Natural Frequency

You may write me down in History with your bitter twisted lies

You may trod me in the very dirt 

but still like dust I'll rise

I am leaving my job to become a physics teacher, tangent I know but the resultent force of wanting more training and previous life as a scientist. Having not left work yet but starting to swat up I am coming up with some brilliant (if I do say so myself) Physics/politics mash-ups!

Preiviously I have written about Political Red Shift  and made some comments about our need for an Einstien like logic and imagination. This week I have been thinking about Maya Angelou, Corbyn and Natural Frequency.

So you know on cartoons where people sing and shatter glass, or do you know that marching soldiers break step to cross a bridge incase it breaks. Both of these effects are caused by the fact that matterials have a 'natural frequency' that is the particles vibrate at a certain frequency and if they are hit with a wave of the same frequency they start oscillating in a supper excited fasion to the point that the system shaters! (I'm not sure I've got Physics write there!)

However do watch this:

That's the power of something hitting a structures natural frequency. Why almost every time I do a workshop and hand people a range of poetry is it 'Still I rise' that is read out. Why is it every time I hear it read it sends chills down my spine. Why do so many women I have worked with having read it once carry it with them everywhere they go. Because it hits our natural frequency. And when something hits our natural frequency we begin to oscillate and the system we are emeshed in starts to  strain, the edifice that is Patriarchy starts to crack, and will, as long as we continue having that natural frequency input, fall crashing down and we will be free little molecules.

Why is Jeremy Corbyn's campaign gathering so much momentum and energy. Why is it causing such anxiety to the structures around it? Natural frequency. 

What Poem/Song/Political speach hits your natural frequency? leave me a note bellow

Imagining #JezWeCan

'Imagination is more important than knowledge'

'Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.'

Albert Einstein

'Can you imagine Jeremy Corbyn on the front bench? Can you imagine Jeremy Corbyn at the dispatch box? Can you imagine Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister?'

I feel my imagination is under continuous question? But I'm afraid my self assured imagination has suffered no dent in it's own assurance, it has just been temporarily quietened while trying to workout how to gently and respectful suggest that the problem may be located in the imagination of the questioner.

Yes I can imagine all those things and whats more my rather fertile imagination generally floats around in a much wilder place that I am not going to share here.

But everybody thinks differently and that neurodiversity makes us stronger as a collective. So while I am generally more challenged by the A to B bit, even walking the wrong way home on occasion due to absorption in my own thoughts, I am mighty glad the world contains people good at getting from A to B.

The thing is is that it doesn't actually take much imagination to think of Corbyn as leader. Imagination may help you jump straight there but logic can get you there too and its important we make the journey both ways. 

So here's the logic:

Corbyn's Policies are popular with the electorate.

He is unlikely to be divisive given his history of trying to facilitate talks between opposing groups. He has suggested an elected cabinet and acknowledged that Labor is a broad church and would be willing to listen to a diversity of views. This is in contrast to the behavior and tactics of some other politicians recently.

All of his policies including unilateral disarmament have been successfully implemented in other countries.The vast majority of the criticism hurled at him is dependent on character assassination, mockery and derision of him and a large proportion of Labour party membership - that should tell you something. 

Lastly - look at the wrinkles where are Corbyns wrinkle marks - round his eyes they are the signature of a life of sincerity and smiles. 

Good Housekeeping - What I've learnt from the budget

Learning from the wisdom of the budget my husband and I have sat down and reviewed our household income. We thought it would be helpful to share some of our thoughts so that other people can also apply the chancellors excellent approach to finances to their own personal circumstances.

The child we were fostering has to go. Though this child has been with us three years we have come to see the lack of wisdom in times of austerity of supporting such scroungers. We are sure if she just tried a little harder he could sort out her parents break down or alternatively support herself with a job I mean if she doesn't put any effort into supporting herself then we can't keep propping her up. Plus we just don't have the room anymore the recession has made our house magically shrink.

We may get another lodger. Our current lodger is great and we really need to let him know how much we appreciate him. We are going to invite him to dinner and reduce his rent as a way of thanking him for paying 30% of his rent intermittently. We hope that keeps him happy because we really couldn't afford for him to move out. Plus we lent him several thousand pounds of our savings and if he moves out we might not get it back so we really need to make sure he stay's cause that was meant to be for the kids uni fees. 

We've cut the kids pocket money - there just isn't any room for that at the moment. We've also asked Granny if she could start doing the childcare while were at work because we can't afford nursery fees and Granny loves the kids so I'm sure she'd be happy to do it for free. Then we can go to work for more hours.

We have a family holiday coming up, to keep costs low we're going to leave the kids behind - they don't really need a holiday. We've had a look at what we could sell off and cut out. We don't want to cancel the golf club memberships or stop hosting dinner parties for our richest friends. We do think though we could put the kids on a diet of gruel. They need to stop eating so much of that junk food and piles of sugar they've been consuming anyway, we have told them repeatedly but they keep on eating what's in the cupboard. 

Also they haven't really been contributing much we might send them a bill for their toys, oh and tax them for our efforts in helping keeping the toys safe. Also I think the third one will just have to go, last in first out. 

If we keep making these right choices we should be able to run a surplus by 3010. We are anticipating some resistance from the children so we are going to make sure they hear us ask the lodger to make sure he please pays the rent. We'll let the lodger know beforehand though because we really mustn't lose him it would be so hard to find another lodger I mean there are just so few people looking for accommodation.

There is a Choice: Jeremy for Labor Leader #Jezwecan

Political Red Shift

In case you missed it I am incredibly excited about Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Leadership bid and that at the very least we have someone publicly and repeatedly getting the airtime to refute the austerity myth. I am not the only one there is a growing movement of people who are beginning to glimmer some hope and I think Jeremy Corbyn will do better than many people originally predicted.

The media reporting and general public perception of the anti-austerity movement is much more dismissive and mocking than history will be. The reality is that the idea's that Jeremy and the wider movement he listens to and dialogs with, are not extreme or overly ideological. Mostly they are not knew ideas mostly they are things that our society at some point has accepted as sensible. 

So why do so many people perceive this movement as so much 'lefter' or 'redder' than it actually is? I think the stars can help us answer this.

Red Shift is the name for the phenomenon that describes why some stars look red. When we look at stars that are moving away from us (or we are moving away from them) the light coming from them, which we know should be a yellow color, looks red. This is because the wavelength appears to look longer because the objects are moving away from each other. It's the same reason that when a police car goes past you the siren sounds with a lower pitch as it drives away from you. 

I think we have a similar situation in european politics. The right are moving to the right and arguably with increasing velocity. We find ourselves on this moving object and as we look out at alternative galaxies we our not conscious of our own position or relative direction through the political universe. As we look out at alternative galaxies many of them, that in reality have been more constant than we ever have, appear to be getting increasingly red. 

Political Doppler effect or Political Red Shift (n.): the means by which the political left appears far left because of the speed with which the right is moving far right.