How many more will die of cold this winter ?

[Papaumau]

NOPE, not for a second !

This is not just a touch of serendipity, it is based on knowing that if we get downhearted the beasts will always win.

As I see myself, ( modestly ? ) as one of the strong I feel under a responsibility to fight for the ones that are not so strong. This is one of the ways that I feel good about myself and I am of the opinion that everybody should feel that way.

[Ivanhoe]

Yes I always believe in the strong carrying the weak, it is my nature, but this doesnt alter the fact that I feel after 20 years, that I have a right to feel demoralised, even though I dont like feeling this way.

[Papaumau]

We all feel a bit "demoralised" now and again but that should not stop us from keeping up the good fight. I have found that if we dwell on our own situations too much we become so disarmed that we are then no good to anyone else.

Ever since I denied religion - as a child in Northern Ireland - and became a fully-fledged athiest I have been encouraged to also become a humanist so that by studying the human condition I can bypass a lot of the hangups that people of faith seem to have either as burdens or as crutches.

That has given me the personal strength to overcome the many times when I have been downhearted, and humanism also makes one look outwards instead of inwards where we can evaluate what is missing in others including poverty and regular desperation. As I look at the plight of others I find that I have little time left for my own dark times.

That is how I do it but I am afraid that this might not work for others.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, I went to your word "humanism", and im not impressed.  No offence to you.

I have an open mind on everything, but I dont wrap myself round any name, sect, religion ect, not even "humanism".

I am merely a mortal human being with a thinking mind, an enquiring mind, a political mind.

I dont belong to anything, I am just me trying to help people much older than me, and trying to make connection with people like myself who are thining the same way and who might be glad to have a leader in the same cause.

You come across as very laid back, wheras im not.

An interesting thought occurs to me, that if we lived nearer and joined forces for the same cause, how would things be handled ?, my way, or your way ?

[Papaumau]

No Ivanhoe, I am by no means "laid back", I just try hard to diminish my own problems that might disable me and stop me from doing what I want to do.

I have found - as part of my study of human behaviour - that we are not islands and we often DO need help to get on with what our ambitions are in life.

As I found out early on that organised religion is a crock and a con-trick that entraps the weak I found that I then had to fight it as just another of the attractive traps that people can be led into.

Humanism is not a religion or a sect or something that should be feared or avoided, it is simply a very large group of people world-wide that carry out their lifes-work while using the humanist values to direct them.

Not all humanists are athiests like me but most of them ARE aware of the damage that organised religion can do and they choose not to be entrapped by these theological nets.

I suppose that we all - as fallable humans - have to believe in something that gives us support and I think that if we are to give our allegiance to anything, Humanism is the least dangerous of all of the "isms".

Have another look at and read the home page carefully with a truly open mind and you might see what I see in this cause.

One thing is true; it can do you no harm whatsoever.

( Anybody else want to jump in here ? ).

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, I am just me, a civilised, intelligent, socially aware man living in a country that has lost it's morals.

I simply believe in human decency, I neither want or need any sects ( of any sort) to link onto.

[Papaumau]

I will reiterate......"No man is an island !"

In fact any man/woman that tries to be would be as well living alone, in a cave, high on a hillside, somewhere.

I will also reiterate....."The British Humanist Society" is NOT a "sect", in fact, it stands against any narrow and sectarian views anywhere it finds them.

[Ivanhoe]

If Labour returns to it's core values, and a Labour party starts up again where I live, I will once again become an activist, because traditional Labour's core values are my core values.

[Papaumau]

As you well know, they are mine too !

Having said that I do think that many of the hangups that "old" Labour used to have could do with being cut out.

I still think that the true LABOUR party can be modernised without turning it into an ersatz Tory party - as Blair tried to do.

I would hope that Ed Miliband might be the man to do that, as the front runner - so far - his brother - is a died-in-the-wool Blairite.

The only other true "back to the roots" candidate is Dianne Abbot, but as she is a women AND black I don't think she will get the support that she might need to get through.

What MIGHT happen is that Abbot's votes might be transferred to Ed Miliband's list if she sees that she has no chance. This HAS happened before.

[Ivanhoe]

//////What MIGHT happen is that Abbot's votes might be transferred to Ed Miliband's list if she sees that she has no chance. This HAS happened before. //////

We can only hope.