I'm co-presenting something soon on the thorny question of "hope." Rattling around in the back of my skull was an anecdote from one of the several Special Forces selection memoirs that I have read (esp 20 or more years ago, but there's a lingering interest). The incident in question is from "The Operators" by one... Continue Reading →
Will you marram me? Of “grassroots” and the need for commitment mechanisms.
Marram. This is a new word to me, thanks to Sarah Moss, in her rather excellent 2018 work Ghost Wall. According to Wikipedia... Ammophila (synonymous with Psamma P. Beauv.) is a genus of flowering plants consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses. The common names for these grasses include marram grass, bent... Continue Reading →
Three quotes about how bureaucrats see (and shape) the world…
So, have recently read two books - Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe (I wish I'd read this when I was protesting about Newbury in 1996!) and The Last of the Country House Murders by Emma Tennant (very weird, in a good way. Kind of a cross over between The Year of the Sex... Continue Reading →
COP28, Climate and what The Wire has to teach us
At time of writing there are breathless/shell-shocked accounts on the BBC World Service from Dubai, where the 28th "Conference of the Parties" to the UN Climate Convention is entering overtime (they almost always do). It turns out that - despite literally decades of denial and predatory delay - people are still surprised that the oil... Continue Reading →
Steve Biko on the institutional needs of the security services…
Steve Biko was a smart guy. And as far as the apartheid regime in South Africa was concerned, a dangerous one. Here's an excerpt from an essay called Fear - An Important Determinant in South African Politics. My premise has always been that black people should not at any one stage be surprised at some... Continue Reading →
You hear anyone saying “oh, I was wrong”? No, me neither. #climate #BorisJohnson #Israel
In the last couple of weeks we've seen big big protests in Israel about the direction of travel of the state. We've had another IPCC summary report (number 6 in the franchise - the body count ever higher, the deaths more elaborate) and just yesterday Boris Johnson in front of the Privileges Committee. What all... Continue Reading →
Is #climate really a “comms issue”? Really? Srsly?
There's another new report out, this time based on a survey of 2000 adults (1) that tacitly pins the blame for climate inertia on various forms of 'denial' and delayism. You can read about it on the excellent edie.net website here. I could be wrong, but these sorts surveys and reports seem to get done... Continue Reading →
How the power plays – of radio stations, compulsory mourning and seeing the water we are swimming in.
2022 09 09 0930 hours mobile from gym to house having listened to Absolute Radio playing maudlin wrist-slasher music and hushed announcements. Now this is a commercial station but clearly they've taken a lead and there is a bunch of "approved music" you can play at times like these. And it's moments like these you... Continue Reading →
Meso-aggressions: sassy, feisty, “proles can read? well done you” etc.
Very quickly - People like me (white, middle class, cishet male, all the other privileges) usually don't get - long-term - how exhausting it is to be constantly reminded of your place in the "pecking order" (blah blah Aristotle Great Chain of Being etc). The word "sassy" - aimed at young black women. The word... Continue Reading →
Things we can’t see, don’t have the language for, that MATTER (the mechanics of social movement organisations etc etc)
We can't, usually, 'see' carbon dioxide. But we know it is there. Since the 1950s very very accurate measures of its concentration in the atmosphere have been kept (thanks to Uncle Sam and his military industrial complex). While dickheads - to use the technical academic term - like ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott scoff at "invisible... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 