tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197487322024-03-08T03:06:29.653+00:00NoolaBeulahMusings on us and them and the shifting frontier betweenNoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.comBlogger1198125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-73734459925801270352008-10-22T17:15:00.000+00:002008-10-22T17:17:21.718+00:00BlameFar be it from me to deny the immense social benefits of identifying and sacrificing a scapegoat or two, but at some point or other, we should also tell something approaching the truth.<br /><br />[In the quotes below, <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzI5ZTUzMThhYzc4YmRkMzU4NmRjYmU3NWVmOTJiZjA=">VD Hanson is referring only to Americans</a>; I would spread the net much wider.]<br /><blockquote>[S]o far no one seems willing to tell the American people the truth: It is not just “they,” but we, the people, who have recklessly borrowed to spend what we haven’t yet earned.<br /><br />Take energy... Our energy challenges do not just concern independence, natural security, and global warming. They involve basic financial solvency, as well. Yet so far, none of our public officials have warned us that the energy crisis is largely a money matter: We’re borrowing too much to buy what we won’t or can’t produce at home.<br /><br />Second, as a nation of debtors, we are renting money from Asia to buy its exports with our credit cards. Given our talents and natural wealth, we could easily consume more than others in the world and still balance the books. But Americans cannot charge all that we desire on unlimited credit.<br /><br />Third, the government can only hand out more entitlements by borrowing even more to pay for them. Raising taxes on anyone in a recession is insane. But even crazier is cutting them further at a time of skyrocketing national debt without commensurate reductions in spending.</blockquote>And then he asks this question:<br /><blockquote>So who will tell the people that we can’t raise — or reduce — taxes and that we can’t borrow for any more new programs until we first cut expenses and begin paying off the trillions we’ve already borrowed?</blockquote>But there's another, bigger question of which that one is only a part. Which politician is going to tell us that we can't ALL have what we want; we can't ALL have endless choice; we can't ALL have the right to acquire and consume more than we produce?NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-34319405208658849392008-10-15T20:53:00.004+00:002008-10-15T20:58:42.209+00:00Relativity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qkiU_H9-KmRqalc-Da4kdttDMWN-PId1VIZuG1_6J0IEJ6JG_mmCueB7raF-EBNhfqbRw5q-o4J97HwJ57pbkgYeWAvI9H8X51m-JBQSQ5nlhYo4PrwQhGc70Wbp3cKrHyFO/s1600-h/transitoDiVenere2004.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qkiU_H9-KmRqalc-Da4kdttDMWN-PId1VIZuG1_6J0IEJ6JG_mmCueB7raF-EBNhfqbRw5q-o4J97HwJ57pbkgYeWAvI9H8X51m-JBQSQ5nlhYo4PrwQhGc70Wbp3cKrHyFO/s320/transitoDiVenere2004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257486884163554882" border="0" /></a><p></p><span style="font-size:100%;">The big chunk of black is space. The lemon-yellow is the sun. The disc resting on the black is Venus during the transit in 2004. Isn't that a pretty pattern? Just think.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-34602679176283974462008-09-29T17:04:00.002+00:002008-09-29T17:07:35.942+00:00Value systems<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJTWfqclsnKAYkjpr6Iw_677d9zKndGxjXvGnkGkgd7zvSP_C2lXWndEsJ4CS2GJ2bIhaM00gJVjd5YvU9p85pSAARaAp-mwAh_54CXvGW20YYqBXQ4h3NPhZ2DXK8ICF1tnP/s1600-h/090829-2Posters.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJTWfqclsnKAYkjpr6Iw_677d9zKndGxjXvGnkGkgd7zvSP_C2lXWndEsJ4CS2GJ2bIhaM00gJVjd5YvU9p85pSAARaAp-mwAh_54CXvGW20YYqBXQ4h3NPhZ2DXK8ICF1tnP/s320/090829-2Posters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251490674485039026" border="0" /></a><br />A propos of discussions I have been having <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=33755875&postID=8343296313852891275">here</a> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12404007&postID=6209096835217040046&isPopup=true">here</a>, this tiny example of why it is difficult for any religion, or any authority, to take and maintain the premier position in the hierarchy of values, images, ideologies or anything else.<br /><br />The image is from <a href="http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2007/07/really-bad-advertising-juxtapositions/">here</a>. Though the collection has been made other reasons, it does demonstrate the randomness of the thousands of messages we receive every day.NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-54454516478633721742008-09-22T16:39:00.003+00:002008-09-22T16:43:40.004+00:00Finally, now<span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5746/">A new play by the American playwright Christopher Shinn</a> called <span style="font-style: italic;">Now or Later</span> is built around the conflict of self-expression and its consequences in a world where cartoons published in an unknown paper in Denmark lead to deaths all around the world.<br /><blockquote>Shinn’s play is set on the eve of a presidential election. The Democrats are on the point of victory when news breaks out, via political blogs, that the would-be new president’s homosexual son, John, has gone to a party dressed as the prophet Mohammed and his friend as the gay-baiting evangelist Pastor Bob.<br /><br />As footage of the party circulates around the globe, sparking riots in the Muslim world, John is under immense pressure from presidential advisers to make a public apology. While John insists on the importance of free expression, and also that he was attending a private party, his friend Matt points out that he could be responsible for deaths around the world. Principle and pragmatism collide to fascinating effect. Staged in real-time, Now or Later carefully explores the anguish and arguments of this very contemporary concern. </blockquote><br />Until now, the response of our brave engaged artists, fearless in their searing denunciations of America, Christians and other evil, though unreponsive, groups, has been to take the discretion out of valour, and then drop the valour. Shinn, a homosexual who benefitted from the rights battles of the Nineties, now sees discussion smothered by identity politics and the cult of the victim.<br /><blockquote>I think in many ways American campuses are a distorted and extreme way of dealing with problems in US culture. The left-wing ideology in these campuses doesn’t seem to be related to the way the world is. The antics on campus almost have a feeling of play acting, as it’s so divorced from people’s lives.</blockquote><br />Amazingly, though he describes himself as a 'left-wing champion of free speech', he doesn't actually hate his homeland, which may explain why most of his plays are premiered here.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-77877211678159798352008-09-21T17:36:00.002+00:002008-09-21T17:40:33.583+00:00Everybody worships<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Came across this yesterday and thought it was very good. It's from a commencement speech to a graduating class at Kenyon College, Ohio. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/20/fiction">It's by David Foster Wallace</a>, who died recently.<br /></span></div><div></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship - be it JC or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles - is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things - if they are where you tap real meaning in life - then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already - it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. Worship power - you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart - you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the "rat race" - the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational. What it is, so far as I can see, is the truth with a whole lot of rhetorical bullshit pared away. Obviously, you can think of it whatever you wish. But please don't dismiss it as some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this is about morality, or religion, or dogma, or big fancy questions of life after death. The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness - awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water."</span></div></blockquote><div></div>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-44806366211190872342008-03-12T23:49:00.001+00:002008-03-12T23:52:27.951+00:00Who would have thought?<span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/03/020009.php">Benjamin Skinner </a><blockquote>There are more slaves in the world today than at any point in human history, and <em>A Crime So Monstrous</em> is their story, in full color. For four years, I traveled in over a dozen countries, talking to slaves, traffickers and liberators, going undercover when necessary in order to infiltrate slave trading networks.<br /><br />The book is a record of evil. I witnessed the sale of human beings on four continents, once being offered a suicidal, mentally handicapped young woman as a sex slave in exchange for a used car.<br /><br />But it is also a story of survival. A young man in Sudan escapes slavery in the Muslim north, finds Christ, and frees his mother and sisters. A Haitian girl is freed when two Americans of sterling conscience discover her domestic bondage in a suburban Miami home.<br /><br />And it is a living history of quiet heroism. John Miller, a former Republican congressman appointed to be America's antislavery czar, zealously cajoled foreign governments—friends and foes alike—to bear their responsibility and free their slaves. At the same time, he battled State Department elites in an attempt to convince them that abolition mattered. Thanks to his efforts, the Bush Administration can boast of the most aggressive antislavery record since Lincoln.</blockquote>Human rights, that Western imperialist notion.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-87715697334012244682008-03-11T16:53:00.003+00:002008-03-11T17:02:31.324+00:00Britishness day<p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2008/03/11/nholiday311.xml">This is embarrassing</a>.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">I always thought that one of the prime qualities of whatever -<em>ness</em> we have in this country is that of not crowing about it. Those values that are most loudly stated are generally the ones least acted upon. My recommendations - Study history.<br />Don't denigrate our achievements; be inspired by them.<br />Don't apologise for the past; do better.</span></p>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-62917149870623414612008-03-02T23:21:00.002+00:002008-03-02T23:26:09.466+00:00Two questions<span style="font-size:85%;">There's a lot I don't understand about what is happening in Gaza.<br /><br />Firstly, what is Hamas's strategy? It is evident that they have been baiting Israel to react in this way for a long time. The attacks on Sderot and other towns have increased steadily over the last few months, but did not produce a substantial response until Thursday when Ashkelon was hit for the first time. Israel had to do something, and now they have, which is, I can only assume, what Hamas has been seeking. But what do they get from it?<br /><br />Is it to make sure that Abbas can make no deal with the Israelis? That will certainly be the short-term effect, and has been achieved many times before, the more extreme always having the last word. Is that the idea?<br /><br />Is it a media event? The rocket launchers fire from Gaza’s school buildings, rooftops, playgrounds and underground pits, using civilians and children as human shields. They make it so that civilians will certainly be killed, especially children, who make the best news photos. Is it to further degrade the reputation of Israel that they make martyrs of their children?<br /><br />Or is it the start of a hot summer with conflagrations to the south and then to the north? 2006 all over again.<br /><br />Secondly, what can Israel hope to achieve by large scale military incursions into Gaza? I can't see a feasible military target. Hamas have been preparing for this for some time and, short of a complete occupation, what useful political or military benefit can Israel hope to gain? It might slow the rocket launchers down, but they will start again very soon afterwards.<br /><br />It's not that I have an alternative strategy. The Israeli government are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They're fighting an enemy with whom they cannot negotiate because any concession they make will merely provoke another demand. I don't know what they should have done or should do. Nonetheless, it is easy to predict what will happen here. There'll be the usual media storm, with world leaders pontificating from the moral heights before international pressure forces the IDF to cease operations, and get out, and so let the whole cycle start again. </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-63092871262873974892008-02-29T15:59:00.001+00:002008-02-29T16:02:15.127+00:00Translation<span style="font-size:85%;">At the top of my Google News page a couple of hours ago was a BBC headline according to which the Israeli deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, had said that if the Palestianian rockets did not cease to fall, then Israel would bring them a 'holocaust'. You can imagine the reaction, if you haven't already seen it. I thought, how inept can you get?<br /><br />Trouble is, he didn't say it. Reuters buggered up the translation. As translated, the quote went:<blockquote>‘The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger “shoah” because we will use all our might to defend ourselves'.</blockquote><a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/530786/the-mother-of-all-mistranslations.thtml">Melanie Phillips explains</a> <blockquote>Reuters translated the Hebrew word ‘shoah’ as ‘holocaust’. But ‘shoah’ merely means disaster. In Hebrew, the word ‘shoah’ is never used to mean ‘holocaust’ or ‘genocide’ because of the acute historical resonance. The word ‘Hashoah’ alone means ‘the Holocaust’ and ‘retzach am’ means ‘genocide’. The well-known Hebrew construction used by Vilnai used merely means ‘bringing disaster on themselves’.</blockquote>The BBC has now (as of 14.58) changed both <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7270650.stm">the translation and the article</a>. </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-51992990166360594972008-02-27T21:10:00.002+00:002008-02-27T21:18:10.445+00:00Government of the people<span style="font-size:85%;">An excellent post on <a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/asim_siddiqui/2008/02/who_needs_a_caliphate.html"><em>Comment is free</em> by Asim Siddiqui</a>, who discusses some of the ideas in <em>Who needs an Islamic State</em>, by the Sudanese, Abdelwahab el-Affendi. That author asks the question <blockquote>Why is it that Muslims can only be 'good Muslims' under a dictatorship? Surely submission to Islam must be voluntary and come from the heart, not [be] imposed by political force.</blockquote>A question that the Catholic Church had to face, first answered one way and only recently changed its mind. Siddiqui ends his article by claiming that the 21st Century will see more attempts at Islamic government, more failures and recourse eventually made to Western political models, which he dares to call "universal".<br /><br />I was reminded of the Catholic Church because its accession to political power occurred mostly through the absence of an alternative. Despite Constantine's adoption of Christianity in the early 4th Century, it was really only in the dreadful years after Rome's decline that the Church became the only true political centre of Western Europe. There was to be little else for several centuries to come.<br /><br />Siddiqui doesn't mention the fact that Western political models have already been tried in much of the Middle East, and signally failed. The rise of political Islam is, in fact, a reaction to a previous costly failure to modernise. As in Western Europe after the fall of Rome, there seems to be no alternative. I agree with him that Islamic governance will not succeed either, at least as it is envisaged by its more militant adherents. Nonetheless, whatever form of government does manage to do the trick, I would guess that Islam, in one form or another, will have to play some part. Surrey on the Tigris is just not a realistic prospect.<br /><br />I found this article via <em><a href="http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2008/02/27/asim_siddiqui_on_the_failure_of_islamism.php">Harry's Place</a></em>. The post there quotes a reply comment by Asim Siddiqui that is a splendid example of the sort of thinking necessary in times like this. A commenter has pointed out that <blockquote>... the Prophet Muhammad was an 'Islamist'. After all, he was a statesman as well as a religious leader, he negotiated peace treaties and conducted wars. He established a state based on Islamic laws. Did he 'politicise Islam' or was Islam from the outset political?</blockquote>Siddiqui's reply is a wonderful 'Yes, but ...' <blockquote>Our Beloved Prophet was both a temporal political leader and a recipient of revelation. There were numerous occasions when he would be asked by his companions if an opinion he had was from revelation or from his own judgement - where it was the latter the companions would be free (and did) to challenge him and suggest alternatives. There were also occasions when 'political' decisions were made guided by revelation.<br /><br /><strong>However, revelation ended with him.</strong> No subsequent leader can claim divine guidance or an insight into God's mind on any political decision they make. Hence, my point is that all leaders must be accountable to the people, not claim they are accountable to God (which in reality means accountability to no one and allows them to get away with murder, literally).<br />[My emphasis]</blockquote>A model of damage limitation. Well, that may be a little cynical on my part, but, you see, I'm with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Inquisitor">the Grand Inquisitor</a> (a bit): organised religion is a necessary protection against enthusiasts like Jesus and Mohammad. They promise too much; they demand too much.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-7309532507274294272008-02-24T23:10:00.002+00:002008-02-24T23:14:59.986+00:00In its peace<span style="font-size:85%;">One of the many surprises of recent years has been the unforeseen places where you find agreement. Never, only a year or two ago, would I have even thought of reading a book by the Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth; I barely knew that there was such a thing. Nonetheless, I have been reading Jonathan Sacks' <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-We-Build-Together-Recreating/dp/0826480705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203892389&sr=1-1">The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society</a></em> and finding it like fresh water after a desert trek.<br /><br />It won me from the first line, a rather surprising one from a member of a group that has been , for most of its 4,000-year history, a minority, strangers in a strange land: <blockquote>Multiculturalism has run its course.</blockquote>I have not yet got to his solution, but his analysis of the problem is spot on. His basic point is that liberalism is a structure without content and that, socially, it is unsustainable. It has led, in recent decades under the banner of multiculturalism, to inward-looking, isolated groups that feel no loyalty to the host community, which is good for neither. Not that he wants melting pot assimilation; unthinkable for someone who calls himself "the acceptable face of fundamentalism". But he does want the centre to hold.<br /><br />I've found <a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2697509.ece">this interview with two <em>Times</em> journalists</a>, both of whom seem rather obtuse, on the hunt, perhaps, for a soundbite that he wouldn't deliver. They keep pushing him about faith schools, which he supports, but where he sees some problems. His own parents sent him to a Christian school because they <blockquote>knew that I would be taught hard work, respect for authority, respect for the family, a certain basic set of ethical guidelines that were utterly congruent with their own.</blockquote>He then goes on to say, <blockquote>Today parents are very concerned about where their children will find those values – they do not find them in the wider culture.</blockquote>It seems fairly clear to me that what he is saying is that faith schools themselves are not the problem; the problem is the emptiness outside, which pushes groups from other cultures to compensate though the faith schools, among other means. He contrasts the ambitions of his own parents and their like: <blockquote>They [Early 20th-century Jewish schools] wanted their kids to be good Englishmen and women, that’s what my parents wanted for me. I think that today there is just too little content to that idea.</blockquote>I cannot tell you what his solution is; I will when I get that far. But it perhaps adumbrated in a quote from Jeremiah, speaking to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. <blockquote>Seek the peace and welfare of the city to which you have been exiled because in its prosperity you will find prosperity. In its peace, you will find peace.</blockquote></span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-655714073036137882008-02-22T23:15:00.001+00:002008-02-22T23:16:36.394+00:00Security<span style="font-size:85%;">My wife has made me watch this twice now, so I don't see why you shouldn't watch it, too.</span><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HxUvlXSZUNc&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HxUvlXSZUNc&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-1057007966613676882008-02-22T22:53:00.002+00:002008-02-22T23:01:09.442+00:00Boris, our muse<span style="font-size:85%;">And they said the age of the political song was dead! How I wish I had a vote in London.</span><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMopsG_OGJ4&rel=1&border=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMopsG_OGJ4&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Who needs Barack Obama? I bet you his Ancient Greek really sucks. And his Latin is mediocre, at best.<br /><br />Courtesy of <a href="http://www.boriswatch.com/">Boriswatch</a>.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-41417719772241391082008-02-22T17:02:00.004+00:002008-02-22T17:15:08.792+00:00Still coming<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbNyzuWEBcgQl6trs9k8EQBdUTmkLOKMetqP9B1MdqPkYnoJpM2_vW0GQ-T0_sZZ2NlH7mlFWys75YMNI6LFlT3CJLeX9YQJoPw9-XifFwFJbzzpyGPxzG7AmFJp5ldlJGdjsy/s1600-h/Daffs2_Feb2008.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169851336062960562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbNyzuWEBcgQl6trs9k8EQBdUTmkLOKMetqP9B1MdqPkYnoJpM2_vW0GQ-T0_sZZ2NlH7mlFWys75YMNI6LFlT3CJLeX9YQJoPw9-XifFwFJbzzpyGPxzG7AmFJp5ldlJGdjsy/s320/Daffs2_Feb2008.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Further developments in the onset of Spring. I had expected more daffodils to be out. Maybe the cold has kept them indoors. As you can see, there are some. Curiously, this photo was taken at the northern end of the park. There are many more here than at the southern end, which is where I took <a href="http://noolabeulah.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-realise-there-are-more-important.html">the previous one</a>. Among that clump, there was only one out and it was hanging its head, as if in shame. It may be because the northern daffs are well-established while the southern ones were planted just last autumn.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-56758880821018861112008-02-20T22:31:00.002+00:002008-02-20T22:36:00.930+00:00Slack post<span style="font-size:85%;">Buried in work and so will play the slacker and just quote from the few articles I've read over the last day or three.<br /><br />First (via Norm), a piece by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Pearson_%28Australian_lawyer%29">Noel Pearson</a>, who is himself <a href="http://www.capeyorkpartnerships.com/team/noelpearson/papers.htm">a very interesting chap</a>. In this article, called "<a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22731563-5013477,00.html">All enemies aren't equal</a>", he is making a distinction that really shouldn't have to be made, and he's doing it for the sake of the poor benighted for whom 'bin Laden, Bush - no diff'. An excerpt. <blockquote>US Marine Corps major Michael Mori, who represented Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, has been widely celebrated among progressives in Australia for his outstanding defence of important principles of justice.<br /><br />But Mori is not a dissident, he is part of the system.<br /><br />That system is guaranteed by the US, which provides to individuals subject to military prosecution fully funded and fully independent legal representation. Mori conducted an international legal campaign on behalf of his client -- which had a political dimension, a campaign against the actions of his own Government -- with complete immunity. Mori no doubt caused a lot of anger among military brass and politicians who would have loved to have shut him up; the genius of that system prevented this from happening.<br /><br />One of Mori's colleagues, Charles Swift, successfully took the case of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard Salim Ahmed Hamdan to the US Supreme Court and caused significant political embarrassments and headaches for his Government.<br /><br />What other nation guarantees a system of justice that is capable of holding to account the government of that nation on questions of international political significance?<br /><br />Those who hold up Mori as a hero can't ignore that Mori's commander-in-chief, at the end of the day, is his country's President, the reviled George W. Bush.</blockquote>And speaking of the much reviled one, Bob Geldof did. <a href="http://video1.washingtontimes.com/fishwrap/2008/02/bob_geldof_in_rwanda.html">Only to praise him</a>! <blockquote>Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement.<br /><br />Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof, "has done more than any other president so far."<br /><br />"This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion."<br /><br />"What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.<br /><br />Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed "to articulate this to Americans" but said he is also "pissed off" at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.</blockquote>Finally, after an Australian aboriginal defending liberal democracy, and a pop musician speaking up for Bush, <a href="http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=7933596&story_id=10715149&mode=commen"><em>The Economist</em> rates conspiracy theories</a> according to Google hits.<br /><br />I'd never heard of the reptilian humanoids who secretly run the world. If I had the time, I'd go and look up exactly what they get for their efforts, but I think I'd rather hear it in a pub. </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-91750588174189617742008-02-17T18:19:00.005+00:002008-02-17T20:51:03.043+00:00Frost attack<span style="font-size:85%;">I publish these photos in the full knowledge that I'll be frivolously wasting the time of anyone who unwisely spends his time on them. However, there may be a great lesson to be learned concerning chance, rarity and making the most of both.<br /><br />The photo below shows a hedge on a nearby road. The white stuff is ice. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJE9Lwei2EYRlV22I3z-5VMLGI2meJdEqltIPseOaYSL7sG7BI2LeDwkbawa-G_ob_mvdCpOCmcNWXSLWQWQXqNRV4JHG-yaOelkSsutVTiTqAOLhcB7wCp6_cclJSE4o_0TCK/s1600-h/Frost_attack.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168016650588160930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJE9Lwei2EYRlV22I3z-5VMLGI2meJdEqltIPseOaYSL7sG7BI2LeDwkbawa-G_ob_mvdCpOCmcNWXSLWQWQXqNRV4JHG-yaOelkSsutVTiTqAOLhcB7wCp6_cclJSE4o_0TCK/s320/Frost_attack.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />I should add that the temperature has not got much above zero for the last couple of days. In fact, we can't use our washing machine because the pipes are frozen (this bit is not part of the lesson, by the way, and is only here because I'm annoyed about it). I sense that you are afire with curiosity as to how this extraordinary phenomenon has come about. I do like to satisfy people's urges, so here you are.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKIcf9izu6saovEfp911l0SnAE6e7W8zKePmd13np1A6gU7-q5Fdfng4fLQtQCtlzEWYwtn3NiGCH10WFCAJYXczqdT0zQ6KEB7tGsjHYPXjj2_Da4M62DIevclvUXdQv7H1lX/s1600-h/Frost_attack2.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168016551803913106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKIcf9izu6saovEfp911l0SnAE6e7W8zKePmd13np1A6gU7-q5Fdfng4fLQtQCtlzEWYwtn3NiGCH10WFCAJYXczqdT0zQ6KEB7tGsjHYPXjj2_Da4M62DIevclvUXdQv7H1lX/s320/Frost_attack2.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />On the road at this point, there is a manhole cover that has sunk slightly under the level of the road. Water has gathered, but melted due to the cars that pass over it. The cars splash the water onto the hedge, where it freezes and remains to amuse those with idle minds. (All right. To be precise, it does <b>not</b> freeze and remain with the purpose of amusing me; that is merely an effect, though I'm sure there's a metaphysical argument to be made ... No, let's leave it there, on the hedge, as it were.)<br /><br />The lesson. First of all, chance. While I admit that the phenomenon in itself is a result of certain physical laws in operation (including the one about British workmanship on the roads), chance enters in the shape of my wife passing along that road at the right moment to see it and so be able to tell me about it.<br /><br />Secondly, rarity. It's not often so cold here as to permit the above-mentioned physical laws to come into operation (though the one about British workmanship is a constant from which there seems no escape). Thus we hardly ever see such things. Thus they are special when they occur.<br /><br />Thirdly, making the most of it. It is a little thing. But I enjoyed walking to the spot, trying to get a good photo, seeing the drivers that passed look at me as if I were an idiot, and finally writing this idiotic post. It has given pleasure and added something to the place in which I live.<br /><br />There. That's it.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-85160999471739040732008-02-15T21:45:00.003+00:002008-02-15T21:53:02.128+00:00Natural abundance<span style="font-size:85%;">Nature indifferent? Not in the least; it's just got priorities.<br /><br />Fifty years ago this week, Mackay, sugar cane metropolis of Australia, was hit was one of its worst floods ever. My mother, 9 months pregnant, moved to a house on higher stilts than ours, and my grandfather rowed a boat down the street to help my father stack the furniture high. The floodwaters came to within 2 inches of the floorboards, and then receded in time for my mother to walk across the sodden earth of her front garden with her firstborn.<br /><br />And now, in the very same week 50 years later, her firstborn finds <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mackay-declared-flood-disaster-zone/2008/02/15/1202760587750.html">this photo of Mackay</a>.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEVknvqpQEhiH_kx_IZCRAYjQgHtT0EvwKg9IYZMIa4f0X98J8AUhJ3Z_BbBSHKltJ9E8Jm2uDo6CKaGrvUPlINJ36YoGx8JxRmPOgQNrzxOICo6gYxQkqWp7d8RS8HEdl7vH/s1600-h/mackay_flood.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167327441481139074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEVknvqpQEhiH_kx_IZCRAYjQgHtT0EvwKg9IYZMIa4f0X98J8AUhJ3Z_BbBSHKltJ9E8Jm2uDo6CKaGrvUPlINJ36YoGx8JxRmPOgQNrzxOICo6gYxQkqWp7d8RS8HEdl7vH/s320/mackay_flood.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Once again, Nature showers her gifts with excess. She just hasn't realised that he has moved.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-89072747341240636232008-02-15T16:58:00.002+00:002008-02-15T17:03:53.281+00:00The beginning<span style="font-size:85%;">From James Forsyth in <em><a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/505391/the-rushdie-fatwa.thtml">The Spectator</a></em>. <blockquote>Today is the 18th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declaring a Fatwa on Salman Rushdie for writing the <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Satanic-Verses-Salman-Rushdie/dp/0963270702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203094995&sr=1-1">Satanic Verses</a></em>. It was a wake up call to the coming challenge to the freedoms of a liberal society but one that we failed to heed.<br /><br />The Rushdie affair demonstrated the spinelessness of the British political class in the face of Islamic extremism. The Crown Prosecution Service refused to prosecute those who openly called for Rushdie’s death. The Islamist Kalim Siddiqui amazingly got away with telling a public meeting, “I would like every Muslim to raise his hand in agreement with the death sentence on Salman Rushdie. Let the world see that every Muslim agrees that this man should be put away.”<br /><br />Both Labour and Tory politicians embarrassed themselves and failed to grasp how essential it was to protect the right to free expression. The Labour deputy leader called for the paperback edition not to be published and some backbench Tories whinged about how much Rushdie’s protection cost. Indeed, Rushdie ended up being pressured into contributing to his own security costs. All in all, a shameful episode.</blockquote>The first of many to come, all with the same message, "Try it on. We'll just fold and probably apologise as well". </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-86832662004177483922008-02-14T23:14:00.005+00:002008-02-14T23:32:22.667+00:00Coming soon<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghi3iv7jX6HpbcHMia16ZEU6O8UJBDLMKQpubRqjHFWuxaf-rtoDQIzDn6LEjKqumj3-EOM6G85Nb5kDyM1kpnLy8KSkGniCpWY9WStEb_Lta5vPrS97sZMFtibpnknpVBW_7j/s1600-h/Feb14_daffs.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166978522632979314" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghi3iv7jX6HpbcHMia16ZEU6O8UJBDLMKQpubRqjHFWuxaf-rtoDQIzDn6LEjKqumj3-EOM6G85Nb5kDyM1kpnLy8KSkGniCpWY9WStEb_Lta5vPrS97sZMFtibpnknpVBW_7j/s320/Feb14_daffs.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;">I realise there are more important things happening in the world, but then again, there always are. I'm ignoring them in order to tell you that the daffodils down at <a href="http://www.friendsofthecarrs.org.uk/index.html">The Carrs</a> (the ones that I, and some nameless others, planted in November) are not quite <em>there</em> yet. But they will be soon, and so will I. As you can see, they are ready to burst forth in all their sunny yellowness, completely unaware as they are of the good cheer that they spread.<br /><br />These are the first daffodils in the Carrs, as far as I know, and they come courtesy of Macclesfield Borough Council. It is a great and good thing; all you need do is say that you want some daffs, or bluebells, or crocuses in your park, and they'll send a truck loaded down with potential spring gaiety and dump it right there in front of you. Not a penny changes hands. You need to shift your arse to plant them, but that's not asking too much, is it? </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">So, if a day or two, if my depleted stores of energy permit, I will sidle down to the park and be greatly rewarded. And I will share it with you, not because you deserve it (<em>Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?</em>), who does? - but because the pleasure is magnified in the sharing.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-9169258677608516242008-02-08T22:42:00.000+00:002008-02-08T23:50:22.560+00:00An entirely civilised law<span style="font-size:85%;">I have been a little puzzled over <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/08/nrowan508.xml">the fuss generated </a>by Rowan Williams' ideas on Shari'a and British law. Now I'm no fan of the good Archbishop; I tend to find in his public pronouncements a degree of sanctimonious political correctness that makes me ill. And I'm as enraged as the next bloke when bearded men tell me what I cannot say, and threaten those that do say it. I might also add that Shari'a conjures very few, if any, positive images in my mind. However, in this case, I cannot for the life of me see what is so offensive.<br /><br />According to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7233040.stm">this <em>BBC</em> article</a>, <blockquote>English law states that any third party can be agreed by two sides to arbitrate in a dispute [not involving criminal law]. </blockquote>This seems to me an entirely civilised law, and an example of its application is the existence of the <a href="http://www.theus.org.uk/the_united_synagogue/the_london_beth_din/about_us/">Beth Din</a>, the Jewish court which sits in North Finchley. There are also Catholic courts that fulfil a similar function. If two people agree to abide by the judgements of such courts, and no other law is broken, I cannot see the harm.<br /><br />I took the trouble of reading <a href="http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575">Williams' speech</a> (and was, against my will, impressed). He's only talking about "aspects of marital law, the regulation of financial transactions and authorised structures of mediation and conflict resolution". He is more than aware of Shari'a stellar reputation with the status of women and converts. And he seems to have a better understanding of liberal democracy than many of his accusers. It is not the 'imposition' of rights, but more a clearing of the obstacles to those rights, if they should be claimed. [Warning! Abstruseness aplenty.] <blockquote>The rule of law is thus not the enshrining of priority for the universal/abstract dimension of social existence but the establishing of a space accessible to everyone in which it is possible to affirm and defend a commitment to human dignity as such, independent of membership in any specific human community or tradition, so that when specific communities or traditions are in danger of claiming finality for their own boundaries of practice and understanding, they are reminded that they have to come to terms with the actuality of human diversity - and that the only way of doing this is to acknowledge the category of 'human dignity as such' – a non-negotiable assumption that each agent (with his or her historical and social affiliations) could be expected to have a voice in the shaping of some common project for the well-being and order of a human group. It is not to claim that specific community understandings are 'superseded' by this universal principle, rather to claim that they all need to be undergirded by it. The rule of law is – and this may sound rather counterintuitive – a way of honouring what in the human constitution is not captured by any one form of corporate belonging or any particular history, even though the human constitution never exists without those other determinations.</blockquote>I confess that Williams' style does not make me want to rush out and buy his Collected Sermons and Essays, but the point is a good one.<br /><br />People are reacting to this in the same way that certain <em>other </em>people reacted to a few cartoons and a pope's lecture that they didn't understand. Well, not quite the same way; no-one's died yet. But it is still a fuss over nothing. Let's just allow an entirely civilised English law to be followed. </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-58365455670678691662008-02-06T00:52:00.000+00:002008-02-06T00:55:38.259+00:00Karma<span style="font-size:85%;">I made a long-overdue return to the <a href="http://www.theportico.org.uk/">Portico Library</a> today, had lunch and read an article in the <em><a href="http://www.bbchistorymagazine.com/default.asp">BBC History Magazine</a></em>. It was written by Michael Burleigh, the author of the just-published <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Rage-Cultural-History-Terrorism/dp/0007241275/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202258626&sr=1-4">Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism</a></em>. (The article does not appear to be available on their dreadful website.) It included this vignette, which is like a perfectly formed short story. <blockquote>Like the Russian nihilists, 19th century anarchists were admired in avant-garde circles. After an anarchist had thrown a bomb onto the floor of the Chamber of Deputies in 1893, the French poet Laurent Teilhard asked, "What do the victims matter as long as the gesture is beautiful?' He may have revised his view after he was blinded in one eye when an anarchist hurled a bomb into his favourite restaurant.</blockquote></span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-59455714820338363112008-02-03T21:10:00.000+00:002008-02-03T21:16:47.574+00:00Business as usual<span style="font-size:85%;">Every now and then, it is salutary for both mind and body to read an article like <a href="http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10022">this one</a>. It deals with the long-term, describes real issues and communicates a very simple message: calm down.<br /><br />It dispels 3 myths about the decline of the US: that it is going to be taken over by a non-white, largely hispanic, majority, or by right-wing Christian fundamentalists and that, with the retirement of the baby-boomers its pension system is going to collapse.<br /><br />To save you reading the whole lot, here is a quick summary. About the fear of a non-white majority. <blockquote>[There is no] long-term danger of the US becoming permanently polarised between anglophones and Spanish speakers. Among second-generation Hispanics, roughly half speak no Spanish at all, while fewer than 10 per cent speak only Spanish. By the third and fourth generations, Hispanics in the US are almost completely anglophone.</blockquote>The right-wing Christian fundamentalists are much abused and feared, unjustifiably, it would seem. The US is, in fact, becoming more secular. <blockquote>[T]he number of North Americans who believe that the Bible is "the actual word of God" has fallen from 65 per cent in 1963 to just 27 per cent in 2001. At the same time, attitudes among Americans toward homosexuality, sex out of marriage and censorship are growing steadily more liberal.</blockquote>One exception, a very interesting one. <blockquote>Abortion is the major exception; younger Americans tend to be more opposed to abortion than their elders. Possibly this reflects the growing use of ultrasound by parents to view their offspring in the womb, a practice which may be inadvertently undermining the distinction that supporters of liberal abortion laws have tried to make between foetuses and babies.</blockquote>Do you remember the rubbish about Bush believing he was told by God to invade Iraq? And the consequent panic that the US was going to end up like Iran? Bush is mild compared to such religious bigots as FDR. <blockquote>Franklin D Roosevelt tended to use the phrases "western civilisation" and "Christian civilisation" interchangeably. At the 1941 Atlantic summit in Newfoundland, Roosevelt and Churchill joined the British and American sailors in singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers," "O God Our Help in Ages Past" and "Eternal Father Strong to Save." Bush and Blair may have prayed together but they never would have sung hymns together in public.</blockquote>Even in the south, the use of the word 'christian' as an identifier has more to do with ethnic-style description along the lines of Italian-American or Chinese-American than religion <em>per se</em>.<br /><br />Finally, there is the 'incoming' bomb of the baby-boomers and their pensions, which, supposedly, will send the US tax bill into freefall. Lind says that this worry is based on Government forecasts that rely on very low growth estimates of 1.7 per cent, a figure that has been exceeded in almost every year since 1996. At worst, government spending might have to rise by 2%, which would take its share of GDP to 32%. Compared to the European average of 47%, it is still remarkably slim.<br /><br />Even the general economic picture looks good for the next century. Sure, China and India will be vastly more important than they have been, but even so, the North American (Mexico, US and Canada) share of global GDP will be almost a quarter, just as it was for the US alone 20 years ago.<br /><br />Attached to this article is <a href="http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10027">an editorial </a>from the conservative magazine “Commentary”, whose normal tone is one of despair at a disintegrating society. However, here it is more one of puzzled optimism thanks to the relative decline over the last decade of the following 'social pathologies': violent and property crime, teenage drug use, divorce, welfare and abortion. In some, the change is dramatic. </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-86385111620346715552008-02-02T15:03:00.000+00:002008-02-02T15:09:31.132+00:00Patriotism, bad<span style="font-size:85%;">[<a href="http://noolabeulah.blogspot.com/2008/01/name-dropping.html#c1815653528335012483">Riri is displeased</a>, a completely unacceptable situation. I have not performed. Therefore, I make a (doubtlessly inadequate) attempt to do so.]</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Evidently, the government has proposed <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=FOWJTSUTD2GBFQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/opinion/2008/02/02/do0206.xml">lessons in patriotism</a>. The Institute of Education has responded, with a report drawn up by teachers in London's secondary schools.<br /><br />A lesson in patriotism does sound like an extremely silly idea, like a lesson in love. Classic 'centralised' thinking. There is social disintegration; <em>bon</em>!, let's have lessons telling people they need to integrate. But, of course, it doesn't work like that.<br /><br />Not that these teachers think that patriotism is a good thing, in any case. As the writer points out, it's their reasons for rejecting these lessons that are significant (and entirely predicatable). <blockquote>Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it's an open question whether citizens should love their countries.</blockquote>There is much to say about this old nugget. Notice that it's a <em>moral</em> question. As if the primary function of a country was to be <em>good</em>. It isn't. The primary function of any group is to survive, and then to do its best for its members. Whether that's how things should be is another question. However, it's not a matter of choice - that's how things are.<br /><br />Notice also that it is a <em>decision</em>, the result of rational reflection. I will give loyalty, or love, to this group called my country insofar as it measures up to my idea of what is good. Which, of course, it doesn't, won't and can't. Because, more than likely, the idea of what is good is premised on the non-existence of countries, nationalisms, classes, etc and probably on some notion of complete equality of means and ends, as well.<br /><br />But can such 'decisions' be made rationally? Does that not ignore all that you have been given from the moment of your conception up until the moment when you 'decide'? (Or is all that nothing more than your rights, what was owed you for being born?) Do you also decide at a certain point on the worthiness of your parents? Do they merit your love and loyalty? Are they good enough?<br /><br />Now the revolutionary mind has never had problems with all this stuff - it, like the rest of tradition and the accumulation of historical experience, would be swept away by the Brave New World to come and loyalty would then be given to 'humanity', who would look nothing like the bloke next door. <em>He</em> is the product of the unworthy history that should only be taught as a warning. Unfortunately, the Brave New World to come isn't coming, but no matter, let's just keep on as before, denigrating what has been achieved to glorify instead ... what exactly? </span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-9118418790890634702008-01-28T21:53:00.000+00:002008-01-28T22:11:13.845+00:00Name dropping<span style="font-size:85%;">I'm going to compound my neglect of blogging with this post. Which has no other purpose than to say that I know someone who has read Das Capital (abridged, but hey!), Mao's Little Red Book, Che's Diaries and Qaddafi's Green Book. Not content with that, he is now reading Ruhnama, or the "Book of the Spirit", dedicated to "Allah, the most Exalted TURKMEN", by the erstwhile Turkmenbashi the Great, Saparmurat Niyazov. [Yes, the man whose gold-leaf covered statue rotates to face the sun and who renamed the month of January after himself (only in Turkmenistan, thankfully, because <em>we</em> wouldn't know how to pronounce it, would we?). ] </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">But to return to the premise of this post, which was a boast. Yes, I know this very personable and knowledgeable man who has nevertheless passed hours of his time reading some of the most irrelevant literature ever written - and he has survived, as far as I can tell, undamaged. <a href="http://thoughts-of-universal-kind.blogspot.com/2008/01/book-of-spirit.html">Read about it</a>.</span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-49326177259632570182008-01-25T23:29:00.000+00:002008-01-25T23:34:53.297+00:00The Lives of Others<span style="font-size:85%;">I watched <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Others-Martina-Gedeck/dp/B000R342QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1201303803&sr=1-1">The Lives of Others</a></em> last night. It's good.<br /><br />I appreciated the fact that there is no great discussion of ideological issues (nothing of any import is ever determined by such discussions), that the characters are loyal or disloyal to the state for reasons that come directly out of their 'lived-in' lives. The writer betrays because of friendship and a sort of remorse that the system constructed to end the waste of lives depicted in his plays should itself waste lives so nonchalantly. The seasoned Stasi interrogator who observes the writer and is seduced and brought down by a life lived well with love and friendship, the very things his life, so correct, so sound, lacks entirely.<br /><br />I liked as well the means chosen by the writer to expose the GDR: statistics, or rather, the selective lack of them. In a system obsessed by the 'scientific' justification of its policies through statistics about every facet of human life, the decision of stop gathering the figures on suicide in 1977 is the tiny confession that something essential has failed.<br /><br />The Stasi interrogator, and lecturer in interrogation, is the fulcrum of the film. He is upright, like Cincinnatus in <em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em>. He believed in Socialism and so worked diligently for its endurance. When he stops believing, he acts accordingly. He ends up as a postman. But in a rather awkward and sentimental coda of 3 parts, he is recognised as 'a good man', and the viewer is able to leave the film feeling comforted.<br /><br />I came across this quote by CS Lewis yesterday. <em>The Lives of Others</em> is a perfect illustration of it. <blockquote>The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint … but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.</blockquote></span>NoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.com3