Tag: An era of anxiety

Escaping Anxiety by way of Singing Nervously

On By Tony TaylorIn History, Music, Philosophy, Politics, The Arts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The powerful, the ruling class of any historical period has spread fear as an essential element in the maintenance of its social and political control. Hence I’m stretching a point to suggest that we are living through an unprecedented era of Anxiety. And yet, even today, I’ve been warned to beware a possible proliferation of epidemic-catalysing viruses, all given the COVID script being existential threats, and instructed to fill the larder with supplies sufficient to last 72 hours in case of war.

We imagine the world as unsafe, and then we dream the world as unsafe, and then feel in our bodies that the world is unsafe. And this is an inverted order of things, the opposite of how our bodies come to knowledge. Rhyd Wildermuth

Sometime, perhaps never, I will seek to explore the contemporary phenomenon of algorithmic- created anxiety. For now, in the past few weeks I’ve sought to escape being suffocated inside the virtual by way of being scared of reality, namely giving another solo concert in my Cretan village. The nerves did indeed jangle. If you are kind enough to watch the two videos below you might well discern my tension. In terms of the songs themselves, it’s most obvious in my rushing through the Schubert composition, ‘Der Leiermann’, losing on the way much of its ambiguous mystery. Next time…….

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A couple of people have asked for details of the latest programme. If I wasn’t so nervous about singing in the correct key I would relax and say more about the songs at the concert itself.

1. 0 Waly, Waly 

Somerset folk song

2. Somewhere a Voice’s Calling and Smilin’ Through

American Parlour-Songs recorded in 1914 and 1919 by John McCormack, the famous Irish lyric tenor and sung by me as a boy soprano in 1957!!

3. Unbelievable,  The Nearness of You and  Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

American classics and often jazz standards – Livingstone, Carmichael and Rodgers

4, Hands, Eyes, Heart  and Tired – Vaughan Williams and Now Sleeps the Petal – Quilter. 

English Art Song

5.  I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger

North American folk song and spiritual

 6.  Ti eínai aftó pou to léne agápi from the Boy on a Dolphin, If I Loved You from Carousel and Summertime from Porgy and Bess

Songs from film and musicals – Morakis, Rodgers and Gershwin

Interval.

7. Im  Wunderschönen Monat Mai – Schumann, Das Wandern  and  Der Leiermann – Schubert

German Lieder 

8. Danny Boy

Irish folk song

9. My Funny Valentine, When I Fall in Love  and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 

Classic Love songs –  Rodgers, Young and MacColl

10. Whither do I wander – Vaughan Williams, Sea Fever – Ireland and Come Again – Dowland

English and Elizabethan song

11. One Little Quarrel and Guilty 

Tribute to Al Bowly and 1930s dance bands

12. Πάμε μια βόλτα στο φεγγάρι or Let’s take a walk to the moon

Greek classic – Hadjidakis

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Our village kafeneio, H Elpida, the cafe of Hope

There seems little doubt, in my mind, that preparing for and giving this little concert, despite the blemishes, kept me out of what Anthony Rella calls the ‘psychic pollution’ infecting our relation to the internet and social media. OK, I admit, the warbling kept me away only for some of the time. Certainly I would suggest that prioritising time away from the screen in all its forms is a necessary form of resistance to the Machine. Lately I’ve gone back to printing off copies of stuff I’d like to read and taking them to peruse in the village kafeneio. A precious bonus is that Georgos brews a fine cappuccino and I get to pass the time of day with our village’s motley characters.

I must close by thanking Ken Carpenter for filming and editing the videos – all out of the goodness of his heart.

The Post-COVID Persecution and Propaganda Continue

On By Tony TaylorIn Politics1 Comment

My impression remains that people either want to forget or deny the suppression of society during the so-called ‘pandemic’. Given the mounting evidence that, at the very, very least, the undemocratic, unevidenced assault on liberty was problematic, it’s no longer straightforward to dismiss COVID critics as unhinged, anti-science conspiracy theorists. It seems preferable to pretend the nightmare was a dream and consign it to the past.

Amongst the many issues still on the table I’ll draw your attention to just two. Firstly there remain many courageous individuals, who voiced utterly legitimate concerns about the lockdowns, whose lives and careers have been shattered – see the example of the incredibly modest and inspiring Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill.

Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill is a frontline physician in Ontario, Canada who supports fully informed voluntary consent without any forms of coercion or restriction in all medical decision-making. She is a long-time advocate for patient autonomy, evidence-based decision-making, protection of the patient-doctor relationship, and an accessible, quality healthcare system.


In the summer of 2020, Dr. Gill was one of the first Canadian physicians to bravely speak out publicly on social media about the catastrophic and irreparable harms of lockdowns. She quickly became the target of an orchestrated malicious online smear campaign that encouraged the public to lodge complaints to her regulatory college. In an attempt to clear her name from spurious defamation, she had launched legal proceedings against those responsible; but a pre-trial procedural ruling against her had led to a cost order of up to $1.2M in October 2022. This court procedural/motion decision and the cost order were both appealed, ultimately leading to a costs order of nearly $300K ordered in late February 2024 with just weeks to pay.


Dr. Gill was once a lone voice against lockdowns in Canada: a compassionate voice for humanity who has inspired countless people around the world to take a stand against harmful government measures. The arc of history has bent towards Dr. Gill; sadly her early warnings on lockdown harms have come to fruition. Compelled by her conscience, her courageous and ethical efforts to uphold the Hippocratic oath in supporting patient autonomy and speaking out against harmful lockdowns have come at an immense personal cost to Dr. Gill. Her supporters are using this platform to fundraise to support her legal fund, and her fight for our human rights. Please donate and share.

Secondly, are we so naive as to think there are no more emergencies in the pipeline as the ruling class creates an era of anxiety? And that it seeks to introduce evermore definitions of what it sees as unacceptable dissension from its authoritarian agenda. For example, see Michael Gove’s new definition of ‘extremism‘. HART, the independent and questioning ‘Health Advisory and Recovery Team’ point out who ought to be the first to be charged under its tenuous tenets.

In the latest egregious bout of trolling from HM Gov, it takes about 3 milliseconds of studying the new definition of extremism to realise that during the so-called ‘pandemic’, the government did precisely everything therein:

  1. negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; 

What, like denying them social contact, denying them the right to be with their dying relatives, forcing medical procedures on them in order to continue their job, denying them the right to earn a living, denying their rights of free movement, locking them in their homes and arresting them for sitting on a bench? That kind of thing? 

  1. undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; 

What, you mean like introducing a brand new legal act (in spite of there already existing an appropriate instrument) that completely tramples parliamentary democracy, giving the sitting government the right to jackboot their way into people’s lives as outlined in point 1 above? Or like shutting down parliament entirely and cancelling elections? Or perhaps like Matt Hancock telling parliament that he had unilaterally decided to offer the pharmaceutical companies indemnity for their products. 

  1. intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).

What, you mean by censoring and smearing any opposing views, demonising anyone who didn’t get with the programme and creating an environment of extremism via a media monopoly that would have been more fitting in Mao Zedong’s China. 

Gove’s Ministry of Truth Reporting for Duty

AND LEST WE FORGET THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA

Thanks to Edward Curtin for taking me back to a poem I had filed away at the beginning of the New Year

It was composed by the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza by an IDF airstrike on December 6, 2023 along with his brother, nephew, sister, and three of her children.

If I Must Die

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.