Journal of Matters Relating to Felines - Valentine's 2021

Orrchid Huunting The ancient Greek word ‘ailouros’ roughly translates into ‘nimble tail’. It was a name given to ‘various long-tailed carnivores kept for catching mice.’ Our mind immediately matches the cat to this description. However, it seems that at one point there had been more than one supreme rodent killer. Weasels once held this throne in ancient Europe. What exactly it was that deposed them remains unknown. One can imagine that it was something about the mysterious persuasive powers of cats that changed our minds. It seems many of the great thinkers at the time had some comment or other to give the adorable felines. Out of these, the philosopher himself, Aristotle remains the most well-known. He described female cats as naturally promiscuous, as he had observed their aggressive behaviour during mating. Both Aristotle and his teacher Plato pondered much on the nature of love. Rather than an all-encompassing broad definition we find in the English language, the Greeks had several different names for the same phenomenon.

‘Xenia’ is the word used to describe the hospitality of a host towards a guest, especially if that person is far from home or an associate of the one offering accommodation. ‘Philautia’ describes the desire to seek one’s own pleasure or happiness. It is divided into an unhealthy, bad version of self-love and a good, beneficial one. ‘Philia’, as it was described by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, is the loyalty felt between friends, equals, family and community. It is a form of love that is free from any passions and is truly virtuous. It is the root of the word ‘philosophy’, the love for wisdom. ‘Agápe’ is the unchallengeable love one feels towards one’s children and to a spouse. ‘Èros’, sexual love, may seem a simple enough concept to understand. As it turns out, however, it stretches far deeper than one can imagine. It is the subject of discussion in Plato’s Symposium.

Arguably, it is his most beautiful dialogue and is definitely a recommendation for a Valentine's Day read.

The word ‘Symposium’ can be translated to a drinking party or banquet and it is in this environment the dialogue is set. As a way to pass the time, the many well-known socialites - there among them Plato's famous mouthpiece Socrates - take turns to give praise to Eros, the god of love and desire. In each of their speeches, the characters explain their understanding of the natural origin of the concept. All give interesting and at times humorous testimonies, the text is casual yet compelling in a way that only Plato seems to be able to do. Each argument is laid out carefully and beautifully which makes it easy to relate to the feelings of its more than 2000-year-old characters. The last one to speak is, of course, Socrates. As is often the case with Plato, this character begins questioning Agathon, the person who had held a speech before him. This leads to his famous dialectic method. This is followed by a long-winded and logically consistent argument for love and its connection to the Theory of Forms.

Socrates claims to have learned the ‘art of love’ from a woman named Diotima. He explains that Eros is not a god at all but a daemon, a spirit that is half God and half man. Eros is not a being of wisdom and beauty, instead, it is something that enables man to seek what is beautiful. It begins as a primal feeling, one that we share with animals, such as the promiscuous household cat. We instinctively seek after the most beautiful mate to reproduce and give new life. This, Diotima says, is the closest humans can get to immortality. By carrying over our heritage to our children, a part of us remains in this world, forever to be carried on throughout the generations. All mortal creatures share the nature of seeking immortality. This explains the erratic behaviour of many animals when they mate. As a lover's wisdom increases, he begins to seek beauty in minds or souls. The lover will begin to see the beauty within all attractive bodies and will therefore begin to seek for it in the virtue and wisdom of others instead.

Actions and ideas will begin to inspire the lover to create a form of spiritual birth of new intellectual endeavours. Finally, love will prompt a person to study and experience beauty itself. Beauty, in this regard, is neither attractive nor repulsive, it is not a physical trait, a piece of knowledge or a creature. It is entirely its own thing, Beauty in itself. All beautiful objects, whether they be physical or mental, only partake in it. The existence of the objects themselves does not affect Beauty. A human being is enticed already by its physical representation and so the sight of the true Form of Beauty must be something pleasurable and worthy of seeking out. Diotima then explains to Socrates that one ought to use Love as a ladder to reach this knowledge. One begins by loving one beautiful body, that love is then extended to include several bodies and then physical beauty itself.

It then moves on to the love of actions and ideas which in turn leads to the love of intellectual endeavours. This will then, in turn, to lead to an ascension to a ‘final intellectual endeavour’ which is the study of Beauty itself.

What is love in modern times? Except for the odd story one hears from a friend or family member it seems to me, like with most things today, to have become a highly machinist and mathematical phenomenon. Scientists and doctors have reduced it to chemicals in the brain. Pheromones and oxytocin and dopamine. A physical anomaly, part of our primitive bodies, to be studied and prodded into. Something to be measured and altered and controlled. Although it does well in explaining what is happening and how a mere observation of chemicals tells us very little about the actual nature of love and why we experience it the way we do.

Among common folk, ‘love’ seems to become increasingly deranged. The first problem lies in our loss of sense for beauty. Its physical representation has descended into a sickly perversion. The image of a healthy, beautiful body has strayed far from actual perfection. They have become amusement parks. A physical anomaly that, once again, can be altered with chemicals or plastics. A shot of botox to the lips, silicone in the breasts, some trenbolone before a gym session. These are indeed people that strive towards immortality, but their method relies not on their genuine capabilities or a love for beauty, but instead on a foolish fear of rejection. It is a dishonest way of finding beauty. Truly a love for bodies that fail to seek after anything higher.

The people on the other side of the ideological spectrum seek to completely disregard beauty itself as an idea. To them, there is no such thing as a more or less beautiful body. Instead, one can be dangerously obese, misshapen or carry other unattractive traits and still be considered ‘beautiful’.

One might similarly interpret Plato’s message when he speaks of finding beauty in all physical bodies. However, he would vehemently disagree

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with the idea that there is no such thing as physical beauty. Instead, I believe, he means to say that all human bodies share in the Form of Beauty, more or less. Furthermore, this complete denial of physical beauty is a danger for the general health of the population. It is also abundantly clear that it diverges from human nature, considering we as an animal instinctively seek the most attractive candidate for carrying our offspring, thus inevitably creating a hierarchy. An ‘attractive’ body by today's standards seems to either be a plastic, chemical monstrosity or to not exist at all.

Beauty rejected looks like modern brutalist architecture. Huge concrete structures, human hives, that stretch far up into the sky. It looks like pieces of art that portray absolutely nothing. It is a garbled mess without order, rhyme or reason. It looks like the cutting down and pollution of natural land.

The second problem is the increasingly mechanised way we search for love. The advent of the Internet enabled us to share great amounts of information with each other. It also facilitated the rate at which certain companies can put out products. One such industry is that of pornography.

The Internet opened up a market many thousand times bigger than magazines from corner stores could ever compete with. Something that was considered rather taboo became the norm for every adolescent, especially males. This has led to an overconsumption of this particular media with many thousands becoming addicted. The ease at which this material can be accessed has led to a seemingly ever-increasing fetishizing. This, to the detriment of both its viewers, the workers of the industry and the population at large. Many would like to argue that one's personal preference as it relates to porn should not to bother anyone else. However, if one considers an average young male that watches porn several times per day for several years, it is hard to argue that it would NOT affect such a person's mind. This is often visible through a decreased libido or a warped view on sex as a whole. This may lead to confusion and, at times, outright violence. We see here how an individual's behaviour and preferences will directly and inevitably affect people in their surroundings. Pornography is a terrible way to teach young children about sex, it is something that ought to be done in a controlled environment by a school or parents.

The increased facilitation of pornography leads people to seek out increasingly extreme methods of obtaining dopamine. I believe that the next stage in this evolution is a movement into the real world. We are now making each other into porn. Love here is trivialized to a point at which people are willing to leave it up to an algorithm to find good matches, apps like Tinder, Grindr and Bumble. Require only a swipe towards a certain way and a half-decent conversation to produce a meeting between two people. In most cases, this meeting ends only in a quick release of dopamine from both parts after which they may or may not meet again. No reason to look deeper in anyone, no reason to love someone for their intellectual capacities. There is, as I have previously stated, exceptions and there are many stories of people who find love through various dating apps. However, if the goal is to study true Beauty, perhaps a more natural approach is to be preferred. Perhaps it is better to seek it out for oneself, without relying on the help of a computer. Perhaps by letting love happen to you, waiting patiently for it to strike you and feel joy, as it embraces you in its warmth, is the best you can do.

One might wonder after this how one is supposed to find true love and beauty in this grey mechanistic world of ours. If not through Tinder then how? The crisis of love today is shown in skyrocketing numbers of divorces in the West. It seems no one is able to find true love anymore. I suggest we listen to the wise words of Diotima. She suggested that we start with beautiful bodies. Perhaps by observing and appreciating great works of art, be they paintings, music or the like, we can once again get a grip of what beauty is. Once one has learned to do this, one can begin to appreciate beautiful human bodies. From here, one need only climb the ladder to find a love for human ideas and souls.

Maybe we can then finally begin to once again study and observe true Beauty. Despite the hardships one might face in one's love life, it always seems to be an equally pleasing feeling to find love. Despite the persistent and painful anger and sadness that rejection and betrayal causes, it can never dampen my belief in love as something utterly good. It always strikes me as an incredibly beautiful feeling whenever I encounter it. Whether that be for myself or for a friend. It is a feeling of wholeness and order that destroys barriers. A feeling of intimacy and safety with another person that you thought could never be given away. The sharing of a soul and a body. We are all lucky that we get to experience it.

Composed by, Luke Litvinov, Undergraduate of Philosophy at West Virginia University

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Thhe Laanguage of Loove Humans are so preoccupied – if not obsessed by love, that they apply the concept in every aspect of their lives. Every aspect. Have you ever looked at your pet and wondered how do they see you, what do they think of you? Do they love you? In the top chart of pets, dogs and cats are the two favourites. So it seems inevitable that people started to make them compete in every way possible. Every way. Who does love their owner the most or even at all? Dogs are often declared winners of such competition since they are considered particularly loyal, exalted and dependant. Everything cats are not. But I believe cats just constitute the proof that love does not have a single definition, a single manifestation and language. One love language we know our pets do not master though is poetry.

In the article The Evolution of the Love Poem, Chastity Moreno asserts that the very first ever written poem known by Historians was a love poem ‘‘named The Love Song of Shu-Sin, it was discovered during excavations in the Mesopotamian region, in a search for evidence to corroborate the stories of the Old Testament’’. Moreno says, ‘‘The poem is believed to have been used as part of a sacred ritual in which the king symbolically married a goddess named Inanna, a Sumerian goddess of love. The idea was this would ensure fertility and prosperity for the year. It was likely recited by Shu Shin’s chosen bride. While it was not love as we know it today, it was the ultimate representation of love between a monarch, his bride, and their god.’’ ‘‘Bridegroom, dear to my heart, Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet, Lion, dear to my heart, Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.

You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you.

Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber, You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you.

Lion, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.’’

The Love Song for Shu-Sin Poetry is one of the oldest languages of love. It is a language for these complex feelings which can be hard to express another way, including love.

In my flat lives a fascinating, divine specimen – a poet. How many of us are able to say that they know a poet?

During Antiquity, poets were believed to be the Gods’ mediums. Through their art, the divine was speaking. In a way, this antique vision is still relevant nowadays. If the poets’ words were considered coming from above, it might have been because these words sounded absolutely true to most humans. In fact, truth does not necessarily have to come from the skies but can come from within individuals. Deep within are the most complicated feelings, the ones that make us human, the ones we all secretly feel. Within an individual is the universal.

How does one become a poet? I kindly asked my flatmate, Danielle Sojinrin, whose poetry Instagram account I discovered after she gave me the name of her personal account, to answer a few questions. Her poems are usually quite short but striking like lightning. Here she is, answering questions I had always wanted to ask a poet: “Who are you? Could you then describe yourself in one poetic line? ‘‘My name is Danielle Sojinrin. n.w.p_oetry on Instagram and…

‘I have more words in my mind than I can say, so I settle for breathing them onto a page.’ ’’ How did you first discover poetry? And did you immediately like it? ‘‘It was in primary school actually. I had to write a poem for a class anthology we were making and I enjoyed writing it so much that I just continued from there to be honest.’’

Who are your favourite poets and why? ‘‘I have a horrible confession; I don’t even read poetry. Although Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’ will always be a favourite of mine to listen to. I just find it really inspirational and as a black woman it feels relatable.’’

How does someone go from reading poetry to writing some? Do you read poetry at all? ‘‘So, looking back on how I got into poetry, it was never through reading it, it was just me expressing myself. Sometimes I have a lot of feelings that I can’t speak about and the only way to release them is to write them out.’’

When did you start writing poetry? What was the name of your first poem? ‘‘Oh, I think the first poem I wrote was when I was 11, I can’t remember the name of it. I think it was something about stars?’’

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What can be poetic about the stars? ‘‘Coming from the city, stars are a pretty big deal. I’ve always found them beautiful. I definitely think there’s a sense of magic and mystery behind them but also peace. I always get this wave of peace when I just look up at a black sky and see stars.’’

How do you do it? Did your method change through time? ‘‘A lot of the time I just write around themes but my best poems are normally things I write based on my emotions and personal experiences. I like to believe my writing became more sophisticated and layered but I don’t know, I’m very self-critical.’’

What does inspire you? In terms of themes? And in terms of form? ‘‘I’m inspired most by things that matter to me. I think my best work was when I wrote a few pieces centred around BLM because it was something important to me. Form, I don’t have any. I literally write how I want to and it changes with each piece. I am the definition of chaotic energy.’’

Does one need to experience to be able to write? Do I need to have known love to be able to write a love poem? Or perhaps projection is sufficient and empathy is the poet’s quality? ‘‘I believe you don’t have to have experienced what you write about. Part of the creativity is being able to draw from emotions and experiences other than your own. That said, I do think that there is a unique authenticity that comes from poems written out of personal experiences.’’

What is poetry to you? Do you think the traditional features of poetry such as stanzas, rhymes, feet etc. can’t be dissociated from poetry? ‘‘Poetry will always be a way to express myself. Personally, I believe that traditional features of poetry like rhymes and stanzas shouldn’t be the building blocks when you’re writing, instead I think they work better as malleable tools that you as a poet can shape to help convey message and emotion in whatever you’re writing. Whenever I get caught in focusing on establishing a certain rhyming scheme or syllable count, I literally feel the creativity slipping from me. However, I have a great respect for those who can write traditionally, it’s not an easy thing to do. Whether it be sonnets, haikus or iambic pentameters, I struggle to get my writing to fit those moulds.’’

Could you insert here a poem that you’d like to see published? ‘‘Repetitive love, like a sedative drug, but I want something that can wake my bones, alert my soul that I’m not alone, I want that caffeine kick after every kiss to leave me breathless I want a love that leaves me restless.’’

Tell us about that poem… ‘‘I have heard people complain in their long-term relationships that things don’t feel as exciting as they did at the beginning. I feel like it’s a very real danger that the monotonous, repetitive nature of life can actually seep into relationships and it’s something people should be aware of.

Do everything to keep that spark alive, love like the first time you realised they were the one for you.

If writing poetry is not necessarily about knowing its codes, masters and practices, but rather about solely, purely, expressing ourselves, I understand everyone can do it – anyone willing to bravely look at their own insides. Perhaps the wind to revive the spark of love and keep it alive resides in a few beautiful words that you can write down to your lover.’’

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Composed by, Déborah Lazreug, Undergraduate of English Literature and History of Art at the University of Aberdeen

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Thhe Feelid Teemptress Cardi B’s contribution to 2020 was certainly its unofficial anthem WAP or Wet Ass Pussy. Ben Shapiro was compelled to ask his medically trained wife’s advice on the matter - who concluded that having a WAP was a medical malady. The song represents the depths to which our entertainment industry has sank. Unlike the often-subtle innuendo found in the work of ACDC or The Doors, Cardi B’s song is very upfront, as well as the music video. If you are still wondering, she not singing about her feline friend. Nor is her friend Nicki Minaj referencing her pet snake in the song Anaconda. I do not listen to the ‘Top 40’ or the radio beyond, on occasion, Planet Rock, so I am left wondering how this song was ever played without 80% of it being censored. The real issue is that consumed media like WAP by the popular singer Cardi B creates dangerous role models for young people and the next generations. It fuels a sex obsessed society where romance and love are extinguished in pursuit of short-term sexual pleasure.

Nevertheless, not all sexualised media can be perceived as negative. As shocked as I am at the success of the song WAP, I am not in any way outraged at bond girls or models being used in the fashion industry. Some may call this hypocrisy, while I call it a matter of taste. Despite the fact that Cardi B’s wet cat may be vomit inducing for some, Catwoman -Batman’s jewel thief nemesis- can certainly not be considered that way. Even if, here as well, certain depictions are more tasteful than others since comics and videogames marketed to teenage boys often take great artistic liberty when it comes to the proportions of Catwoman or other female protagonists. While Anne Hathaway’s depiction of Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation was much more tasteful and focused far less on the characters looks but rather her abilities.

The main problem with sexualised media is not that it exists, since it always has been that way no matter the evolution that society undertakes, but instead that the explicit nature of content has been ramped up and so too has the availability and intensity of such images. This is where negative effects lie and will be seen in modern day society.

Roger Scruton in his 1986 philosophical investigation Sexual Desire notes the importance of delayed sexual gratification in developing connections, love and romance. His argument against promiscuity as devaluing relationships between human beings is certainly relevant to the issue of the omnipresence and omnipotence of sexualised images in every form of media. The ever-present nature of sexualised media has turned the sexual plain into a buffet rather than the sophisticated restaurant it once was. People are now constantly presented with sexual images, whether it be in movies, advertising, pornography or a music video, at every moment. ‘‘From women's eyes this doctrine i derive; they sparkle still the right promethean fire; they are the books, the arts, the academes, that show, contain and nourish all the world.’’, William Shakespeare.

Furthermore, dating apps intensify this assault by granting people the power to artificially be presented with potential mates like a medieval king.

The internet allows instant access to sexualised media around the clock. There is little escape and few want their freedom anyway. They are unaware that the overloading of such images is contorting our perspectives and poisoning our entire approach to relationships romance and sex.

Likewise, a sex obsessed society will inevitably see such obsessions reflected in its values. Shows like Love Island are an obvious example of naked attraction, where people select a date based on looks and lack of clothing. It praises the lack of dignity and the virtues of extreme sexual openness and gratuitousness. It is no wonder some young women are seeing OnlyFans (a subscription service for nudes) as a viable career path and that relationships have become ‘uncool’ amongst the younger generations. This year Love Island has been cancelled because of the pandemic and the COVID-19 virus. I guess every cloud has a silver lining… Nevertheless, I am still left asking why people can justify watching profoundly boring people talk about themselves and engage in awkward, flirty conversations for several hours each week? I once watched an episode, in the pub of all places! Pubs should refrain from using their television for anything other than sports. However, Love Island was on and I was determined to give it a chance.

There was no substance whatsoever in this program. It was dull, if anything, but there was no shortage of sexualised content. The problem with this reality show is that unlike series like Games of Thrones, which also includes sexual scenes and themes, there was absolutely nothing else there except cringe inducing flirting. Even other reality TV shows such as Lizard Lick Towing, a series about a redneck repo company, attempts to depict a family business and has moments of humour and extreme entertainment -usually when the owner of the repossessed car decides to exercise their Second Amendment rights. It is a show about hard working Americans whereas Love Island is a show about Instagram influencers with good hair.

Attitudes have shifted as the show became more popular. Many are now looking up to these people as role models and are entranced by a show solely interested in appearance and ultimately sex. What beyond walking around in a bikini and failing to know where Spain is, have these people done? Why have they become the role models of young women everywhere? I say young women because men seldom watch this show and certainly refrain from respecting any of the men who if not on Love Island would be in a nightclub on ketamine or an STD clinic. ‘‘To be a woman, you must first learn how to establish yourself as a person. The way to do this is simply by working hard to establish one's purity and chastity. By purity, one keeps one's self undefiled; by chastity, one preserves one's honour.’’, Confucius.

This type of television program encourages superficial lifestyles along with superficial relationships. Much like WAP by Cardi B, the show is a celebration of base attraction and exhibits deliberately provocative sexual displays on national television, some contestants even consummating their television relationships on camera. It undermines the values of dignity and self-respect when people willing to do such things become role models and join the ranks of the many celebrities who have made careers on the backs of self-promoted sextapes. Nowadays, we see those who make sexual spectacles of themselves idolised by the media. As this happens people will emulate such behaviour whether consciously or not.

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Moreover, the Feminist movement has seen a marked shift in rhetoric, as a vocal wing of the movement now proudly supports prostitution and sex work. They disagree with their more traditional colleagues when they assert that this is demeaning and incredibly dangerous. Furthermore, the emergence of ‘slut walks’ in which women proudly wear the badge of ‘slut’ are strange one. While this is in many ways a tactical reclamation of the word by feminists to counteract ‘slut-shaming’, it has also gone hand in hand with a concerted effort to promote casual sex as something to be celebrated rather than wholly avoided or at least done without fanfare.

Our sexualised world must have something to do with this drastic change in perspectives and the role models it often creates are a notable symptom of the problem. This is not to lump models and actresses into the same category nor anyone who happens to rely on their looks for their job.

Evolution drives us to be attracted to certain things making it, in its purest form, natural rather than the construct of the patriarchy or capitalism. Sex sells but evolution not capitalism set these events in motion. We cannot and should not purge sex from every corner of life but we should be aware that the opposite appears to be happening: sex is becoming predominant.

In an article of response on Point of Information, Women Aren’t Meant to Be Beautiful, I agreed that the sexualisation of women in the media was to blame for the plethora of body image related mental health issues face by women but suggested that men also face such pressures. I also noted that while such damage was being done it was not correct to blame the underlying concept of sexual attraction that underlies the entire situation. It is the unnatural circumstances we find ourselves in with instant access to explicit images and an endless assault of sexualised capitalism and entertainment. This article merely raises the point that recent developments such as social media, dating apps, mass produced pornography and the decaying state of our entertainment industry has played on our natural instincts and altered our attitudes and behaviour. ‘‘Love is not a god at all, but is rather a spirit that mediates between people and the objects of their desire. Love is neither wise nor beautiful, but is rather the desire for wisdom and beauty.”, Plato.

I am not advocating for such media to be banned as my support for free speech comes far before any qualms I have with ‘Top 40’ lyrics or trash television. Indeed, many examples of sexualised media can often be tasteful or in service of a plot in entertainment.

Furthermore, who would decide what is appropriate or not? Those who support such bans are however correct in much of their assessment about the effects such content has on our modern society. This article can offer very little suggestions on what to do about this. People will consume what they like and people will create what they like, often responding to one another. Now, all we can attempt to do is resist the temptation offered by media to embrace a life of aimless hedonism.

Composed by, Oliver James Pike, Undergraduate of Law at the University of Aberdeen

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Wiild Heearts to Seet Frree If you spent any amount of time online at the beginning of March, chances are you either saw or heard something about an eccentric private zoo owner in Oklahoma called Joe Exotic and some lady down in Florida named Carole Baskin. The Netflix documentary Tiger King: Mayhem, Murder and Madness provided some much-needed relief from the goings-on in the world with a cast of larger than life characters, and an interesting yet depressing insight into America’s fascination with keeping and exploiting wild animals as pets and tools for profit. But just how big is the problem?

While there are several Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited establishments across the United States, if you did indeed see the Tiger King documentary, you will be well aware that there are many ‘roadside zoos’ not held to such welfare standards. Although it is thought that current estimates of pet big cats in the United States are overblown, the exact number is unknown as a detailed census has not been conducted for over a decade, and not every individual is registered. Often, the numbers have been said to be as high as tens of thousands but in reality, the US tiger population is more conservatively estimated as under 5,000 (including the 2,000 or so kept in accredited facilities). While most wild animal owners keep tigers, there are also reportedly large numbers of pet lions, leopards, and ligers/tigons (lion-tiger hybrids) as well as primates and large reptiles.

Thankfully, the UK’s appetite for exotic pets is far lower. Animals that are usually registered include ostriches, wild boar and smaller creatures, though at last count there were 13 tigers and two lions registered. While not outlawed, it can be difficult to obtain a dangerous animal license as per UK legislation. Keeping tigers as pets and for show, however, is not a new phenomenon. Tigers and other big cats were kept by the Romans primarily for entertainment and often forced to fight other animals and humans. More recently, big cats were trained and kept for performing in circuses. Perhaps shockingly, despite years of protests, the last big cat act performing in circuses in the United Kingdom was only pulled in 2013, and it was not until 2019 that wild animal circuses were fully banned.

In the United States, public opinion also appears to be changing. After the retirement of circus animals following the closing down of two of America’s biggest animal circuses, there has also been a push to ban travelling wild animal acts entirely, following suit from the UK and many other countries. However, the bill (Travelling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Act) has not yet passed fully. Circuses were (often, but of course not always) a breeding ground for poor animal welfare, with cramped and inadequate conditions for the animals, cruel training regimes and animal abuse. Many of the wild animals kept in private zoos and as pets experience the same sort of life.

Yet, people continue to visit these menageries, either blissfully unaware or unwilling to care about what goes on behind the scenes. Many of these ‘private zoos’ offer a unique selling point: close encounters with wild animals. These often allow people to, for example, play with tiger cubs.

Typically, these types of experiences can be relatively cheap, around $80 to $100, but, as in the Myrtle Beach private zoo featured in the documentary, these can be upwards of hundreds of dollars. Not only is this stressful for the young animals (which, drawing parallels to tiger photo opportunities at Asian tiger temples, older cubs may be sedated or declawed for), it also sets a dangerous precedent of people enjoying the interaction and then going away thinking that exotic animals would make a good pet.

A 2011 study drew attention to this phenomenon: where wild animals are paraded in such fashion, or placed into more human situations, people care less about conservation and instead would rather keep the animal themselves. To make matters worse the Covid-19 pandemic is still raging, and this can lead to infection being passed from human to tiger, as has been documented in the Bronx Zoo, where close contact is likely minimal.

One could imagine that where there are dozens of people playing with and having close contact with stressed cubs daily, there is a high likelihood of infections spreading through the captive tiger population and causing possible mortalities. Many roadside zoos do not have an on-site vet or do not even use veterinary services in order to cut costs.

In many states, no laws are governing the buying and ownership of big cats and sometimes they may be easier to obtain than dogs. The prices for such animals can be shockingly quite affordable. Both tiger and lion cubs are often sold as pets in the US for under $5,000. These costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Veterinary personnel who have experience with tigers and lions are few and far between, and their expertise is not cheap.

Bills can be in the tens of thousands of dollars each year. Adequate nutrition is also expensive, and for a tiger or lion, can be $2,500 a year or more.

Even with the costs of maintaining these animals, cute cubs do not stay cute cubs for very long. So, then what?

For those who purchase big cats as pets and are not prepared for when the cat reaches maturity, the reality is that the cat if lucky will be given to an accredited rescue establishment. If the cat is unlucky, it may either be dumped or given to someone who will exploit it further, usually via breeding for-profit and not always to a member of their own species. Ligers and tigons (hybrids of tigers and lions, with the father species making up the first half of the portmanteau) are often paraded as special attractions at roadside zoos but with having no real conservation benefit to either species, breeding them has been considered bad practice by accredited establishments for several years now.

Of course, all of this is dependent on whether the cat ever reaches maturity. Many do not even make it two years as pets. Where cubs outgrow their usefulness as money-makers in private zoos, further exploitation tends to be their fate. They often will be returned to the mill to churn out more baby tigers, lions, tigons and ligers (and even third-generation mixes), and the cycle continues. Cub-petting events are not even limited to these private zoos either, as seen in the Tiger King documentary, cubs were taken on the road, to anywhere that would let their handlers make money off them. Unfortunately, the profits made from the cubs, either through selling or petting events fuels further breeding and thus exploitation and cruelty.

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Many of you will have seen or heard of Joe Exotic’s role in tiger breeding, exploitation and distribution, and though his antics throughout the programme may have endeared him to many viewers, his blatant disregard for animal welfare and killing of healthy tigers due to overcrowding – for which he was charged and was part of the reason he is serving 22 years in prison – absolutely should not be forgiven. Over the years he was one of the largest breeders and exporters of tiger cubs in the US, even transporting cubs over state lines, made illegal in 2003 by the Captive Wildlife Safety Act which aimed to prevent wildlife smuggling and sale of exotic animals between states.

While this has been a good start in tackling the issue of exotic animals in captivity, it is often poorly enforced hence it took authorities so long to investigate cat owners and breeders such as Joe Exotic. Despite the attention on his arrest and animal cruelty offences, the way he was portrayed in the documentary has seemingly encouraged people to visit his former zoo and become part of the problem by paying to interact with tiger cubs.

While Joe's popularity and thus indirect encouragement of further big cat exploitation and perhaps ownership were not intended by the documentary, one could argue the portrayal of his main rival Carole Baskin as a ‘crazy cat lady’ certainly was. The documentary spent a great deal of time looking into what happened to Carole’s ex-husband and perhaps implicating her. Although their marriage appeared to be quite unhappy, there has never been any solid evidence linking her with his disappearance and police have never believed she was responsible. However, in the viewer’s eyes, this portrayal almost paints her as the antagonist of the story, overshadowing her work and campaigning for tightening of legislation relating to big cats.

Carol Baskin started, as many current proponents of a ban on keeping big cats as pets did, keeping and breeding her own animals in the early 1990s. Times were different then and purchasing exotic animals was easier, more commonplace and perhaps less frowned upon than it is now. Her change of heart came upon her realisation that breeding them was not saving them from extinction and that she was part of the problem. By 1997, she ceased breeding and opened Big Cat Rescue in 2003, a non-profit organisation which takes in unwanted and abandoned animals. She and her current husband have advocated for many years for adding to the current Captive Wildlife Safety Act and have been important in pushing for the introduction of new legislation. The Big Cat Public Safety Act is the proposed amendment to current legislation which would ban private ownership of big cats (except zoos and accredited sanctuaries), force existing pets to be registered with the relevant authorities and would also prevent interaction of big cats with the public, outlawing cub petting and other such events. One can certainly see the advantages of such a law being passed, particularly for animal welfare, combatting the wildlife trade and also perhaps cutting demand for young animals. Penalties for breaking this law include a hefty fine of $20, 000 (around £15, 635 or €17, 160 at time of writing), or five years jail time.

However, the law is still yet to pass. It has gained traction, however. At the time of writing the Big Cat Public Safety Act has 230 signatures from representatives. It is still currently in the introductory phase, and must pass the House, then the Senate, and then must be made into law by the president. It still has a long way to go but there is every chance that it could be pushed through these stages in the not-so-distant future.

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is an insider’s view into the world of private animal ownership, the heated battle between those which believe in keeping wild animals as pets and for profit, and those which seek to end it. Although wild animals as pets is still a large problem in the US, numbers are often overblown by the media. there is hope that a change in public opinion over time will see fewer big cats and other exotic animals being kept as pets and creating further pressure on governing figures to pass new legislation. If you have already watched the documentary, you likely have your own views on everybody involved, but it is hard to deny that Joe Exotic is almost given anti-hero status due to his crazy antics overshadowing his crimes, whilst Carole Baskin is painted in an unfavourable light, despite nearly two decades of work to help people’s unwanted animals, and campaigning against big cat ownership and exploitation. It could be argued that the documentary has done more harm than good for America’s pet tigers, because of Baskin's portrayal and subsequently, people finding themselves rooting for Joe Exotic, eclipsing and undermining Baskin and what she has set out to achieve for animal welfare.

As mentioned earlier, more people have visited Joe’s former zoo – in the midst of a pandemic, no less – and played with cubs due to the Tiger King effect, an unfortunate result of depicting him as some sort of legendary figure. However, it would be hoped that the majority of viewers would have been swayed in the opposite direction. If you are yet to see the documentary, it is simultaneously enjoyable, unbelievable, and sad, well worth the watch as long as it is recognised that it is not without its biases. Although the Tiger King documentary focuses on the rivalry between Baskin and Joe Exotic, it does have times where it exposes the rampant animal cruelty and profiteering present in private ownership. One would hope that no matter how viewers felt about everyone involved that the animal welfare aspects of private big cat ownership have been the most eye-opening, and the message that is taken away from the whole series.

Composed by, Thea Mainprize, Undergraduate of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen

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Gooodbye Foorever We enjoy our time on Earth in the company of wonderful people and it is blessed with the presence of animal companions. Time melds us together through shared events, living through the seasons in a confluence of laughter, pleasure, bliss and affection that crystallise in our minds forming sweet memories. How tragic our time with those we love, human or animal, is destined to end. However, earth’s one guarantee has caused all human societies to curate their own rituals for the passing of those we cherish.

The most famous and prestigious method of commemorating the death of animals took place within the ancient civilisation of Egypt. Feline or otherwise, were central pillars of ancient Egyptian society, being integral to their sustenance, theology and language, constituting a possible fifth of all hieroglyphs having origins within animal forms. This importance bestowed upon them from their birth, stayed with them throughout their years of living and even the days after them slipping away into their final slumber.

Everyone is familiar with Egyptian mummification, and a common belief that the practice was routine only for members of the ancient Sahara’s aristocracy following their death. Yet, this post-death ritual was not limited to humans; animal mummification was incredibly common. Multiple motives exist for producing bandaged fauna, ranging from honouring beloved pets, to valued ceremonial livestock for harvest festivals, to whole menageries of preserved Nile beasts, from cranes to crocodiles, for the purposes of sacrifice in pleasing Egypt’s phantasmagorical pantheon.

Despite the prolific nature of the mummification and it being popular common knowledge in our society, many are unaware of why such a practice occurred and what the transformation from a recently deceased cadaver to an immortalised, bound mummy entailed.

The motives lay in the theological beliefs of this ancient civilisation. The Egyptians of old thought that the world we exist in now, both materially and spiritually, continued on in another world after death. However, the only way ensuring the deceased successfully crossed the existential plane was the preservation of their earthly body and belongings. Due to the belief that a person’s death was the entryway to an intangible world that continued our own, the same physiological and commercial dynamics was speculated to persist. Therefore, to guarantee that the deceased was able to continue life clothed, in possession of valuables and stocked up with food, these things had to be preserved and stored alongside their body so they continue the journey into the next chapter of life in the same material wealth they departed our world with.

The mummification process initially began with the preparation of the resting tomb in which the individual, who would be in a state of illness at this point, would be kept in after their death with all of these material possessions. Tombs varied in grandeur, size, and material from person to person, era to era, but the architectural design was principally a structure built upon a grave. Interiors were intricately embellished with a myriad of paintings portraying scenes of ancient Egyptian life; cranes by the river, the herding of bulls, to festivals featuring bejewelled dancing girls playing the sistrum, bells and tambourine. Immortalizing the deceased was a dense network of hieroglyphs running through all the wondrous illustrations in dyes of indigo and vermillion.

These palatial mausoleums were constructed to house a mummified body. Upon the death of the pyramid/tome’s financier, their body was taken by high-priests to begin the 70-day mummification process. This began with the removal of the body’s organs, accomplished by using specific ritualised methods. The brain was removed from the skull using slender, hooked instruments that gradually removed the brain in miniscule segments via the nostrils. The organs of the chest and the abdomen were carefully extracted through an incision cut on the deceased’s left side, leaving only the heart due to the ancient Egyptian belief that the heart was the source of one’s mind and personality. Following the removal, they were then dried, treated with spices and wine, before being stored within special jars, each with a decorative lid formed as the busts of the gods and goddesses that were said to protect the specific organs each jar contained.

The removal of moisture from the cadaver was achieved by the filling and covering of the body with natron, a white salt gathered from beds of dried lakes. This substance wicked moisture away from the skin and the lining flesh of the hollow corpse guaranteeing long-term preservation.

This process took around 40 days which resulted in a totally dry, yet very recognisable, human figure that was then slathered in a variety of rich embalming products like tree resins, beeswax, wine and spices before being fitted with jewelled substitutes for facial organs like eyes.

Following this luxurious treatment, the entirety of the corpse was bound in linin bandages, some inscribed with spells and covering symbolic amulets placed in amongst them to protect the dead from harm. The wrapping of bandages occurred in layers. Once the body was covered in a single unbroken layer of linin, tree resins was smeared across them. This resin was then left to dry before beginning the next bandage layer. After the body was thickly enwrapped in linin, a mask of beaten gold was place over their covered face, the masks design being either a deified portrayal of the person’s face or the face of an animal. This completed the mummification process, with the body now ready to be laid within the golden sarcophagi surrounded by the wonders of ancient Egypt, to be stored for all eternity.

These funerary rituals are far removed from us in both practice and in time. However, a place perhaps equally separated from us in Western Europe in how the dead, both owner and pet, are handled is Japan. In this jewel of the far East, almost all funerals are conducted as a Buddhist ceremony, despite non-religion being the standard orientation of the population. The Buddhist ceremonies begin immediately on or approaching an individual’s death, with a sip of water being given to them to fulfil the Buddhist rite termed, ‘Water of the Last Moment’. It is supposedly common for Japanese homes to have a Buddhist ‘shrine’, think of an elaborate cabinet covered filled with esoteric wonders of the spiritual Orient, which is closed and shrouded in white paper following death. A collection of fresh cut flowers, candles and burning incense is place upon a small table positioned by the bed of the deceased.

The passed individual’s loved ones are informed and the authorities are made aware so a death certificate can be produced. The body is washed, orifices blocked with cotton/gauze and special morticians arrive to lay the body into a coffin. Women are enrobed in a white kimono and men are laid to rest dressed in a suit or kimono. Curiously, kimonos are always crossed left over right, yet the deceased’s kimonos are always crossed right over left. Regardless of sex, the clothed body is placed upon a pile of dry ice in a casket, elevated upon an altar, for the families to pay their respects

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to. The casket is positioned with the deceased’s head pointing Northwards, but a Westward orientation is sometimes chosen to represent the Western realm of ‘Pure Land Buddhism’, Amida Buddha, in Buddhist cosmology.

Now suitable for presentation, the wake, titled ‘Passing the Night’, is performed. Funeral attire is very similar to Western Europe, with the attendees dressed entirely in black, with the exception of women dressed in traditional black mourning kimonos. Additional differences would be guests brandishing sets of prayer beads if the deceased was a known adherent to Buddhism and guests providing the mourning family with black and silver envelopes filled with money called ‘Anti-Celebration Packets’ or envelopes of incense called ‘Packet of Buddhist Incense Offering’.

Depending on the strength of the guest’s connection to the deceased and their personal wealth, these envelopes can contain an amount of yen or high-value incense equalling thousands of pound sterling.

The funeral itself begins after the family have said their goodbyes and presented their offerings, which are usually accomplished within a single day. A Buddhist priest chants a ‘sutra’, literature of the teachings of Buddha himself, before bestowing a new Buddhist name upon the deceased.

These are termed ‘precept’ names and are written in ancient Kanji, adopted traditional Chinese pictorial characters that differ from standard Japanese pictograms, which function as a spiritual device to prevent the return of their ghostly form when their earthly name is called by heartbroken mourners now or in the future. The length of these esoteric Kanji precept names is determined by the virtuous life the deceased had lived or by the size of donation made to the temple performing the funerary practices. The larger the donation or greater virtuosity, the lengthier the name. The funeral concludes with attendees adorning the deceased in flowers before sealing the casket for transportation to the crematorium.

Cremation is performed at lower temperatures than Western European cremations so that all but the person’s bones are reduced to ash. Funerary practices differ from us wildly here, as it is a normal practise in Japan to pick the bones out of the ashes using chopsticks and place them into an urn. Bone collection begins at the feet and finished with fragments of the skull so that the deceased isn’t position upside-down for eternity. The ashes can then be poured into the urn or be divided between the family grave, temple or any other special place.

It is common in Scotland to visit cemeteries and see rows of elaborately sculpted gravestones embellished with gold or copper and flanked with the celestial statues of winged angels, flourishing stone carvings of plants, as well as all various types of post-death stonework from orbs, to animals to fluted columns of antiquity. However, Japanese graves are simple stone obelisks with the only details being the date of its erection and the name of the person’s remains laid to rest there, both inscribed vertically in the traditional way. In the case of a married person dying before their partner, the name of the widow can be ascribed alongside them in red ink, with the symbolism being that their partner in life is waiting for them.

Recently in England, a very special funeral service was dedicated to feline for the first time in history. For years there was a cat living in Southwark Cathedral, located in the English capital city of London. Her name was Doorkins Magnificat, given to her by the verger, Paul Timms who had welcomed her in sometime during 2008. When members of the cathedral’s clergy asked around the area for any information on this unexpected felid resident, it was revealed that Doorkins was well known by the local market traders for stealing scraps of food and hiding beneath their covered stalls.

She occupied herself exploring the many houses, anterooms and halls of the cathedral, catching mice, napping on the grand bishop’s chair and lounging in the cathedral’s gardens, which was Doorkins’ favoured spot. Across her 12 years at the gothic palace of Southwark, she featured in several books, enjoyed the company of Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the cathedral, become popular online through social media, and been the subject of a great outpouring of affection from church attendees. However, it was believed that Doorkins was a powerful instrument for passive evangelisation, with Andrew Nunn, the Dean of the Southwark cathedral, stating, ‘‘She did more to bring people to this place than I will ever do.’’

That line was delivered during her memorial service. Her health declined across 2019 and it was agreed that she would enter retirement with Timms, the very same verger that welcomed her in over 10 years ago. Living in perfect tranquillity as a pampered housecat, Doorkins passed away in the arms of the verger following a stroke. A month following her death and cremation, a memorial service was held in her honour, to commemorate her life and contributions to the cathedral. This was the first service of its kind to be held for an animal, but the occasion spared no expense, with a full service complete with readings from the bible, serenades of Christian ballads echoing throughout the arched chambers of the cathedral, punctuated with readings of animal passages from the Bible, performances of feline poems and the sharing of personal memories with Doorkins from Nunn and Timms. This hallowed event concluded with the attendees being offered to join the Dean of the Southwark and the head verger in the Cathedral gardens for the burial of Doorkins Magnifcat’s remains.

Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management at the University of Aberdeen

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Thhe Deelicious Pooison The term ‘pussy’ has come to acquire many meanings over the years. Initially being used as a word for cats, developing into a term for weakness, and most disturbingly, used a term for vaginas. It is extremely common for the porn industry to use this phrase as a means to objectify and degrade women, by referring to us solely by our body parts. In particular, there is a fixation on our vaginas. Here is a title I found on over 50 porn sites which perfectly demonstrates this; man finds some fresh teen pussies. This is undeniably sickening, but a highly accurate representation of how twisted our society has become.

Now before I begin on the depravity of the porn industry, it is important to highlight the facts on how truly prevalent the issue of pornography is.

One-quarter of the total daily search engine requests are for pornographic material, and one in five mobile searches are for pornography. In 2019, Pornhub alone received 42 billion visits, the equivalent of over five times the world’s population. That’s 115 million visits per day, which is the equivalent of the populations of Canada, Australia, Poland, and the Netherlands combined. Let me reiterate, that is in one day, on just one porn website among millions. Not only this, but the attitudes towards pornography are important as it demonstrates the lack of knowledge on the dark reality of the porn industry. Research from Covenant Eyes showed 96% of young adults are either encouraging, accepting, or neutral when they talk about porn with their friends. This same study found that teens and young adults believe failing to recycle is worse than viewing pornography – so it is very clear that porn is heavily normalised in our society.

What should be our biggest concern about the porn industry is that it reduces humans, especially women, to products whose value lies in sexual objectification. If you spent even a mere ten seconds on any porn site, you would see a collection of degrading thumbnails and titles centred around women’s body parts, all of which are too gruesome to refer to in this article. Many studies have proven that most children turn to pornography to learn about sex, so what are they learning? Girls will learn that their value lies in being a sex object. They will likely become desensitised to the degradation of their own sex. Similarly, boys will grow up believing that this is the role of females in society and will be driven to degrade and abuse us. A woman told Collective Shout, a woman’s rights organisation, about her own personal experience with this. She recalls when her 11year-old daughter told her about viewing a male classmate’s snapchat story of a video of him and a few other boys from her class laughing as they watched rape porn. She said the woman was bound up, saying “no” as a masked man approached her. In porn, ‘no’ just means ‘be more aggressive’, so what is this teaching young children that turn to porn to learn about sex? Tons of young boys are constantly accessing videos exactly like the one listed above and are rewiring their young brains, before they have even been fully developed, to be aroused or amused by male violence against women.

A 2010 study discovered that, on average, nine out of ten porn scenes contain physical aggression and the typical scene contains over eleven attacks. Some common hashtags from the popular porn site, XVideos, include ‘‘chloroform” “sleep assault” “strangled” “drugged” “abuse” “assault” and “rape”. Whereas Pornhub decided to take the more ‘careful’ route of re-wording their rape videos to “coerced” and their chloroform videos to “chloro”. And if this isn’t enough evidence, we can listen to the real victims of this abuse. This takes me onto my next point: porn ignores consent. According to a study by National Youth Council of Ireland, most young people do not know what consent means. This is likely due to most young people turning to pornography to learn about sex. Consent should be informed, enthusiastic and reversible, all of which porn is not.

Porn actors have little to no idea what they are in for when they sign up for porn, and most of them start off as children, meaning it was impossible for them to give consent. Of the trafficking victims that are forced into porn production, the average age they began being filmed was 12.8 years old - this says plenty about the extent of consent that goes into porn videos. Even if the porn actors were to initially agree to doing porn, in a consensual situation, this should be reversible, meaning that they can refuse to have sex or a refuse a sex act at any point, and the sex should be on their terms. But the reality is that when porn actors try to refuse, the risks are typically as severe as being raped, beaten, or even killed. Linda Lovelace, a famous porn survivor, has reported being held at gun point and forced to perform oral sex in the filming of the popular porn film Deep Throat. Mia Khalifa, another porn survivor, recently took to social media to speak about being forced to wear a hijab in a pornography shoot, facing years of online abuse for this, even though she had no other choice. She exposed this on her twitter recently; ‘‘They never saw me as a human being with a soul and a future. They trafficked me into the hands of this man with no supervision or regards for my safety. I was not paid for that shoot. I was not informed what it would be used for. I had no control.’’ Regan Starr, a porn survivor, also recalls her time during the filming of porn; ‘‘I got the shit kicked out of me...Most of the girls started crying because they’re hurting so bad. I couldn’t breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset, and they didn’t stop. I [asked them to turn the camera off] and they kept going.’’ The common misconception is that porn is just filmed sex, but when you go onto a porn site, you are not looking at a mutually enthusiastic, consensual act of love between two adults, you are likely looking at females being raped and sexually assaulted. There is little to no methods of finding out if this is not the case, so do you really want to take that risk for a few minutes of ‘pleasure’?

Gail Dines, an anti-porn activist, took to her Facebook to share the details of her meeting a survivor who was drugged to make fetish porn. She states that a common drug used in the porn industry is called ‘Triple H’, a mixture of Ritalin, Ambient and Ecstasy. The drug works in a way that the victim looks awake and willing, even though she is fully drugged and in a blackout. Some eye-opening follow up questions from Dines include: ‘‘Do you think this is an isolated incident? If it is, how would you know for sure? If it’s not, what is the acceptable number of drugged women you would accept in your porn?’’

Without the sex industry, sex trafficking would not exist, so it pretty much goes without saying that porn fuels sex trafficking. A story which initially shed light on the sex trafficking behind porn videos involved a 15-year-old rape victim whose name became a suggested search term on Pornhub, along with the 58 videos of her abuse which were uploaded and made the ‘Top 5’. Unsurprisingly, there are tons of stories just like this one, with some victims being as young as three year’s old. Despite the majority of victims begging for their videos to be taken down, they faced years of neglect from Pornhub’s moderators. Due to this, Pornhub faced many legal suits as well as Visa withdrawing their partnership with them.

This led to Pornhub deleting millions of videos, only allowing ones from so-called ‘verified users’. Although this clearly was not due to the

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kindness of the Pornhub executives, I suppose it is a step in the right direction. Despite this, there is still an extremely long way to go before we can abolish the sexual exploitation of women and girls. XVideos, the second most popular porn site, is also known for its abundance of abuse videos. An example of this is in December 2019, when only a few hours after a young Indian woman was gangraped and burnt alive, her name made the “trending” list on this site. Not only are these videos uploaded and masturbated to by millions, most of them also get monetised with ads, showing that the more women and children get raped and abused, the more money the porn industry makes. The largest study ever done on prostitution from the London School of Economics proves that legalising prostitution directly fuels sex trafficking. This contradicts the common lie spewed by the ‘Sex Work Is Work’ crowd that ‘‘legalisation makes prostitution safer’’. Now although porn is not listed as prostitution by law, anyone with half a brain can see that these are indistinguishable.

It is undeniable that porn is not a ‘choice’ for most women in the videos. However, let's entertain the delusion that women in pornography are supposedly mentally healthy and consenting women with plenty of other options available to them, yet they still choose to do porn. Even in this case, porn is still wrong. This is because every human being has intrinsic value by virtue of their humanity. This value that we all possess mandates that we should all be treated with dignity. For a government to legislate that some human beings, particularly women, can be legally sold and traded in a marketplace is the absolute antithesis of treating a human being with dignity. In the eyes of a pornified society, women's lives are no more valuable than an object. It is a never-ending cycle of women being disposable slaves existing only for the use and sick sexual gratification of men. When else in history have we seen the government legislate that some human beings are commodities to be sold and traded? I can certainly think of a few prominent examples. Not only this, but how far have we perverted the notion of bodily autonomy, that we are fighting for women’s’ so called right to give away that bodily autonomy away to men?

Now although I have already given the pro-porn crowd’s delusions far more consideration than they deserve, I will address another justification they use to defend this corruption. In the same way the pro-prostitution lobby make false claims about legalisation reducing the crime rate, many people will claim that porn does this also. They will claim that men having access to porn in all its deviant glory, will actually benefit society, as they will no longer feel urges to sexually assault women or act upon any severely messed up ‘fantasies’ they may have. In fact, the direct opposite is true, and what better way to illustrate this than from the mouth of the prolific serial killer and rapist himself, Ted Bundy. Just days before his execution, Bundy stated that he does not doubt that porn fuelled his crimes. He said ‘‘I've lived in prison for a long time now and I've met a lot of men who were motived to commit violence just like me. And without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography. Without question, without exception.’’ Porn has been proven to be extremely addictive, and like any drug addiction, the more you consume the drug, the more your body adapts to it, and so you need to consume a higher dosage, or more intense drug in order to achieve the same ‘high’. The same happens with a porn addiction. Consumers progressively watch more ‘extreme’ content in order to reach orgasm. We of course know that this more ‘extreme’ content is synonymic to more violence against women, leading most consumers to BDSM and rape porn, and some consumers to snuff (homicide) porn, and child porn. And eventually, the porn will not be enough, turning consumers into perpetrators. Ted Bundy states: ‘‘You keep craving something harder, which gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach a point where the pornography only goes so far.’’

Not only this, but even if in some fantasy land men watching porn did reduce their urges to sexually assault women, the victims in the porn industry are not sacrificial lambs that exist to save other women from rapists and sexual deviants. The people who make this argument are essentially saying that some women are less valuable than others. The only justification that porn users can ever truly resonate with is that they simply do not care about women or children. Many men are perfectly content in knowing that a woman or child’s entire life will be ruined, just so that they can stroke their penis for a couple of minutes. These men are too far gone to convince, but hopefully most consumers still have at least an ounce of empathy left.

Finally, it would not be an accurate representation of pornography if I did not highlight that the industry’s aim is to exploit all marginalised and vulnerable people in our society. And so, I will bring to your attention some of the other minorities that are being abused by the porn industry. The infantilisation of women is an extremely common theme in porn, ranging from schoolgirl outfits, to diapers and pigtails. The most searched term in porn is “teen”, and an analysis of 400 million web searches over the span of a year showed the most popular category of sexual searches was “youth”. Pornhub has also been caught with videos of actual toddlers in diapers being sexually abused. Porn puts teenagers and children at real risk, as its sexual fixation around them is conditioning people to be aroused by them. Plan International UK, a charity, reported that 1 in 3 girls are sexually assaulted when wearing school uniform.

Seeing as most grown men are watching porn, and “schoolgirl” is one of the most searched terms on porn sites, any reasonable person can make the link here.

Further, in light of recent stand against police brutality of black people, we must recognise other prevalent forms of racism in our society. Pornhub has an abundance of videos with titles similar to black nigger slave girl brutalised and raped, a real title, as well as their category section which literally puts women into categories based on their race. This is systematic and institutional racism, widely overlooked by our society. Why does our culture speak out against injustices, yet openly consume porn which glorifies it? It's about time we abolish this disgusting industry.

Composed by, Leyla Dalkic, Undergraduate of Civil Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast

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Roomanced by Gaaia Following the outbreak of COVID19 and its political consequences, nursing homes and hospice centers are struggling to battle loneliness among their patients. Many are forbidden from seeing their families and in an environment more stressed than ever, the need for connection with others is dire. In many cases these individuals do not even have to be human in order fulfill their intended purpose. For example, it is not completely uncommon to see household cats roaming the halls of these locations. Their relatively timid temperaments are fitting for those in the autumn of age. However, due to the restrictions brought on by quarantine, some centers have now turned to using animatronic stuffed animals to help lessen the impact of isolation. Robotic cats and dogs that are to offer a form of companionship to patients that are preparing to leave this life. How exactly is this supposed to make you feel? Does it bring warmth to your chest? Feelings of happiness and pride in human innovation. Or is there something fundamentally wrong with it? An evil that is hard to express.

If you feel inclined to agree with the latter, you are not alone. As of late it seems that a growing amount of people are expressing similar worries about the physical and moral problems that technological progress poses to humanity. The original and most influential of the thinkers within the movement of tech- skepticism is Professor Ted Kaczynski, more commonly known as the Unabomber. Those of you who more or less know his story already, for there have been many attempts to tell it, have most likely already made up your mind about this man and his strange ideology.

As you know, he is also no stranger to loneliness. For those of you who have not or who have heard only parts, what follows is an exploration of his life, from his birth and education, to his crimes and ultimately his incarceration. Here you will not find a deep dive into his philosophy. Rather, I wish to show you a fair image of the individual himself, something that is often lost in his mythology.

Born Theodore John Kaczynski on May 22 1942 to working class Polish American parents in Chicago, Illinois, Ted seemed to have had a relatively happy early life. As a child he had a breakout of hives which forced him into isolation at a hospital, something his mother believes had a great effect on him. Ted attended an elementary school in Chicago where he was described as well-adjusted and healthy. In 1949 his brother David was born and three years later the family moved to Evergreen Park, a suburban area of Chicago. Here Ted continued his schooling and proved an IQ of 167 or highly gifted. This allowed him to skip sixth grade which he later described as a pivotal event in his life. Whereas he was highly sociable with his peers and often assumed a leadership role, he had a hard time to fit in with the older children who tended to bully him. At this point of his life he was described as highly intelligent but lonely, something that would go on to define most of his adult life. As a child he was shy and would become unresponsive when pressured into social situations, something that caused his mother to consider entering him into a study for autistic children. Ted went on to attend the local high school where he excelled academically, joined the marching band and became a member of several clubs. As often becomes the case with exceptionally intelligent children, his fellow classmates began to identify him with that specific trait rather than seeing him as a complete individual. It was at this time that Ted’s interest in mathematics was ignited and he was placed in increasingly advanced classes, sailing past his peers. He skipped eleventh grade and after attending summer school he was allowed to graduate early at 15 years.

A clear math prodigy, he was encouraged to apply to Harvard College, where he entered on a scholarship in 1958 at an astonishing 16 years old.

A high school classmate of his later told the New York Times that Ted was emotionally unprepared for college at such a young age, barely holding a driver’s license. Much like earlier in his life, he was described as a quiet and reserved yet furiously intelligent individual. In 1962 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with a GPA of 3.12. During his sophomore year at Harvard he participated in a study that later became a subject of great controversy. Some sources suggest connections to the clandestine CIA mind-control project MKUltra. Those already familiar with this story, either through the numerous documentaries or series that can be found on Netflix or through personal research, are well aware of how this has become a defining element of Kaczynski’s mythology. The experiments led by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray were purposefully psychologically painful. Subjects were belittled and verbally abused, often on account of their most deeply held personal beliefs while their reactions were monitored and recorded. The experiment lasted three years with Ted participating weekly for a total of 200 hours. Some have also suggested that this was a catalyst for Ted’s criminal activities later in life despite Kaczynski’s rejection of this theory. Ted admitted that he resented Murray and his co-workers for their immoral methods but also that he was quite confident that these experiences had no significant effect on the course of his life.

In 1962 Ted enrolled at the University of Michigan and earned a master’s and doctoral degree in mathematics in 1964 and 1967. Here he specialized in complex analysis and was once again described as a highly intelligent yet peculiar character by his professors. In 1966 during a period of several weeks, Ted experienced intense sexual fantasies in which he pictured himself as a woman. This compelled him to seek out a psychiatrist in order to undergo gender transition. However, as he sat in the waiting-room he had a change of heart. He later expressed his anger and malice towards the doctor, expressing a desire to kill him and others that he hated. His dissertation won prizes after its publication in 1967 and Kaczynski would go on to publish five more works during and after his time at Michigan. Later the same year he became the youngest assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley at 25 years old. Here he taught undergraduate courses in geometry and calculus. He was not well liked among his students, being described as seeming uncomfortable with teaching, he taught straight from the book and often refused to answer questions. In June of 1969 Kaczynski unexpectedly resigned from his position.

After his resignation, Ted moved back to his parent’s home in Illinois. Only two years later he moved out into a remote cabin which he built together with his brother in rural Montana, here he set a goal to live a simple and fully autonomous life. Not an uncommon lifestyle for this area.

Teaching himself survival skills, Ted would live on money made off of odd jobs and financial support from his family. According to witnesses he would use an old bike to get to and from the local town where he would often visit the library. During this time, Kaczynski came to the realization

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that it would be impossible to live in peace in nature. This was based on the destruction of the wildland that he witnessed in the area around his cabin by real estate and industrial development projects. It may be argued that it was around this time that he became truly radicalized as he began performing acts of sabotage against the developments in the area. He also dedicated himself to the study of sociology and political philosophy. For Kaczynski there was no longer an option for peaceful reform. The human tendency for taking the path of least resistance meant that the only solution was to violently collapse the industrial-technological system.

For the next 17 years Kaczynski would be involved in a campaign of terror spanning the whole country while also managing to constantly elude the FBI. He would go on to build and mail or hand-deliver a series of increasingly sophisticated improvised bombs that ultimately took the life of three people and injured another 23. The first mail bomb was directed towards one Professor Buckley Crist at Northwestern University. When Crist became suspicious of the package it was given to campus police officer Terry Marker who opened it. The explosion caused minor injuries.

Kaczynski would lay low for the rest of the year, working in a foam factory together with his brother and father over the summer, he was later discharged from his position by his brother. The following year a bomb was placed in the cargo hold of a domestic Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to Washington D.C. Due to an internal mechanic error, the bomb failed to go off, releasing only smoke. This was enough for the airplane to be grounded and it was later remarked that had it detonated properly, the plane would have been obliterated. It was at this time that the FBI became involved, designating the case UNABOM for University and Airline bomber and also giving Ted his now infamous nickname.

For the next decade and a half the FBI led a nationwide manhunt, creating a special task force and employing the help of an experimental Behavioral Sciences Unit and the public, setting up a reward of $1 million for anyone who could provide information leading to the capture of the Unabomber.

Kaczynski would go on to send 14 more explosive devices, 12 of which would actually detonate. The bombs often came as boxes and could be identified by the letters “FC”, short for “Freedom Club”, hidden somewhere in the mechanism. They would also contain several false clues, obscured in order to feign legitimacy. As the casualties became more severe, the desire to catch the enigmatic perpetrator grew. The Behavioral Sciences Unit issued a psychological profile of the Unabomber, describing him as a man of above-average intelligence with connections to academia, however this was later discarded. In 1995 Kaczynski sent a letter to the New York Times, vowing to desist from terrorism if the Times or the Washington Post published his now famous essay Industrial Society and Its Future. In this essay, he also referred to himself as “FC” or as a “we”.

There was great controversy as to whether the essay was to be published or not. However, based on a concern for public safety as well as the hope that a reader may be able to identify the author, the attorney general as well as the FBI director recommended that it was released. In September of 1995, the essay was published in The Washington Post. Prior to its publication, Ted’s brother David had begun to grow suspicious. The Unabomber was practically a media celebrity at this point and much of the evidence pointed towards someone from the Chicago area. Furthermore, the excerpts of the manifesto released by the FBI during press conferences seemed to match Ted’s own ideas and prose. Despite this, David was dismissive of the idea of his brother being a domestic terrorist. However, a week after the publication of the full manifesto, David decided to become involved in the investigation, contacting the FBI. An essay written by Kaczynski was compared to the manifesto using linguistic analysis, finding that the author was most likely the same person.

In April of 1996, an unkempt Ted was arrested and taken away from his cabin in Montana. A search revealed an abundance of incriminating evidence, including one fully armed bomb, ready for mailing, as well as several pages of documented experimentation. An original copy of Industrial Society was also found, further confirming suspicions. At this point, Kaczynski had been the target of the most expensive FBI investigation in history. His cabin was lifted from the forest floor by helicopter and taken to an FBI facility in California. There it remained intact until it was moved to the Newseum in Washington D.C. several years later.

Kaczynski was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder. Despite this he was declared competent to stand trial by federal prison. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, however Kaczynski pleaded guilty and on January 22 1998 he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. To this day, Theodore John Kaczynski sits in the supermax prison ADX Florence in Colorado.

There he will serve his eight life sentences, to die in prison. When, in 1999, he was asked to comment on his fate he had the following to say:

“(...)what worries me is that I might in a sense adapt to this environment and come to be comfortable here and not resent it anymore.

And I am afraid that as the years go by that I may forget, I may begin to lose my memories of the mountains and the woods and that's what really worries me, that I might lose those memories, and lose that sense of contact with wild nature in general.”

Composed by, Luke Litvinov, Undergraduate of Philosophy at West Virginia University

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Roock of Loove Cats are great companions for people all around the world. Cats’ owners are grateful for having those felines in their homes. But certain cats are lucky to have certain owners too. The famous singer Freddie Mercury was cat fanatic and his cats lived the luxury life that they deserved thanks to him. The lead singer of the group The Queen had at least 10 cats throughout his 45 years; Dorothy, Tiffany, Tom, Jerry, Delilah, Goliath, Lily, Miko, Oscar and Romeo. The last six outlived their owner. Cats had a key role in Mercury's life, he shared Tom and Jerry with Mary Austin, the love of his life. Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury had a torturous love story and got engaged until Freddie Mercury started questioning his sexuality, considering himself bisexual but Mary Austin told him she thought he was gay. They went from lovers to friends and she is now the only person who knows where Freddie’s ashes are scattered, which was his wish. She is also the one who gave him his cat Tiffany, the only thoroughbred he ever had, according to Peter Freestone, Freddie’s assistant.

Freestone said to the Washington Post that Freddie’s cats ‘‘were his family’’. His cats were mostly adopted from shelters and animal hospitals, they were saved by the singer which is not surprising because he was known by his family and friends as a kind, generous and loyal friend. Freddie Mercury was so dedicated to his cats that he used to call them when he was on tour so that he could speak to them, the person answering the phone would try to make them meow so that Freddie could hear them. This habit of the singer was put into the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, where Rami Malek playing Mercury asks Lucy Boynton playing Mary Austin to put Tom and Jerry on the line. This translates the desire of production designers to make things seem as real as possible with a particular focus on the truthfulness of the set.

The effort was particularly put into dressing the set of Mercury’s Garden Lodge estate into the palace that it used to be, full of lavish curtains and ornate furniture. This space was essential for Mercury, he transcribed the grandiosity of the space in his song ‘‘Delilah’’, part of the last album he wrote and performed. The song is also an ode to his tortoiseshell cat who was his favourite. To be as close as possible to Freddie Mercury’s life, it makes sense for the cat to play an important role in the biopic as a recurring theme. Freddie’s cats had an important place in his life and this love is represented in Bohemian Rhapsody.

There are visible efforts of trying to make the movie a re-enactment of Mercury’s life. The film follows the singer’s life from the formation of the band up to the 1985 Live Aid at the Wembley Stadium. The effort was truly active with people close to the singer participating in the creation of the movie like Mary Austin, his assistant and also Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor being consultants. But the biographical film about the lead singer of the British rock band Queen has not been an easy ride, even before it came out in 2018. The project of Bohemian Rhapsody started in 2010 with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Mercury but he abandoned the project in 2013 because of creative differences with producers.

Thus, the project is on hold for a few years, until Remi Malek is cast in 2016.

The other major issue during the making of the movie was with the director Bryan Singer. He was the director of most of the “principal photography” which is the phase where the bulk of the movie is filmed. The principal photography began in London in 2017 but Bryan Singer is fired later on the same year because of his absence and clashing with the cast and the rest of the crew. He is replaced quickly by Dexter Fletcher who was originally set to direct the film early in development. He is then hired to complete the film, although Singer retains the credit as director, following the Directors Guild of America guidelines. Hence, Fletcher received an executive producer credit. Finally, the filming concluded in January 2018. Furthermore, when the movie comes out in 2018, it receives conflicting criticism. Bryan Singer’s direction is criticized especially the portrayal of Mercury’s sexuality and the lives of the other band members. On the other hand, Remi Malek’s performance is praised and the music sequences are applauded. Not all aspects of the movie receive the same compliments. The film also contains historical inaccuracies that certainly add drama to the story but are giving a different portrayal of the members of Queen as friends and individuals.

Owen Gleiberman wrote in Variety that: ‘‘Rami Malek does a commanding job of channelling Freddie Mercury’s flamboyant rock-god bravura, but Bryan Singer’s middle-of-the-road Queen biopic rarely lives up to the authenticity of its lead performance’’. Moreover, he said that ‘‘Bohemian Rhapsody is not big on subtlety: it tells Freddie's story loudly, taking dramatic shortcuts, over-neatly conflating events and reducing most of the surrounding characters to single dimensions. Some of the dialogue's a bit heavy-handed too, but I must say I was thoroughly entertained.’’

Furthermore, Stephanie Zacharek wrote for the Time that, ‘‘In strict filmmaking terms, Bohemian Rhapsody is a bit of a mess. Some of its scenes connect awkwardly, and it hits every beat of disaster and triumph squarely, like a gong. Yet if it has many of the problems we associate with ‘bad’ movies, it has more ragged energy than so many good ones, largely because of Rami Malek’s performance as Mercury, all glitter and muscle and nerve endings.’’ For her, it is ‘‘a movie for sensualists, not quality-control experts.’’

Irrespective of the obvious negative aspects, it becomes a major box office success becoming the six highest-grossing film of 2018 worldwide and setting the all-time box office records for the biopic and drama genres. Likewise, the film is nominated for numerous prizes and wins 4 at the 91 st Academy Awards. Those prices were for Best Actor given without surprises to Remi Malek, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It was also nominated for Best Picture but did not win this fifth prize. Bohemian Rhapsody also won Best Motion Picture in the Drama category at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, and was nominated for the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture and BAFTA Award for Best British Film. Meanwhile, Remi Malek won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA for Best Actor thanks to his performance.

Despite having defaults, the story of Freddie Mercury and his ten companions transported the public once again and will mark the spirit, making new generations more familiar with the phenomenon that was Queen and the one and only: Freddie Mercury.

Composed by, Cécile Fardoux, Undergraduate of English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen

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Biiblical Seenescence The noblest of felines, the lion, is referenced throughout the bible, the lion of Judah was an early Jewish symbol which carried over to Christianity.

Revelation 5:5 states ‘‘And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seven seals thereof.’’ A reference to the second coming of Christ. The Chronicles of Narnia bases the lion Aslan on Jesus, as he is seen to sacrifice himself and then rise from the dead in triumph. Christianity forms a fundamental part of the history and culture of this country. This article is not to establish whether one should believe or not believe in the contents of the Bible but rather set out a case that Christianity and the values that stem from it have created peace and tolerance in this country and the decline of religion will likely lead to much more harm than good and the evidence for this is already there to see. Recent polls have shown that the number of people who claim to be followers of Christianity has fallen from over 80% of British people who identified as Christians in 1945, to 38% according to a recent survey with just 1% of young people identifying as Church of England. This has coincided with a decline in societal morals with crime rates on the rise and polarisation of society along political lines.

British Christianity has always had its own unique spin with Britain being an island nation. The Church of England was founded on 600 AD (not by the reformation in 1533) and after the normal conquest, English bishops could be appointed by the King even with objections from the pope.

The Church of England formally split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 with the King rather than the pope becoming head of the Church and Christ’s representative on Earth. This was followed shortly in Scotland with a presbyterian (church without bishops) reformation led by John Knox in the 1560s. However, the idea that the King himself was answerable to God created a check on power as, unlike in other cultures such as Japan, the King never claimed to be a living God or the embodiment of God on Earth thus when the King overreached himself, such as Charles I in the 1640s, he could be held to account in accordance with the laws of God. Douglas Murray said this was an “anti-totalitarianism within the bloodstream of Europe” The recent announcement by the Scottish government that places of worship must close as part of lockdown restrictions would have set off much more of an outpouring of public anger if it had happened around 50 years ago or before then. Indeed, there has never been a mass closure of churches on this scale in the history of the country, but it seemed to be greeted with indifference by the people of Scotland even though places of worship are allowed to remain open in England. When I raised this unfairness on social media, I was greeted with the usual abuse by SNP cult trolls and I realized that Scotland had a new religion and that is the cult of the SNP. The belief that Nicola Sturgeon can do no wrong and a belief that will be put to the test very soon.

Places of worship are a place where during these very testing times of a global pandemic with nearly everyone worries about either the disease itself or their financial futures, an hour a week in a socially distanced church where everyone was masked up really doesn’t seem like too much of an ask. The mental health benefits would be very good and there is little evidence of COVID spreading in churches.

Within every person there is an innate need to have a cause to believe in, that can be the ideals of the nation or can be manifested in a religious faith and the two are often intertwined. In recent years there has been a rise in ‘‘new atheism’’ from a group of four people; Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennet who wrote best-selling books proclaiming their disbelief in and dislike of faith. Christopher Hitchens is one of my greatest heroes, a man with the courage to speak his mind no matter what backlash he would get and I am a follower of the work of Sam Harris and use his meditation app but I don’t think they understand the simple point that in the absence of faith, people will not necessarily act rational and it is difficult to motivate people with a promise of bleak existence and nothing beyond that, everyone wants to have meaning and if they don’t find it in faith they will find it in dangerous political ideologies. The void created by the New Atheists has largely been filled by the increasingly censorious and authoritarian ‘‘woke’’ movement. However, they are not necessarily new atheists themselves as most new atheists I have encountered are politically conservative or classical liberal.

Peter Hitchens in his quite famous 2008 debate with his late brother Christopher pointed out that the new atheist ‘‘horsemen’’ as they styled themselves lived quite comfortable lives in nice parts of nice cities, they had the fulfilment of being respected members of their communities and therefore seemed to enjoy being missionaries of Godlessness in a free society created for them by centuries of Christianity. However, the social decline and collapse caused by Britain’s abandonment of God led to a return to a ‘‘law of the jungle’’ scenario where people act rashly with no regard for the consequences of their actions because if they believe that their existence is a cosmic accident and they will face no judgement for their actions then they what is to stop them kicking someone to death for their wallet and getting into a gang war with knives and guns. I am not saying all atheists behave like this of course but the removal of Christianity from our culture has created an “anything goes” mentality which can become downright dangerous at times.

Religious people are often accused of being irrational but with a few exceptions I have noticed that the opposite is true, religious people tend to be more thoughtful and therefore more likely to consider the consequences of their actions on the people around them while secularists can often fill the void that would normally be filled by faith with genuinely irrational dogmas, be that wokeism or COVID hysteria and these dogmas come with much more intolerance than I have ever encountered in Christianity. They go on witch hunts on social media to find anyone of prominence who dares to dissent from their views and demand they lose their jobs, we are given two minutes of hate against so-called ‘‘Covidiots’’, a term which has been officially used in The Sun headlines for minor infractions such as not wearing a mask to pay for your petrol or wearing it under your nose. Christianity indeed went through its more violent stages in the middle ages and early renaissance but has long got past that and made peace with those who do not believe.

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In recent years another intolerant movement has arisen, initially on university campuses but have now spread out into the wider world with these students having graduated into real-world occupations. Whereas politics in this country was done under a set of norms which allowed people to disagree in a civilized way. Morning prayers in the house of commons as well as a swearing an oath to HM the Queen on a Bible or other religious text. Even those who had no faith were allowed to affirm and respect that Britain was a Christian country.

But now some seek to criminalise dissent rather than disagree with it in a civilised way. It’s ironic that the Hate Crime Bill currently making its way through the Scottish parliament abolishes the offence of blasphemy against the Christian religion, which has not been prosecuted since 1842, and replaces it with a new crime of blasphemy against the state and its diversity policies. There has been much concern from the church that it could effectively criminalise the Bible as it could be interpreted as “stirring up” hate against particular groups. Besides, atheist criticism of religion may become criminal due to the heavy criticism of Islam which comes from the new atheists.

Green climate change policy also has many of the makings of a religion. Christopher Hitchens himself said that environmentalism presupposes that man has an original sin which is existing, that an Armageddon is on its way if we continue to upset the air and the only way out of it is through the solutions proposed by radical environmentalists. However, this has been another means by which the void of a national religion has been filled.

It is state-backed and it punishes those who dissent from it with loss of jobs and positions and public ridicule. The tithes that were once paid to the church have now been replaced by green taxes payable to the state.

The legal norms of our society have their roots in Christian traditions. The rule of “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself” is the foundation for equality before the law where everyone from the dustman to the duke had the same rights under the law such as the right to freedom of speech and expression, trial by a jury of one’s peers and freedom of conscience. It was protestant Christianity (and I speak as a Catholic) which led to parliamentary sovereignty and the birth of modern democracy in 1689, where for the first time since the Roman Republic, an elected parliament established itself as the supreme law-making body in the land above even the King. High evidentiary standards such as the requirement in Scotland, for there to be two witnesses’ testimonies to convict someone, are rooted in the Bible and inspires

by Roman law after Christianity was adopted in the Roman Empire. Even consumer protection laws are rooted in Christianity, the “neighbourhood principle” based on the Christian commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself” was cited by Lord Atkin in the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson which held the manufacturer of a product responsible for its defects and served as the foundation for modern consumer protection law.

Marriage within the Christian understanding of it is the foundation of the right to a private and family life. Many of the norms that were once taken for granted across all society, that everyone rich or poor at least had solace and stability in a private family life has now become a luxury of the middle class. Ideals that young people claim are so out of reach such as homeownership only ever existed because of the married family, the idea that your house is your castle, and the state had no right to interfere in your private life has been lost as a result of the decline of marriage. Parental choice is no longer respected with the courts and law deciding who has the right to custody of a child during parental divorce or even whether parents are allowed to decide what medical treatment should be given to their children. I remember when I was younger it was considered rude to ask people about their personal medical information but the COVID hysteria has put an end to that with government ministers and NHS officials being asked if they had taken a coronavirus vaccine live on air.

I had hoped that the COVID pandemic might see a revival of faith, it showed us that we were not invincible, while the new atheist movement was built on the narrative that we had conquered all problems, however, instead of that the COVID mob has demanded churches and other places of worship be closed and the Scottish government has acquiesced. While Scotland is one of the most secular parts of the UK, a rise in crime, drug abuse and deaths, authoritarian governments and a decline in respect for others has coincided with it. Like Peter Hitchens I have little optimism of seeing an end to this decline and Britain will become a worse place for it.

Composed by, Derek Gardiner, Postgraduate of Law from the University of Aberdeen

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Feline Bestiary

Those behind this Valentine’s 2021 issue of the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines: President: Editor: Writers: Logo Design:

Maurice Alexander Cécile Fardoux Leyla Dalkic, Derek Gardiner, Déborah Lazreug, Luke Litvinov, Thea Mainprize, Oliver James Pike Sonia Garyayev

Email: Instagram: Facebook: Twitter:

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journalofmattersrelatingtofelines@outlook.com @journalofmatters Journal of Matters Relating to Felines @journalofmatter