I hadn't seen the German vice-chancellor giving that speech. Wonderful. Thanks for the link. Finally the right policies dressed up as common decency and historical responsibility. Couldn't we also draw attention to Britain's rather lack lustre support for escaping Jews in the 1930's Europe and have Rishi give a similar speech?
Great selection of pieces, as always. My only quibble is with Ian Leslie's historians "who are now abandoning the principles which made their discipline authoritative and vital in the first place." Was this ever true? Was history even authoritative (Hegel seems to have thought not) and/or vital? I've yet to see convincing evidence that it was better written by university graduates than by actor-manager-playwrights who had to find paid employment at 18 when their wife dropped their first daughter (an age when today's scholars would either still be at school or on a gap yah).
I genuinely think we can do without the arts at university. By all means read them for pleasure. Show me a better poet with a degree than Shelley (kicked out for atheistic trouble-making) or Keats (who studied to be a doctor). Saul Bellow graduated in Anthropology and Sociology; Kurt Vonnegut in Biochemistry. The arts are a scam, and the notion that teaching STEM is somehow philistine, and humanities mysteriously uplifting, a base lie.
(Checking Bellow's life on Wikipedia tells me that he thought the English department were antisemitic. Plus ca change.)
re: Perhaps, also, people are more likely to film and confront women than men, because of fears of violence, but I wouldn’t know how this could be proved either way.
There are lots of CCTVs around, no? Haul down the footage and see who has been tearing down the posters.
Okay I read that article about the historical fabrications and shoddy work around the bizarre drive to "represent" blacks in history where they were not present and now I want to chain myself to a very heavy rock and step off a pier. If you want to understand this phenomenon, I think the comment by the BBC guy about adding blacks to historical dramas to depict "not history as it was, but history as it should have been" says everything we need to know. This video is a lot of fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QW_Wnhpjl4
I have said it before but the recent histrionic reaction to people of sub Saharan Africa origin contains all the elements of protesting too much about small but ultimately significant differences amongst racial groups (especially at group level). This following link is anecdote but the rollicking and ultimately tragic chaos would be far less prevalent if the various people involved were more uptight and rules orientated. It is certainly not a story one can readily imagine occurring in an East Asian society.
XXXTentacion - Wikipedia
That is why pointing out the difference is the most heretical thing of all – albeit liberals do get around to accommodating the fact of the difference in their narrative but they do so by displacing it from something biological or cultural: “white” people inherently evil and “black” people are not – being the reverse mirror of the KKK. And the hysteria buttresses a doubt. In the KKK it is a doubt that maybe “black” people are better than they are (than “white” people) or living a better more exciting life (Steppenwolf) and in the case of the liberal it is that maybe “white” people with their deferred and muted satisfactions and bourgeois rules are better after all – which they then seek to prove by being “white” and doing what "white" people do which is speak out for the other group– the not me.
Outstanding speech by Robert Habeck the German Vice-Chancellor. Something of a contrast with the constant equivocations of our own political class, who seem to enjoy nothing more than simultaneously supporting and scolding Israel. But, with the honourable exception of Churchill and Thatcher, it was ever thus I suppose. The Balfour Declaration was a classic of Foreign Office duplicitous ambiguity.
Actually, the background to Ed's comment was a query he threw out on Twitter (as was) in March of this year. He posted: "I wonder if Northern Ireland in the 1950s was the safest society there has ever been in human history. In two years it recorded zero murders, in a province of 1.4 million people, including a large industrial city." The two years with zero murders were 1951 and 1959; in the years between, Northern Ireland's murder rate varied between 0.2 and 0.5 per 100,000.
Irish economist Philip Pilkington replied:
"Northern Ireland did not have the safest society in recorded history. That honour falls to the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s and early 1970s." And he posted the statistics showing that between 1964 and 1970 the Irish murder rate was never higher than 0.3 per 100,000.
It's absolutely amazing. mind-blowing. Just to walk around with zero fear or expectation of crime, incivility or fraud. As an example, every tube station has free, clean public toilets, which we can't have in the west because of social problems. Toilets in Ireland and Scotland have ultra-violet lights to stop people injecting heroin.
I doubt you need a guide but I suspect one or two of my ex-students would be more than happy to show you around - and in doing so practise their English! But it would have to be on a non-studying, non-part-time job day.
Like Patsy Kensit in the 80s are you big in Japan?
Love Ulster besides- There have been incidents of street violence in Dublin. British Embassy burning, and the British Embassy riot. The latter was only a riot and not a burning because the defence forces went in hard.
2- Things.
One the Healy Rae's have asked WTF is going on. There is also an Independent group created of late in the dail. The IRSP have been having meetings about protecting their working class
Riots did not seem to have spread. No attempt to riot in Cork, to take the heat of Dublin
We need more people with the honesty and moral clarity of Robert Habeck in public life. Thanks for the link, Ed, and safe travels!
Thank you
I hadn't seen the German vice-chancellor giving that speech. Wonderful. Thanks for the link. Finally the right policies dressed up as common decency and historical responsibility. Couldn't we also draw attention to Britain's rather lack lustre support for escaping Jews in the 1930's Europe and have Rishi give a similar speech?
Have fun in Japan, Ed. I hope to spend a month or so there next year or in 2025.
going to Kyoto on the fast train on Friday.
Can't wait to return!
Great selection of pieces, as always. My only quibble is with Ian Leslie's historians "who are now abandoning the principles which made their discipline authoritative and vital in the first place." Was this ever true? Was history even authoritative (Hegel seems to have thought not) and/or vital? I've yet to see convincing evidence that it was better written by university graduates than by actor-manager-playwrights who had to find paid employment at 18 when their wife dropped their first daughter (an age when today's scholars would either still be at school or on a gap yah).
I genuinely think we can do without the arts at university. By all means read them for pleasure. Show me a better poet with a degree than Shelley (kicked out for atheistic trouble-making) or Keats (who studied to be a doctor). Saul Bellow graduated in Anthropology and Sociology; Kurt Vonnegut in Biochemistry. The arts are a scam, and the notion that teaching STEM is somehow philistine, and humanities mysteriously uplifting, a base lie.
(Checking Bellow's life on Wikipedia tells me that he thought the English department were antisemitic. Plus ca change.)
re: Perhaps, also, people are more likely to film and confront women than men, because of fears of violence, but I wouldn’t know how this could be proved either way.
There are lots of CCTVs around, no? Haul down the footage and see who has been tearing down the posters.
Okay I read that article about the historical fabrications and shoddy work around the bizarre drive to "represent" blacks in history where they were not present and now I want to chain myself to a very heavy rock and step off a pier. If you want to understand this phenomenon, I think the comment by the BBC guy about adding blacks to historical dramas to depict "not history as it was, but history as it should have been" says everything we need to know. This video is a lot of fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QW_Wnhpjl4
I have said it before but the recent histrionic reaction to people of sub Saharan Africa origin contains all the elements of protesting too much about small but ultimately significant differences amongst racial groups (especially at group level). This following link is anecdote but the rollicking and ultimately tragic chaos would be far less prevalent if the various people involved were more uptight and rules orientated. It is certainly not a story one can readily imagine occurring in an East Asian society.
XXXTentacion - Wikipedia
That is why pointing out the difference is the most heretical thing of all – albeit liberals do get around to accommodating the fact of the difference in their narrative but they do so by displacing it from something biological or cultural: “white” people inherently evil and “black” people are not – being the reverse mirror of the KKK. And the hysteria buttresses a doubt. In the KKK it is a doubt that maybe “black” people are better than they are (than “white” people) or living a better more exciting life (Steppenwolf) and in the case of the liberal it is that maybe “white” people with their deferred and muted satisfactions and bourgeois rules are better after all – which they then seek to prove by being “white” and doing what "white" people do which is speak out for the other group– the not me.
Outstanding speech by Robert Habeck the German Vice-Chancellor. Something of a contrast with the constant equivocations of our own political class, who seem to enjoy nothing more than simultaneously supporting and scolding Israel. But, with the honourable exception of Churchill and Thatcher, it was ever thus I suppose. The Balfour Declaration was a classic of Foreign Office duplicitous ambiguity.
"the Republic of Ireland in the late 20th centuries had perhaps the lowest homicide rate in any society, ever."
Now do Northern Ireland, Ed!
Perversely it actually does. N.I is less murderous than many American cities of similar size during the 1990s.
Actually, the background to Ed's comment was a query he threw out on Twitter (as was) in March of this year. He posted: "I wonder if Northern Ireland in the 1950s was the safest society there has ever been in human history. In two years it recorded zero murders, in a province of 1.4 million people, including a large industrial city." The two years with zero murders were 1951 and 1959; in the years between, Northern Ireland's murder rate varied between 0.2 and 0.5 per 100,000.
Irish economist Philip Pilkington replied:
"Northern Ireland did not have the safest society in recorded history. That honour falls to the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s and early 1970s." And he posted the statistics showing that between 1964 and 1970 the Irish murder rate was never higher than 0.3 per 100,000.
Yeah, Northern Ireland was incredibly safe before the troubles.
Even in the worst years of the troubles it still had lower homicide rates than the worst US cities.
Really appreciate the sharing of interesting articles I may have missed.
You're welcome!
What is Japan actually like? I always get the impression from the Japanese I have met -there is a save us from the cringe of our friends
It's absolutely amazing. mind-blowing. Just to walk around with zero fear or expectation of crime, incivility or fraud. As an example, every tube station has free, clean public toilets, which we can't have in the west because of social problems. Toilets in Ireland and Scotland have ultra-violet lights to stop people injecting heroin.
And it really is technologically advanced.
Got served by a robot yesterday
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0JQjJFItgJ/
Thanks - Enjoy the trip
Will look forward to reading some reflections on Japanese history and culture. Or let me know if you'd like a guest post...!
I’ve been to Japan twice, I was just blown away each time, please enjoy the most beautiful country in the world
Although I was a STEM student I support the Dayton Philharmonic conductors call for at least some STEAM, and include the Arts
I doubt you need a guide but I suspect one or two of my ex-students would be more than happy to show you around - and in doing so practise their English! But it would have to be on a non-studying, non-part-time job day.
Like Patsy Kensit in the 80s are you big in Japan?
Love Ulster besides- There have been incidents of street violence in Dublin. British Embassy burning, and the British Embassy riot. The latter was only a riot and not a burning because the defence forces went in hard.
2- Things.
One the Healy Rae's have asked WTF is going on. There is also an Independent group created of late in the dail. The IRSP have been having meetings about protecting their working class
Riots did not seem to have spread. No attempt to riot in Cork, to take the heat of Dublin