Perhaps the greatest change to take place this year was my launching of Passing Nightmare. The site came about following an earlier abandoned experiment with current affairs blogging. Much of the site design was done over the course of a week last Christmas, along with several launch articles on economics and the media. One early article was referenced by the Guardian newspaper, which certainly provided a large boost to both my self-confidence and to the reputation of the site.

The site has since grown beyond my wildest expectations, having now published over 40 articles on a wide range of subjects. This year was undoubtedly an extraordinary year for the media news cycle, so from the summer riots and the war in Libya to the anti-cuts movement and the occupations, I’ve been writing on all of the major events taking place. I’ve also taken my angry keyboard skills to a variety of other issues including consumerism, US and European politics, the Arab Spring and media misrepresentations of the British welfare state.

As my competency in writing has increased I have also been provided with fantastic opportunities to write for established and well-respected websites such as New Left Project, Minority Thought and the Huffington Post. Once I get some more free time (unlikely to be any time soon) I have my eye on a few other projects, including writing for Manchester Mule, with whom I recently attended a fantastic media training day.

Meanwhile, my Open University work has continued apace. I finished my work for DD132 in April and am presently studying for DD203. I still have several more assignments and an exam (which I’m frightfully worried about!) remaining before I complete the course in around May or June, so I imagine there will be limited time for writing until then.

Another development running parallel alongside my writing has been increased activist activity. This year I have attended independent media conferences, occupations, protest marches and went out on strike myself in November. I’ve also been getting out on the streets, talking to people and making some fantastic new friends.

This year has been by far the busiest I can remember for quite some time.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Earlier this month I travelled to London to attend the Rebellious Media Conference, a gathering of journalists, political activists and other radical media types for two days based in the city centre. The keynote speaker was Professor Noam Chomsky, who delivered a fantastic lecture on the current state of affairs with regard to military conflict, the economic crisis and progressive resistance. Chomsky is a personal hero of mine, as he is for many on the left, and despite being 82 years old he retains his superb intellect and razor sharp analysis. Other sessions included speakers such as John Pilger, Greg Philio, Laurie Penny and Michael Albert. Several of the workshops I attended, such as those on the recent riots, or discussing local alternative media, also gave me a heck of a lot of food for thought.

Attending the conference also provided me with an excuse to take a few extra days in London, a place which I hadn’t visited for around a decade. I made sure to visit the major tourist hot spots (taking in the landmarks and museums) though this also allowed me time to meet up with some of my friends, both old and new, for several intoxicating adventures across the city.

In academic news, I have now begun to study for my DD203 Open University module and am currently in the process of drafting my first assignment, due in at the end of this month. The course material so far seems fairly interesting, though I do have to confess that I have struggled to remain enthused given the initial slow pace of the study schedule. However, I imagine that once the material delves into specifics and the workload becomes a little more demanding it should help to focus my concentration somewhat.

Although my studying has somewhat limited the time I can spend on it, I have nevertheless experienced some further success in enabling my writing to be viewed by a wider audience. Last month I was invited to become a blogger for the Huffington Post. My first article for the site was a piece I wrote discussing British media coverage of immigration and attempting to debunk some of the more harmful misconceptions.

I have also written a second article for the New Left Project website, which provides a brief history of political party funding and suggests potential options for reform. This piece was fairly complex to write (with some assistance from the editors) and required plenty of research, but I’m quite impressed with how it turned out in the end. I’ve also continued writing for Passing Nightmare and Minority Thought, most recently with a piece discussing the Iranian ‘terror plot’.

Closer to home, yesterday I paid a visit to Occupy Manchester, based in the Peace Gardens at St Peters Square. The camp is part of a global movement protesting against rising inequality, corporate greed and government cuts, whilst also urging reform of the financial sector to attempt to ensure that the poor do not pay for a crisis created by the rich. The Peace Gardens has now been occupied for almost three weeks and I stopped by to drop off some supplies and chat to those living in the camp. Those whom I spoke with were truly committed to the cause and many were quite eloquent and insightful in explaining their reasons for joining the occupation. I hope to be able to visit the camp again over the next week or so.

Finally, whilst I’m discussing local projects I wanted to quickly mention a fantastic little group I’ve been attending recently. Manchester Film Cooperative is based in Salford and hosts a monthly meeting, screening films which challenge current economics, politics and society. I’ve already watched some superb films there as part of their ‘Surveillance’ season, so it’s certainly worth checking out if you live nearby.

I have continued to write articles for Passing Nightmare, with pieces on the war in Libya, two film reviews, an analysis of the dodgy media reporting on ESA claimants and a discussion on the recent UK riots. A rough estimate indicates that I have written just over 27,000 words for the site since it went live in January.

This month also sees the first publication of my work on another political website. New Left Project commissioned me to write an article on Free Software, with a brief history of the movement followed by an analysis of how the political left can best utilise the possibilities of open code to free themselves from corporate control. You can read the article here.

After a 6 month break, my Open University studying continues. Having awaited the results of the fee increases I was pretty shocked to discover that the cost of a £700 course would be rising to around £2,500 from 2012. Thankfully those already undertaking a degree would be allowed to continue on the old fee structure as long as they continue to take at least one course each year.

This is good news, but means that it would be rather risky for me to attempt a specialised Politics/Economics degree,  so instead I have opted for the standard BA/BSc in Social Sciences.

My next course is DD203, entitled ‘Power, dissent, equality: understanding contemporary politics’. The course begins in October,  the content looks fantastic.

My final bit of news is that I will be heading to London in October to attend the Rebellious Media Conference and do a spot of sightseeing. I’m planning to write a report on this for Passing Nightmare and I hope to be able to meet up with some friends whilst wandering around the big city.

Those of you who know me will be aware (to be fair I’ve made it increasingly difficult for you to avoid) that I launched a new website back in January of this year. Passing Nightmare was the culmination of an idea which had been festering away inside my brain for 12 months prior and something which I’d made a failed attempt at launching several months earlier.

As I became increasingly interested in politics, economics and the media I felt I needed somewhere to scribble down my ideas and thoughts on issues which were important to me, or where I had strong views. I also wanted to collaborate with other writers and spread the articles across social networking websites.

Six months later, the site has been relatively successful at meeting those original aims. It now contains around 20 original articles, many of which are quite considerable in length. Some of my favourites are listed below:

• An Epidemic of Benefit Fraud? The Demonization of Welfare Recipients – This post talked about the levels of benefit and other fraud in the UK, and contrasted it with media coverage of ‘scroungers’.
• Austerity Politics & Blaming Labour – In this article I spoke of the trend towards blaming Labour party spending for the fiscal deficit, whilst overlooking the massive problems caused by the banking crisis. It looked at austerity politics and discussed whether this could eventually cause more harm than good during a period of recovery.
• A Future That Works - My first hand report from the Manchester NUS/TUC rally on the 28th January, during which I was temporarily contained by police. Several arrests were made on the day, although the media narrative of protester violence was severely overemphasised.
• The Death Penalty Doctrine – This piece looked at the continuing emphasis on capital punishment as an appropriate form of punishment. It looked at the history of the methods and argued that the death penalty can never be fairly or accurately applied.
• Why I Will Never ‘Love That Advert’ – My latest article argues that advertising damages our society in increasingly negative ways and that we shouldn’t sit back and accept the massive influence it has over the way we perceive ourselves, the way we treat others and the way we receive information about the world.

An early success for Passing Nightmare was achieved in January when the Guardian newspaper quoted my article on the levels of benefit fraud in the UK, and with the help of Twitter the post eventually went viral.

Various other websites, students, journalists and academics have cited or commented on the articles and it’s been deeply heartening to see some the responses I have been receiving so far. Its not always been easy fitting work on the site around my full-time job and my university degree, but its something I’m passionate about and I sincerely hope I can continue to put in as much effort during the upcoming months.

I’m planning to update this blog more frequently now as it begins to take a more personal slant on me and the various goings on in my life, so feel free to add me to your feeds and subscriptions. I shall try not to disappoint.

Edwards begins the book (as he and David Cromwell did in Guardians of Power) with a description of the propaganda model devised by Chomsky and Herman, but the similarities between the two works essentially end here. Edwards then begins to widen out the propaganda model to encompass the myriad of different areas where we face a constant barrage of control and manipulation, and where views are filtered to fit the state and business interests. Whether it be in our personal lives, our religious beliefs, or our ethics. Edwards relies not on simple ‘conspiracy theory’ or other shallow explanations, but to the systemic ‘filtering’ of unwanted ideas and opinions described in the propaganda model itself.

Edwards bases many of his ideas on Buddhist teachings, something which I admit I had my concerns about beforehand, although I can safely say that my initial misconceptions around Buddhism were soon shattered, as I realised that Buddhism is a world away from the conventional theistic religions, the ultimate goal being personal enlightenment, rather than belief or worship of a spiritual God.

Edwards uses many examples throughout the book, the most interesting in my opinion being the desolated day-tripper, a man who sets off on a day trip with his family, and then becomes overwhelmed with fear when he realises that he cannot explain why he is taking the trip. Edwards then takes us through this man’s life, looking at how his mind has been moulded from birth to conform in our society, and how the sudden realisation of his dissatisfaction with life manifests itself.

Edwards reserves special (and very accurate) criticism for our profit-driven capitalist system. A system which, as he points out elsewhere in the book, is concerned not just with satisfying (essentially false) needs and desires, but of creating the very dissatisfaction it aims to cure:

The forbidden truth is that we are living by a set of lies which are necessary for short-term profit, at the expense of human physical and psychological life and global environmental integrity. We are living in a system where power ensures that the requirements of profit take priority over the requirements of living things – including to know that this is the case. Consequently our freedom extends as far as, and no further than, the satisfaction of these requirements, with all else declared neurosis, paranoia, communism, extremism, the work of the devil,or Neptunian nonsense.

In addition to criticism of capitalism as a whole, Edwards has many excellent points to make about the damaging effects of the beauty industry and their exploitation of post-war feminism in the pursuit of profit. He states that the emergence of diet articles and plastic surgery have contributed to an increase in physical and mental disorders, as well as a great distortion in the way women have come to see themselves, and is a perfect example of the mass media’s power to manipulate. (For example, he quotes from Naomi Wolf’s book ‘The Beauty Myth‘, which states that between 1966 and 1969, in direct correlation to the media’s new fixation on thinness and perfection, the number of women who perceived themselves as being overweight rose from 50% to 80%.) I was also fascinated by Edwards’ suggestion that the literature we now perceive as important to society, for example Shakespeare and Orwell, may also be a product of the filtering system, in that unpopular historical works may be suppressed entirely, or not published at all, whereas literature which supports the dominant classes or the current socio-economic system is exalted as ‘classic’.

Edwards also discusses the indifference with which most of us treat conflict, poverty and inequality around the world, and how we now tend to psychologically distance ourselves from these horrors, remaining passive to atrocities such as the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. One of my favourite quotes in the book comes towards the end, where Edwards discusses the sometimes absurd rationalizations we create when something we are told, which in essence makes perfect sense, conflicts so completely with our ingrained beliefs and learned knowledge:

Having chosen one of these rationalizations, moments later we can be settling back in our chairs in the office, or in the pub, or in front of the TV, feeling as ‘comfortably’ as part of the ‘real’ world as before. We will have avoided conflict and disruption in our individual, familial, social and career lives; we may have avoided confronting the waste of years, or decades of effort and striving for a deluded dream in a profoundly immoral and brutal system. (The cliché of the transformation of young socialist into old conservative is not a change from idealism to pragmatism but from rationality to rationalization.) The cost of surrendering our reason to rationalization is that we will tend to reject ideas that allow access to a coherent understanding of the world, including it’s problems, including our problems.

In chapter three, Edwards criticises the belief in a cosmic father-figure (CFF), inherent in the great monotheistic religions, and then concludes that Atheism is just as dangerous because it provides ‘believers’ with the same certainty and security. This certainty then removes our need to look for answers to life, as our belief makes asking these questions unnecessary. Whilst I cannot argue at all with his reasoning on this point, Edwards then goes on to suggest that Atheism forms part of an ‘Unholy Trinity’ along with ‘Progress’ and ‘Consumerism’. Edwards’ reasoning appears to be that since Atheism does away with all spirituality, and emphasises the ‘pointlessness’ of existence, that consumerism and the idea of ‘having fun’ and satisfying our lusts will naturally take over as a result.

This was one area of the book were I did have some slight reservations. Whilst I would not argue that Atheism does have potential to fuel consumerism, I would counter that this is true of most mainstream beliefs. Therefore I can’t quite understand the assumed link between the three members of this ‘Unholy Trinity’ and why this is exclusive to Atheism.

I emailed Mr Edwards to congratulate him on an excellent piece of work, but also to question this link between Atheism and Consumerism. He very kindly responded with the following comments:

Incidentally, by “atheism” I really meant the assumption that life is ‘meaningless’, a happy (or unhappy) accident, that ethical norms are intellectual inventions with no grounding in anything beyond personal opinion, and so on.

To be sure, theistic religions have often been at the heart of systems of exploitation and violence, but they’re more useful for promoting servility and deference, less useful for promoting unrestrained hedonism. After all, they have traditionally (at least nominally) emphasised restraints on behaviour. Modern atheism promotes ‘Do as you please so long as you can get away with it.’ But that of course does not mean that theists are not often hedonists, or that theistic religions cannot also promote consumption.

My point was that atheism is really perfect for our kind of unrestrained consumer society where all values are subordinated to profit (as a matter of legal obligation for corporate managers). It also satisfies our conceit that we are scientific, rational creatures who have moved beyond all superstitious religious dogma. In fact there is no greater superstition than belief in the intrinsically existent self or ‘I’ – the new god at the centre of the materialist universe.

- Email from David Edwards  (22nd April 2010)

Free to be Human must rank as one of my favourite books, I doubt that any other author has sparked so much thought about my own existence and way of living, and I certainly see some aspects of myself in the desolated day-tripper, as I’m sure most people would. I can highly recommend this book as an effective antidote to the largely hidden ‘filtering’ system operating in the world today, and I will certainly be looking into the rest of Edwards’ work.

Update 22/04/10: Article updated with comments received from Mr Edwards.

LugRadio Live UK 2008 is an event that has developed a strong reputation for providing a range of topics about free software, Open Source, digital rights, technology and more, a compelling list of speakers, exhibitors and birds of a feather sessions, and wrapping it all in a unique, fun, loose, social and inclusive event, which is often described as combining the atmosphere of a rock concert and a computer conference.

LugRadio Live brings 30 speakers, over 20 exhibitors, an eclectic range of BOF sessions, and plenty of additional sessions such as our debate discussion panel, a showcase of five minute talks, tech demos, and of course a live recording of LugRadio in front of an audience.

I’ll be in Wolverhampton this July for the 3′rd year in a row to attend this excellent event, although I still need to book my train/hotel, and be doing a full post conference write-up as usual! I think MFS are also doing some promotion this year so I’ll be sure to offer some help with that.

If anyone fancies joining me it’s being hosted at the the Lighthouse Media Centre, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton on the 19′th and 20′th July.

UPDATE 23/06/08: My hotel and train are now both booked so i’m all ready!

Work on the ClassicKidsTV site has slowed slightly, although the other staff on the site are keeping things on the Wiki running along smoothly. I have been looking into upgrading the forum to PHPBB3 to try and curb some of the spam. To give you an idea of how vulnerable PHPBB2 is right now, I have had to date around 2300 registrations and around 1500 of these being spammers accounts. I performed a test conversion to v3 last week, and I have to admit I’m not a massive fan of version 3 so far, I find it has a much more confusing layout on the public side making it more difficult to use and the administration system is simply too big, also the themes currently available aren’t very good at all, so I will probably wait until the application matures a little before I decide to do the final conversion, either that or build a theme myself.

As for this blogging site, it’s still a work in progress I suppose. I have added a few plugins on. The main ones are ‘Addictions‘, a plugin which is set to show what you are currently interested in, books and music wise anyway. Although this plugin did require me to do some manual coding to tweak some functionality as for some reason the original author would only allow images that were saved locally in the specific theme directory, which to me seemed like a silly way of doing things. I recoded it to allow for remote images (so you can now just copy and paste the URL from Amazon) and it seems to be working much better. I have also added a plugin which links up to my new twitter account, which will show you what I am currently up to, and can be updated by me via twitter itself, this website and via SMS.

I have also re-written my CV, and the results of which can be seen here.