and inventive. Occasionally branching out into forays as an actor, collaborating with the late  Ken Campbell and Derek Jarman.
Fame for him was of no consequence.
Still playing up untill his death, still exploring the undiscovered possibilities of his saxophone, he will be missed by musicians and fans alike.

Lol Coxhill with Robert Wyatt - Soprano Derivitavo/ Apricot Jam

with Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - Oh My

Lol Coxhill, Vortex JazzClub Dec/2008 

Lol Coxhill for Paul Burwell - By the Paths of the Deep River

Lol Coxhill; a Life in music

 http://www.lolcoxhill.com/

Nothing.

an experiment 

        In Guantanemo Bay a prisoner is subjected to 14 days of sleep deprivation. Combined with lack of food and water, detainess can lose their will to live
       Day and night shifted from one place to another, shackled and moved to maximise disruption, isolation a constant daily routine. Many still held without charge, their fullness of time daily exhausted, captors whispering anonomously, torture is good my friend, torture is good.
       Like a reset button, time illuminates, is  reduced and maximised, through language's corridors drifts.... Logic is carried, deconstructured, conclusions are wrestled with. The world s, becomes an illusion, that overwhelms.
        Awakeness can distort, penetrate to deep, the need to shut out can be like a silent scream, deeply unsettling, strangely familiar, there is no beginning, there is no end, no near, no far, distance appears, and in moments reaches vanishing point. become very sad, painful and troubling......
       No year turning, nothing tears apart, while the world is sleeping, twisting and turning, looking frantically for some way out, sleeps absence can become a nightmare without exits repsite.
      Walls shifting in discomfort, voices mounting in an endless drone, the broken minds instict becomes useless , life becomes very dark.
      The fleeting somnambulist finds simple ways of being, above the pitiless wave, heart races, and fear cannot forget, the vatic voice becomes a subconscious scream. Memory plays tricks,the stock of sap is spent, stormy eyes fade into the light and back again.
      Inner voice seeks sanctuary among whispering breeze, despite the darkness, nothing refuses to be conquered. Does the dream of flight pursue, when freed?
      Nothing exists when freedom is denied.
     

No to Gaza ' blood diamond'' on display in the Tower of london

Yesterday I found out that the Tower of London currently has on display a blood diamond. A family whose twenty-nine members were killed during Israel's 22 day offensive of the Gaza strip issued an appeal to Queen Elizabeth 11 about the Steinmetz Jubilee Pink Diamond
http://www.steinmetzdiamonds.com/en/jubilee-pink-diamonds.html

This is currently on display in an exhibition at the Tower of London.It was the Steinmetz supported Givati Brigade who were responsible for one of the worst war crimes committed during the assault on the besieged residents of Gaza City in January 2009.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem http://www.btselem.org/ describes the incident as follows:

'On 4 January 2009, at the start of the ground phse of Operation Cast lead, about 100 members of the extended Samouni family were uddled inside one house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. The next morning, an Israeli airstrike killed 21 people inside the house, including 9 children and 10 women, and injured dozens of other family members.
During the next 2 days, the army refused access to medical teams in spite of being informed of the trterrible outcome by family members who managed to escape the bombed homes and to human rights and humanitarian organisations, including B'Tselem.
When medics managed to get to site, they found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses, and evacuated several wounded people.
The army refused permission to evacuate the bodies and they remained in the rubble for a further two weeks.'

It seems that in my opinion that the Queen of England

 on behalf of the British people should decline this gift and demand that De Beers be instructed to remove this offensive blood diamond display immediately. The 35.60-carat pink diamond , crafted by Steinmetz Diamonds, has been on display at the Tower of London since June 1st, marking the Queens Jubilee. Does this lady not have enough Diamonds, does she not shed a tear  or two, when she realises the methods used to procure them, does she simply ignore the demonstrations that   have been held every week at the Tower of London since the Jubilee , and this blood diamond has been on went on display . Today there will be a demo taking place outside the De Beers jewellry shop in Picadilly and Bond Street. It will hopefully inform shoppers (and perhaps Mrs Windsor)  that the diamond market is heavily contaminated with cut and polished diamonds that have been used to fund human rights violations,and that the Israeli Diamond Industry is a major source of funding for the Israeli military who stand accused of serious war crimes and  possible war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the Human Rights Council,that these blood diamonds are not subject to any regulation and are sold to unsuspecting consumers labelled as conflict-free diamonds.

If like me you feel uneasy  about this diamond being on display at the Tower of London you can leave them a message on their facebook page which I did yesterday.http://www.facebook.com/TOL.London
The comment will probably dissapear quite quickly but at least you will be sending them a message.

Some useful links
A first person account of the Zeitoun killings in Gaza
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths

The smell of Death
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/01/18/the-smell-of-death.html

Thanks to London BDS
http://londonbds.org/

facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Israelblooddiamonds

Sammoni family appeal
to  the Queen.

Mahmoud Darwish (13/3/41 - 9/8/08) - I come from There

The occupation of Palestine has gone on now for so long now, it has become an analogy in human history. We have seen their struggle for dignity and their right to exist. Despite being occupied and their lands being torn from them, they continue to remind us of their yearning for peace and justice. Mahmoud Darwish, their poet laureate used his poems to express the grave historical injustices imposed on the Palestinian people.
The treatment of the Palestinians I believe is a universal crime. What Darwish did with his great powerful poetry was make us all witnesses, such was his universal appeal.

I come from There

I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.

I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learned the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learned all the words and broke them up
To make a single word:
HOMELAND

Poem Via: Paul Alexander
Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy
http://wwww.facebook.com/africa.to.gaza.aid.convoy

Earlier post on Mahmoud Darwish
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/mahmoud-darwish-poet-of-resistance.html

Frederick Douglass (14?/2/1818 - 20/2/1895) - What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July?

" What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty  to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national gestures, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocricy- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and depotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me , that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocricy, America reigns without a rival."

1852

Danny Glover reading from Frederick Douglass's speech , 5/10/05, L.A

Aldous Huxley (26/7/1894 - 22/11/63) - The Devils of Loudun , an extract

On 18/8/1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and successful seducer of women and priest of the parish of Loudun a small French town, was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of being in league with the devil and seducing an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage.was accused and convicted of sorcery,
This event would inspire Aldous Huxley's  book The Devils of Loudun. An historical narrative of supposed demonic possession, religious fanaticism, sexual repression and mass hysteria. Later turned into a  controversial film by Ken Russel The Devils ( 1971). Aldous Huxley's vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.What is seem as liberation is in fact enslavement, fanaticism as seen with its appearance in the human condition has penetrated through all history. With his compelling narrative, Mr Huxley manages to hit the nail on the head. Religion becomes not only the opium of the people, but also becomes the pornographer of the masses.  Strongly recommended, as are most of his books.Relevant when it was written, relevant today, its message still echoing with warning.  Truth and reason still being manipulated by our leaders and so called prophets.
Be careful where you lay your devotions.

  ' At all times, all to many Christians have behaved as though the devil were a First Principle, on the same footing as God. They have paid more attention to evil and the problem of its eradication than to good and the methods by which individual goodness may be deepened, and the sum of goodness increased. The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous. Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself.
   Though frequently Manichaean in practice, Christianity was never Manchaean in its dogmas. In this respect it differs from our modern iodolatries of Communism and Nationalism, which are Manichaean not only in action, but also in creed and theory. Today it is everywhere self-evident that we are on the side of Light, they on the side of Darkness. And being on the side of Darkness, they deserve to be punished and must be liquidated ( since our divinity justifies everything) by the most fiendish means at our disposal. By iolatrously worshipping ourselves as Ormuzd, and by regarding the other fellow as Ahriman, the Principle of Evil, we of the twentieth century are doing our best to guarantee the triumph of diabolism in our time.'