Marc Maron has a line I like "And don't misunderstand me, I have no hope. I think if you have hope, what are you f---ing seven?." Yes, yes, Sarah Connor and "no future but what we make." But we "make" the future under the constraints - "not in the conditions of our own choosing" - of what has... Continue Reading →
The Buddha, the Big Issue and the emotional poverty problem
There's the old Buddhist line about two goldfish swimming around and one saying to the other "how's the water?" and the other saying back "what do you mean, 'water'?" I think about that a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean I am any better - day-to-day - at seeing/tasting/feeling the water. So it goes. Meanwhile,... Continue Reading →
Stalin killing millions – a humorous take
"Uncle Joe" Stalin was a murderous thug. This is, in most circles, not controversial. If you want some real humour about his last days, Armando Iannucci's 2017 "The Death of Stalin" is a staggering achievement. This below, from "Tonight, Josephine: and other undiscovered letters" by Michael Green, is pretty good...
Niche humour – Macbeth’s invoice from his doctor
Latest purchase - "Tonight, Josephine: and other undiscovered letters" by Michael Green. (At some point in the mid-1980s I bought the sequel "Don't swing from the balcony, Romeo".). It's classic "middle-class humour" - relies on you deploying your cultural capital. And judging those who don't laugh... This below made me laugh a bit...
Of gods, the enlightenment, fossil fuels and our inevitable-ish doom
Climate Twitter is lighting up over the "in the pipeline" article. Quick, quick, pick a side - are you a Mann-ite or a Hansen-ite? All I want to know is how soon we will know (and how) which team won. Five years should be enough, I'd guess... Not sure exactly what the metrics would be.... Continue Reading →
Of marshmallows, the powerful addict and the double-bind. And #climate, obvs
What if you need not to defer your own gratification (the Marshmallow Test and all that) but someone else's? But what if doing that causes you so much grief you have to stop? Damned if you do, damned if you don't etc - something akin to what Gregory Bateson had in mind with his concept... Continue Reading →
Mask slips, gloves off etc.
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 →
marchudson.net 