I share your sentiments with Oasis. I never warmed to them. I loathe pop music snobbery. I was glad when they self destructed and we got lot of pretty female popstars I now learn that it is a national crisis that some people were charged 100s of pounds to see Oasis play.
Maybe it's just my memory, but the Gallaghers did do a lot to increase the popularity of the Beatles. obv they were always super popular, but their popularity further increased in the 1990s
I once took the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen. At one point, the train literally drives onto a ferry; you get off, go to an upper deck, have a beer and then get back on the train as the ferry approaches the land. An experience that users of the new tunnel will miss out on!
On people in power having terrible taste (but also having the means of imposing it on us as 'modern') Thomas Heatherwick's 'Humanise' is brilliant, if you haven't come across it.
Giving out antibiotics like candy is a horrible idea. The long term results will be more antibiotic resistant bacteria. That's already a problem. I've known two people, one a thirty-something mother of three kids, who died from such infections
Oasis are inexplicable to me. A total lack of originality and talent in exact inverse proportion to overweening arrogance and stupidity. The David Lammy of bands.
Hi Ed, I'm looking for a US equivalent of your Substack: something that combines historical depth/research with cultural commentary from a perspective similar to yours (would you describe it as conservative? postliberal?). Can you recommend something?
Plenty of cultural commentary out there--it's the historical depth that's missing. I learn so much from your history work and would love to learn more about US history in a similar vein. *Not* from the perspective of somebody like Jill Lepore or Heather Cox Richardson.
"The black pill conclusion: actually things are quite bad."
Actually I found that essay on crime rather optimistic! After all, the author concludes that "crime is an exceptionally tractable problem", and implies that we could recover those mid-twentieth-century / modern East Asian crime rates simply by making our criminal justice system more assertive. The real black-pill position would surely be to assume that we can never restore our early postwar social peace because of changes in the fabric of society. I also found it interesting to read a writer suggesting that we could actually emulate those orderly East Asian societies, rather than dismissing their virtues as culturally specific and inimitable.
"Sometime after the Art Deco era, so many Western buildings became either hyperutilitarian or gobsmackingly ugly."
No political endorsement intended, obviously, but I have sometimes thought that the last attractive architectural style was Stalinist neoclassicism. I thought so in Minsk more than a decade ago, I thought so in Sofia last year, and I thought so again in Chisinau and Tiraspol last week.
the The Palace of Culture and Science likewise. It's a real test of how attractive a building is that it's in Poland and associated with Stalin and yet they didn't knock it down.
"Postwar Western European countries were among the safest on Earth, comparable to much older, much wealthier, and much more forensically sophisticated modern Japan. There’s no technical reason why Western European societies today shouldn’t be this safe, and reap the benefits, beyond a lack of will." I had similar musings this week on parking at a village hall in the countryside about 20 miles from home, and being able to enter an unlocked door to the unsupervised hall to use the (scrupulously clean) toilet. Though my conclusions were somewhat different and revolve around a high level of social trust based on a high level of cultural homogeneity of the users of the hall. I.e. nothing "technical" atall unless you judge how we decide which people to let into our country and how they are socialised as technical issues.
I highly recommend Steve Davies' work in general. He's kind of a low-key under-the-radar guy who has a lot of great insights.
A dark part of me suspects that a big part of why the ultra-low crime rates of Western countries in the middle of the last century didn't last was because certain personality types simply got bored with it.
A fallen anon on Twitter once compared Sweden's recent exciting immigration experiment as being like a comfortable middle-aged man who's just bored with his family and job and wants to see what it's like to blow everything up.
When I taught ESL in Peru. I remember I had a class where I was teaching English to 11 young women-18-30 A Nuclear Engineer and a 14 year old boy. One of the students was an Airforce Nurse. She wore her dress uniform-which would have been too on the nose for Carry on Doctor. I remember the Engineer talking to the lad, and saying. Bunking off this class is silly. You are just going to annoy your parents- you can play football on sundays- The distaff version is true here. A woman of a similar age to mine. Gets to me some young men -some have a dangerous past. They are exotic looking and you get paid to be there
It is also arrogance. We can turn Somali's into Swedes, because we are kinder, smarter then everyone else.
Love football clubs having kits with battles on them. Leicester could have the Battle of Bosworth, Chelsea's away kit would feature the Battle of Stamford Bridge. West Brom and Sheffield United could fight it out to see who got to commemorate the Battle of Bramall Lane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bramall_Lane?wprov=sfla1
I share your sentiments with Oasis. I never warmed to them. I loathe pop music snobbery. I was glad when they self destructed and we got lot of pretty female popstars I now learn that it is a national crisis that some people were charged 100s of pounds to see Oasis play.
time to nationalise Oasis
In defence:
(1) Huge fans of Beatles so must be ok.
(2) This photo from their first gig at Maine Road:
https://www.ilpost.it/2015/01/24/joy-division-oasis-manchester-mostra/noel-gallagher-oasis-at-maine-road-april-1996/
that's a great photo TBF
Maybe it's just my memory, but the Gallaghers did do a lot to increase the popularity of the Beatles. obv they were always super popular, but their popularity further increased in the 1990s
I once took the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen. At one point, the train literally drives onto a ferry; you get off, go to an upper deck, have a beer and then get back on the train as the ferry approaches the land. An experience that users of the new tunnel will miss out on!
Sadly, that train/ferry intersection stopped at the end of 2019; the Hamburg-Copenhagen trains are now routed via Jutland.
I'm getting old; babbling about tourist attractions that, unbeknownst to me, so longer exists xD
On people in power having terrible taste (but also having the means of imposing it on us as 'modern') Thomas Heatherwick's 'Humanise' is brilliant, if you haven't come across it.
Giving out antibiotics like candy is a horrible idea. The long term results will be more antibiotic resistant bacteria. That's already a problem. I've known two people, one a thirty-something mother of three kids, who died from such infections
Post-Liberal Pete has the irritating habit of sticking apostrophes in the 1950s, the 1960s, the 2020s etc. Makes me cross.
Oasis are inexplicable to me. A total lack of originality and talent in exact inverse proportion to overweening arrogance and stupidity. The David Lammy of bands.
Hi Ed, I'm looking for a US equivalent of your Substack: something that combines historical depth/research with cultural commentary from a perspective similar to yours (would you describe it as conservative? postliberal?). Can you recommend something?
I'm not sure to be honest. I'd love to read them if you find!
Plenty of cultural commentary out there--it's the historical depth that's missing. I learn so much from your history work and would love to learn more about US history in a similar vein. *Not* from the perspective of somebody like Jill Lepore or Heather Cox Richardson.
I truly believe that drug legalization is a product of the profoundly enervating force of White Liberal Guilt.
"The black pill conclusion: actually things are quite bad."
Actually I found that essay on crime rather optimistic! After all, the author concludes that "crime is an exceptionally tractable problem", and implies that we could recover those mid-twentieth-century / modern East Asian crime rates simply by making our criminal justice system more assertive. The real black-pill position would surely be to assume that we can never restore our early postwar social peace because of changes in the fabric of society. I also found it interesting to read a writer suggesting that we could actually emulate those orderly East Asian societies, rather than dismissing their virtues as culturally specific and inimitable.
"Sometime after the Art Deco era, so many Western buildings became either hyperutilitarian or gobsmackingly ugly."
No political endorsement intended, obviously, but I have sometimes thought that the last attractive architectural style was Stalinist neoclassicism. I thought so in Minsk more than a decade ago, I thought so in Sofia last year, and I thought so again in Chisinau and Tiraspol last week.
the The Palace of Culture and Science likewise. It's a real test of how attractive a building is that it's in Poland and associated with Stalin and yet they didn't knock it down.
Karl-Marx-Allee (one time Stalinallee) in former East Berlin is also most impressive.
"Postwar Western European countries were among the safest on Earth, comparable to much older, much wealthier, and much more forensically sophisticated modern Japan. There’s no technical reason why Western European societies today shouldn’t be this safe, and reap the benefits, beyond a lack of will." I had similar musings this week on parking at a village hall in the countryside about 20 miles from home, and being able to enter an unlocked door to the unsupervised hall to use the (scrupulously clean) toilet. Though my conclusions were somewhat different and revolve around a high level of social trust based on a high level of cultural homogeneity of the users of the hall. I.e. nothing "technical" atall unless you judge how we decide which people to let into our country and how they are socialised as technical issues.
TBF even without immigration, crime in late 20c England would have skyrocketed - it happened in areas completely untouched by diversity.
Socialisation then. Also Roy Jenkins as Home Secretary was one of the most revolutionary politicians of the 20th century, and not in a good way.
I highly recommend Steve Davies' work in general. He's kind of a low-key under-the-radar guy who has a lot of great insights.
A dark part of me suspects that a big part of why the ultra-low crime rates of Western countries in the middle of the last century didn't last was because certain personality types simply got bored with it.
A fallen anon on Twitter once compared Sweden's recent exciting immigration experiment as being like a comfortable middle-aged man who's just bored with his family and job and wants to see what it's like to blow everything up.
When I taught ESL in Peru. I remember I had a class where I was teaching English to 11 young women-18-30 A Nuclear Engineer and a 14 year old boy. One of the students was an Airforce Nurse. She wore her dress uniform-which would have been too on the nose for Carry on Doctor. I remember the Engineer talking to the lad, and saying. Bunking off this class is silly. You are just going to annoy your parents- you can play football on sundays- The distaff version is true here. A woman of a similar age to mine. Gets to me some young men -some have a dangerous past. They are exotic looking and you get paid to be there
It is also arrogance. We can turn Somali's into Swedes, because we are kinder, smarter then everyone else.
Love football clubs having kits with battles on them. Leicester could have the Battle of Bosworth, Chelsea's away kit would feature the Battle of Stamford Bridge. West Brom and Sheffield United could fight it out to see who got to commemorate the Battle of Bramall Lane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bramall_Lane?wprov=sfla1
Richard III helped Leicester win the league, from beyond the grave. true story
RoI have an Easter 1916 shirt.. England should do a St Crispin's day one. Bannockburn for Scotland. Boyne / Somme for N.I
The Oof Gallery at Spurs's stadium has an exhibition ‘TOPS OFF: A CENTURY OF FOOTBALL SHIRT ART’ until end of Sep if anyone is in London