Climate change is bad, but for now I can cope (no kids, no expectations, no flooding where I am). Fascism is bad, but for now I can cope, because it is at least another six months until Starmer and Cooper extend the proscription to include the words "genocide" and "Palestine." Technofeudalsim is bad, but for... Continue Reading →
J.A.B.B.E.R.W.O.C.K.Y – tortured retronym for a social movement (well, civil society actually) pathology
I found some old scribbled notes - see photo. I can't place the when or where (possibly Adelaide during a 'Festival' of Ideas) , but it doesn't matter, because the pathology is there in Australia or the UK or - my hunch - any other "advanced" Western "democracy." People get together for what could be... Continue Reading →
Another shoddy neologism to add to smugosphere, emotacycle etc – “stolidarity”
Stolidarity n. Boring and at-best-useless forms of non-engagement, where potential allies and participants are unable to do more than show stolid solidarity because the organisers of the meeting/event have not bothered to undercut the "sage on the stage" dynamic. I didn't have a name for this when I encountered it twice in Australia, during the... Continue Reading →
We don’t wanna talk about it, how we broke our hearts: climate, failure, “democracy” and all that jizz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwTP9AJObSY Ever get the feeling nobody wants to talk about what you want to talk about? (1) Ever get the feeling that there are herds of elephants in the room, and everyone is studiously ignoring their trumpetting, as you would if your boss/king/Prime Minister had just let rip with with a loud and evil-smelling fart?... Continue Reading →
Meetings, Gatherings or… “Fodderings”?
In this repetitive and defeated rant I look in despair at the “meetings” and "argue" that we need another word to distinguish incidences of people gathering/being gathered in one place from actual meetings where people meet. Being in the same room is not “meeting.” It’s a gathering in of people. It’s the creation of the... Continue Reading →
How the smugosphere defends itself, a worked example
What do the good guys do when their failure to win is pointed out to them? That’s the question I grapple with (or gum on, toothlessly) in this post (usual disclaimers apply). Readers of a nervous disposition, who are happy in their own public smugosphere, will want to look away now. I recently talked to... Continue Reading →
James Baldwin, the UK climate “movement” and the Safety Dance – what is to be done?
James Baldwin was a very smart guy. For the purpose of this blog post, the key insight is from a January 1962 New York Times column, in which he wrote "not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." And so on to the UK climate... Continue Reading →
The Antigroup… Oh, such important stuff, not widely known…
So, I sent my last blog post, about Wilfred Bion and his ideas of the basic assumptions mentality and the work-group mentality to someone I have ENORMOUS respect for (seriously, this person is one of the smartest people I know, and I know a lot of very smart people. This person is the real deal.)... Continue Reading →
On social movement organisation disintegration – isn’t it Bion-ic, yeah I really do think…
Quick post. I am fascinated by the ways groups start with high hopes/expectations (high hopes = hype) and within a few months tend to be all gone, or else fighting like dysfunctional rats in an itchy hessian sack. Seen it so many times. Been one of those rats too, for my sins. This below about... Continue Reading →
Letter that Red Pepper didn’t publish on activist pathologies
Red Pepper is a full-colour quarterly (now) magazine for and by the extra-parliamentary green/left. The following two statements about it are true a) it is a useful source of information and perspectives about what is happening in the world and some of the things that might be done to make it a less dreadful place... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 