Apologies to all my readers for the late appearance of this - I have been researching a piece on Endurance Relaxing (possibly the subject of a later Diary).

Two of this last month's most notable performances have been at the Joogleberry (certainly one of the finest venues on the south coast). The first of these was the amazing Ben Sarfas Quartet, and it was mind-blowing. Even if jazz is not your first love, this sublime music will transport you. The quartet perform at the Joogleberry every couple of months, so go and see them now before the inevitable fame takes them to bigger gigs.

The second was the Fridge Magnets Christmas eve gig, the perfect way to get into the swing of the festive season. Mike is now (I've been bumping into him at festies for a decade or so) a superb practitioner and the best scat singer I've heard. The rest of the band provide the instrumental pyrotechnics and good humour which this deceptively laid-back genre of music requires. The Fridge Magnets have a glorious history of falling elegantly apart over the course of all-night sets, but this time the Long Island Iced Teas (they certainly did for me) (or was it the licensing laws?) called an end to the proceedings far too soon. I was home before dawn!

The last gig of the year was on new year's eve, in a couple of barns just outside Wells. About four hundred souls danced their socks off to the Mordekkers. Their wild swirling pipe and mandolin melodies, played over a rock-solid driving beat, saw the year change to a perfectly bacchanalian sound track. It took two days (and the exhaustion of my leisure battery) before I was strong enough to leave. Which signalled the start of my long-distance lethargy (see above).

Deadbeat Philosophy

This profound insight occurred whilst I was driving along Dorset Gardens and burst upon me, complete, in the form of an aphorism -'The exercise of power is an expression of weakness'.

This is based on the incontrovertible fact (as recognised by Jean-Paul Sartre) that no-one can make anyone do anything. Shouting and raging and threatening is defeated by a sullen 'No, shan't' (as any teenager knows). Of course such a refusal can have disastrous consequences - up to and including torture and death as many martyrs have discovered - but, bleeding and in chains, a slave still has choice. If I threaten you with death unless you wallpaper my lounge you would probably (and rightly) doubt my sincerity and refuse. Even if I were to carry out my threat it would certainly be a surprise and might make me feel important, but it wouldn't get my decorating done.

So power is always ceded to the powerful. It follows that what is really important is the belief in that power. If a policeman tells me to move along or be arrested, he probably doesn't need to prove that he's serious. I believe in his truncheon and pepper spray and his willingness to use them. However if the pomp and majesty of the law as embodied in the policeman holds no terror, as it doesn't for drunks and sociopaths, then there's no reason to obey the constabulary... at which point the boys in blue have to show you who is boss. And by so doing, they demonstrate that the rule of law has limits.
The very real extreme example of this is the suicide bomber. What possible threat could deter someone who is embracing death? The answer, of course, is nothing on earth.

From the playground bully to the world superpower, it's the same. As long as everyone believes that the bully/the law/the country is all powerful, everyone does what they are told. As soon as proof of authority is needed, (whether by a chinese burn, a night in the cells or Extraordinary Rendition to Guantanamo Bay) then someone needed convincing - and there it is, an expression of weakness.

The more powerful someone/thing is, the less need there is for proof - more than this, as power increases the less proof there can be. Eventually, If we take this to the extreme, we get to God, the all-powerful. Any demonstration of God's power, or indeed of his/her existence at all, would be a lessening of all-powerfulness. Which is, of course, impossible - for God is (by definition) all-powerful.

Thus, if God exists, s/he is all-powerful and omni-impotent.

Which explains why s/he hasn't been seen around much recently.

Cheers,

Deadbeat