Do not think that, just because you claim to have no faith in a god, that you are a free thinker and dwell in the realm of reality and truth, because the faith system of religion has simply lost some of its influence to the faith system of the democratic nation state.

We believe that the best way to run a country is by voting for representatives of three long-standing political parties every five years; we believe that, if we work and save hard, we will be comfortable in our retirement; we believe that the Police will protect us if we are good and punish us if we are bad. We believe that a deadly influenze pandemic is about to roll like a cloud of mucal death over our civilisation; we believe that we are in more danger walking on the pavement than driving in a car; we believe that the best way to deal with climate change is probably to buy an air conditioner.

I edited out the clause “we believe in climate change,” because I really do believe in climate change.

Religions are being partially displaced, in the minds of some, by other systems of myth; but they are myth. Britain – the political, emotional, relational Britain that we seem to care so much about – doesn’t exist, has no intrinsic existence, or exists only as a simulated spirit, spun together by ten million daily incantations in the staff canteen, the smoking area, across the desk partition. We chant Britain into near-being, like the religious chant God.

As an atheist, as an agnostic, you are in no way free of faith until you no longer believe in your nation, the expertise of your doctor, yourself.

I just took my headphones off. I was going to go to bed, but outside I can hear a horrific, huge machine sound. An enormous engine, an atonal, wordless blare, a hideous fanfare. The sound of fast-spinning iron drums, spiked. Some kind of land-gouging engine, some kind of holocaust generator.

Have they decided to level Croydon? They’re doing something horrible on a large scale, and they’re doing it at night.

There’s a conveyor belt. Twelve feet wide, the width of the machine. Unconscious bodies thrown onto the pitted, slimy rubber, disappearing into the mouth of the machine and chewed to gritty paste by its appalling metal teeth.

Drunk kids stumble out of bars, cops tase them. Bang. Stun them, beat them about the head until they lose consciousness, throw them onto the vulcanised tongue of the machine. Zero tolerance finally implemented. Burn them to tar, to carbon. Plumes of outrageous vapours whipped away by the wind.

*****

If you’re ambivalent about having children, or taking a job, or making your way in the word, that’s a revolutionary stance and is exactly what the world as a total biological system desperately needs.

“I was going to go to the bookshop and get something to read but… I can’t really be bothered. I was going to recharge my phone to talk to my friends and family…”

The world needs failures now, the world needs human failure on a global scale. Fail and be proud. But not too proud, because that might motivate you to do something.

“I was going to set up a record label and a fashion label, but I thought, probably wouldn’t get very far so I thought, just stay home. And the kettle’s broke, and I couldn’t really be bothered to fix it, because I thought it’s probably complicated, so I just… well, I turned the tap on, but then I thought, allow it…”

THAT’S THE SPIRIT. THAT’S WHAT THE WORLD ACTUALLY NEEDS FROM US RIGHT NOW AND IT REPRESENTS A REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.

In the clothes shop they’re playing house music, disco samples of orchestral strings suggesting soap operas about rich people. House music, the music of preening and consumption.