So, a couple of pieces in the Grauniad about the criminalisation of dissent (here and here) and the use of facial-recognition technologies. It turns out (and you may be wanting to sit down when you read this) that all that talk about civil liberties, the importance of democracy etc etc is, well "public relations theory... Continue Reading →
“They hypnotized the summer” aka – “bye-bye to the Enlightenment”
If you don't know the song Ignoreland, by REM, here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gauuHIgME Here are the lyrics. It's about the "Reagan Revolution" - the successful attempt to weaponise race-hate, anti-feminism, anti-environmentalism, by creating the appearance of a grassroots counter-Sixties movement. The then-new technology of direct mail marketing (started by Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern and... Continue Reading →
The Voice as “divisive”? Brilliant letter about what a No vote will mean.
Australia is, I fear, about to make an appalling mistake. Otherwise smart and empathetic people will be voting the same way as the knuckle-draggers and openly-racists (whose views they would normally abhor). And the morning after? Well, this letter, I think in The Saturday Paper, nails it.
“Empath-ectomy” as a weapon of the strong #Adiaphora
Trying to finish some overdue work. Have many ways of deferring, procrastinating.Meanwhile, things are unravelling (or, from another perspective, the pre-1945 norms of violence and horror are reasserting themselves, now that social democracy is in its grave. It depends how you want to look at it). I don't know how things would be re-ravelled, tbh.... Continue Reading →
Rumint, doom and being tough enough…(spoiler, I don’t think I am)
Learnt a new word today, via one of those Special Ops memoirs I bought in a charity shop between bouts of writing. rumint (uncountable) (US) "Information of dubious veracity, particularly when grounded in rumor." And of course, rumint is addictive, while also not being so great for building shared situational (or shituational, as I prefer it)... Continue Reading →
Causes of climate catastrophe and the failure to act…
What a species we are. Utterly oblivious, for the most part, to what is coming. I think if you asked a thousand people, randomly selected, to say what the atmospheric concentration is, give or take 5ppm, you'd get, what maybe 10 or 20 that got it right. If you asked the same thousand about the... Continue Reading →
Hating nature, as the Anthropocene clears its throat…
Someone (a male, or group of males, I am willing to bet big bucks) has chainsawed the tree at the Sycamore gap. See tweet here. There will be an outpouring of revulsion and bewilderment at such a wanton act of vandalism. Here's my two cents. Ever since the pagans started losing to the monotheists, all... Continue Reading →
No longer *quite* kitten… (klaxon warning – nauseating self-absorption ahead)
So, I've been lifting weights and going on yomps and while I've put on a bit of muscle and shed a bit of lard, neither did anything for my cardio-vascular fitness. Eight days ago I got on a rowing machine and managed to do 2 minutes before having to stop. #embarrassing Every time I've gone... Continue Reading →
Niche to meet you, to meet you niche… (watch out for the (w)anchors.)
So, reading more about the latest terminology in sustainability transitions (I know, I know, I should get a real job/life/whatever). And today's phrase to be thrown around confidently in some seminar, somewhere ages and ages hence, is (drum roll please).... "niche anchoring" See this good paper - "Does time matter? A multi-level assessment of delayed... Continue Reading →
A crazy(making) time to be alive
I grew up in the shadow of the bomb - when I was eight or nine I was worried about the neutron bomb. The shooting down of KAL007 had a profound effect on me (and we now know that that period - late 1983 through to mid 1984 - was when we came pretty close... Continue Reading →
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