Those Critical Faculties
Come, let us dip a toe in the world of woke theatre criticism. From the pages of Intermission magazine, where the Toronto Star’s theatre critics, Aisling Murphy and Karen Fricker, applaud each other, and thereby themselves, for seeing an indigenous play and submitting to conditions on what they may say about it:
We both responded really positively to the show. But the reason we’re not writing a traditional review is because [playwright and director] Kim Harvey did not invite reviews of this Toronto premiere production of Kamloopa. This follows on from the world premiere production in 2018 in Vancouver in which she invited Indigenous women to write love letters to the show but did not invite traditional reviews.
You see, for Ms Harvey, our unflinching and very indigenous creative person, “staging theatre productions is a form of Indigenous ceremony,” and is therefore, conveniently, exempt from customary feedback, i.e., reviews of a kind that paying customers might have found useful, had they been available. And so, reviewers of pallor, should they be permitted, must first attend a circle, in which they will be told, in advance, how artful and profound the work in question is, and what they should say about it. After all, it’s so much easier on the ego, and any teetering vanity, if no acknowledgement of any shortcoming is permitted.
Despite not being brown and magical beings themselves, Ms Murphy and Ms Fricker are keen to show their approval of, and deference to, this artistic innovation:
Here, white critics were invited, but with the caveat of listening and bearing witness to Kim’s artistic philosophies first: to me, that felt not only fair but really rich.
Bearing witness, you say. To artistic philosophies. Because you can’t just turn up with tickets in the hope of entertainment.
Given their alleged importance, the particulars of these philosophies remain oddly mysterious. It isn’t clear what arcane knowledge would have to be bestowed upon white people in order for them to determine whether the play is actually any good. Yet we are left to assume that some creative vastness, again unspecified, couldn’t possibly be squeezed into “traditional reviews.” At least when those reviews are written by white people.
Says Ms Murphy,
I think for me, hearing Kim lay out so concretely her mandates was a big moment, as someone not just writing my own reviews, but curating what gets reviewed and how for Intermission… I really appreciated the circle as a chance to examine my own ethics and mandates in dialogue with Kim’s, and other artists’, and how those thoughts manifest in the form of theatre reviewing.
Ms Fricker is not to be outdone:
Some of our critical colleagues have responded negatively to their requests and invitations – or in some cases, have not responded to those invitations at all. This may be because they understand themselves to be committed to certain traditions of Western theatre criticism in which, for example, a critic would avoid contact with an artist before a show if they were intending to write a review because this would compromise objectivity (or so the thinking goes). It seems to me, though, that Kim and Yolanda are challenging the very foundations of that tradition and inviting us to see its connections to Western, patriarchal colonial histories.
But of course. And so, if you’re a critic and you don’t appreciate being given lengthy preconditions regarding what it is you will think and write, and how approving you must be, and if you don’t appreciate racial vetoes on who may or may not offer feedback, then by implication you’re a tool of patriarchy and Western colonialism. A bad person. Unlike our enlightened, more progressive duo.
Untroubled by irony, Ms Fricker goes on to mourn the ongoing, quite rapid decline of her profession and of the wider newsprint industry, before surrendering to the impulse for further gushing:
But the thing is, as you say, these Indigenous matriarchs are actively, generously offering alternatives. They’re offering teaching and leadership and possible futures for interactions between artists and cultural responders.
Cultural responders. The fourth emergency service.
Alas, the “teaching and leadership” session on how to pre-emptively approve of indigenous theatre – there being, it seems, no permissible alternative – was, like similar events, “sparsely attended.”
And for that to be rejected or ignored…. that’s deeply problematic because it’s yet another form of disrespect to Indigenous woman at a time when all those of us who are fortunate to live and work on this land need to be offering Indigenous people – especially Indigenous woman – respect, support, and love.
What you’re hearing, dear reader, is the sound of racial prostration. It’s the way of the woke.
Should you live in Canada and wish to see Kamloopa, you can buy tickets here, before swooning with approval.
Via Jonathan Kay.
“Deficate”?
“Deficate”?
Don’t worry, it’s a “newspaper” for the untutored masses – the subs or reporters are not paid to know how to spell.
subs or reporters are not paid to know how to spell
My theory is that computers have dumbed-down a lot of output since it’s so easy to produce something that resembles a professional product but the finer details are lost. Why hire someone expensive who can write clearly, spell and use proper grammar when you can get a temp, intern or non-native English speaker for 1/4 or 1/2 the cost?
What? What’s wrong with him? Seems okay to me.
[ Spock peruses David’s archives. ]
“In order to better understand logic, I have decided to peruse the most illogical thoughts I can find. By understanding what logic is not, I can better understand what logic is.”
[ Spock returns briefly after washing out his eyes.]
“Indeed, gentlemen. May I point out that I had an opportunity to observe your counterparts here quite closely. They were brutal, savage, unprincipled, uncivilized, treacherous – in every way splendid examples of homo sapiens, the very flower of humanity.”
You have to wonder how exhausting it must be to remain so contrived – to remember and enact all of the required pretensions.
“OMG Becky, those opinions are soooo last season.”
It’s the same dynamic as Darwin’s “telescopic philanthropy” or the literal “holier than thou” competition within evangelical communities. It’s just fashion trends as a proxy for female competition for status within the herd.
It’s just fashion trends as a proxy for female competition for status within the herd.
I mean, yes, it can be a little bewildering or alienating, or at least socially awkward, to realise that your views are wildly out of step with prevailing trends. But to follow the trends and perform these neurotic affectations, most of which are prone to seemingly random updates, seems much, much worse.
I think that was Charles Dickens, not Darwin.
Telescopic philanthropy in Punch.
Virtue signals: When one was just competing with their local group/tribe/small town, one did not have to go to extremes to be considered righteous. But to compete within a city of millions and online, only the most extreme views will stand out. Of course, what they miss is that they cannot win this game and, worse, it often plays against their own interests. We are currently witnessing the striving for perfect virtue, in the covid response and in the climate change attack on fossil fuels, of a suicidal movement. Shut. Down. Everything. What could go wrong?
It makes me really miss the religious right. Sure, they caused problems. But I’d rather deal with people who insist women should only be home-makers than people who don’t even know what a woman is.
This is a simplified way to put it, but I find it is generally true. The radical right takes ideas that work for many people(Such as traditional gender roles), and then totalize them and force compliance on everyone. The radical left takes ideas that apply to almost nobody (gender ideology), and then does the same thing. The right is less dysfunctional, in this sense, because their ideas work for at least a decent chunk of the population, whereas the lefts ideas work for only a handful of people, or perhaps none.
I worry that the pendulum swing away from the radical left will bring us into an era where the radical right is ascendant. But even that would be an improvement from where we are now.
I worry that the pendulum swing away from the radical left will bring us into an era where the radical right is ascendant.
Contrary to Atwood and her sisterhood, the only actual theocratic nations currently are Muslim ones. And they had to obliterate all sense of individual autonomy, and have all the guns, to get there. The American “religious right” may have had in the past enough cultural sway to influence some laws, but at least Constitutional guardrails kept it from going the Iranian route.
This is why I look at the garment-rending left with their calls to either 1) pack SCOTUS 2) Disband SCOTUS or 3) assassinate current SCOTUS justices and shake my head. They want to seize control by any means necessary and never consider that those same tools can and will be used against them later.
I don’t think the American “religious right” ever wanted to exclude all women from the workplace, much less from the more prestigious and high-paying professions. Rather, they opposed the left’s efforts to have the State take over the raising of children (for purposes of indoctrination) while the women were all moved into the workplace. And they rightly maintained that child-rearing is a valuable and natural activity of mothers which deserves respect, not Marxist feminists heaped upon it.
So, the people labeled “the religious right” are not the totalitarians the left made them out to be.
pst314, I’m in agreement with you. The Left has always made the “rr” a kind of boogeyman where if some church leader says moms should make their young children the priority in their lives that becomes “Christofascists will make it law to stay home, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen … ARGH!”
I think that was Charles Dickens, not Darwin.
[ laughs ] Plucking autocucumber. Although I could argue that expending resources on tedious virtue signaling in benefit of those outside your tribe is a kind of Darwinism…
what they miss is that they cannot win this game and, worse, it often plays against their own interests
The most attractive queen bees can take the hit. The average women knock themselves out of the running by following suit. All is proceeding according to plan. Or at least evo psych.
“the religious right” are not the totalitarians the left made them out to be
Some of them were. What are sometimes called the “paleoconservatives” absolutely advocated for laws based on their flavour of evangelical Christianity, including a federal ban on abortion and the return of mandatory prayer in public schools. How much influence any of them had on real legislators is anyone’s guess, just don’t forget we’re in a time of unprecedented collectivism and secularism in the West. The “religious right” currently has to fight for the barest crumbs of concessions because they’re outside the Overton window.
Contrary to Atwood and her sisterhood, the only actual theocratic nations currently are Muslim ones
I remember when the book came out and everyone hailed it as a trenchant critique of Chimpy McBusHitlerBurton’s Christofascist America and I was like, “you know Gilead is literally the guys we’re fighting right now, right?”
subs or reporters are not paid to know how to spell
To cut costs, many newspapers got rid of their copy desks. You’re seeing the result.
Not just in spelling. Copy editors see the news fresh and can raise issues, particularly potential libel.
The most attractive queen bees can take the hit.
Such as when exceptionally beautiful fashion models wear ridiculous clothing and accessories, perhaps.
Some of them were.
There are more than religious reasons to encourage mothers to stay home to raise their own children and repeal the 19th amendment.
Some of them were.
I wonder how many, though. And how accurately their opinions were reported. That was back before the internet and before I started paying serious attention to politics: Nearly all the news/information I got was from the mainstream/establishment/left-controlled news industry, and in retrospect I am ready to question everything they told me.
Nearly all the news/information I got was from the mainstream/establishment/left-controlled news industry, and in retrospect I am ready to question everything they told me.
+1 I used to be a news junkie. I have not read a newspaper (carbon form or super highway form) or watched a mainstream news broadcast in years.
In respect to the Roe/Wade issue in the Excited States, I have come to realize that I don’t know which side to be on based on actual neglected facts. Does life begin at conception ? When the head exits the twinkle cave ? When the thing finally gets up and changes the channel on its own ?
Who knows.
I am a conservative Canadian agnostic (read just to the right of a Massive Twoshits Pinko Commie in Liberty Speak) who is in favour of abortion rights up to and including post natal limits (the driving license limit.. ha). But I am the first to admit I don’t know the answer to the above question. But the fact we are no longer even allowed to have that discussion without a blue hair screech whale calling us ISMS !! tells me which side I am automagically on…
Some of them were. What are sometimes called the “paleoconservatives” absolutely advocated for laws based on their flavour of evangelical Christianity, including a federal ban on abortion and the return of mandatory prayer in public schools. How much influence any of them had on real legislators is anyone’s guess, just don’t forget we’re in a time of unprecedented collectivism and secularism in the West. The “religious right” currently has to fight for the barest crumbs of concessions because they’re outside the Overton window.
Oh, this. I attended a religious school (Presbyterian) that was considered rather mainstream-ish as such schools went back in the day. Baseball pitching great Tommy John was a coach there. One alumni married early tech magnate Steve Case (AOL). Most parents, especially those who did not attend the associated church, did not grasp how extreme some of the teaching was. They truly wanted to eventually establish a right-wing religioustheocracy. Their earliest attempts at political power were mostly dashed by an absurdly ridiculous, bizarre scandal that some on this side of the pond may recall, though there were mildly significant connections to the Bush and even Reagan administrations. I doubt those administrations really grasped how extreme this school was. It has since become significantly more mainstream such that even a few of my more liberal friends have sent their children there.
The most attractive queen bees can take the hit.
But only so much of a hit. I’ve long suspected this dynamic works from both ends of the spectrum. The A1 lookers can afford a certain degree of slapdash tattoos, cattle piercings, and shithead attitude without completely fucking themselves over in the sexual marketplace. Meanwhile the most influential ugles of the feminist clown car can only benefit by encouraging the average-and-above in pulchritude to adopt unnattractive traits.
I mean, yes, it can be a little bewildering or alienating, or at least socially awkward, to realise that your views are wildly out of step with prevailing trends. But to follow the trends and perform these neurotic affectations, most of which are prone to seemingly random updates, seems much, much worse.
That. Can’t count how many times I’ve had to bite my tongue.
Can’t count how many times I’ve had to bite my tongue.
Well, quite. Though my usual reluctance to cause a scene occasionally gives way to my dislike of pretentious nonsense loudly announced.
See also, The Blurting.
The religious right of the past wasn’t that bad, definitely. I’d trade the radical left of today for them in a heart-beat, no question.
But my concern isn’t for the religious right of the past. It’s for the religious right that responds to an era of “What is a woman?” While I believe most of the public just wants a return to normalcy, the entrenchment of the radical left, and the rage of the oppressed, may result in the thing that overthrows the woke being almost as bad as the woke are. People who just want to be left alone aren’t good political soldiers. People who want to impose their own ideology are.
I don’t THINK that will happen, as there are A LOT of people who just want to go back to normal, which outweighs the normal downside of those people not being terribly politically active. But I can’t exactly look at historical precedent for what happens when the mainstream establishment doesn’t know what a woman is. And I’m pretty sure the closest equivalents end pretty badly.
In the UK, the police are pretty much pro-child rape at this point. How exactly COULD that end? The extreme injustice of the grooming gang cover-ups, the rage the victims must feel. The rage felt by anyone with an ounce of justice in their hearts. People SHOULD be feeling very, very angry. And yet, very, very angry people don’t often make the best decisions. That’s what concerns me.
In the end, I was talking about worst case scenarios. Where the pushback from the right becomes just as bad as the left. I doubt that will happen, as I’ve said. But even if the worst really does come to pass, then there is less harm to be done by people who want to keep women out of the workplace, than people who don’t even know what a woman is. Because many women are happier just being homemakers, and so a decent chunk of the populace wouldn’t mind that so much. Whereas women absolutely do exist, and the denial of it is intolerable to pretty much everyone.
I’ve said some similar things about fascism versus communism. Communism is like having your whole arm cut off, whereas Fascism is like having just your hand cut off. The loss of the hand is the big problem, but at least fascism lets you keep the arm, which is good for a few things, even without a hand.
I don’t think it’ll come to anything remotely like that. I think, after a rough and scary period where the woke and noncey establishment is purged from the public square, we will return to a normal. The cultural push will be reflexively opposed to anything political in normal society, because people will be so absolutely tired of it. A new, relatively healthy normal will assert itself. That’s what I think will happen. But I can’t help but worry that there is a possibility that more extreme and dystopic futures await us.
Meanwhile the most influential ugles of the feminist clown car can only benefit by encouraging the average-and-above in pulchritude to adopt unnattractive traits.
I’d never considered the ‘both ends of the spectrum’ position before, but it does make a certain sense.
Unfortunately…
Can’t count how many times I’ve had to bite my tongue
You didn’t have to, you know. Notice how you have been trained to understand that it is perfectly socially acceptable, by the general public that is, for leftist idiocy to be stated and restated. A person’s expression of the most rational objections however are unacceptable. They may politicize any damn thing because it has gotten to the point where these “we all agree about this latest stupidity being as normal as breathing” is simply not seen as political. They are just making observations. Any objections however are an indication that one is a Trumpist Cultist. Or whatever. Observations of simple objective truths that at their fundamental points are not political become political because it is that nail sticking up that must be pounded down who dares to point them out. This is the well understood popular mainstream narrative and you accept your place in it by going along as well.
In the UK, the police are pretty much pro-child rape at this point. How exactly
In NYC and California and many other places they are becoming more pro-crminal in general. They do the bidding of their political masters to the point if arresting people for defending themselves. Look at the Jose Alba case in NYC. Even more absurd than the George Zimmerman case. Absolutely ridiculous. But very, very little talk about this even in conservative…”conservative” circles. People are more willing to accept this as the new normal. It’s easier than making the effort to try to go back to the old normal. Realistically speaking, there is no going back.
‘both ends of the spectrum’ position
Back in the dawn of prehistory I spent a few year on loan to the Fleet Air Arm. Now is was the custom when an aircraft carrier made a port visit the FAA officers would, at the end of the vist, make an award of the Grimmy Trophy (The Order of the Toilet Seat) to whomesoever scored with the least attractive partner du jour. This was fine until on one occasion at a much visited port, the local ladies had realised the score and held their own Grimmy Contest. The FAA winner has the “pleasure” of being the victor of the ladies contest. Double Gold as it were,
Stay tuned for another exciting episode of “Today in Homophobia™”.
In the UK, the police are pretty much pro-child rape at this point.
I’m not so surprised that the senior command levels have become heavily politicized, but I do get the impression that there are plenty of rank and file who are willing to carry out their orders. (Granted, the view from over 3000 miles away is not crystal clear.)
Did anybody else here used to read a couple of anonymous UK policeman’s blogs? Inspector Gadget was one. Policeman’s Blog by PC David Copperfield was another. They had a lot of critical things to say about how the bureaucratization of the police was greatly reducing the effectiveness of the police. Somewhat reminiscent, I suppose, of Theodore Dalrymple’s observations on the workings of the NHS bureaucracy.
the mainstream establishment doesn’t know what a woman is
Well, in reality, the mainstream establishment not knowing what is a woman is a lie, an exercise in pretending that we are all supposed to go along with lest we be shrieked at for being bad people.
They know GD well what a woman is. They’re just afraid to say so or are co-opted into the delusion.
Stay tuned for another exciting episode of “Today in Homophobia™”.
I wonder if the all-activism-all-the-time author of that piece will eventually be revealed as a sex criminal. That seems to be happening a lot now. ?
“Nearly all the news/information I got was from the mainstream/establishment/left-controlled news industry, and in retrospect I am ready to question everything they told me.”
Back in the ’90s, my wife would bring home from the library U.S. News and World Report magazine. In it, John Leo had a column listing the latest liberal outrages on U.S. college campuses. These reports raised my blood pressure (my wife remembers me being rather screedy about it, but whatever) because I couldn’t believe such nonsense went on.
Over time, I realized that not only was Leo right, but it was only the tip of the rancid frozen iceberg of identity politics, anti-religious intolerance, and race-baiting that is the modern university today.
In fact, a combination of working on a newspaper copy desk (and reading the flood of wire stories from all the major newspapers five days a week) and reading the major blogs, changed my thinking on all the major issues, akin to putting on the glasses in “They Live.”
“Here, white critics were invited, but with the caveat of listening and bearing witness to Kim’s artistic philosophies first.”
“…in which she invited Indigenous women to write love letters to the show.”
I hope Ms. Harvey’s writing is as strong as her ego, but somehow I suspect that’s a rather high bar to clear.
I hope Ms. Harvey’s writing is as strong as her ego, but somehow I suspect that’s a rather high bar to clear.
The practised narcissism is a thing to behold. As is the expectation that she’ll usually get away with it. Which, being surrounded by racially neurotic lefties, I’d imagine she does.
Minneapolis has a significant Somali population. Groups of said demographic’s feral youth rampaged on July 4 and some have continued such terrorizing with taking it indoors …
Of all the local leaders and politicians only ONE dared to touch on the issue
Aaaannnnddd … I bet you all know how that was received.
“their children can no longer have that type of behavior.”
Yes. Yes, that’s an adult speaking. Just tell them they can no longer have that type of behavior and everything will be fine. After all, how did they know that they couldn’t have that type of behavior if no one told them that they couldn’t have that type of behavior. Honestly. How would one know? No one tells them.
“In NYC and California and many other places they are becoming more pro-crminal in general”
Yah… I had just seen something on the grooming scandal, so that came first to mind. I also consider the UKs version of things where child rape is okay to be even worse than what is allowed to happen in the US… but the Left in the US has effectively legalized crime.
They know GD well what a woman is. They’re just afraid to say so or are co-opted into the delusion.
This is the reason I’m cautiously optimistic about the future, and not TOO worried about a radical right worse than the 90s religious right returning. Because when the tide turns, it’ll be very easy for people to say (truthfully or otherwise) that they never believed this nonsense, and just were unable to speak out against it. Whether they deserve forgiveness or not, it’s an out that is a pressure valve for the anger and rage. There won’t need to be quite the level of absolute purge that is likely to lead to serious problems down the line. As good as it might feel to make those people PAY for what they’ve done… it’s not the route to a happy society. And firing people for being cowards is sufficient punishment that won’t be too disruptive.
But I can’t deny how angry I am. And I do hope we seriously punish some of the more explicitly culpable. The pro-crime, pro-rape law-enforcement individuals who COULD have done things differently if they wanted deserve life in jail, at least. And it would need to be done to make it clear that the reformed society won’t tolerate that shit. I just hope that we don’t get caught up in righteous anger and become the fascists to their communism. I’m pretty sure we won’t, but… we live in truly bizarre times…
Join us again for another exciting chapter of “All The Things Are Racist™”, today, Shelter Dog Names!
Don’t ask what that second sentence is supposed to mean, but I never knew anyone who adopted a dog who did so based on it’s name, and not by type and disposition, and it is pure crazy talk to suggest that a dog’s name could be changed after adoption.
The TLDR for anyone not wanting to wade through that rambling wreck* of a dog’s breakfast from a couple of academic colossi, a Labrador puppy with the name of Molly is more likely to be adopted from a shelter than a pit bull** named Kobe (names from Table 3).
*(not from Georgia Tech)
**(40% of the sample dogs, not that anything like that would skew results)
How do dogs end up in a shelter? Either the person realizes they can’t care for a dog because they go to an office all day and he eats the couch OR the dog is dangerous/misbehaving. Labs are very sweet and probably fit category 1. Pitbulls tend to be bought by undisciplined people who don’t train them. Pure BS.
The pro-crime mindset is based on the premise that the only reason there are more blacks in jail is because the police harass them more. Obviously a fallacy. You could map the automated gunfire detection mic locations and find out this is false. Now some cities have stopped documenting where crimes are because that is unfair–nevermind the people who would like to know that rapes are happening in their neighborhood.
So what colour were the dogs?
(Innocent face)
Just tell them they can no longer have that type of behavior and everything will be fine.
Of course not, but we can’t even BROACH the subject of pointing out that parents address their kids’ feral behavior without the usual suspects screeching “HOW DARE YOU”.
Every journey begins with a first step and Minneapolis’ Very Important People don’t even want you to discuss the journey.
he planned to talk to Somali elders and tell them “their children can no longer have that type of behavior.”
That’s a quaint old-timey way of dealing with minority misbehavior. A lot of countries and empires used to manage their minorities like that. It’s a modest, realistic and sustainable approach, taking it for granted that different people have different standards of behavior and different ways of signalling and responding to moral disapproval (for example chilly passive aggression from Scandinavian soccer moms has no behavior-changing effect on Somali youths). It doesn’t try to broaden the intercultural interface and micromanage every incident of friction. It just tells the minority leaders to keep their troublemakers from making trouble with us, because the majority standards and the majority interests are what prevail, we don’t want or need you enough to put up with this trouble, so if you can’t keep a lid on it the whole community will be expelled.
But that’s impossible. As far as whites are allowed to notice there is no Somali community and there are no Somali teens. These are teen hi-jinks by teen Minnesotans. If this incident had a racial or religious element (for example that the Somali teens set out to harass whites), the media can be relied upon to obfuscate it (a scuffle among teens, during which a white allegedly used a racial slur). Scandinavian Minnesotans have no more moral authority than Somalian Minnesotans to set standards of public behavior. When repressed Scandinavians disapprove of irrepressible Somalis, that’s a moral failure of the Scandinavians. Cross-cultural groups like the Council for American Islamic Relations are for the purpose of discussing white moral failures, not Somali moral failures.
Scandinavian Minnesotans have no more moral authority than Somalian Minnesotans to set standards of public behavior. When repressed Scandinavians disapprove of irrepressible Somalis, that’s a moral failure of the Scandinavians.
Well, maybe Scandinavian Minnesotans should take a page from Texas where, IMHO, stories like this should make some teens think twice before attacking people capable, and willing, to defend themselves.
Way OT, but, “…this is the I need help wiping meow…”.
Never an asylum when you need one.
“Wiping meow”…
I worked with a guy. Ex-USMC. Alpha-male type who once hunted and killed a wild boar wearing just a loincloth and carrying a spear. There was video. He had this one annoying trait…regarding the word ‘now’…when he’d stop by on the way to lunch he’d say…”Yeah, we’re going right ‘meooow'”…I sooo would like to send it to him…but lost touch. Fortunately or unfortunately….