Brian May on BBC

ho ho

Finally some comments worth logging in again!
I won't comment on the details which are unfamiliar to me , anyway, I will ask myself and GF a couple of questions, however pompous may the sound.
It's not too difficult for an intelligent,bitter guy to launch an attack, an incorrect, mean attack on "our beloved Brian".
Didn't our beloved ...Hamlet, another wild misanthrope say that conscience(=thinking, knowledge) do make us all cowards? Isn't misanthropy a form of distrust that leads to solitude that is a form of cowardice, a "weapon" to defend yourself from primitivism and aggression , stupidity and vulgarity? Isn't philanthropy a payback, understanding, generosity given back to the world however despicable might it be? Don't all artists have "truck sized egos"?

Correction... they sound... .

I do like this thread. Brians hair is sort of like a mass of spider web. hehe. I was literally spider phobic until I lived in this beautiful campground and one year we were taken over by spiders, they were EVERYWHERE. The experience blew my phobia out, I had to give up and the spiders won. GF, Austin TX has a bridge that people stand under to watch the millions and millions of bats fly out at dusk. I did it once and it was enough.

I agree, artists tend to have truck sized egos, then a highly educated artist...well, they could come across as a total nutcase at times. Gotta luv em!

[QUOTE] [b]Micrówave wrote:[/b]
At least he recycles... as evidenced by some of his more recent guitar solos.[/QUOTE]

LOL! I needed a laugh!

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Brian is advocating that we treat all creatures as equally as we possibly can. It isn't rocket science.[/QUOTE]
Unless those creatures are human and in disagreement[/QUOTE]
This is treading dangerous territory, and makes you sound no different than white people holding up cardboard signs outside the White House in the mid-60s saying that black people should not be equal to whites. This position insists that the racists were entitled to their views as much as black people who wanted to buy a quart of milk without being spat on.

If people who stand in the way of progress are considered as equal to those who want to help this world evolve to greener pastures, we are stagnant and growth is not possible. If everyone thought this way on every issue, we'd all still be cavemen.

This mentality essentially vilifies those who are intolerant of intolerance. It means Mandela was no better than those who propelled Apartheid, that proponents for gay marriage are no better than homophobes, and that people who advocated women's right to vote are no better than misogynists.

Old ways of thought must give way to new ways. It's how the world has worked for millennia. Women are no longer property, black people are no longer slaves, gay people are no longer aberrations from the norm, and animals will one day not be seen as delicious and fun to kill.

I love bats! They eat tons (literally) of bugs that would otherwise harm crops but are more misunderstood than badgers! I actually belong to a few bat conservation organizations, but I promise not to go all Brian on you guys haha.

[QUOTE] [b]Missreclusive wrote:[/b]
GF, Austin TX has a bridge that people stand under to watch the millions and millions of bats fly out at dusk. I did it once and it was enough.
[/QUOTE]

Congress Bridge. I've done that too and it was awesome! :-P

[QUOTE] [b]AdamMethos wrote:[/b]
I actually belong to a few bat conservation organizations, but I promise not to go all Brian on you guys haha.
[/QUOTE]
Without passionate people, good ideas go unnoticed.

Feel free to evangelize. These things need to be heard.

Great crusade, justice for all, even Badgers.
Cannot argue with his motivation or his scientific lucidity on the subject matter. The other side are living in a fantasy world where science can be just be used as a propaganda tool for big business,(land grabs) even though their claims are false, just like the global warming science fraud scandal.

well, i totally hate the idea of mankind (as in sort, not nice) killing anything in the name of science, preservation etc etc....that was until i heard HIS whiny comments...now i just think, kille em all, badgers, foxes, newts, stoats, pandas, the whole damned lot....

which i hate feeling, but it's because some self-righteous ex rockstar decided to tell me what was right/wrong..he makes me sick

for fuck's sake, he's a scientist, supposed to be clever, but back in 81 when freddie was shagging anything that stayed motionless long enough was BM saying "eh fred, slip one on mate, it might save your life" - no

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
well, i totally hate the idea of mankind (as in sort, not nice) killing anything in the name of science, preservation etc etc....that was until i heard HIS whiny comments...now i just think, kille em all, badgers, foxes, newts, stoats, pandas, the whole damned lot....
which i hate feeling, but it's because some self-righteous ex rockstar decided to tell me what was right/wrong..he makes me sick
for fuck's sake, he's a scientist, supposed to be clever, but back in 81 when freddie was shagging anything that stayed motionless long enough was BM saying "eh fred, slip one on mate, it might save your life" - no[/QUOTE]

so you abandon your ideals because Brian May upholds his ideals?
As i thought, you are truly a complete fool.

you're a fucking moron if you can't spot the point i was making.
but to explain for you (and non one else)
brian's pontificating on this and other things, has a negative effect on me, he's preachy to the point of irritating, i turned against my religion for the same reasons
so the fact he is "how he is" about these things makes me feel more drawn towards that which i don't actually believe in...now do you get it?
thought not.

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Brian is advocating that we treat all creatures as equally as we possibly can. It isn't rocket science.[/QUOTE]
Unless those creatures are human and in disagreement. And then we're to be as abusive as is necessary.
Nobody does our beloved Brian (and I mean that completely) any favours by advocating his particular style of advocacy. He's a scientist and as such has a scientific reputation at risk because he conducts himself like a slavering partisan cherry picking already spun data while presenting it as the objective scientific truth. Listening to his reasoning on this topic has many times left me scratching my head completely that this is a man who had sufficient command of scientific principles to ever earn a doctorate in astrophysics. He's human being and as such has a personal reputation at risk, also because he conducts himself like a slavering partisan who is utterly contemptuous of anybody who doesn't agree with him and the rest of the "right thinking" gang. He's been subtly and not so subtly denigrated in the media over and over again because of this objectionable behaviour. He couldn't even keep his Save Me Facebook page together a couple of years ago because it was a complete cesspit of abuse as modeled right from the top. His campaign has been rewarding at times but it also causes him continual stress, loneliness and disillusion if we're to believe his own words, which I do. That is at least in part because he conducts himself like the worst of the animal rights people, which is to say like a BULLY and a NUTCASE half the time, and too few people look and listen hard enough to notice. Fewer than that say it out loud.
Badgers and people are not "equal". That concept is absurd. If you could ask a badger the same thing, he'd tell you that too. He's mostly concerned with the welfare of other badgers, as he should be. We as people have moral systems and consciences and cognitive abilities that give us responsibilities not to abuse our power but many animal rights activists would have us held to a standard where we, animals ourselves, don't get to participate in the same natural world all the other creatures do. Animals eat other animals, move other animals out of their way with extreme prejudice, and kill things, including humans, just in case. Animals have enormous legal protections from powerful and plundering humans, as they should, but quite a few humans need protection from deranged animal rights activists who are wild misathropists driven by truck sized egos projected all over chickens or whatever. Look, I don't even kill spiders. I ignore them or escort them out of my house. I am guilt ridden and anguished, no word of a lie, when I have to kill mice in my house and that is after trying just about every other method to reliably catch them alive or control them without having to be responsible for ending their lives. Squirrels torment me in the summer and I let them. Sometimes I even buy them peanuts! I could easily fall in love with some badger. But I recognize all this as a human vulnerability, an indulgence, even an emotional error in some ways, that allows me to avoid decisions and feelings I would find difficult. Caring deeply about other creatures is both a strength and a weakness, and as such I know that I have to get me and my emotional response the hell out of the way of people who have by knowledge, necessity or temperament a different perspective. I would be EMBARRASSED to be abusing hunters, farmers, conservationists, cows, naturalists, whatever the way Brian May does because of my own personal and eminently fallible feelings. But then, I don't have a truck sized ego that I project all over chickens and badgers.[/QUOTE]


Great post, I agree with every word. I have a lot of admiration for Brian's readiness to campaign for his beliefs but I think he has lost his way in the bovine TB case.

I hardly write anything serious on internet forums any more . Life is too absurd, and humour seems the only rational response to our bizarre existance. So here's a special lmtd-edition collector's item, a cut-out-and-keep serious comment from me. As much as I poke fun at Brian (and vegetarians, and animal rights activists), deep down I believe he and they are right. Evidence suggests many "lower" animals have rudimentary emotions similar to ours. We have organised our societies to exploit their weakness and vulnerability. We do this not because we need to but because we can. That's a classic definition of tyranny. At one point, African-Americans were denied the same rights as white Americans: that changed when people reconsidered age-old assumptions. The latest step in the fight for equality is gay marriage: things are changing now that there's an open debate about what freedom, tolerance and responsibilty actually means. Again, age-old assumptions are undermined. The next step in humanity's progression is to change age-old assumptions about how we treat animals. With regard to that, I suspect 100 years from now our descendants will look on us the way we now look on white racists of the pre-civil rights era.

I don't condone Brian's behaviour: I find most of it counter-productive. But, deep down, I think he's mostly right in his animal rights views. And on this specific issue of badger culling he's 100% correct. There is no compelling evidence that killing these animals will improve the situation. There's some evidence it may make it worse. In my view, the weight of scientific evidence suggests vaccination will be more productive. The Tories are simply pandering to their natural allies in rural areas rather than doing what's morally or scientifically correct.

My tuppence worth.

I shall now return to my day job of poking fun at everyone and eveything :)

Reading here tonight I found some of the recent thoughts on this subject almost depressing, which is a strange reaction, and I'm still puzzling out just why. I think maybe it's partly because I perceive a certain insidiousness in the apparent ease with which dissenting views can be marginalized in cultural debates like the proposed UK badger cull. Insidious because of the possibility that what looks like holding a line against the tyranny of a self interested push for a kind of status quo may in fact be the the classic tyranny of the majority against the unpopular, uncomfortable realities of the minority. Insidious especially because to the extent that it may be so it could have snuck in on the back of the common 21st century affliction of attention spread thin and our strong desire to be thoughtful and decent human beings.

It's late, I'm tired, possibly babbling and certainly a little cryptic. I'll try and be clearer tomorrow or as soon as I can get back to these ideas. Wanted to get this down while I was thinking it, because it feels like one of those times where just trying to find the next words will mean some evolution of thought.