Embarrassingly banal blog post (not that it has ever stopped me before). We don't have a language or imagery of democracy. If you do a word association, people will come up with "parliament, or government". If you ask them for an image, it will be the Whitehouse, Palace (!) of Westminster, or Parliament House. Maybe... Continue Reading →
In the café at the end of the world
“They’ve gone overboard with jabbing everyone..... Covid, it’s just a cold, it always was.” So the woman in her late 50s or so tells her older companions, at about 1pm, on Thursday September 21, 2023. They seem to agree, or at least not argue the toss. There can be as many dead as you like.... Continue Reading →
Weak as a kitten, and on the radio…
Two quick notes. First: I've been building up muscle bulk (lats, pecs, upper traps, rhomboids etc) at the gym and also getting back into long walks along the canal towpath wearing a weighted jacket (only 10kg, but it's a start). And wanting to shift lard again. So, "back to rowing, how hard can it be?"... Continue Reading →
The Voice, Marriage Equality and Brexit – a rant
On October 14th there's a referendum taking place in Australia. It's about whether to amend the Constitution and create an advisory group that will be a voice/Voice for indigenous Australians to the parliament. Other countries have them and the sky hasn't fallen. In a sensible world, it would be utterly uncontroversial. But... well.... So, here's... Continue Reading →
Compassion for deniers? I suppose so, especially the breeders
For a long long time - for various reasons - I would get an autonomic response when called upon (by others or myself) to say the simple words "I was wrong" and offer a sincere apology (i.e. not one couched with evasions, so-called 'explanations' and whatabout-eries.) Heart rate up, skin crawling, shortness of breath, etc.... Continue Reading →
One sign we were taking climate change and human/animal futures seriously would be…
... if all the house organs of the smugosphere (I won't mention names) were devoting at least one whole issue a year to the questions of Pathological Activist Cultures (1) - what are they, where they come from, what sustains them, what damage they do (short-term, long-term), what has been tried to overcome them (did... Continue Reading →
The wheels on the bus… another climate metaphor
Thinking a bit about metaphors at the moment, how they are cognitive affordances - make some ways of 'doing' easier, others harder. So, on climate change Human civilisation is in "the bus". And the wheels on the bus, as every parent knows, go round and round. And for a long time the bus didn't really,... Continue Reading →
Specific archive finds as “Rabbit Hole Invitations”
On a particular type of news article/magazine piece you may find when trawling archives and online database, that take you on OTHER documents… I need to come up with a decent name for these “Rabbit Hole Invitations” (but anything can do an RHI, if you want it to!) “Signposters” “Threads to pull on” Something else?... Continue Reading →
Perversity, Futility and Jeopardy – the watchwords of delay.
According to the perversity thesis, any purposive action to improve some feature of the political, social, or economic order only serves to exacerbate the condition one wishes to remedy (compare: Unintended consequences). The futility thesis holds that attempts at social transformation will be unavailing, that they will simply fail to "make a dent." Finally, the jeopardy thesis argues that the cost... Continue Reading →
On knowing (how) to walk away (and when to run)
Couple of things here. First up, the song "Angel of the Morning" a big hit some 40+ years ago for Juice Newton. Lyrics are about, well, how to break it clean. What Erica Jong called a "zipless fuck" There'll be no strings to bind your handsNot if my love can't bind your heartThere's no need... Continue Reading →
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