Matthew 7:1-5

I saw Pasolini's The Gospel According to St Matthew recently, thanks to MUBI. Pasolini's Christ is not some wimpy angel of peace and love, but a hard-core revolutionary expecting to give up his life for the cause. Pasolini lets the original words do the talking, and maybe that's why the Vatican liked it: more or less all the key points from the Gospel in a movie.

At one point, Christ is handing out some random advice, including this...

1. Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Damn it's been a long time since I heard that sentiment. My generation grew up on this stuff. It sank into us, especially since it resembles the Commandment: Thou shalt keep thy nose out of business that is not thine, and having opinions, keep them to thyself lest other people think thou art a twat, and a busybody, and likely a grass, despised by all.

Look, of course we judge people. If we didn't, the same manipulative headcase could take us time and again. We need to learn who to avoid and why. But we also learn to say, with an utterly straight face: "just because you never pay your share of the bill and are always cadging rides but never paying for petrol, does not mean you are Bad Person". It just means we're having nothing more to do with you.

The point is that we don't judge publicly. Maybe privately, but that's always a risk.

Christ is telling us not to judge for fear of the consequences, and because we need a bit or work ourselves (the beam in our eye).

But there are other reasons not to judge publicly.

First, it keeps the air clearer.

Second, it lets the Bad People give themselves away, since they may not have the self-awareness to know that snarky tweets (for instance) are pretty much a turn-off.

Third, Bad People (as opposed to incompetent ones(*)) are not going to change because we say rude things about them.

If no-one tells the SJW that weird hair colours are a give-away, it's easier to spot SJW's.

The Twitters have never heard this stuff.

Two generations of people who never grew up hearing the basic wisdoms of the New Testament.

It's as good a way of understanding what we're seeing as anything else.

(*) We can correct people helpfully without making them feel bad, unless they really are horribly insecure, when nothing we say will be right, and silence is wiser.

Why The Cases Really Don't Matter

According to the ONS survey, one in thirteen people currently have the virus. A year ago that would have had us all locked into our houses. But everybody is chill, nobody is wearing masks and the trains are packed. Why so cavalier about the once all-important "case numbers"? (Aside from the fact that the money to support all that lockdown nonsense has run out.)

The answer is in this graph.

It's the graph of the ratio of deaths-with and deaths-from the Virus to the infections (lagged by four weeks o fit the 28-day rule). (Accepting the convention that with-Covid is as bad as from-Covid: with-deaths are about the same as from-deaths, but note that it is a 'medical' judgement whether a death is with- or from- or even if the Virus was involved at all.)

One week at the start, the Alpha strain killed about 1 in 45 of the people who got it. The rest had a really bad couple of weeks. Fatality fell off sharply towards summer 2020, as it does for respiratory diseases. The Delta variant hit in autumn 2020 and through winter 20/21, killing up to 1 in 125 of the people who got it at one point. Again, fatality fell off towards summer 2021. As we went into autumn / winter 2021, fatality did not increase significantly That was the vaccines.

Here's the next graph, of the prevalence of the Virus (again, I'm accepting the convention that positive tests are an accurate proxy for actual infections, which is not as obvious as you might think, as medical tests do not work the way you think they do).

Almost nobody had the Alpha variant in 2020, and more than 98% of those survived. Delta was known to be more infectious, and the autumn 2020 restrictions were looser than the four month lockdown that followed. The graph follows the usual respiratory curve in 2021, falling to a restriction-induced low in Spring, before increasing after so-called "Freedom Day". There it remains until Omicron appears and sends the numbers through the roof, especially in the Christmas and New Year weeks. January is now a socially quiet month, which brought the prevalence down, and then removing restrictions and the legal requirement to self-isolate allowed people to behave "normally", sending the prevalence up again. By then, between the vaccines and the relatively benign nature of Omicron, so-called "cases" ceased to matter.

10 Things I Can't Live Without

Here was a quick-and-easy post idea I couldn't resist. Search the title on You Tube and you will get a number of videos. Some are vaguely troubling. It turns out a lot of people can't live without pocket knives. Really?

Infrastructure stuff like Amazon, trains, electricity, gas, running water, not being mugged on the way to the station, my house, gas cookers, the Internet, dentists, doctors, friends and family, my glasses, and in my case, the entire Apple ecosystem... is all taken as read.

So here's the list...

Sony WF 1000XM-3 earphones. These are as good as everyone says

Music. From wake-up music to falling asleep music and every moment in between

De Longhi Dedica Espresso machine and Lavazza Red coffee. 'Nuff said

Exercise. Currently a Bosu ball and home weights

The Car. When you need a car, you need a car. Not a cab or a bus

Foyles and Fopp. There is no substitute for browsing for books, DVDs and CDs

To-Do List. Currently in a Moleskine notebook. I find To-Do lists have to be handwritten

A good Thai massage service, and osteopath. Because I have lousy posture and eventually that turns into aches.

Scarves and gloves in winter. Man do my hands get cold fast now.

The Freedom Pass. Age has its privileges and not having to worry about if you can afford to use public transport is one of them.

Oh how mundane! But then, I'm a Brit, so a Glock and a military-grade locking knife are illegal. I left out the wallet because this isn't an EDC list. Where's the Air Miles membership, because I'm always travelling? I'd love the exercise to be a fancy West End gym, but I can't afford those kind of prices. The local David Lloyd centre is pretty damn pricey as well.

Walking Through Hampstead Woods and Heath (Part 2)

 

Walking Through Hampstead Woods and Heath (Part 1)

Daffodils in Highgate Woods

Nothing says Spring like blue skies, warm weather and daffodils

Taking (Personal) Stock After The Lockdowns - Part Two

What did I do before the Great Void that is still worth doing?

I was whinging about the cost and content of movies, and the cost and quality of eating out, before 2020. My ability to leave almost all of it on the gym floor and still make the commute home was waning. Millennials have been ruining the workplace, and everywhere else, with their virtue-signalling and bullying since about 2010. Corporate hypocrisy has always been strong, but for an employer to claim it cares about my `well-being' while moving all the desks closer together and turning the aircon down...? And TV programmes, even the police shows, featuring strong independent women being irritated by dumb, insensitive men? Puh. Lease.

Movies. okay, a new one now and again when I like the idea. Most of my movie watching will be at home. Let's try finding some of those 70's movies I liked and seeing them again. MUBI has a reasonable good selection of art movies. What I miss: going out to the cinema.

Restaurants. Apparently lots of chefs have lost their sense of taste because of the Virus. Sit-down meals are pretty much out at these prices.

Sadlers Wells. Just booked some shows in the 2022 Flamenco season this June.

Gym. Replaced by light exercises at home. As befits my years.

Museums and Galleries. Now that they are abandoning advance booking, and have dropped masks, this is back on. Let's have a project to go round all the ones I never had time to get to.

Foreign trips. Entirely dependent on other countries and airlines getting the message.

Hanging out in cafes. Sure. Not writing though. Don't like shlepping a shoulder bag everywhere now.

What do I do instead?

Snacks in bijou cafes.

Walks and trips to places in London I haven't been to for years.

More housekeeping and gardening. (Care for your house, care for yourself.)

For the moment that will do.