Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Lives of Social Insects (Peggy Larson)
A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth)
The size is not for the faint hearted, and little is lost by using "speed reading" techniques.
A rich treasure.
Scared western leaders deny fear motivates their sensitivity towards muslim icons
Politicians and leaders around the world are visibly intimidated by the violence of the muslim mobs whipped into a frenzy by a cartoon here or a YouTube clip there.
They then lie to their people by denying that their cowardice is motivated by fear.
If our leaders, with all the apparatus of the state to protect them, are scared, then it is no wonder that the ordinary citizen feels terrified to speak out. It is the scared silence of the citizen that is the immense danger for society.
Politicians and leaders shout their condemnation of the speakers far louder than their defence of speech.
Offices are bombed, people are killed and our politicians all but say "Look what your speech caused."
The corollary of this is the unstated shared knowledge that a small proportion - but a large number - of muslims resort to violence quickly and easily, and openly oppose freedom, not only in their families and communities, but for all others.
"You should know this, so don't say anything that will excite them."
Politicians and leaders say they have equal sensitivity for all religious icons, and yet I remember a large number of direct attacks on other religions that did not elicit much interest - in fact politicians were sometimes the attackers.
A start of a collection from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the serious to the trivial....
In Victoria Australia, the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act (2001) makes it a criminal offence to "severe(ly) ridicule" a person because of their religion. But it does not prevent the ridicule of the religion itself. So you should be free to say what you like about the religion of mormons, islam, christianity, scientology, etc, but not to severely ridicule those who believe.
This creates a bind, because Islam itself can be read any old way like the bible. It is really the huge number of fanatics themselves that make the religion so dangerous. Thus the above law is so dangerous because, like the examples above, it is so selectively applied to stifle criticism of looneys.
If someone "severely ridicules" an obvious looney carying a placard saying "Behead
Moves are afoot to respond spinelessly to the above intimidation by criminalising ALL so called "blasphemy" or so called "hate speech".
Unfortunately many religious leaders have an obvious attraction to rolling back a couple of hundred years of the growth of freedom.
They then lie to their people by denying that their cowardice is motivated by fear.
If our leaders, with all the apparatus of the state to protect them, are scared, then it is no wonder that the ordinary citizen feels terrified to speak out. It is the scared silence of the citizen that is the immense danger for society.
Politicians and leaders shout their condemnation of the speakers far louder than their defence of speech.
Offices are bombed, people are killed and our politicians all but say "Look what your speech caused."
The corollary of this is the unstated shared knowledge that a small proportion - but a large number - of muslims resort to violence quickly and easily, and openly oppose freedom, not only in their families and communities, but for all others.
"You should know this, so don't say anything that will excite them."
Politicians and leaders say they have equal sensitivity for all religious icons, and yet I remember a large number of direct attacks on other religions that did not elicit much interest - in fact politicians were sometimes the attackers.
A start of a collection from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the serious to the trivial....
.jpg/220px-Piss_Christ_by_Serrano_Andres_(1987).jpg) Piss Christ exhibited by state funded galleries in the US and Australia. No one killed, but there was protests and the work was vandalized a few times. Nevertheless, the New York Times reviewer thinks it is serious art and it made lots of money | Piss Mohammed ? Would ANY gallery in the world display it ? Would Christie's auction house sell it ? Would New York times magazine review it as art ? I am even too scared to put a mock up of it on the page..... Honestly, would you be courageous enough ? Does this not say that the extremist are winning ? |
Tod Sampson, advertising guru and panelist for popular Australian TV show Gruen Transfer, the thinks it is funny to sell T-shirts infer that "white" people make him nervous.  | Which groups are privileged against such ridicule ? Christians make me nervous ? Not likely to be a problem. Black people make me nervous ? Aboriginals make me nervous ? Most likely a lot of criticism. Muslims make me nervous ? An incitement to violence ? |
The Book of Mormon (musical) reviewed by NPR as containing "unprintably blasphemous bit of faithful-baiting". As it's performance was on at the same time as the "Innocence of Muslims" reaction, it has been cited in many articles and cartoons. | The Life of Brian ? Quite a bit of peaceful protest and criticism, but overwhelming international acceptance. The Book of the Prophet (the musical). It is safe to imagine it. After all there is plenty of rich material in it for satire and send up ! But, do anything more than imagine ? How long do you think you would live ? Artists are as scared as I am, and continue to only pick on the "soft" targets. |
Previous BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, openly admitted that different religions were treated with different sensitivities due to the threat of violence: ‘Without question, “I complain in the strongest possible terms”, is different from, “I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write”. This definitely raises the stakes.’ | If one of the most respected world media organisations is intimidated, what chance has the average world citizen.... |
| Parody of what look like Kung Fu monks where their pepsi has been inserted into their central iconography. | Parody of madrasah where inmates worshipped using Pepsi ..... Are you scared enough yet ? Or are you still trying to convince yourself that this is all because buddhists do not deserve respect, and muslims do ? |
Pussy Riot walks to the front of a church during a service, puts on terrorist style balaclavas and takes over invoked the name of the Virgin Mary, and urging her to get rid of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and to "become a feminist". | Boy or girl band Pussy Riot walks to the front a mosque during a service, puts on in terrorist style balaclavas and takes over invoked the name of the Prophet, and urging him to get rid of Ahmadinejad and to "become a feminist". Imagine a group of very brave girls or boys in ANY muslim dominated country OR almost any cowering free country doing this ? If they did would the music celebs support them from prosecution from "hooliganism" ? Do you seriously believe that they would have got out alive ? |
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| - still looking around.... songs, cartoons, etc etc | - |
In Victoria Australia, the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act (2001) makes it a criminal offence to "severe(ly) ridicule" a person because of their religion. But it does not prevent the ridicule of the religion itself. So you should be free to say what you like about the religion of mormons, islam, christianity, scientology, etc, but not to severely ridicule those who believe.
This creates a bind, because Islam itself can be read any old way like the bible. It is really the huge number of fanatics themselves that make the religion so dangerous. Thus the above law is so dangerous because, like the examples above, it is so selectively applied to stifle criticism of looneys.
If someone "severely ridicules" an obvious looney carying a placard saying "Behead
Moves are afoot to respond spinelessly to the above intimidation by criminalising ALL so called "blasphemy" or so called "hate speech".
Unfortunately many religious leaders have an obvious attraction to rolling back a couple of hundred years of the growth of freedom.
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
A story for our times.....
A prescient parable for 2012 as the "free" world becomes ever more regulated in the name of collective obligation, and the "unfree" world grows primarily through religious dictatorships overthrowing godless dictatorships.
Rand's central thesis - that there are only a small number of prime movers in a creatively productive society - seems increasingly true as the machinery of anti-business regulation in "free" economies crushes the entrepreneurial spirit.
One startling damning point against Christianity, which I am astonished that had overlooked, is the casting of knowledge as the fruit of the devil. The parable of Adam and Eve is directed not against sin, but against knowledge! Such an evil intent !
There are many minor quibbles that I have with the reasoning - especially her attempt to argue that all contracts are freely entered, except when coerced by the "gun". Only against such contracts, is it morally excusable to retaliate with violence. To me this attempt at simple binary categorisation of coercion denies the smooth continuum of coercive techniques and the consequent continuum of reduction in their moral force.
Criticism of the wooden style and "two dimensional characterisation" is misplaced in that the book is not an exploration of the character of individuals, but the characteristics of human society. It has more in common with `Thus Spoke Zarathustra' than with `War and Peace'. It is a polemic (or even a bible) as much as a novel.
The John Galt radio speech is the longest "voice over" I have ever experienced. It's purpose is explicitly philosophical rather than dramatic.
All books alter the minds that read them. Some books give me the sense that I will see everything a little different for the rest of my life, even if the detail of the text fades. Atlas Shrugged has "shaken and stirred" my attitudes - an experience reported by huge numbers of people over decades. The fact that it has been so 'actively' ignored by the "intelligentsia" while remaining so influential, feeds directly into the novels narrative.
Rand's central thesis - that there are only a small number of prime movers in a creatively productive society - seems increasingly true as the machinery of anti-business regulation in "free" economies crushes the entrepreneurial spirit.
One startling damning point against Christianity, which I am astonished that had overlooked, is the casting of knowledge as the fruit of the devil. The parable of Adam and Eve is directed not against sin, but against knowledge! Such an evil intent !
There are many minor quibbles that I have with the reasoning - especially her attempt to argue that all contracts are freely entered, except when coerced by the "gun". Only against such contracts, is it morally excusable to retaliate with violence. To me this attempt at simple binary categorisation of coercion denies the smooth continuum of coercive techniques and the consequent continuum of reduction in their moral force.
Criticism of the wooden style and "two dimensional characterisation" is misplaced in that the book is not an exploration of the character of individuals, but the characteristics of human society. It has more in common with `Thus Spoke Zarathustra' than with `War and Peace'. It is a polemic (or even a bible) as much as a novel.
The John Galt radio speech is the longest "voice over" I have ever experienced. It's purpose is explicitly philosophical rather than dramatic.
All books alter the minds that read them. Some books give me the sense that I will see everything a little different for the rest of my life, even if the detail of the text fades. Atlas Shrugged has "shaken and stirred" my attitudes - an experience reported by huge numbers of people over decades. The fact that it has been so 'actively' ignored by the "intelligentsia" while remaining so influential, feeds directly into the novels narrative.
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Niall Ferguson)
Financial systems: memes out of control...
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Niall Ferguson)A very readable introduction to the "dismal science" of economics. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes explaining how innovations in the use of money influenced social or political history.
It ends with an explicit and extended analogy between the "ascent of money" and evolutionary processes which leaves open the question of whether money is a meme out of control or a deadly virus....
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