Right on cue
I wrote this a few days ago:
"On another note, politicians continually lament the lack of public interest in the democratic process, to the point that the following have been mooted at regular intervals:
1) public funding for the main political parties (rather than just for the lifestyles of MPs)"
Well, the argument is different, but the demand is the same in an article in today's Guardian:
Britain's leaders should "bite the bullet" and endorse state funding of political parties as part of an overhaul to remove "big money" from the system, the work and pensions secretary, James Purnell, declares today.
In the latest high-profile contribution to the Guardian's A New Politics series, the cabinet minister calls for individual donations to be capped at a few hundred pounds – a move that would transform Labour's links with the trade unions.
We are dealing with an enemy that will continue to attempt to use each situation to further their fixed objectives. This is why, once you identify the fixed objective, things become eminently predictable.
Catastrophe / Total Recall
All visions of catastrophe have self-interest at heart.
Or:
Justify the demand for the unconscionable by invoking the unthinkable.
I was considering this with regard to the 'economic crisis' - the institutions set an unquantifiable - ie: what is the price of everything collapsing? and then received unlimited funds to avert this self-interested vision from materialising. For as long as the possibility of this self-interested vision materialising can be maintained, there will be a supply of funds.
In the movieTotal Recall this self-interest in a vision of catastrophe plays out - The profit-driven CEO threatens Quaid (Arnie), a truth-seeker, that switching on the alien machine will "kill them all". This is the only card left in the deck, and who knows, the CEO guy may just believe it himself. Of course, Arnie hits the button, fulfilling his destiny and destroying the business model at the expense of saving Mars and its population.
Prediction : Expect the economy to recover despite endless grim warnings, ie: shaking of the tin (see the fanciful "W" shaped recession, 'false dawn' meme, etc). Expect the finance sector to be the last to accept this fact, denial is going to be as profitable now as the denial of the coming collapse was.
And when the self-interested vision does not materialise, the coup de grace, the declaration that the funds discharged were most certainly what averted certain catastrophe. The ground is thus prepared for a repeat.
Unwinnable wars are the most profitable. We're all playing The Spanish Prisoner now!
Best photo
This is the best photo I have ever taken. It has taken many years for the items to accumulate in this kitchen and to then have a chance to record the conjunction of so many things, a genuine treat.
Click on it to see it bigger.
Who’s afraid of the BNP?
The New Statesman has this:
"Stoke, however, provides the strongest example of how the party, which is desperate to hide its roots in racist violence and appear respectable, has become adept at exploiting apathy."
Hmm. Twelve years of New Labour. Violence on a grand scale - two illegal wars, the death and displacement of millions. The daylight execution of an innocent man. Muslims being arrested on terror charges, quietly released without charge and deported forthwith.
It's interesting that New Labour has continued to hide its roots in racist violence and appear respectable, and has become adept at exploiting apathy... (Talk about a classic case of psychological projection).
The government must take a measure of responsibility for perpetutating a fear of Muslims, with all these conveniently timed terror swoops that never generate prosecutions, along with conflating immigrants with criminals and terrorists; they've truly done the heavy lifting for the BNP these last few years. Now, behold, the fruit!
And for the handlers of the state goon who bothered me at Bristol Airport like an out-of-control nightclub bouncer, let me reiterate that I am not agitating for the overthrow by any means of the British state, just for the Labour Party to be relieved of power via the democratic process. Please stop confusing a dislike of this government with the state itself - you may want to read up, but they are not synonymous, your job is not to defend the Labour Party from each and every display of dissent.
I know you worry that I am not receiving the Daily Recommended Dose of rays from your Mind Control Machines!
***
On another note, politicians continually lament the lack of public interest in the democratic process, to the point that the following have been mooted at regular intervals:
1) public funding for the main political parties (rather than just for the lifestyles of MPs)
2) compulsory attendance at polling stations, etc
Now that the public has become intensely engaged, via The Telegraph and the unfolding expenses scandal, it is strange that politicians are not eager to praise this surge of democratic accountaiblity that is about to unfold at the polls. Instead, we hear quite peculiar terms such as 'witch-hunt' and, heaven forbid, 'mob rule' spilling from the lips of the right honourable members.
Whatever can it mean? Is this like the great Chris Morris line to a man diagnosed with AIDS:
"Is it good AIDS or bad AIDS?"
Clearly, there are different strains of a vigorous public engagement with the democratic process, how strange that they were not mentioned before.
***
One of the downsides of the internet is the capacity to become entwined with madmen. For those who know me, look out for emails, as there are events afoot. Sadly, I have to guard information considering my geographical whereabouts from here on in, as various threats against my person have been made, the frivolous nature of which is difficult to determine. While I am based here in Taipei City, it's something of a jaunt for my would-be assassin(s), but the times they are a'changing. What will happen is a time lag will become a feature of Book Armor, so learn where I've been, not where I am.
And, if any of these people check in, be aware that in Guatemala my droogs will form a welcome party. So come to Central America - we offer firepower and impunity - check it out!
Lastly, I notice that the e-Book readers are boosting the hits on this site, as companies produce 'book armor' to protect the Kindle and the like from the elements. If they make me a decent financial offer, it will be time to cash in on what may now be a desirable web address.
Go ahead and be yourself #1
Bin/Hat/Art
A first for millinery? There are a class of "trash collectors" in Taipei, economically entwined with the city's refuse. As Mary Douglas writes, "There is no such thing as dirt" - a thought that quite literally stopped me in my tracks, that has/had to be contemplated at length. What her argument is, is that every culture has products/pracitces that will form a class that is designated as "dirty", but the dirt exists nowhere but in the formulations themselves. In the same way, one of the battles for the recycling enterprise is stopping people from simply designating everything they wish to throw away as "trash" but forcing people to engage in a physical therapy of "sorting trash" etc into groups, as a means of returning a sense of value and difference to things that are otherwise seen as "useless" and "worthless".
There is an interesting parallel here with notions of modern art, because, again, when art products are seen in classes, undifferentiated, there is a common cultural reaction of - "It's not art, it's rubbish!" - And, similar to sorting trash, the art establishment encourages people to learn to discriminate, to consider the values that may be attached to art products as "beautiful" or "enriching the visual landscape" or as "talking points" or "sources of local/regional/national pride" and so forth. These invocations appear very much a form of cognitive therapy, dispensed by well-adjusted members of the arts establishment, and the fact that they are subject to faddish terminology indicates that they lack a genuine foundation, that the pressures they are subject to are largely those of the state bureaucracy, museum boards, arts funding bodies, academia, etc*, who do not produce fresh ideas as such, but fresh descriptions of artistic practice and products and new ways of measuring outcomes.
Of course, we could be unkind and assert that this renewal of language basically amounts to a continual quest to rebrand rubbish, or, at the very least, to maintain the idea that what is basically the same-old same-old is something different, new and exciting.
*A list of the contributors to a DCMS report into - "Assessing Excellence in the Arts"
http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/mcmasterreview_Peopleandorgsconsulted.pdf
As can be seen, the thinking behind the report (I've read it), the choosing of the report author (a knight who trained as a lawyer and later as an arts administrator), the language of the report, and the contributions to the report are dominated by institutions / institutional ways of thinking. If one is not of the opinion that such institutions are a positive thing, then the whole enterprise breaks apart.
Taipei drinks machine message of hope
The last line is hard to read - "its gorgeosness and pleasantness get you dreamy world"
Obama and PKD
Rachel Maddow - a sort of gay John Stewart-lookalike - drew on PKD's Minority Report in this comment on Obama's proposal for 'prolonged detention' - a policy measure that will permit the US government to hold those it designates as 'enemy combatants' indefinitely without trial, without appeal, for as long as the US pleases. Somehow, this is not seen as anything too major, just one more policy in the "War Against Terror" (that will also run forever).
In other news - depopulation of the Swat Valley has almost reached its target level
More than 1.7 million residents have registered for help in neighbouring districts, while at least 300,000 are unregistered. "The scale of this displacement is extraordinary," said UN official Martin Mogwanja.
and the Taliban conjured up for this operation are close to being 'eliminated' ie: They will be taking off their costumes and reporting to Central Casting for reassignment to the next location, where shooting of the cinematic production for 24 hour cable news, The War on Terror, will resume.
For "The global battlefield" read "All the world's a stage"
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.