It is the year 2008, man has advanced remarkably in the last 2 decades; I remember fondly, laughing at the image of my uncle with his work mobile phone, when I was around 12 years old. It had a very large battery pack, and a massive arial to boot. 5 years later I was 17 and had bought my first mobile phone, which was basic by today’s standards to say the least!
Recently I had a PDA, which I quickly got tired of, having to use a stylus in the pub to text someone left me feeling like a twat (not to say im not) and trying to text or make a call while doing 90MPh down the M8, forget it..
So, I went onto the phone company website, with the intention of going back to basics, getting the most basic phone I could; The most basic phone I could get is an LG Shine (im particularly fond of LG products, since I bought one of their TV’s), which has a camera, mp3 player etc, hardly basic at all.
The medical advances man has made also are stunning, with laser eye surgery now down to an affordable cost, people I grew up with that wore glasses now have better eye sight than me, and stem cell treatment, while still resisted by the government does seem to be working miracles. On a personal note I am convinced that stem cell treatment will provide a cure for cancer, if only the government would allow it.
So why in the midst of all this advancement do we seem to be having a serious case of writer’s block when it comes to entertainment?
Reality TV – The most un-realistic nonsense ever, and anyone who says “I hate it but I can’t stop watching it” needs to seek professional guidance right away! As Billy Connolly says “it’s sitting in the house, watching people sitting in the house”, which is probably the closest thing to being conscious and brain-dead at the same time as I can imagine.
Shows like “the salon” – like I need to watch a bunch of gay guys prancing around cutting hair!, and x-factor – so simon cowell can not only pick the next person to sonically rape the nation with, but also make a killing from the votes! What ever happened to 4 guys strapping on instruments and just having fun?!?! “im a celebrity, get me out of here” – Sorry, is the “im a celebrity” part of the title actually meaningless? Just to make people watch? I haven’t seen one person who I would deem a celebrity on the damn show! Johnny Rotten on there, come on, the guy became obsolete faster than the latest build of windows!
Remake Films – Planet of the apes and I am legend, are oddly both remakes of Charlton Heston films(well the latter is a different film from the same novel but still), someone is clearly saying that they can make a better job of things than mr Heston, not that it would be difficult.. It’s a bit like bands covering bob Dylan songs, every single person who has recorded a Dylan song has made a better version – what does that tell you bob? But back to the point, can no-one come up with a story anymore? Have we really told them all already? Even Scorcese, who I regard as a genius, Is remaking Korean films (departed is a remake of infernal affairs), at least he changed it if only very slightly.
Bands reforming – Led Zeppelin, Cream, Queen with Paul Rogers – I mean, I love these bands, but can the individuals involved not make any new music? At least Mr Plant Is doing something “new” with Alison krauss. When I say new, I mean it is old covers, but its still fresh in arrangement and style.
Copycat killers – For crying out loud! You mean to say you cant even invent a way to kill someone? How complicated does it have to be? Break their neck, shoot them, stab them, just get on with it!!!
What ever happened to a writer sitting down, perhaps smoking some weed, whatever sparks his imagination, and writing a story, a comedy, anything, it doesn’t even have to be 100% original, but it has to be entertaining!!
Have we really run dry of all ideas? Perhaps we could develop one of those neurolysers from men in black, destroy all trace of film, literature, art, music, wipe our memories and start again..
Better yet, get these tired old rock stars that cant write new songs, stick them onto x-factor, get them voted for. Kill Simon Cowell in an original way, and take his money. Then kill each of the old rockers live on TV, and people can vote for the most original kill. When the winner is announced, kill them. Then kill all the producers of these reality shows, live on their show, and again vote on it. Next, kill all the copycat killers, and basically anyone who has done something which has been done before, and then pretty soon there wont be a single human being alive. From musicians, to actors, to poets, to painters, to photographers, to plumbers, to architects, to bus drivers to babies , everyone everywhere that does anything, including breathing, is doing something which has been done before..
Why not just kill god too while we’re at it, because on the 2nd day of creating the universe, he copied himself from the first day.
Finally kill me, because I have undone my entire argument!!!
richard terris.,
Clearing the Air over Iraq.,
The mission to Free the Iraqi People/Regime change.
The mission to free the Iraqi people began with what was dubbed “Shock and Awe”.
Denis Halliday, a former UN Assistant Secretary General and head of the UN food-for-oil sanctions program in Iraq (1997-8) describes the Shock and Awe battle tactics that were to begin the war in Iraq, stating that “the United States and Britain are proceeding with plans to annihilate Iraqi society, a catastrophe that would be heightened by the threatened use of tactical nuclear weaponry”. (1.27/2003.) This message is hard to reconcile with Ari Fleischer’s statement in a White House Briefing with the Press in February 2003, claiming that “every step will be taken to protect civilian and innocent life in Iraq”.
The authors of the Shock and Awe battle plan describe locations that could be targeted as being “means of communication, transportation, food production, water supply, and other aspects of infrastructure “
and in chapter 1 describe the hoped for effects of the Shock and Awe, Shutting the country down would entail both the physical destruction of appropriate infrastructure and the shutdown and control of the flow of all vital information and associated commerce so rapidly as to achieve a level of national shock akin to the effect that dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese
and in chapter 5 we are explained the reason for the need for a shock and awe type approach : the appropriate balance of Shock and Awe must cause the perception and anticipation of certain defeat and the threat and fear of action that may shut down all or part of the adversary's society or render his ability to fight useless short of complete physical destruction
Harlan Ullman was aired on CBS News, January 24, 2003 stating that “You also take the city down. By that I mean you get rid of their power, water. In 2, 3, 4, 5 days they are physically, emotionally, and psychologically exhausted.”
REF : www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/24/eveningnews/main537928.shtml
“During the first Gulf War much of Iraq’s infrastructure was targeted and destroyed. There is a unique and important series of declassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents available, which studied the destruction of Iraq’s water supply and the ensuing progressive spread of sickness and disease…it is the stated intention of the “Shock and Awe” planners to re-initiate (by destroying Iraq’s water supply again)” this by targeting the infrastructure that controls and regulates the water supplies in Iraq. REF SEE BELOW
John Powers, LA Weekly, 2/27-3/6/03:
Gets it about right when he says simply that “…it’s about inspiring mass terror.”
***REF (The “Shock and Awe”
Experiment
Compilation, Analysis and Discussion of Available Information on the Pentagon’s “Shock and Awe” Battle Plan for Iraq
Especially as It Affects Civilian Infrastructure and the Civilian Population, prepared for the not in our name project, JHavenar, 19th march 2003.)
The battle concept of Shock and Awe was developed by Harlan Ullman and James P Wade, and was a product of the National Defense University, USA.
As I sit and re-read these quotes and also passages from the original text (available on-line) I can’t help but feel that the architects of this kind of thought process, this kind of complete dehumanisation of a whole civilian population, act as a terrifying reminder that a widespread social apathy towards the projects of the military and expansionist governments of the west can only result in exponential curves in this type of thinking, and continued use of this type of tactic, and also a reminder as to the dark depths that the human mind and soul can sink to.
Death tolls amongst Iraqi civilians during this initial stage are unclear, and may never be known, however given the surprise element involved in the launch of the Shock and Awe policy, the massive amount of force used, the indiscriminate nature of the attack or if any real discrimination was ever actually attempted the lack of any real intelligence as to where military sites where located (we can quite fairly assume this given the quality of the intelligence given by the same intelligence agencies relating the location of WMDs), and of course the deliberate targeting of water supplies, communications, food supplies power and infrastructure, we can assume it to be reasonably high.
To put it in another perspective, have a quick glance at this : www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s1odqQTKyU&feature=related ,
You can’t help but feel that the man doesn’t really have a handle on reality…
Life in Iraq Today :
After the years of war, the mounting civilian loses, all the propaganda, lies and misinformation, the demonstrations on the streets all around the world, the pamphlets, the articles, the political speeches, how is life in Iraq today? Are the people of Iraq any freer. Has Operation Iraqi Freedom been a success? The Red Cross in April of 2007 state that civilian life was “ever-worsening” and that civilians endure “unbearable and unacceptable” suffering.
The facts : In 2003 the so-called coalition of the willing planned, prepared and waged a war against the sovereign state of Iraq. To date, although accurate figures are almost impossible to come by, it can be estimated that the total death toll is reaching the one million mark with no immediate signs of the war or the conflict in the region coming to an end; the general infrastructure of the country has been decimated (including nearly all schools, hospitals, communications, museums, businesses etc…), unemployment is high and the streets are not safe to walk about on in the major cities where road blocks and heavily armed check points are standard, as are the incidents of civilian casualties.
The Red Cross remains neutral, and so does not hold any particular party or group responsible, however, does call “on all those who can influence the situation on the ground to act now to ensure that the lives of ordinary people are spared and protected. This is an obligation under international humanitarian law for both states and non-state actors”.
However, the final thing that needs to be understood in the clearing of the air on this most important of issues is that as members of societies that have had a direct influence on the situation in Iraq, as members of societies who have paid taxes to fund both the militaries of the coalition of the willing as well as the private security firms employed in Iraq we are not neutral spectators in this. I will say again, we are not neutral spectators in this and any person who claims to be such is both guilty of decieving themselves and guilty of moral treachery.
Morally we cannot be neutral in this, for it truly is, as G.W. Bush is so found of saying, really a situation in which you are “either with them or against them”…
The Final Insult:
Alan Greenspan (head of Federal Reserve for 18yrs.), September of 2007, : “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,”
So after all those press conferences, promises, pledges, guarantees and assurances, after commemorating so solemnly all the lives of the service men and women who gave their lives in the genuine belief that they were fighting a just cause, to rid the world of an evil, and most tragically, after the death of perhaps more than one million innocent civilians in Iraq, it turns out that the whole thing was about greed, material wealth and the limitless desires of the capitalist elite… It appears that the people of the western liberal democracies have been lied to again and again, it appears that this disception was deliberate, premeditated and commited for the basest of reasons – simply to line the pockets of themselves and their eager cronies. Well, sadly those cronies and hangers on cannot be brought to justice – within the current framework of the legal system – however the politicians could be brought to justice and face war crime tribunals. This is what I suggest, and if somehow, this is all a mistake, then they deserve to have the chance to clear their names, but if it is as it seems, then those responisible for planning, orchestrating and enacting this campaign of terror ought to face the international courts.
Reflecting on what Greenspan has said makes a mockery of these men - blair bush et al., he has showed the world in one blow the type of pitiful lap dogs that they are, lap dogs to the oil industry, to money and to power and to hell with humanity, to hell with the innocents who must die so that they can line their own pockets, to hell with the idea of decent open transparent democracy choosing instead the path of decetpion and lies. There are no words in this language to describe these men and women, no end fitting for such acts of treachery of the human spirit.
Once again, there can be no moral neutrality in a case such as this and so you must be “either with them or against them…”.
hesq.,
The mission to free the Iraqi people began with what was dubbed “Shock and Awe”.
Denis Halliday, a former UN Assistant Secretary General and head of the UN food-for-oil sanctions program in Iraq (1997-8) describes the Shock and Awe battle tactics that were to begin the war in Iraq, stating that “the United States and Britain are proceeding with plans to annihilate Iraqi society, a catastrophe that would be heightened by the threatened use of tactical nuclear weaponry”. (1.27/2003.) This message is hard to reconcile with Ari Fleischer’s statement in a White House Briefing with the Press in February 2003, claiming that “every step will be taken to protect civilian and innocent life in Iraq”.
The authors of the Shock and Awe battle plan describe locations that could be targeted as being “means of communication, transportation, food production, water supply, and other aspects of infrastructure “
and in chapter 1 describe the hoped for effects of the Shock and Awe, Shutting the country down would entail both the physical destruction of appropriate infrastructure and the shutdown and control of the flow of all vital information and associated commerce so rapidly as to achieve a level of national shock akin to the effect that dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese
and in chapter 5 we are explained the reason for the need for a shock and awe type approach : the appropriate balance of Shock and Awe must cause the perception and anticipation of certain defeat and the threat and fear of action that may shut down all or part of the adversary's society or render his ability to fight useless short of complete physical destruction
Harlan Ullman was aired on CBS News, January 24, 2003 stating that “You also take the city down. By that I mean you get rid of their power, water. In 2, 3, 4, 5 days they are physically, emotionally, and psychologically exhausted.”
REF : www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/24/eveningnews/main537928.shtml
“During the first Gulf War much of Iraq’s infrastructure was targeted and destroyed. There is a unique and important series of declassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents available, which studied the destruction of Iraq’s water supply and the ensuing progressive spread of sickness and disease…it is the stated intention of the “Shock and Awe” planners to re-initiate (by destroying Iraq’s water supply again)” this by targeting the infrastructure that controls and regulates the water supplies in Iraq. REF SEE BELOW
John Powers, LA Weekly, 2/27-3/6/03:
Gets it about right when he says simply that “…it’s about inspiring mass terror.”
***REF (The “Shock and Awe”
Experiment
Compilation, Analysis and Discussion of Available Information on the Pentagon’s “Shock and Awe” Battle Plan for Iraq
Especially as It Affects Civilian Infrastructure and the Civilian Population, prepared for the not in our name project, JHavenar, 19th march 2003.)
The battle concept of Shock and Awe was developed by Harlan Ullman and James P Wade, and was a product of the National Defense University, USA.
As I sit and re-read these quotes and also passages from the original text (available on-line) I can’t help but feel that the architects of this kind of thought process, this kind of complete dehumanisation of a whole civilian population, act as a terrifying reminder that a widespread social apathy towards the projects of the military and expansionist governments of the west can only result in exponential curves in this type of thinking, and continued use of this type of tactic, and also a reminder as to the dark depths that the human mind and soul can sink to.
Death tolls amongst Iraqi civilians during this initial stage are unclear, and may never be known, however given the surprise element involved in the launch of the Shock and Awe policy, the massive amount of force used, the indiscriminate nature of the attack or if any real discrimination was ever actually attempted the lack of any real intelligence as to where military sites where located (we can quite fairly assume this given the quality of the intelligence given by the same intelligence agencies relating the location of WMDs), and of course the deliberate targeting of water supplies, communications, food supplies power and infrastructure, we can assume it to be reasonably high.
To put it in another perspective, have a quick glance at this : www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s1odqQTKyU&feature=related ,
You can’t help but feel that the man doesn’t really have a handle on reality…
Life in Iraq Today :
After the years of war, the mounting civilian loses, all the propaganda, lies and misinformation, the demonstrations on the streets all around the world, the pamphlets, the articles, the political speeches, how is life in Iraq today? Are the people of Iraq any freer. Has Operation Iraqi Freedom been a success? The Red Cross in April of 2007 state that civilian life was “ever-worsening” and that civilians endure “unbearable and unacceptable” suffering.
The facts : In 2003 the so-called coalition of the willing planned, prepared and waged a war against the sovereign state of Iraq. To date, although accurate figures are almost impossible to come by, it can be estimated that the total death toll is reaching the one million mark with no immediate signs of the war or the conflict in the region coming to an end; the general infrastructure of the country has been decimated (including nearly all schools, hospitals, communications, museums, businesses etc…), unemployment is high and the streets are not safe to walk about on in the major cities where road blocks and heavily armed check points are standard, as are the incidents of civilian casualties.
The Red Cross remains neutral, and so does not hold any particular party or group responsible, however, does call “on all those who can influence the situation on the ground to act now to ensure that the lives of ordinary people are spared and protected. This is an obligation under international humanitarian law for both states and non-state actors”.
However, the final thing that needs to be understood in the clearing of the air on this most important of issues is that as members of societies that have had a direct influence on the situation in Iraq, as members of societies who have paid taxes to fund both the militaries of the coalition of the willing as well as the private security firms employed in Iraq we are not neutral spectators in this. I will say again, we are not neutral spectators in this and any person who claims to be such is both guilty of decieving themselves and guilty of moral treachery.
Morally we cannot be neutral in this, for it truly is, as G.W. Bush is so found of saying, really a situation in which you are “either with them or against them”…
The Final Insult:
Alan Greenspan (head of Federal Reserve for 18yrs.), September of 2007, : “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,”
So after all those press conferences, promises, pledges, guarantees and assurances, after commemorating so solemnly all the lives of the service men and women who gave their lives in the genuine belief that they were fighting a just cause, to rid the world of an evil, and most tragically, after the death of perhaps more than one million innocent civilians in Iraq, it turns out that the whole thing was about greed, material wealth and the limitless desires of the capitalist elite… It appears that the people of the western liberal democracies have been lied to again and again, it appears that this disception was deliberate, premeditated and commited for the basest of reasons – simply to line the pockets of themselves and their eager cronies. Well, sadly those cronies and hangers on cannot be brought to justice – within the current framework of the legal system – however the politicians could be brought to justice and face war crime tribunals. This is what I suggest, and if somehow, this is all a mistake, then they deserve to have the chance to clear their names, but if it is as it seems, then those responisible for planning, orchestrating and enacting this campaign of terror ought to face the international courts.
Reflecting on what Greenspan has said makes a mockery of these men - blair bush et al., he has showed the world in one blow the type of pitiful lap dogs that they are, lap dogs to the oil industry, to money and to power and to hell with humanity, to hell with the innocents who must die so that they can line their own pockets, to hell with the idea of decent open transparent democracy choosing instead the path of decetpion and lies. There are no words in this language to describe these men and women, no end fitting for such acts of treachery of the human spirit.
Once again, there can be no moral neutrality in a case such as this and so you must be “either with them or against them…”.
hesq.,
Poetry from Ermine Strill a.k.a. emily chalk., Edinburgh.,
Swifts and Nightjars.,Swifts and Nightjars Elizabeth,
the doves come and I scatter
my guilt likegrain for them.
I am having visions again.
They appear in wild processions
from the mouth of my father's crumbling poetry
into my mothers arena of pain.
they are propaganda for sin.
My throat is full of wishbones and brail.
I watched you drown robins in whisky
and I have built a glass bottomed boat.
It will be my arc (my coffin, my arc)
until my secrets turn to milk in my mouth.
The shadows are still so bloated.
I have tried to make ghosts bleed.
Now winter has come and the spiders are
spitting on graves. Finding grace is like
catching hummingbirds with bare hands.
He says that he has changed,
and I have become a chrysalis of vultures,
a pillar of salt. Elizabeth your eyes look different,
they are still in your face like sleeping scarab beetles.
Is this my punishment? Have I not loved enough?
There is a child in my arms and a fox in my heart.
Ermine Strill, Edinburgh,
Ermine Strill, Edinburgh,
Conference Speeches, from Surrealist,
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murderrespectable" George Orwell
DAVID CAMERON: It's been a great week. This week we've shown we are back inthe centre ground of British politics//////////\\\\\\\\\\Once upon a timethere was a little red hen who lived by herself in the woods. Near thelittle red hen there lived a sly young fox. He lived with his mother in aden underground//////////\\\\\\\\\\Our new candidates are changing the waywe think about politics, not just campaigning and delivering leaflets butmaking a difference in their community//////////\\\\\\\\\\Now the sly youngfox had one big ambition. He wanted to catch the little red hen and eather!//////////\\\\\\\\\\Standing up for what you believe in. Putting yourcountry first. That is something that this party has always deeplyunderstood//////////\\\\\\\\\\One day the sly young fox thought up a very cunning plan indeed. "Put somewater on the fire to boil," he told his mother. "tonight we shall eat thelittle red hen for our dinner."//////////\\\\\\\\\\Let's not think thatpeople are going to jump straight into our arms. This is going to be slowpatient hard work//////////\\\\\\\\\\The sly young fox hid behind a tree andwaited. The little red hen came outside. The minute her back was turned thesly young fox slipped quietly into her house//////////\\\\\\\\\\For too longthe political decisions in this country have been made in the wrong place.Not round the cabinet table where they should be. But on the sofa in TonyBlair's office//////////\\\\\\\\\\The little red hen came inside. As soon asshe shut the door, she came face to face with the sly youngfox!//////////\\\\\\\\\\There is no greater responsibility for a PrimeMinister than protecting the security of our country and sending our armedforces into action//////////\\\\\\\\\\The little red hen escaped to a perchhigh up near the ceiling. She felt her head going round and round...shebecame so dizzy that she fell straight into the fox'sbag!//////////\\\\\\\\\\You know Liam Fox. I know Liam Fox. He is someonewith real passion and energy who would never stop fighting for Britain'stroops to get them all that they need//////////\\\\\\\\\\The sly young foxsat down to rest. He began to doze. The little red hen crept away. Quicklyshe collected some stones and put them into the bag to fool the fox. Then
she ran off home//////////\\\\\\\\\\The moment I walk through the front doorof Downing Street I will have the huge responsibility of protecting theBritish people from terrorism//////////\\\\\\\\\\The sly young fox returnedhome. "I've got the little red hen!" he shouted to his mother. She had a potof water boiling. The sly young fox opened the bag over the boiling pot. Thestones fell out of the bag...SPLASH!...right into the water. The boilingwater splashed all over the two foxes and killed them both.TONY BLAIR: Most of politics isn't about politics in the sense of meetings,resolutions, speeches or even parties. It starts withpeople//////////\\\\\\\\\\Baghdad, September the 30th, 2004, explosions killmore than 40 people, most of them children//////////\\\\\\\\\\Take a stepback and be proud. This is a changedcountry//////////\\\\\\\\\\Mid-December,2004,at least 60 Iraqis are killedin bombings in the Shia holy cities of Najaf andKerbala//////////\\\\\\\\\\We faced out to the people, not in onourselves//////////\\\\\\\\\\May 2005 doubles April's total of Iraqicivilians killed in shootings and car bombings; the total for the monthreaches 672//////////\\\\\\\\\\We went back to first principles, to ourvalues, our real values, those that are timeless and seperated them fromdoctrine and dogma that had been ravaged by time//////////\\\\\\\\\\Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick is sentenced to eight years in prison for his role inthe abuse and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He admits to having takenpart in a faked threat of execution, in which a prisoner had wires attachedto his hands and was told that he would be electrocuted if he stepped or felloff the box he was forced to stand on. Other charges included hittingprisoners, making a group of nude prisoners form a human pyramid, andforcing prisoners to masturbate and simulate oral sex//////////\\\\\\\\\\ Iwant to heal//////////\\\\\\\\\\November, 2004.People in Fallujeh are beingmurdered. They have nothing to eat. No produce is going into the city andthe water has been cut off for days and days. People are drinkingcontaminated water and coming down with diarrhoea and other diseases. Thereare corpses in the street because no one can risk leaving their home to burypeople//////////\\\\\\\\\\The true beliver believes in social justice, insolidarity, in help for those not able to help themselves.//////////\\\\\\\\\\January 5th and 6th, 2006. More than 180 people die in aspate of attacks. These include attacks on mourners at a funeral and outsidea holy shrine and a double suicide bombing against Sunnis gathered at apolice recruiting centre//////////\\\\\\\\\\We used to feel we could shutour front door on the problems and conflicts of the widerworld.//////////\\\\\\\\\\
On February the 22nd, 2006,bombs destroy the Al Askari Mosque in Samara,
one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. By the end of the following day, the Sunni
Association of Muslim Scholars says that 168 Sunni mosques have been attacked.
Clerics, journalists and other civilians, most of them Sunnis, are killed in widespread
violence. The Iraqi government reports that 379 have been killed and 458 wounded.
The Washington Post, on February 27th reports a much higher death toll of1,300//////////\\\\\\\\\\This terrorism isn't our fault. We didn't cause it.It's not the consequence of foreign policy. It killed nearly 3,000 peopleincluding over 60 British on the streets of New York before war inAfghanistan or Iraq was even thought of//////////\\\\\\\\\\For the 3,000victims in America on September 11th 2001, more than 650,000 have died inIraq.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blair, Tony Speech to the Labour Party Conference, (26 September 2006)
Cameron, David Speech to The Conservative Party Conference (4 October2006)
"Riverbend" Baghdad Burning (Volume 2) (2006, Marion Boyars: London)(Taken from): http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Stimson, Joan "The Sly Fox and The Little Red Hen" (1993, LadybirdBooks: London)
Alex a.k.a. Surrealist Feest., somewhere in the west country.,
from the desk in Moscow.,
here's a peice that was sent in a while back but now sees the light of day., or the pale glow of the internet, so apologies for the delays.,
modern russian philosophy.,
What is currently going on in Russia is a hot topic. A hotter topic in the west than in Russia itself, where the discussion of what is going on is strained by what natives often refer to as ‘the difficult political environment’, and everybody knows what that means. Those who are fighting against the difficulty of the environment are being made examples of brutally, unmercifully, in a way that the west sees as uncivilised and absolutely undemocratic. But the Russians who are familiar with the difficulties of the environment look on, and their courage wanes, because it is one thing to be a critic and mark how things are failing to live up to a certain standard, and another when you realise that your childrens’ life is endangered by what you say.
I have recently attended a large, by Russian standards, philosophy conference held in Moscow, where there were also speakers from France, from the US, from other European countries, as well as Russian philosophers. The theme of the conference was interesting, namely how the discipline of philosophy is present and intersects with various ‘worlds’, in a variety of senses. It intersects with the political, the sociological, the ideological, the official, the theoretical, with art and with science. And all of these intersections were attempted by various speakers to be addressed, with the aim I think of trying to clarify how philosophy can be put to use, and also how the philosopher can be useful to society and to these different worlds. The problem was, the speakers, and especially the ones that were western, turned out to be incompetent as they often failed to answer the questions they were asked and went off on hypothetical tangents that are common to philosophers and theoreticians.
There was, I feel, however a very important subtext to this conference, and that was that the indirect posing of the question: What should Russian philosophers do? How should they proceed, given that public speech is now limited by a political framework? This question was also, indirectly, answered. It appeared that the ‘official’ philosophers, those, in other words, who held the positions of fame and to some degree power, because their work was published and praised, did not speak. Or they did not inform with the information that they gave. One of the philosophers, when answering a question about modern Russian philosophy started speaking about literature of the past, that this was a way of making thought and hiding it between the lines of fictions. That’s fine, but, we already know this. And that was then, so what about now? Well it takes more guts to speak of the present, that much is clear.
And yet there are still those who will speak and who will remind us of what is going on, and what we, if we still think about it, may have the possibility of taking part of, of changing. There was someone who stood up and reminded the audience that Russian philosophy does have its modern movement, but that no one heads it because it doesn’t necessarily concur with the ‘political climate’. This speaker also said that no one ought to forget that all the philosophy that the west grew up with, Sartre, Camus, Adorno etc. has only recently been allowed to circulate in Russia. But, he said, unlike the west, Russians have actually got the real experience of a total collapse of ideology, of government, of values, a whole universe in other words. ‘So we, Russians have all the more right, all the more insight to speak and to write about this in philosophy, because it is something we have encountered.’ And I want to agree with him. And I want to also add that it is important for Russian philosophers to keep writing to keep asking questions, because they are the thinkers and they represent at least some of the intelligentsia class that Russia is desperately losing to the West, to money, to disillusionment, to fear and to surrender.
But it is difficult to say anything in Russia, publicly, because all the social spheres are tied one way or another, and someone who you don’t want to hear, will. But life is not without hope. There are other ways of speaking, and one such way is through art. Not just literature, but film and theatre present new possibilities of presenting philosophical positions. And if doesn’t well, this is even more effective, because it takes you to the core of the problem and exposes it and shows you its naked truth. The recent film ‘4’ is a good example. Unsurprisingly it has been banned in Russia. But nevertheless it was made and that, to me is a strong light amidst all the darkness. We have something to fight for, and it seems, there are still ways, just more masked, of fighting for what the climate does not agree with.
Albina Kaseltzer, Moscow.,
modern russian philosophy.,
What is currently going on in Russia is a hot topic. A hotter topic in the west than in Russia itself, where the discussion of what is going on is strained by what natives often refer to as ‘the difficult political environment’, and everybody knows what that means. Those who are fighting against the difficulty of the environment are being made examples of brutally, unmercifully, in a way that the west sees as uncivilised and absolutely undemocratic. But the Russians who are familiar with the difficulties of the environment look on, and their courage wanes, because it is one thing to be a critic and mark how things are failing to live up to a certain standard, and another when you realise that your childrens’ life is endangered by what you say.
I have recently attended a large, by Russian standards, philosophy conference held in Moscow, where there were also speakers from France, from the US, from other European countries, as well as Russian philosophers. The theme of the conference was interesting, namely how the discipline of philosophy is present and intersects with various ‘worlds’, in a variety of senses. It intersects with the political, the sociological, the ideological, the official, the theoretical, with art and with science. And all of these intersections were attempted by various speakers to be addressed, with the aim I think of trying to clarify how philosophy can be put to use, and also how the philosopher can be useful to society and to these different worlds. The problem was, the speakers, and especially the ones that were western, turned out to be incompetent as they often failed to answer the questions they were asked and went off on hypothetical tangents that are common to philosophers and theoreticians.
There was, I feel, however a very important subtext to this conference, and that was that the indirect posing of the question: What should Russian philosophers do? How should they proceed, given that public speech is now limited by a political framework? This question was also, indirectly, answered. It appeared that the ‘official’ philosophers, those, in other words, who held the positions of fame and to some degree power, because their work was published and praised, did not speak. Or they did not inform with the information that they gave. One of the philosophers, when answering a question about modern Russian philosophy started speaking about literature of the past, that this was a way of making thought and hiding it between the lines of fictions. That’s fine, but, we already know this. And that was then, so what about now? Well it takes more guts to speak of the present, that much is clear.
And yet there are still those who will speak and who will remind us of what is going on, and what we, if we still think about it, may have the possibility of taking part of, of changing. There was someone who stood up and reminded the audience that Russian philosophy does have its modern movement, but that no one heads it because it doesn’t necessarily concur with the ‘political climate’. This speaker also said that no one ought to forget that all the philosophy that the west grew up with, Sartre, Camus, Adorno etc. has only recently been allowed to circulate in Russia. But, he said, unlike the west, Russians have actually got the real experience of a total collapse of ideology, of government, of values, a whole universe in other words. ‘So we, Russians have all the more right, all the more insight to speak and to write about this in philosophy, because it is something we have encountered.’ And I want to agree with him. And I want to also add that it is important for Russian philosophers to keep writing to keep asking questions, because they are the thinkers and they represent at least some of the intelligentsia class that Russia is desperately losing to the West, to money, to disillusionment, to fear and to surrender.
But it is difficult to say anything in Russia, publicly, because all the social spheres are tied one way or another, and someone who you don’t want to hear, will. But life is not without hope. There are other ways of speaking, and one such way is through art. Not just literature, but film and theatre present new possibilities of presenting philosophical positions. And if doesn’t well, this is even more effective, because it takes you to the core of the problem and exposes it and shows you its naked truth. The recent film ‘4’ is a good example. Unsurprisingly it has been banned in Russia. But nevertheless it was made and that, to me is a strong light amidst all the darkness. We have something to fight for, and it seems, there are still ways, just more masked, of fighting for what the climate does not agree with.
Albina Kaseltzer, Moscow.,
deal or no deal...
it literally never ceases to amaze how this type of "factual entertainment blockbuster" actually entertains, and remains popular in modern culture, a game show based solely on watching to see whether people whom one has never met will manage to win money by a series of pot luck choices., and to see the other members standing about staring like clueless gupi fish just waiting for that tired old hacks' instructions, the fake hysteria and false love of one another, the nerve racking suspense and all anyone really wants to see is a bomb go off in the studio live on tv ripping noel edmunds - sucker of satans' cock forever - and that whole bunch of limp wristed artificial life affirmation cock suckers torn to bloody shreds, perhaps with the odd limb struggling out of body across the studio floor...yes, that would be factual entertainment, but then again we have the news...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D257QjfI&feature=related
we will never forget you, never forgive says noel, what a load of shite, and then the audience screams, are they all tripped out 1970s style diet pills, all goggling inane at these no hopers' pitiful 15minutes of fame... jesus christ, i'll take the fish bowl any day over the devil watch box.,.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D257QjfI&feature=related
we will never forget you, never forgive says noel, what a load of shite, and then the audience screams, are they all tripped out 1970s style diet pills, all goggling inane at these no hopers' pitiful 15minutes of fame... jesus christ, i'll take the fish bowl any day over the devil watch box.,.
and then mandela shat himself...
and then mandela shat himself as he sat in the audience while the loyal Bush supporters looked cautiously at one another, and an echo from history came a-ringing in their ears, will someone not rid me of this meddlesome priest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ_bmoy4cpA
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ_bmoy4cpA
...
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