Elsewhere (174)
Theodore Dalrymple on intellectual evasions:
Sometimes the employment of a single word in common use gives away an entire worldview. There was just such a usage in the headline of a story in the Guardian late last month: “How the ‘Pompey Lads’ fell into the hands of Isis.” […] The word that implied a whole worldview was “fell.” According to the headline, the young men “fell” into the hands of Isis as an apple falls passively to the ground by gravitational force. The word suggests that it could have happened to anybody, this going to Syria via Turkey to join a movement that delights in decapitation and other such activities in the name of a religion — their religion. Joining Isis is like multiple sclerosis; it’s something that just happens to people. The word “fell” denies agency to the young men, as if they had no choice in the matter. They were victims of circumstance by virtue of their membership of a minority, for minorities are by definition victims without agency.
Mick Hartley quotes Anne Applebaum on the new titan of the British left:
Jeremy Corbyn, would-be leader of the Labour party, is the latest in a long line of useful idiots. Corbyn has recommended that his Twitter followers watch the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today, which he has described as “more objective” than other channels. Never mind that Russia Today interviews actors who claim to be “witnesses” and invents stories — for example, that a Russian-speaking child was crucified by a Ukrainian.
When not describing Hamas and Hizballah as “friends” and declaring his “solidarity” with the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela, our Islington radical finds time to be a fearless supporter of taxpayer-funded homeopathy, which apparently “compliments ‘conventional’ medicine” because “they both come from organic matter.”
And Tim Blair ponders the cultural and economic powerhouse that is taxpayer-funded interpretive dance:
As Australia transitions from a mineral export-based economy to a dance-based economy, it is clearly important to make certain that the dance sector is as stable as possible. Choreographer Lucy Guerin told the [senate] hearings [into arts funding] that to do otherwise would risk us “eventually severing the future of artistic development in Australia and setting us back 30 years.” “It’s that serious,” she added, with all the gravity you’d expect from a choreographer addressing a bunch of senators.
Behold ye, wealth creation.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments.
Behold ye, wealth creation
I used to do that to make my kids laugh, but I don’t recall the economy picking up. Maybe my interpretation placed too much emphasis on arsing about and not enough on exploring.
As Australia transitions from a mineral export-based economy to a dance-based economy,
Snork.
our Islington radical finds time to be a fearless supporter of taxpayer-funded homeopathy, which apparently “compliments ‘conventional’ medicine” because “they both come from organic matter.”
Voodoo medicine *and* voodoo economics. Two for two.
RE: wealth creation
This is part A of the show I held at Little Woods Gallery in September 2014. Bridge explores how Australians use humour in social situations, and the uncomfortable relationship that reflex has with intellectualism. It’s not appropriate in Australia to be serious. I relate through a latticework of jokes(???) that form the backbone of my stories. This comic mode exists at the expense of being earnest. It creates a fissure between how I present and my actual self.
If I were an axe murderer these are the people I would target first.
Did you hear about the homeopath who forgot to take his medicine, and died of an overdose?
Speaking of homeopathy.
taxpayer-funded homeopathy, which apparently “compliments ‘conventional’ medicine” because “they both come from organic matter.”
The science, it burns.
. . .taxpayer-funded homeopathy, which apparently “compliments ‘conventional’ medicine” because “they both come from organic matter.”
Other things which come from “organic matter,” which are therefore good:
Oil spills.
Sewage.
Carbon monoxide.
Sorry, this is completely off topic.
Via Anita Singh’s Twitter:
Alain de Botton’s holidays sound like a riot.
https://twitter.com/anitathetweeter/status/629577552462524416
The spam filter’s getting uppity. If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll shake them free.
As Australia transitions from a mineral export-based economy to a dance-based economy,
Snork
It’s easy to point and laugh until someone asks you to make change for a Bowie:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/fashion/change-for-a-bowie-the-advent-of-artisanal-cash.html?_r=1
Personally, I’m looking forward to opportunities to short.
This is only one up from the immortal words of that other great political leader, Bobby McFerrin when he told us all to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/dont-worry-be-happy/id724862142?i=724862378
Behold ye, wealth creation.
The last time I saw a guy like that I had to put in an oropharyngeal airway and give him a shot of Dilantin, poor bassard.
Meanwhile, speaking of Australia, cyborg activist visits Perth to show off the antenna embedded in his skull so he can hear color.
“I tried to find a doctor and it was difficult, because I had to talk to a bio-ethical committee but the committee said it was not ethical,” Mr Harbisson said.
“So then I had to find a doctor willing to do the surgery anonymously, and I found one in Barcelona.”
Not even in the worst of Jim Crow laws have I ever heard of such blatant discrimination.
@RY
I don’t know. Seems reasonable to me.
For example, just this morning I sat in my kitchen perusing the comments of David Thompson’s blog. That is, it would have seemed to observers that I was there in bucolic environs of the Ozark mountains of Missouri. But ‘I’–that is the conscious part of my self–had abandoned the physical envelope in which it dwelt in order to make a migration to wherever Alain de Botton is at the moment for purposes of slapping the shit out of him.
So, I’ve got that going for me.
Which is nice.
Even worse yet, there is insufficient training done to make certain that all animals have sufficient awareness and respect for the source of all societal admiration and glorious font of personal inspiration.
Or in short, Man surrounded by charging cattle gored by bull while pointlessly staring at cell phone..
Meanwhile, over at Breitbart London, Oliver Lane points out that “freebleeding” is not a radfem movement at all, bur rather a hoax perpetrated by some teenage trolls. Nevertheless, one rather unhygienic SJW fell for it big time.
Oliver Lane points out that “freebleeding” is not a radfem movement at all, but rather a hoax perpetrated by some teenage trolls.
Perhaps we should consult the deep thinkers to be found in Women’s Studies departments. For instance, Dr Sharra Vostral, whose areas of expertise include “the social and technological history of sanitary napkins.” And who tells us that tampons are both “an artefact of control” and a “feminist technology,” one that has “enabled women to pass as non-bleeders,” to “overcome prejudice levelled against a bleeding body.” This “act of technological passing,” says she, “presents an altered external identity” and “requires the technological user to agree to a sort of temporal amnesia.”
“(R)equires the technological user to agree to a sort of temporal amnesia.”
Ah.
Hence those ’90s “Bodyform” commercials.
I have a confession to make…I…I’m a feminist. It’s not like I want to be a feminist. In fact, whenever these drama-infused issues arise I make an effort to be well versed in the “evil Patriarch” side of the argument. But the infuriating thing about feminism is, no sooner do these little dramas rise to the surface, it seems the paradigm shifts to a “That’s what the Patriarchy wants us to think” manner, and I’m back on the feminist side again.
Oliver Lane points out that “freebleeding” is not a radfem movement at all, but rather a hoax perpetrated by some teenage trolls.
Perhaps we should consult the deep thinkers to be found in Women’s Studies departments.
Oh, no, no, no, no. Bleeding like a stuck saint goes back centuries.
“…now in Debutante size, as well as Normal and Stuck Pig sizes…”
Behold ye, wealth creation.
The back of the brain has decided that surely there is some place to make use of a rewrite of Just A Gigolo, about a little corporal who can’t get a job as a painter . . . .
‘Intellectual evasions’ reminds me of a line from Nick Cohen’s book What’s Left?
Writers write badly when they have something to hide. Clarity makes their shaky assumptions plain to the readers – and to themselves.
I may be mistaken in believing that the left prefers evasion (and delusion) to clarity. That’s entirely possible.
I noticed this a little while ago with the Israeli/Palestine conflict. When engaged in battle X amount of Hamas “soldiers” would be “killed by Israeli artillery/helicopters/tanks etc”. Yet in the same battle it seems Israel would somehow just “lose” 3-4 soldiers. Those Jews really are careless that they go around losing soldiers as if they are matching socks.
Yet in the same battle it seems Israel would somehow just “lose” 3-4 soldiers. Those Jews really are careless that they go around losing soldiers as if they are matching socks.
Oh. You haven’t been there, have you? It’s one big dryer off thataway.
I just feel so terrible thinking of all the air-con oppression happening over there.
I think Jeremy Corbyn was what Hannah Arendt meant when she wrote about the banality of evil. He’s just so perfectly po-faced a caricature of sad 1970’s Polytechnic Leftism. If he were actually an intellectual heavyweight he’d be dangerous, but as it is he just comes across as one of the minor characters in The History Man. What a twerp.
As Australia transitions from a mineral export-based economy to a dance-based economy
I denounce the ableism.
sad 1970s Polytechnic Leftism
I may have to borrow that.
I denounce the ableism.
Thank goodness our own Arts Council funding is much more sane and rigorous.
This just in:
Onward to the Seventies, comrades.
If I were an axe murderer these are the people I would target first.
Seems a tad harsh. When I’m feeling generous towards my fellow man, even towards practitioners of performance art, I try to remember that such people have been encouraged to believe, not least by so-called educators and state-salaried bureaucrats, that their flummery is the very measure of radical sophistication. As we’ve seen many times, there’s little chance of their being dissuaded by a comical mismatch of rhetoric and talent. One might almost regard them as tragic figures, dupes, the clownish victims of an institutional con. One that feeds on the vain and credulous.
And then, of course, I remember how complicit they are, the ludicrous sense of entitlement, the unrelenting self-flattery, the default pretension, the sixth form politics, and how much they relish their imagined superiority.
When engaged in battle X amount of Hamas “soldiers” would be “killed
Hamas “soldiers”? Unlikely. They’re normally described as “activists” or “civilians, including women and children”.
‘When engaged in battle X amount of Hamas “soldiers” would be “killed”‘
Has to be said that it’s rare to hear of any Hamas combatants being killed by the IDF.
If one watched the BBC or Channel 4, one would get the impression that only civilians get killed in Gaza.
Seems a tad harsh. When I’m feeling generous towards my fellow man, even towards practitioners of performance art, I try to remember that such people have been encouraged to believe, not least by so-called educators and state-salaried bureaucrats, that their flummery is the very measure of radical sophistication.
I’m harmless, I promise. I know from experience exactly how such people are encouraged to behave this way, as I was encouraged to be the same way during my bachelors. My tutors were frustrated by my “bloody stubborn” insistence on making things that didn’t have a sufficiently theoretical justification. During one tense confrontation in a group review I managed to force the admission from the head of the dept that a lot of what was going on there was in fact made up nonsense that didn’t mean anything, but still they had to insist that I play along because of the way your work is marked. I barely passed final year assessment with a C-, and yet the head of the school bought that final assessment piece (for the school collection) because she thought it was beautiful. Figure that shit out. I don’t know, maybe she was just insincere and trying to leave me with a good impression because I was making too much noise about the school being too academic and at the same time full of shit. I’m not a good writer or a gifted thinker, but I could see through the intellectual pose of the school and it irked me greatly that an institution with such excellent facilities (the first in the country) seemed to be going to waste.
That Theodore Dalrymple/Anthony Daniels link is worth a tickle of your tip jar, David. Consider it done.
After some weeks of dangerous and potentially illegal prospecting in a far-away country I believe I’ve found a rich seam of material ripe for mockery. I submit it for the Boards approval:
http://www.maskmagazine.com/the-crossing-paths-issue/life/che-and-reina-gossett
p.s I initially thought that the photo at the top of the article was of a serial killer posing with the corpse of one of his victims but evidently I was wrong.
Speaking of intellectual evasions, has anyone, by chance, yet seen an English version of the story regarding a young woman murdered and steeped in a bath of acid in France, in which the culprits are named?
Much ado about an American television show it seems, but somehow the mainstream press of the English-speaking world doesn’t have anyone who can translate anything but their ages, their majors, what nice thing some professor or another said of them… everything but their names and origins.
Hint: search for the victim’s name, then click on an article in French.
Elsewhere:
Take a trip to the parody horizon of sex education
Jonathan…so these two whatnots of humanity want to live by GoFundMe accounts? That is, they want people who HAVE jobs to support the likes of them, who just cannot possibly take a job in this horrible capitalist sexist anti-trans world of ours, because they’re so fucking delicate and artistic? Thanks a lot–now I’m irritated.
I followed the link provided by Jimmy, for which I am oddly grateful. I was amazed at how many people in one camera shot can show they can’t dance.
Thanks a lot–now I’m irritated.
Hey, don’t blame me if you’re unable to appreciate their genius.
Feeling Triggered™ now!
Some commentary on art criticism . . .
I spotted this great work of contextually progressive cultural enrichment proudly on display at my old art school while visiting an acquaintance. I’m sure you will all be suitably awed by its daring subject matter (ice cream, of course) and expert technique.
How is the use of the word “fell” incorrect in any way? We say “they fell in with the wrong group”, where “fall” is used in both the sense of “falling in step” (i.e. choosing to adopt the (presumably, not very nice) values of the offending group, but also in the biblical sense of man’s fall from grace.
“and invents stories — for example, that a Russian-speaking child was crucified by a Ukrainian”
RT certainly aren’t the only offender (btw, there were a few crucifixions on the Eastern Front in WW2 IIRC Chris Bellamy’s Absolute War).
Remember the poor girl who told the tearful tale in Gulf 1 about the Iraqis taking the babies out of the incubators, leaving them to die, and shipping the incubators back to Baghdad?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_%28testimony%29