tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43703725210632451302024-02-22T08:12:38.661-08:00Whispers From the DarkRants, raves, comments, and suggestions from a confused observer. Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-22138815729429551832023-06-26T19:53:00.003-07:002023-06-26T19:53:50.354-07:00<p> On June 25 of this year, I was lured out of bed with news that Russian helicopters were shooting at Russian armed columns on their way to Moscow. When I got out of bed it was even better: twenty-five thousand armed Wagner mercenaries had seized control of Rostov-on-the-Don and were on their way to Moscow. </p><p>Then it was all over by lunch. Prigozhin changed his mind, and called the whole thing off. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEMSfCIis2D6deqS0rl9xej-KLAEIvoaFL0JWu6wGC3l11qRgcc8m05Mjc-b5Np-foOM8MWXdkc4yZEA6S-3uUN1AL6zIZkhqPQc2NF1E840EOLrZHuI-_bgMO5sOODpT9dmwhjqiLv-yBCFHcIIaVCQoBsc2midM7bP-OOfHXSj93X9Rxqpx5oD2JH_j/s1920/prig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1920" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEMSfCIis2D6deqS0rl9xej-KLAEIvoaFL0JWu6wGC3l11qRgcc8m05Mjc-b5Np-foOM8MWXdkc4yZEA6S-3uUN1AL6zIZkhqPQc2NF1E840EOLrZHuI-_bgMO5sOODpT9dmwhjqiLv-yBCFHcIIaVCQoBsc2midM7bP-OOfHXSj93X9Rxqpx5oD2JH_j/s320/prig.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yevgeny Prigozhin, former hotdog salesman, now commander of Wagner private army<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Blink - or sleep in - and you would have missed it. Never in my life has such a huge news story amounted to so little. </p><p>For the briefest of moments - less than an afternoon in fact - it looked like the world world was entering into a new phase. One of the world's biggest and most problematic countries was about to implode in on itself. Who knows what it would look like afterwards, but at the very least, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was through. Putin couldn't possibly fight a civil war and a foreign war at the same time, especially if the rebels controlled the border areas. Russian forces would have to come home, or else wind up unsupplied and encircled. It was over. </p><p>Until it wasn't. </p><p>You ever been awoken from a deep sleep, in the middle of an amazing dream, because your fucking air conditioner chose that moment to "CLANG"? That's what it felt like. For a couple hours, it really felt like Victory was around the corner. If you think we're disappointed, imagine how the Ukrainians must feel! </p><p>Still, it's difficult to see how this could fail to benefit Ukraine somehow or other. At the very least it'll further demoralize Vatniks on the front line: bickering leadership is rarely condusive to morale. And a couple expensive Russian helicopters were shot down. . .</p><p>If I made too much of it, in my defense I wasn't the only one: I daresay most of the internet, experts and amateurs alike, assumed full-scale civil war was on. When twenty-five thousand armed mercenaries start marching to the capital, it's not an unreasonable assumption to make. Death and destruction seemed far more likely than *poof* - nothing. I'm in the middle of Antony Beevor's <i>Russia: Revolution and Civil War, </i>and this was more or less how the <i>last </i>Russian civil war started, so it was not exactly a ridiculous thing to think. </p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKvSEpZPqRSCOe13kaH0VQ7MJBcZ1b-Xe_Yj6jRcWHp-iInXwnqmHdDPW-SJLyT506cAIDSA24xsF52vjw6jwJib5zgTeoCHz0pl9e0NiKs9SxZkOV42XDVVWtDfr4FdaHEVqNPe38F0FHxmxRfJ51ZOT4chbJQVTx7n4vpBRMix87tllAYwnyg_HBNz5G/s600/beevor_Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKvSEpZPqRSCOe13kaH0VQ7MJBcZ1b-Xe_Yj6jRcWHp-iInXwnqmHdDPW-SJLyT506cAIDSA24xsF52vjw6jwJib5zgTeoCHz0pl9e0NiKs9SxZkOV42XDVVWtDfr4FdaHEVqNPe38F0FHxmxRfJ51ZOT4chbJQVTx7n4vpBRMix87tllAYwnyg_HBNz5G/w200-h200/beevor_Russia.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>What the hell was Prigozhin playing at? Who the hell knows. Commentators are all a tizzy because there really is no logical explanation (not that logic ever had a place in Russia) or rational justification for it. Was he bluffing? Did he realize he bit off more than he could chew? Did he think his support was not strong enough? Or some other end game we can't even imagine and won't know for years to come. That'd be my guess. </p><p>The whole thing is weird. The only thing I'm certain of is you'd have to be a <i>Grey Zone </i>imbecile to think either Putin or Prigozhin has come out of this stronger. </p><p> </p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-51414956700926856482023-06-26T17:58:00.000-07:002023-06-26T17:58:36.443-07:00<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Nova Kakhovka Dam has been blown, flooding large parts of southern Ukraine. Thousands will need to evacuate. Thousands lack clean drinking water. Untold numbers will drown. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thousands are without power. Agriculture in the region has been ruined. Most of the animals in Nova Kakhovka Zoo have died. It is a humanitarian, ecological, and economic catastrophe. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC8WU4bdUSkKkevEzsdySAomxpbYEoe94uD6WTyOtGXU_FsTIt-JLUjqcqbwC47oxQnCg-UHr9A2CsCIVWUXr-40mgg3DdmE6AseZB_7yfxF6z-lRpledHzEtrjn6bVtEhmGVY3cwkllZPgLxp8iPh9uox-HS_3AV5COTko0R02g5z7DFZNDjioisP9g/s627/animals%20in%20zoo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="535" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC8WU4bdUSkKkevEzsdySAomxpbYEoe94uD6WTyOtGXU_FsTIt-JLUjqcqbwC47oxQnCg-UHr9A2CsCIVWUXr-40mgg3DdmE6AseZB_7yfxF6z-lRpledHzEtrjn6bVtEhmGVY3cwkllZPgLxp8iPh9uox-HS_3AV5COTko0R02g5z7DFZNDjioisP9g/s320/animals%20in%20zoo.png" width="273" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both sides are blaming the other. Since lying is Russia's national sport, (I wouldn't trust </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dmitri Peskov to spell his own name), I am inclined to believe Ukraine.
These are lands Ukraine considers its own, and hopes to liberate soon. It will be inheriting a massive mess, one they're hardly likely to be imposed upon themselves. Not to mention how much it complicates their plans for counter-offensive in the area. Sabotoging one's own counter-offensive seems one double bluff too far.
True, Russia also claims the territory. And the Russian side of the river has gotten the worst of it. But Russia has historically never given a shit about its own people, and never shied away from causing ecological catastrophes (Kara-Bogaz anyone?), so I have no problem believing they'd do this to their own side. Scorched earth is their way, or in this case, soaked earth. </span><p></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-34907256481564141652023-06-06T14:33:00.007-07:002023-06-06T15:11:14.455-07:00Roger Waters off a Pig's Back. <p> Are there no surprises left in life? Now for my third returning special guest. </p><p>Having written here: </p><p><a href="https://stevedylan.blogspot.com/2022/08/being-roger-waters.html">https://stevedylan.blogspot.com/2022/08/being-roger-waters.html</a><br /></p><p>that Roger Waters seemed to enjoy the trappings of authoritarianism much too much to fully condemn them, he's come out in full support of Putin. He's also under investigation in Berlin for anti-semitic imagery, and a uniform just a bit too naziesque for local liking: </p><p><a href="https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-06-06/religious-leaders-criticise-pink-floyd-bassist-after-nazi-style-costume-stunt">https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-06-06/religious-leaders-criticise-pink-floyd-bassist-after-nazi-style-costume-stunt</a><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPtOJT-OTRGxye_fKRddQGtzcm-hl5wXyoPUQTE-NTFmLBS5rT7X_AY1fmGKjhf9IWAVUU7qJhfxjkqee4XSpTJqrs5WniQTmMnfnMsW5yLJ50ChuxxVvS0KftjyOIdB_osrH14j241EmkMo6VZoO154D8P5a1ku36y65_BhGXC3jej8cs9vgwoEmyw/s616/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="616" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPtOJT-OTRGxye_fKRddQGtzcm-hl5wXyoPUQTE-NTFmLBS5rT7X_AY1fmGKjhf9IWAVUU7qJhfxjkqee4XSpTJqrs5WniQTmMnfnMsW5yLJ50ChuxxVvS0KftjyOIdB_osrH14j241EmkMo6VZoO154D8P5a1ku36y65_BhGXC3jej8cs9vgwoEmyw/s320/Untitled.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-denounces-roger-waters-performance-in-berlin-as-antisemitic/" target="_blank">https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-denounces-roger-waters-performance-in-berlin-as-antisemitic/</a><br /></p><p>I think he was allowed to wear it in the end, but still, that floating pig emblazoned with the Star of David is a bad look. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-79945856575147866022023-06-06T14:07:00.001-07:002023-06-06T14:07:12.248-07:00With Boot Firmly on the Same Foot: Grey Zone at it AgainNow for some returning guest stars! <div><br /></div><div>Up first, Putin fan club newsletter <i>Grey Zone, </i>they of the "we caught some chick in a crowd wearing death's head cufflinks, proving Ukraine is the Fourth Reich!" brand of wisdom. They struck again with another piece of irrefutable evidence, this time proving beyond all reasonable doubt Ukraine was behind the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline. What is this <i>Quod Erat Demonstratum </i>smoking gun? </div><div><br /></div><div>They found a boot at the bottom of the North Sea. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's right, a boot. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd75IB8Vvyux1onVh7qol1XbKWaR3M-ZkXOZgtkjtPO2tMWcgOBsBY5e4I-c02zic5VmE9SmNt7ZwV78Rez7awmBcqN4DOKGEmPJ1u24ZsLIEbCjE-dGEdgE3vVtWMCxbiMQW_EAuYecB2UIkc50RnKVymizkvkeUfYUrqffgLh_pR4mCzt8bFpE9YFg/s1230/boot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1230" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd75IB8Vvyux1onVh7qol1XbKWaR3M-ZkXOZgtkjtPO2tMWcgOBsBY5e4I-c02zic5VmE9SmNt7ZwV78Rez7awmBcqN4DOKGEmPJ1u24ZsLIEbCjE-dGEdgE3vVtWMCxbiMQW_EAuYecB2UIkc50RnKVymizkvkeUfYUrqffgLh_pR4mCzt8bFpE9YFg/s320/boot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>Hardly OJ Simpson's glove, is it? </div><div><br /></div><div>This is the standard of evidence upheld by these jokers. Evidence that the flying saucer people would dismiss. But not the tankie/vatnik crowd, who will grasp at any straw. </div><div><br /></div>Now Ukraine may or may not have been behind the sabotage (to what end, who knows), but her involvement is ever revealed, it will not be on the pages of <i>Greyzone News. <br /></i><br />Next up, the return of slimeball, sleezebach Sachs, Jeffery, he of the "Mediator's Guide to Peace in Ukraine", which absolved Russia of all blame, and put responsibility for the current bloodshed squarely on the shoulders of NATO, and those Eastern European countries who had the nerve to join it. Those countries are supposed to be Russia's playground you see, and their inhabitants, Russian property. <div><br /></div><div>Sachs recently signed a letter to the New York times, under the heading "The US Should be a Force for Peace in the World", which regurgitated all these claims. <br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Wd--zysDuL02ptHOg4ph5wEqgbOt5nt52um9LFLJe2HVdIgMqUsdsSEQZCiZiYv6bfUjh9L2LitfOUPWnTIN3LyQpil_e5cF0NUM0BlpsPEZrDlxjDlwQMHQu_bFVM1lF2Oflq3kKrGH3n2UypUjshRqHylnlImObnF12VTxtvaud8gomtKZy1Y_tA/s1802/Sachs%20asshole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1332" data-original-width="1802" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Wd--zysDuL02ptHOg4ph5wEqgbOt5nt52um9LFLJe2HVdIgMqUsdsSEQZCiZiYv6bfUjh9L2LitfOUPWnTIN3LyQpil_e5cF0NUM0BlpsPEZrDlxjDlwQMHQu_bFVM1lF2Oflq3kKrGH3n2UypUjshRqHylnlImObnF12VTxtvaud8gomtKZy1Y_tA/s320/Sachs%20asshole.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>You will notice, (after guffawing at the wildly inaccurate map of Europe) how the signatories apparently reserve the right to invade Canada and Mexico. <br /><br />As a Canadian, I can say that if the US were in the habit of invading us, stealing our grain, storming out capital with tanks and defenestrating our Prime Minister, you're DAMN RIGHT we'd seek protection from whomever might be able to provide it. We have not, because it has not been necessary. The US has not threatened our national sovereignty since 1814. We don't even guard the border anymore. Letting us do our thing has not hindered US power or prosperity or prestige in any way. It has proven a highly successful, mutually beneficial arrangement. Russia could learn something from it. <br /><br />These assholes though don't see it that way. They have more in common with Russia's way of thinking. So of course, they support Russia's claims. They don't want to help Ukraine, and if they had their way, wouldn't help the rest of Eastern Europe either. The days when Russian tanks could storm Warsaw, Budapest, or Prague with impunity were the good ol' days for them, a time of peace an stability. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is what it means to blame NATO expansion. It assumes only great powers have interests or rights or legitimate security concerns. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sachs is also behind a number of articles claiming "Russia was provoked", a standard refrain of the blame NATO crowd, which assumes Russia has no free will of its own. Russia didn't choose to send a hundred thousand troops across a national border, it can only respond to Western stimuli like so many Pavlov's dogs. Would he invoke this kind of blame-the-victim excuse in any other context? "My ex was flirting with another dude, so I had to kill them both!". </div><div><br /></div><div>Fuck off Sachs. </div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-69728502762498115452023-01-04T10:42:00.003-08:002023-01-04T10:42:36.100-08:00The Grey Zone vs Grey Matter<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">T<span style="font-size: medium;">here are a lot of useful idiots out there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The latest zany bunch of pitiful Putinistas I had the
mispleasure of running into have been the putrid pile of pinheads running <i>The
Grey Zone, </i>an online tabloid so blatantly anti-Ukrainian, they’re either
run by the Kremlin, or really love the Kremlin (and no, I’m not providing a
link) .</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The cover story involves some dude in the background of a
Zelensky photo-op. There’s a dot on the dude’s backpack that you or I might
have mistaken for a brand logo, but which the Eagle Eyed folks at <st1:place><st1:placename><i>Grey</i></st1:placename><i>
</i><st1:placename><i>Zone</i></st1:placename></st1:place><i> </i>assure is a
Nazi death’s head. They magnify it for us, so it looks like a dollop of spilled
oatmeal. Nazi death’s head they assure us, and computer enhance it later in the
article.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I am reminded of those flying saucer people who saw
spaceships every time someone waved a pen-torch.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is this blob on a backpack really supposed to be a smoking
gun? Irrefutable proof that <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is irredeamably nazi and presumably must be destroyed? Or, at the very least,
not assisted? Gimmie a break.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The question is not whether <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has neo-nazis. Of course it does. It’s got a well-documented problem with
neo-nazis and unhealthy far-right nationalism, as do a lot of countries,
especially in <st1:place>Eastern Europe</st1:place> – you think <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
doesn’t? The question is whether this justifies the annihilation of the
country!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">What makes for a nazi country? Depressingly popular arm
patches? Problematic Black Metal lyrics? Popular misconceptions of history?
Backpack pins you need an electron microscope to see? Or is it something more
systemic – a government actively implementing race-laws, building concentration
camps, and actively pursuing genocide with all the power of the state. This is
what the tankies have to prove – not these little gotchya moments, which aren’t
nearly as shocking as they think they are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it not interesting that <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
chief Rabbi has condemned the invasion? You’d think he’d be all over that. How
about <st1:country-region><st1:place>Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>?
How about Zelensky himself, a Jew whom Ukrainians <i>elected as President???</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thing is, <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
invaded <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
not the other way around. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is bombing Ukrainian apartment blocks, maternity wards, playgrounds, and
powerplants, not the other way around. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is looting Ukrainian cities, not the other way around. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
seeks to erase <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
existence, not the other way around.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">None of this is balanced out by some dude wearing a pin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">useful links: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="https://medium.com/muros-invisibles/grayzone-grifters-and-the-cult-of-tank-fbd9b8e0dbe2">https://medium.com/muros-invisibles/grayzone-grifters-and-the-cult-of-tank-fbd9b8e0dbe2</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/zizek-interview-russia-denazification-ukraine-war/32204259.html?fbclid=IwAR1tZ8yDxFGjspCKcDyH9SdxfSUQ0pDHAm85y4191aH126ym3dGk3FBsrDY">https://www.rferl.org/a/zizek-interview-russia-denazification-ukraine-war/32204259.html?fbclid=IwAR1tZ8yDxFGjspCKcDyH9SdxfSUQ0pDHAm85y4191aH126ym3dGk3FBsrDY</a></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-281108228483109742022-12-13T00:52:00.004-08:002022-12-13T09:38:30.980-08:00On Yet Another Lame-Ass Peace Proposal from a Clueless Western Wonk. <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Even as Ukraine fights for her very existence, there are a great many comfortable westerners tutting that she may not be facing genocide today if she had only been less pushy in Donbass or Crimea back in the 2000s. If she would just talk to her would-be exterminators, the assertion goes, maybe hand over Kherson, all would be just fine. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">A recent example of this Chamberlainesque balderdash is a Russophilic wank by one Jeffrey Sachs, inanely titled <a href="https://us19.campaign-archive.com/?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=3aa9ccd679">A Mediator's Guide to Peace in Ukraine. </a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He starts off saying the invasion was wrong, because that’s
what you’ve got to say to not sound like a complete and utter moron, and then
goes on to blame the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Ukraine</st1:country-region></st1:place>
and the West for everything. Before we even get into his verbatim recitation of
the Kremlin’s other talking points, or its nauseating US centrism, I draw your attention to his claim that
this was all the fault of NATO expansion, to the extent that it’s the first
thing he lists in his prerequisites for peace in the final paragraph.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">If I hear one more of these blowhards bleep about NATO
expansion, I will scream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
screamed. I’m screaming now. Condemning NATO expansion grants one automatic
non-revokable citizenship to Idiotland. Saying it with a straight face is akin
to wearing a bright neon green sandwich board sign reading in all caps made of
LED lights I AM A DOLT. Committing it to paper outs one as a contemptible
Muscovite goon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">How so? Because it treats all of <st1:place w:st="on">Eastern
Europe</st1:place> as <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
personal playground. It asserts that the people and the land are basically the
property of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
their cultures and institutions only existing at the discretion of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
It dignifies <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
self granted right to do as it pleases with its neighbours. It abandons those
people to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
tender mercies. Jeffrey Sachs joins Noam Chomsky, Henry Kissinger and Roger
Waters in regurgitating this particular brand of geopolitical barf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">You know who’s missing from all this self-satisfied<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>pronunciomento?</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Czechia,
Slovakia,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hungary, Albania, Slovenia,
Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and basically all the countries who wanted,
well-nigh begged to part of that expansion. Did it occur to Msrs. Sachs and co
for a fleeting drunken moment that these countries of some hundred million
people might have had some say in all that? Did they ponder for moment WHY
these people wanted in?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">CAN THEY
GET IT THROUGH THEIR THICK SKULLS THAT THESE PLACES HAD “<span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC";">legitimate security concerns</span>” OF
THEIR OWN???</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’m bloody
well sick of these clowns. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place> has no “legitimate security
concerns”. No one wants to invade <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. The aforementioned
countries do no want to invade <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>
or take its resources or force it to use gender neutral bathrooms. They want <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>
to stay the fuck home and not invade their own countries. When the Muscovites (and
their toadies like Sachs) understand this, then there will be peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-21095295877821747532022-08-03T14:06:00.023-07:002022-12-13T09:41:32.951-08:00Normal Things: On Stranger Things 4 <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">`Normal Things:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 77.25pt;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">SPOILERS, which I am
honour-bound to report, though I’m sure there are embryos in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>test tubes who got to the end before I did. .
.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Skipped a bunch of episodes and finally gotten to the end.
Much of my impressions constitute tidbits, which I will leak out in drips and
drabs later, but suffice it to say:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">a) it included my second least favourite cinematic trope: the
one –sided military confrontation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">b) included my least favourite cinematic trope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I could see it coming a mile away. “Oh GOD!” I thought.
“Don’t go there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Please don’t go there. Please don’t go there. PLEASE don’t
go there. Please DON”T go there. Please don’t GO there. Please don’t go THERE.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEpretty please? With a lump of sugar on top?
Pleasepleaseplease FORTHELOVEOFGOD don’t do that, having gotten so far. You can
come up with something, you can think of something, all that creativity, all
that ingenuity, all that <i>je ne <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">sais</st1:city></st1:place>
quois, </i>you can do something, ANYTHING AT ALL! Any unseen, unforeseen,
unanticipated twist or turn you can pull straight out of thin air, something,
anything at all, but for Fuck’s Sakes, PLEASE DON’T GOT THERE!!!!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was lied to when I was young: saying “please” never works.
They went there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">So Vecna’s got ‘em all down for the count, all our heroes on
both sides of the Berring Straight hogtied in otherworldly tendril, all he’s
got to do is snap is fingers to crack the portals open and flood our world with
unspeakable Eldritch horrors. Checkmate right?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But no, the good guys still have a card up their sleeve. All
is not lost. What ingenious, unforeseen ploy have the Duffer Brothers cooked up
to knock us on our asses?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Get this: Mike loves El, see? So all he has to do. . .wait
for it. . .</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tell her!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yup, all he has to do is tell her he loves her, and that’ll
give her the strength she needs to break free and save the day with her magic
powers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why didn’t he think of it before?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">So we come to my least favourite cinematic trope (at least
for now. The old “Stalk her and she’ll learn to love me” one is probably
worse.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the last minute emotional
steroid boost. A sudden gust of extra strong feelings that gives them the
strength to break free. As if all we needed to achieve anything was to <i>feel</i>
a bit more. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Drives me up the wall. I mean, it’s been used effectively
elsewhere – Disney’s <i>Something Wicked This Way Comes </i>springs to mind
(it’s more complicated in the book). Hell, I’ve used it in my own fictions. But
context matters, and while it made perfect sense in <i>Something Wicked, </i>it
really doesn’t feel right here. Maybe it’s overused, maybe it’s too easy. To
neat. Too “we can’t think of anything else”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too “beentheredonethat”: if there were a fault
in the just about faultless first series, it was overreliance on El’s powers.
Here they go back to it, and everyone else’s effort really don’t amount to
anything. I mean, I suppose the other senior characters got to use flame
throwers to good effect, but it was really an after-thought. The important
thing was the El just had to try harder.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">After nine episodes and more than a dozen hours of buildup,
it seems more than a bit bathetic. It certainly dampened my enthusiasm, and
made it harder to enjoy the epic goings on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And for all those cliches and contrivances, they still
couldn’t save Eddie. Oh Eddie, poor ol’ Eddie, the most charismatic character
on US TV since god-knows-when, and they didn’t feel like keeping you on. To
think what you could have done and where you could have gone on further
adventures<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Normal%20Things.doc#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Alas,
alas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">How much more it would have meant if his sacrifice hadn’t
been so senseless: supposedly, he was trying to buy time for the others, but by
then they were already deep in Vecna’s clutches, so what was the point? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Vecna didn’t need those batty things
anyway, so Eddie achieved pretty much nothing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">At least he got to play a solo first. It would have been
criminal to send him out without one.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To be fair, his character arc did rather suggest a kind of
tragic redemption through sacrifice – this whole “I’m no hero” business. His scene
with Dustin on the hill - <br />
“Don’t change Harrison!” – was backed to the brim with foreboding, though that
might have had more to do with idiot Twitter spoilers. Either way, I found it infinitely
moving, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I swear I teared up. Why? Maybe
it was just moving to see this somewhat aloof jester-figure finally
understanding how much he meant to his young acolytes, and how much they meant
to him. But even more, because it felt such a corrective to the show’
relentless theme about change – yes, things change, but there’s also such a
thing as consistency, and some things, like courage, integrity, individuality,
and yes, friendship, ought not to be so fickle. Certainly, it was an antidote
to season’s 3’s poisonous portrayal of role-players. Here’s the proper message:
role-playing is cool, nerds are cool, and however you might grow or evolve over
time, <i>don’t ever stop being you.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">So Eddie’s gone, but Hopper and Joyce are back, and Vecna’s
vanquished, and about a hundred threads left untied – Dr. Owens? Dimitri? The
General? Jason?<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Normal%20Things.doc#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> There’s very obviously
going to be another series. I do hope it continues along the same line –
disappointments aside, it was gripping and moving. I liked the extra length
episodes (though they wreaked havoc on the sleep schedule), for giving us a
deeper story and more time with the characters, which still felt insufficient. A
tenth episode would surely have wrapped things up more smoothly, but would the
public had the patience for it?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For all my griping, my impression is still pretty positive.
The series was gripping all the way through, clever, atmospheric, occasionally
funny, but not so much to dampen a sense of menace. It gave the brain and the
imagination a lot to chew on. And I haven’t been this invested in a set of TV
characters since Peter Capaldi was Dr. Who. So despite reservations, gold stars
all around.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Horns up. \m/</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Final thoughts:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->let’s give a shout out to the other awesome characters
that don’t get enough hype. Murray (Brett Gelman) and Erica<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Priah Ferguson) lit up the screen every time
they walked on. I even liked Robert Morgan’s world weary Officer Powell, who
was clearly counting down his days till retirement, clearly sick of all that
supernatural shit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Good for Robin, who might get a happy ending
after all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Vecna’s origins? Call me naïve or dim, but I
didn’t see it coming at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><!--[endif]-->
</span><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Normal%20Things.doc#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And the current repulsive
trend of origin stories wouldn’t help: what’s the point of following a
character <i>up ‘til </i>their starting point? <i>Before </i>all the major
character development? Knowing full well he’s doomed? How are we supposed to
watch and enjoy the character in action knowing their fate in advance? Never
understood that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Normal%20Things.doc#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> I am reliably informed by
<a href="https://strangerthings.fandom.com/wiki/Jason_Carver">https://strangerthings.fandom.com/wiki/Jason_Carver</a>
that he was killed in the end, I have no memory of this scene. Pitty. I’d be
curious how these god-boys would behave in the aftermath. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;">(Stay off this site by the way. Don’t let obsessive fandom
shape your impressions). </span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-1654559294740766072022-08-03T14:05:00.003-07:002023-06-06T11:37:08.798-07:00Being Roger Waters <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">So Roger Waters has gotten himself into the news by daring
to declare himself more important than Drake or the Weekend. While it may sound
like a dickish thing to say, he’s certainly not wrong. I know it’s
unfashionable to declare some artists and some works superior to others, but
give me a break: Drake is about as brainless as porridge, and if we’re still
discussing the Weekend in thirty years, you can call me Monday. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nor am I impressed by the ageist argument that old people
always claim their own music was better than the rubbish the kids are playing
now: as if that alone proves it false. Possibly old folks only choose to
remember the good stuff they listened to, and have chosen to forget (or have
pretended to forget) the rubbish they themselves listened to at that age. Nor
does it apply to me: I was three years old when <i>The Wall </i>came out, so I
can hardly claim it was music from “my day”. “My day”, if anything, was the
height of grunge, which I barely tolerated at the time, opting instead for. .
., well stuff like <i>The Wall</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not interested in
debating that any further: folks will like what they like. I would like to say
a few things about <i>The Wall. </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s an extraordinary work really. It may feel a bit
cliched, as it sold a kabillion copies, but that doesn’t bother me – sometimes
art and commerce do converge. If a work I consider profound happens to resonate
with the masses, and happens to reward its creators I’m not going to complain.
And if stuff I consider to be profound was at one point popular, or even -
*(GASP)* - <i>mainstream, </i>well, what of it? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find it mind boggling how stuff I like was
once considered mainstream. If this is a very steep rabbit hole to descend
straight back to <i>kids these days!, </i>I’d again point out that nothing I
like has been mainstream within my living memory (does 3 count?), but that’s
yet another digression, so I won’t go there either. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Like many a weird, spaced-out teenager, (though anomalously
drug free), I took to <i>The Wall </i>like a bee to pollen (“fly to shit”
really doesn’t sound flattering enough). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t like the movie. It quite literally
depicted everything in the album, but seemed to lack its psychological horror.
I mean, the actors were all doing what Waters and Gilmour were singing, but
somehow it didn’t feel right. I think I was hoping for something less literal,
more surreal and impressionistic. More Gerald Scarfe and less Bob Geldoff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
“Comfortably Numb” sequence surely needed something more serenely psychedelic.
Surely “Young Lust” wasn’t just about groupies. The first, what, two thirds
were all rock star decadence followed by Oswald Mossly cosplay, with the
connection between them not being made in any way a young audience could pick
up on. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This seems an irresponsible omission. An a fully intentional
one. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I know a guy who thinks all pop music is basically
fascistic. Because of the way, via mass production, recording, and
amplification, it manipulates emotions and appeals to base instinct. I think on
some level Roger Waters believes this too. He’s drunk deeply of Rock-stardom,
tasted its powers, and keenly sensed its dangers. This is a well-documented
inspiration for <i>The Wall. </i>But it’s difficult to believe, that on some
level he doesn’t also relish it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hence the all-too effective Rock spectacle pastiche of<i> “</i>In
the Flesh”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s absolutely intended to
open up concerts in grand Wagnerian manner, going straight for the loins and
the tear ducts. I’ve seen him do it: ’99 or some such year, at the then Molson
Amphitheatre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The band blasted the riff,
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rogers</st1:city></st1:place> strutted
on stage, raised his arms to the audience, and crossed them at the wrist,
forming a large O above his head. We of course, all his puppets at this point,
did the same. I’d bet good money he was perfectly aware this was also how the
Oceanians saluted Big Brother in Michael Radford’s film adaptation of <i>1984. </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Music does that to you. On some level (that phrase again!),
you want it to do it to you. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s the danger of music. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Waters recognized this, but is too damn good at it to
subvert it. He made an album about the dangers of pop-culture Rockstar hero
worship that made people want to worship him even more. He’s not done much to
dissuade them. Just watch footage from his 1989 concert in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Berlin</st1:state></st1:place>. Massive stage, massive set, dozens
of musicians, hundreds of choristers (including the bleedin’ Red Army! In Berlin!), maybe
a hundred thousand people in the crowd, and <i>him </i>at the centre of it all!
And when he finally dons the military outfit in the style of some South
American dictator, is he really not enjoying it? <br />
<br />
(The Red Army should have sung “Waiting for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Worms</st1:city></st1:place>”. Now <i>that</i> would have brought
the fascist overtones home!) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">None of this is to condemn Roger Waters, a tremendous talent
I admire and respect. Just I think he was (is) too invested in it all to really
follow his thesis through. As we all are. Pop music is so central to most of
our identities that we really can’t envision a world without it, nor do we want
to. ‘tis why neither the film nor the various stage presentations of <i>The
Wall </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>could actually come out and say
“pop culture is like fascism”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People
don’t like to hear it, and the Record labels and Studios sure aren’t going to
promote it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of folks in this
society will shrug off criticisms of their religion or their political beliefs,
but woe betide anyone who criticises their favourite band. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I can’t be too hard on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rogers</st1:city></st1:place>
for not going the whole nine yards. If he had, <i>The Wall </i>probably
wouldn’t have been as good. It’s tempting fruit this stuff. If he doesn’t
exactly mind thousands of people stroking his ego, even while objectively
recognizing the risks, I can’t say I blame him. In his place I’d probably do
the same thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-217119847807291932022-04-05T20:54:00.004-07:002022-04-07T21:10:37.367-07:00<p> Is there a word to describe the irony, gal, nerve, impudence and sheer effrontery of invoking nazis to call for some of the worst crimes since the nazis? (Admittedly, a depressingly tight competition). Irony, gal, nerve, impudence and sheer effrontery don't begin to cover it. </p><p><span face=""Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 18.005px;">Timofey Sergeytsev, </span>the Kremlin's "political technologist" (now there's a term that grates like cat claws on a backboard) has written a paper called "<a href="https://medium.com/@kravchenko_mm/what-should-russia-do-with-ukraine-translation-of-a-propaganda-article-by-a-russian-journalist-a3e92e3cb64">What Russia Should do with Ukraine"</a>. His answer is basically "Kill everyone in Ukraine". </p><p>I'm not joking. I really, really wish I were. You can read the whole thing <a href="https://medium.com/@kravchenko_mm/what-should-russia-do-with-ukraine-translation-of-a-propaganda-article-by-a-russian-journalist-a3e92e3cb64">here</a>. </p><p>Here's a morsel:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">"Denazification is necessary when a considerable number
of population (very likely most of it) has been subjected to the Nazi regime
and engaged into its agenda. That is, when the “good people — bad government”
hypothesis does not apply. Recognizing this fact forms the backbone of the
denazification policy and all its measures, while the fact itself constitutes
its subject."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p><p>Whatever crimes Sergeytsev has dreamed up in his bat-shit bonkers brain, are now the collective responsibility of the Ukrainian people. The "backbone" of Russian policy is collective guilt and collective punishment. For crimes existing entirely in their deranged imagination. <br /><br />They've made "Denazification" a synonym for "genocide". </p><p>Or if that word has lost its bite for you, try "mass-murder, mass-killing, mass-slaughter, massacre, butchery, or industrial scale state-sanctioned death". </p><p>Read the thing. Pause for a vomit-break, and continue to read the thing. You're reading the modern <i>Mein Kampf. </i>And he's spinning it as an <i>anti-nazi thing!!!</i> Orwell's doing backflips. </p><p><span face=""Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 18.005px;"><a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/genocide-masterplan-experts-alarmed-after-kremlin-intellectual-calls-for-cleansed-ukraine-182354392.html">“Ukra-nazism poses a much bigger threat to the world and Russia than the Hitler version of German Nazism.”</a></span></p><p>How do you say "You've gotta be fucking kidding me. . ." in Russian? The autocrat never respects your intelligence. He assumes you have none. <i> </i> </p><p><br /></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-23597213581539789282022-03-30T18:17:00.003-07:002022-03-30T18:17:27.323-07:00In which Putin gets his way after all. <p> Deeply disturbing article in the New York times. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/opinion/ukraine-war-putin.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/opinion/ukraine-war-putin.html</a></p><p>Just suppose Putin knows exactly what he's doing? Bret Stevens tentatively suggests that, far from stumbling into a quagmire and getting spanked by freedom lovers, everything may be going according to plan, and Putin may be getting exactly what he wants from the whole thing. <br /><br />Which is: what remains of Ukraine's coastline, and all of her natural gas reserves. These are found in the east, currently under Russian control, and likely to be conceded during any bitter-peace negotiations. <br /><br />It would leave Russia even more energy rich, her nieghbours even more dependent on her for gas, and Ukraine economically crippled, stripped of her ability to support herself. </p><p>That Putin would sacrifice so many lives, Russian as well as Ukrainian, is nauseating in its cynicism. </p><p>Personally, I find it all too believable. It makes too much sense. War, after all, is just economics by other means. This does rather deflate any optimism I've been able to build up. </p><p>Hopefully, the West will not abandon Ukraine when this is all done, and will not lift any sanctions, and will not go back to being gas-junkies dependent on the Russian dope-dealer. </p><p>Green energy folks! It's strategic now. . . </p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-4191293809562262222022-03-30T18:03:00.006-07:002022-03-30T18:23:10.131-07:00In which a Polish academic lays waste to Western intellectuals. <div>Along the same lines as the last one, here's a statement from a Polish academic, who's had it up to here with Westerners proclaiming that Eastern Europe should have been left to Russia's tender mercies after 1991: </div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.quora.com/Is-Noam-Chomskys-comment-that-NATO-should-not-have-moved-an-inch-east-of-Germany-ignoring-the-desires-of-the-eastern-European-states">https://www.quora.com/Is-Noam-Chomskys-comment-that-NATO-should-not-have-moved-an-inch-east-of-Germany-ignoring-the-desires-of-the-eastern-European-states</a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKpjlX7_FuQNS-YL6xqAZ-qQhs2GAXKSsCa5Y-JIGqKND6GOumQizUvhY4FTnt-GtwQfbGa9mrg4J-3SC68oGB03XWabsN3cYu5xIMxwDLCn7rlqtm21OmeqKq72vpfsqsV-dWYdiBeXxA-fLI-8vGTFLvBxmgAOzYrmio45v-cz0d3z9Q28PNk2XLg/s1600/Flag-North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKpjlX7_FuQNS-YL6xqAZ-qQhs2GAXKSsCa5Y-JIGqKND6GOumQizUvhY4FTnt-GtwQfbGa9mrg4J-3SC68oGB03XWabsN3cYu5xIMxwDLCn7rlqtm21OmeqKq72vpfsqsV-dWYdiBeXxA-fLI-8vGTFLvBxmgAOzYrmio45v-cz0d3z9Q28PNk2XLg/s320/Flag-North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organization.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Again, for those in the back: NATO expansion was not simply an American or a Western ploy to make Russia feel bad. The new members all had a say in it. You will notice none of them rushed to revamp the Warsaw Pact. </div><div><br /></div><div>And again, I ask: why should Russia's security concerns matter more than Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia's security concerns? <br /><br />Each of these countries has, in the not so distant past, been invaded, conquered, and brutally exploited by Russia. One would think their desires might come into it at some point. How many more millions need to be sacrificed to Russian paranoia? <br /><br />If Russia feels so threatened by the world, perhaps it would do well to stop threatening the world. It might start by looking itself in the mirror, and asking itself why every single one of its neighbours seems so dead-set against it. In all those disputes, what's the common factor? <br /><br />In the words of someone, "It's not me, it's you babe." </div><div><br /></div><div>Sources: <a href="https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html">https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.quora.com/Is-Noam-Chomskys-comment-that-NATO-should-not-have-moved-an-inch-east-of-Germany-ignoring-the-desires-of-the-eastern-European-states">https://www.quora.com/Is-Noam-Chomskys-comment-that-NATO-should-not-have-moved-an-inch-east-of-Germany-ignoring-the-desires-of-the-eastern-European-states</a></div><div><br /></div>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-45545003271880475922022-03-30T17:41:00.005-07:002022-03-30T18:37:07.189-07:00Tankies<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A particularly irritating
memory of mine from some twenty years ago involves me trying to debate
Stalinism with a 12 – year old kid. Among his points: the Gulags weren’t so bad,
the NKVD didn’t kill that many people, nor could they have because that would
have been “against the Soviet Constitution.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Debating kids is a bit of a
mug’s game – I’m sure if you’re a parent who’s ever tried debating the
existence of closet monsters or the morality of stealing from the cookie jar,
or a teacher who’s tried to explain the practical value of algebra to a skeptical crowd, you
might know what I’m getting at. It’s one thing to debate a flat-earther, a vaccine
skeptic, or a Celine Dion fan – adults whose sense of reality is so far removed
from your own, there’s really no point in engaging with them. But with a kid,
you can’t help thinking there ought to be a way to get through to them. They
oughta defer to your greater life-experience, your more extensive book
learning, your altogether greater reserve of knowledge and wisdom. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFiHMDYDJR3Ke2RwXdBteVtakNNmOyVzIDlWQhPr_e3Mn2Os1sdDzIyOLLJZFa1bibY3EdO2Cgl12t9EyMDEHwgZyQJ3wf1JonB2QKrlFU8FO8_VaC_XK_-IPMNZhOjRzZWZHx5YEbmhGd-YFnGTiMnmSjoTDN0qPnbFUR-wU3Vcc5-tcNfMAkbo8fg/s500/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-prison-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="500" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFiHMDYDJR3Ke2RwXdBteVtakNNmOyVzIDlWQhPr_e3Mn2Os1sdDzIyOLLJZFa1bibY3EdO2Cgl12t9EyMDEHwgZyQJ3wf1JonB2QKrlFU8FO8_VaC_XK_-IPMNZhOjRzZWZHx5YEbmhGd-YFnGTiMnmSjoTDN0qPnbFUR-wU3Vcc5-tcNfMAkbo8fg/s320/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-prison-4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What'd he know about Gulags?<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Long-story-short: they never do, and we all ought to know that. Nevertheless,
when some kid tells you with utter conviction that Solzhenitsyn lied because he
was a fascist, and that the deportation of the Chechens never happened (they
most certainly did: <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html">https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html</a>), or that the USSR executed fewer people than the USA during the 1930's, this is not a debate between peers: one can’t help feeling the need to set him
straight. And when your drunken pal with a glass of whiskey in one hand keeps
interrupting you on points of Parliamentary Privilege, one’s
irritation accumulates. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I was thinking about this, not
just because I like to grumble about it from time to time, but was reminded of
it by this article: <a href="https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/03/04/fuck-leftist-westplaining/">https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/03/04/fuck-leftist-westplaining/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and this one, from the same
publication: <a href="https://freedomnews.org.uk/2019/08/15/is-genocide-denial-anti-imperialist-now-how-tankies-are-taking-over-leftbook-and-the-london-student-scene/">https://freedomnews.org.uk/2019/08/15/is-genocide-denial-anti-imperialist-now-how-tankies-are-taking-over-leftbook-and-the-london-student-scene/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The articles, by East
European activists, take issue with that species of activist my pint-sized
Stalinist may or may not have grown into. (I don’t know, I’ve since lost
touch). You may recognize the type: the ones running book tables at every
peace-rally bemoaning 1989, who unironically wear Lenin t-shirts, and celebrate
the anniversary of 1917 every year. Some have even seek to rehabilitate Stalin
himself. Either he wasn’t so bad because at least he wasn’t a capitalist, or he
wasn’t bad at all and only Western propaganda makes him so. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnW3zs-VQUjYcy-FQQJeV_s-EFO_uhK_be1xL_Y8bRXzVrm4kJGstbu_fuvVxOxtRVcnpa7wuZ5mh3noC2HDg2FnQDxerjAqNpcZyy2YMRbEimgR9m0X7YQqSDLC1d8i-zbHoqhM5AImr9mkYcnaOFrD_-ODahcNeG8VV4cXJ6WWZLM7FX-HWdBiMXw/s1200/T-34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1200" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnW3zs-VQUjYcy-FQQJeV_s-EFO_uhK_be1xL_Y8bRXzVrm4kJGstbu_fuvVxOxtRVcnpa7wuZ5mh3noC2HDg2FnQDxerjAqNpcZyy2YMRbEimgR9m0X7YQqSDLC1d8i-zbHoqhM5AImr9mkYcnaOFrD_-ODahcNeG8VV4cXJ6WWZLM7FX-HWdBiMXw/s320/T-34.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who doesn't love a T-34? </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I used to call such folk “Gulag-deniers”,
but the label that caught on is “tankie”. (My labels never catch<br /> on). The
tankie is a modern day Stalinist. A useful idiot with hipster clothes and
access to memes. In my experience, they tend to be young, stupid, arrogant, and
militantly ignorant of just about every field of human knowledge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know nothing about history, geography,
economics, science, or literature, and they like it that way. They get
everything they know from cheap pamphlets and memes. They have excused themselves
from the burdens of finding evidence for their claims. They dismiss history and
scholarship as Western-CIA-funded propaganda. They don’t read books, or talk to
people outside their social milieu. They fantasize about shooting or beheading people.
They are the political equivalent of the Westoboro Baptist Church, and the
social equivalent of bleeding hemorrhoids. They’re really, really awful. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPIig6QIFLNSojwkuBimet1-nWycgquI_V-XeBCgBWWHHgrFT34pb-My6OrMBCdEzoSxP8oqcQH7HvV9lhtvg5iMBaO-Qd9On3awrginTKn6x21qQ_DT63lW4FIKy6vG3dkR0TQrNvdBnh5SlP5iXGAR5XRI0GFaSQaeS8MNvk8Vd8nPsXFX71TopGEg/s1500/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPIig6QIFLNSojwkuBimet1-nWycgquI_V-XeBCgBWWHHgrFT34pb-My6OrMBCdEzoSxP8oqcQH7HvV9lhtvg5iMBaO-Qd9On3awrginTKn6x21qQ_DT63lW4FIKy6vG3dkR0TQrNvdBnh5SlP5iXGAR5XRI0GFaSQaeS8MNvk8Vd8nPsXFX71TopGEg/s320/image.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />Hiding amongst the tankies
are another, less dramatic sort, who may not openly embrace Stalinism, but certainly
can’t bring themselves to condemn autocrats or dictators unless they can be
blamed on the West. I’ve never met anyone who embraced Putin – homophobic, Islamaphobic,
head-in-all-but-name of the stone-age reactionary, retrograde Russian Orthodox
Church – but apparently they exist. (It has to be said, by the far the most
active pro-Putinistas are Right-Wing Trumpeters like Tucker Carlson, who’s
mandatory viewing <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> in Russia).</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve
certainly met folk who hate NATO more than Putin or Jinping (who does indeed look
like Winnie the Pooh by the way). Their way of thinking seems to be that war is
a western invention, and would simply cease to occur if we stopped building
jets. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Activists in the
former Iron Curtain Countries harbour no such illusions. <span style="color: #01ffff;">“when you say “Fuck
NATO” or “End NATO expansion”, what I hear is that you do not care about the
safety and wellbeing of my Eastern European friends, family and comrades</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">NATO is not something they
love, but something they definitely see as the lesser evil, the alternative to
eternal Russian serfdom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A lot of commentators speak
of NATO expansion as if it were an American strategic ploy, and not something
the Eastern European member states eagerly pounced on. These countries, the victims of
Russian invasion, domination and sometimes reinvasion for decades if not centuries,
had no doubts about which camp they wanted to belong to. If they were still pawns
for the bigger powers – well, some powers play fairer than others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: large;">“Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary joined NATO in 1999, the
Baltic countries followed in 2004. And for now, I want them to stay there, and
it doesn’t have much to do with politics tbh. It is a self-preservation
instinct, but this is another thing you will just not get.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Survival doesn’t count for much in some ideological circles.
Nor do facts. The fact is that most people who have lived under Russian
domination have no wish to do so again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: large;">"Antifascism is protecting people from individuals with
structural power. Right now that is Putin."</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size: medium;">What the tankies don’t
understand, and probably can’t understand is that politics is not a game of football,
you don’t owe unconditional loyalty to your team, and nobody wins unless lives
are actually improved. To say nothing that facts matter, truth matters, and
reality is, as they say, “a thing”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt;"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: black; color: #01ffff; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Lora;">“If
you are What Abouting into helplessness, you are part of the aggressor.</span>”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-45392317550615486912022-03-28T23:06:00.003-07:002022-03-30T20:31:23.498-07:00In which the Kremlin Kries a river. . .<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Invaders habitually blame their victims for getting themselves invaded. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And authoritarians can be the most self-pitying twats. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Kremlin Kry-baby Dmitry Peskov is upset now because the civilized world is sanctioning his country. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/mar/28/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-zelenskiy-putin-live-updates#block-624275a18f08d422c5d5f6f2">Wein Russia, we will feel ourselves amongst war, because Western Europeancountries, United States, Canada, Australia, they actually — they actually — theyare leading war against us in trade, in economy, in seizing our properties, inseizing our funds, in blocking our financial relations.</a> (The Guardian, 28 March) <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you say "Boo hoo hoo!" in Russian? ( Бу ху ху) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Why can't we just let them massacre Ukranians in peace? How dare we impound their yachts and interrupt their Instagram feeds? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">From now on, I think I'll start referring to twats as Dmitry Peskovs. The pathetic bellyaching coming out of Russia these days is as hilarious as it is nauseating. Like the bully who cries when you hit them back, they see themselves as the victims. The big Mean West won't let them kill who they want to anymore. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The pitiful pesky Peskov has taken self-pity to new levels: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b><i>“For a couple of
decades, we were telling the collective west that we are afraid of your Nato’s
moving eastwards. We too are afraid of Nato getting closer to our borders with
its military infrastructure. Please take care of that. Don’t push us into
the corner. No.. .</i></b><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Then, we said, listen,
guys, we’re not happy with the possibility of Ukraine’s getting into Nato,
because it will endanger us additionally, and it will ruin the balance of
mutual deterrence in <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4370372521063245130/4539231755061548691">Europe</a>.
No reaction.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Then we said, listen,
guys, we want equal relationship. We want to take into account each other’s
concerns. If you don’t into account our concerns, then we will be a little bit
nervous. No reaction completely.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Russia's afraid? Why do I not care? Thing is, Russia backed itself into a corner. It picked a fight with a smaller kid and now finds the whole school yard arrayed against it. We're supposed to believe it's afraid? How does it think its neighbours feel? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Russia wants the world to respect its concerns. Has it ever in its history respected anyone else's concerns? Has it respected Ukraine's concerns? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Did it respect Poland's concerns in 1939 when it signed a non agression pact <b><i><span>with Hitler</span></i></b> and jointly invaded with Nazi Germany? Or when it massacred 22 000 Poles at Katyn? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Did it respect Finland's concerns, also in 1939, when it snatched up the Karelian Isthmus, kicked out some 450 000 Finns, and bombed Helsinki? <br /><br />Did it respect Estonia's concerns when it swallowed up that country and deported 60 000 of its citizens? <br /><br />Did it respect Latvia or Lithuania's concerns when it swallowed up those countries and deported 35 000 each of it's citizens? <br /><br />Did it have any more respect for Poland's when it invaded AGAIN in 1956? <br /><br />Or Hungary's in 1956, when the Red Army stormed Budapest, killing some 2500 people? <br /><br />Or Czechoslovakia's in 1968, as it crushed the Prague Spring under its tank treads? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Or Afghanistan's, during a decade long occupation? <br /><br />Or Chenya's, whom it bombed flat? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Or Syria's? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Does Russia have any neighbours whom it HASN'T attacked, invaded, bombed, or attempted to annex? Maybe Turkey - a large country with a large army. Small countries take note: Russia doesn't play nice. It doesn't deal fairly with anyone it feels it can kick around. In the last hundred years, you'd be hard pressed to find any occasion where it acted mercifully, honestly, or in good faith. Yet even now, pissants like Pekov go on like Russian's been hard done by. Like all they ever wanted to do was sit in the dachas reading Gogol. But what could they do: those beastly Eastern Europeans kept asserting their national identities! <br /><br />How do you say "Fuck You" in Russian? <br /><br />пошел на хуй</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Sources: </span></p><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Baltic-states/Soviet-occupation"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.britannica.com/place/Baltic-states/Soviet-occupation</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-put-brutal-end-to-hungarian-revolution"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-put-brutal-end-to-hungarian-revolution</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956</span></a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring</span></a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War</span></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-58901286833486906872022-03-19T14:28:00.001-07:002022-03-19T14:28:11.897-07:00<p> (Incidentally, Blogspot increasingly sucks as a medium. I don't know why a simple cut and paste operation had to turn into forty minutes of fucking around with the fonts, but there you go. My next blog will definitely be somewhere else.) </p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-21272900610852981342022-03-19T14:06:00.003-07:002022-03-19T14:19:55.130-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">So
Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Canadian Parliament. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">You
can watch the whole thing here, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSuL5OhUzs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSuL5OhUzs</a>
, but if you’d rather take my words for it, it went a little like this: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Justin
Trudeau spoke first. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtkNQIRLFO5fpAqw3A4sUv_Ks2LIJdeuLVXevFb2UK5PMbRaYyVTffYFsUUae6dVrJhSKFS1Sm90V3zoZN7sRk5qRKdoTxYAsuhCkZzHGR_kToi1ej_efDVMHIPMIy_u8P1qUeJtz16TONhwVfXB4TLEMYnzC2hxxDdy6hOoOiX56n6mt7EIE3kW7OZQ=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtkNQIRLFO5fpAqw3A4sUv_Ks2LIJdeuLVXevFb2UK5PMbRaYyVTffYFsUUae6dVrJhSKFS1Sm90V3zoZN7sRk5qRKdoTxYAsuhCkZzHGR_kToi1ej_efDVMHIPMIy_u8P1qUeJtz16TONhwVfXB4TLEMYnzC2hxxDdy6hOoOiX56n6mt7EIE3kW7OZQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Democracies
around the world are lucky to have you as our champion.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Standing
ovation. He announces “15 new sanctions” and more <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“financial humanitarian assistance.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“We
like to root for the underdog” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQGdiSp0h95Fb_kwIB9IcCaK7D9uccRZIDgWBR0faToSBKppo-iZWodGzP1Y1cysoAHRxoMULInfg2piLPiPJGZJ5f3lyt81_OuFd1XwedEDoYmU82cP9o4rz2bWoeG-SXhKuT_3q-GJetMyp113hnJMqGlyM_ECcA6nyEZg1WO0LZ1j4AZ9ndTE-rkw=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQGdiSp0h95Fb_kwIB9IcCaK7D9uccRZIDgWBR0faToSBKppo-iZWodGzP1Y1cysoAHRxoMULInfg2piLPiPJGZJ5f3lyt81_OuFd1XwedEDoYmU82cP9o4rz2bWoeG-SXhKuT_3q-GJetMyp113hnJMqGlyM_ECcA6nyEZg1WO0LZ1j4AZ9ndTE-rkw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Then
Zelensky got to speak, through a translator. Among the highlights: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Justin,
can you imagine, you, your children, imagine these explosions; the bombing of Ottawa
airport. Can you imagine that?” <br />
<br />
“You know, this is war to annihilate your country” <br />
<br />
“Imagine someone is laying siege to Vancouver. . .”<br />
<br />
“Can you imagine famous CN Tower in Toronto, hit by Russian bombs?” <br />
<br />
“Imagine that Canadian facilities have been bombed. . .”<br />
<br />
“Can you imagine someone taking down Canadian flags in Montreal?”<br />
<br />
“ We want to live, to be victorious, to prevail for the sake of life.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Our
cities are not protected the way your cities are protected” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“You
need to do more.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Please
do not stop in your efforts.” <br />
<br />
“I am confident we will overcome, we will be victorious. <br />
<br />
“Glory to Ukraine, thankyou to Canada.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2US2rXEkRlRW2LXVjObyOB83qdHRAbod_8KTiO8AR7FEJvLNCNLvS_0T2Vulcx-b_bdzrbkGkDTOPE93zzmiQizTHFikoMblPrgqnJEGdokpt8dow0xo2sIKAK6xKPCgyBaii6WgwpnXcpko71FWkb_OAfTRoh5eenwoSHf51EqrKE1ftsBZqW4fCTg=s1366" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2US2rXEkRlRW2LXVjObyOB83qdHRAbod_8KTiO8AR7FEJvLNCNLvS_0T2Vulcx-b_bdzrbkGkDTOPE93zzmiQizTHFikoMblPrgqnJEGdokpt8dow0xo2sIKAK6xKPCgyBaii6WgwpnXcpko71FWkb_OAfTRoh5eenwoSHf51EqrKE1ftsBZqW4fCTg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">If
there’s one thing these speeches made clear, it’s the chasm between the quality
of the<br /> leaders over there and over here. Zelensky sounded like a modern day
Henry V and Trudeau like a kitchenware salesman. Could our Prime Minister’s response
been more hackneyed, cliched or self serving? “We like to root for the underdog”
indeed. <i>Really Justin??? </i>Is this a fucking football match? I wonder what
the phrase comes out as in Ukrainian. I wonder what Zelensky must have thought
hearing that as bombs were landing yards away. He must feel great relief knowing
Canadians “root for the underdog”.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghi-aaZ-_vAUu69Lr2zcKL1UFJyjjcR-DlotTaFljLdbL2mb9pCEmYhu1m6htDv2TNwSxhd0CEzNXeMiPBMbtF_AU0JZMz3HsCy-ZZem0Vd6cTwyUD4-4ZMgTM4kivS3HFDtaDD5FqEeUHs8pHZ03EPkKMnKbM1U9aa5oN2rbxThsDZQAp-LgPGGQIkg=s1366" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghi-aaZ-_vAUu69Lr2zcKL1UFJyjjcR-DlotTaFljLdbL2mb9pCEmYhu1m6htDv2TNwSxhd0CEzNXeMiPBMbtF_AU0JZMz3HsCy-ZZem0Vd6cTwyUD4-4ZMgTM4kivS3HFDtaDD5FqEeUHs8pHZ03EPkKMnKbM1U9aa5oN2rbxThsDZQAp-LgPGGQIkg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Zelensky
must play the hand he’s dealt. He must surely know that what he can get out of
this tour of western capitols can’t be much more than what he’s already gotten.
But he keeps playing, hitting all the right notes, name-dropping Canadian
landmarks, calling the PM by name, and appealing to whatever sense of sympathy
and decency a gang of soft western politicians might have. If words could beat tanks,
Zelensky would rule the world by now. He said everything it was humanly
possibly to say, and, who knows, maybe it will result in more financial or
humanitarian aid than he might otherwise have gotten, and maybe it will help.
It was painful though to compare those words, heartfelt, honest, and harrowing,
with Trudeau’s grab bag of cliches. Would it have killed him or his writers to put
a little effort in? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Interim
opposition leader Candice Bergen wasn’t much better. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxFdSpFr7ObTo5VbYbZoGDM-tcJPjEF3TB3eHwHYtu_q-5hUVBVvKcwElsooAeZOEGGUDkxCW7wQYe1aKN3bDslpel5MYp93JbwTl_nUuIG1n4bOxLaGbWVeB25IJVZNjjbHW5H4WzLFXBaTnhY0l3Efj8BEHOAgoMSS5L-Y6Sm8VsciuvfybZREa9SQ=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxFdSpFr7ObTo5VbYbZoGDM-tcJPjEF3TB3eHwHYtu_q-5hUVBVvKcwElsooAeZOEGGUDkxCW7wQYe1aKN3bDslpel5MYp93JbwTl_nUuIG1n4bOxLaGbWVeB25IJVZNjjbHW5H4WzLFXBaTnhY0l3Efj8BEHOAgoMSS5L-Y6Sm8VsciuvfybZREa9SQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“We
will be there with you after this conflict. . .” </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In other words, we’ll help out when it’s over.
Thanks Candice.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went on to say: “Putin must be brought to justice.”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve come to really despise the phrase “x
MUST y”. In headlines, on placards, in speeches. Must this, must that. The
meaningless imperative that never gets followed. From speakers not in a
position to make it happen. Why does anyone bother? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure Putin is a war criminal. Most war-leaders
are war criminals. Who’s going to bring him to justice? NATO? The UN? Batman?
Candice Bergen? It’s as empty a phrase as any in politics, designed to signal
indignation while promising nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As
for Bergen’s promise to “Welcome Ukrainians who are fleeing.” and her pledge
that “Canada will be a safe haven for Ukraine citizens”, I wondered if I’d
actually just heard a Conservative politician promising to bring more refugees
into the country. That would be something. I’ll believe it when I see it. Of
course, she also blatantly said they’d all be expected to go home afterwards, so
it’s a moot point. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYS20GPKDzyewIAR0KCsCJeaYnduWDivL5DTb1cvZeGYLx0xdRBdIE-gm93X166gsI8u-KPkNB-eWDVp0KejBzyWv-i0yjYtrllj8wfiQuRRTe7RWlXWlOMh2xOjWQ1PAR_Km9lfJUmT1alm2buKDDv4rg5fp3EojC9hVfxdH1TN77czR-SojOuq634w=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYS20GPKDzyewIAR0KCsCJeaYnduWDivL5DTb1cvZeGYLx0xdRBdIE-gm93X166gsI8u-KPkNB-eWDVp0KejBzyWv-i0yjYtrllj8wfiQuRRTe7RWlXWlOMh2xOjWQ1PAR_Km9lfJUmT1alm2buKDDv4rg5fp3EojC9hVfxdH1TN77czR-SojOuq634w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
New Democrats’ Jameed Singh was lame. “With you every step of the way.” he
declares. Are you kidding? What a thing
to say for a comfortable politician thousands of miles from the front! What a
thing to claim for a country that hasn’t, and won’t have to, endure Russian
bombs. Or indeed, any real inconvenience beyond slightly higher gas prices and
fewer brands of vodka at the LCBO. Where does anyone get off making that kind
of claim to someone who’s right there in the thick of it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Dignity
finally crept into the proceedings when </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #030303; font-size: 10.5pt;">Yves-François
Blanchet</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
of the Bloc Quebecois spoke. Not only did his speech not sound like it was
written by a bot, but he had the balls to speak with something vaguely
resembling honesty.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8Xyq7h8o1qFus4v3g9Ahi4YcKgEBIc1wSYUAnmq6HtNXXZWq8xsQhqZFdK7QlJO24mDe6CiWz9HzxTzPkgqODmdxp4HYzhi0dj3fb8-rkTrZ53WFBxnEDvzTqxbu4brDQa6YyRDI0R7UcryOzgXJlJilCXbZbVpJH4M8FUEoqHIj6JFGL9xlwDHN67g=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8Xyq7h8o1qFus4v3g9Ahi4YcKgEBIc1wSYUAnmq6HtNXXZWq8xsQhqZFdK7QlJO24mDe6CiWz9HzxTzPkgqODmdxp4HYzhi0dj3fb8-rkTrZ53WFBxnEDvzTqxbu4brDQa6YyRDI0R7UcryOzgXJlJilCXbZbVpJH4M8FUEoqHIj6JFGL9xlwDHN67g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It is difficult for me to admit to a certain
powerlessness to do more.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Mr.
President, all this is to little,” he said, after rattling off Canada and Quebec’s
efforts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Too
little, every time a man, a woman, or a child dies. Every time a hospital, a
day care centre, a school, a park or even a single flower is destroyed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“What
we cannot do is the cruelest thing of all.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Against
the fear in the hearts of Ukraine’s children, we can only do too little. I apologize
for that.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sure
beats Trudeau’s “underdog”, don’t it? I couldn’t care less that the man’s a separatist
– that seems such a petty concern at the moment. He spoke well, he captured the
pathos of the situation, and he didn’t try to aggrandize this country’s petty
contributions. He looked that cold reality in the face, and called it for what
it was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A rare thing in western
politics. <span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #030303;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2trJwyJJGotiCFXacYj86jjyud34DLWRuDDep__NawIskY9r8KKth4jAjiTGFWn_rG0MnvJSS2nrD3ZaHkNws0bJyEM_pAcq-tyNe6eZOjKFSIWp6XY2MruEfwr2-jw_CwvnkQah55dlH4EtlIR-ZpWpOyNQgBY3ixgdIcFypfk6snjRZF4kwsDb3Mw=s1366" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2trJwyJJGotiCFXacYj86jjyud34DLWRuDDep__NawIskY9r8KKth4jAjiTGFWn_rG0MnvJSS2nrD3ZaHkNws0bJyEM_pAcq-tyNe6eZOjKFSIWp6XY2MruEfwr2-jw_CwvnkQah55dlH4EtlIR-ZpWpOyNQgBY3ixgdIcFypfk6snjRZF4kwsDb3Mw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div style="color: #030303; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;">Elizabeth May of the Green Party did alright for herself as
well. If she lacked Blanchet’s eloquence, she made up for it in apparent
sincerity. She actually seemed affected by events. Sure, any emotional display
from a politician must be taken with a ton of salt, but if body-language is
anything to go by – I believed her. Call me naïve, but I believed her in a way
I didn’t believe the others. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;">Her voice cracked as she read letters from she’d received
from the Ukrainian Green Party, describing the horrible scene, and urging
no-fly zone to stop the carnage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;">Moved as she was, she could not bring herself to lie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;">“It broke my heart to write my Ukrainian colleague. . .that
a now fly zone will risk a wider war, nuclear war. These reasons are solid even
if they ring hollow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;">“We will inevitably let you down.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white;">Only a fringe party could afford to be so honest. And how
refreshing it was. Spare them the bullshit. If you can’t give them what they
want, admit it, and don’t pretend that what you can’t give is just as
good. That could go for almost any
political promise. If that costs votes, then maybe it’s not the politicians who
are at fault.</span><span style="color: #030303;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style="color: #030303;"><br /></div></div></span>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-12469277938898136652022-03-14T17:46:00.007-07:002022-12-13T00:54:27.266-08:00<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">With the world going to shit, we grasp at straws. We look for heroes. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As the earliest stinking whiffs of Russian tank exhaust first began to pollute Ukrainian air, Ukraine's President, Volodoymir Zelensky took to the airwaves to address his nation, and his enemies. <br /><br />It's old news now, but do yourself a favour and watch it. <br /></span></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-zilnPtZ2M"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-zilnPtZ2M</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfURtwyQiO0ylZrvVy5QX0-g-tCrg9e4Vzbo2FFDwEJxRIGsN0HzhOGCP9Saw4gkqZ240zdR55EWFPNNClhVEnkWOUzqrcGOM0FjmPlOd2u0_9MPTHidvo5yiiXrq9z7aal-vCnD6wNZmgJqqBscQfN-W9ut5nGPNpEauvyznLykjMdl1qMhoIpg8kww=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfURtwyQiO0ylZrvVy5QX0-g-tCrg9e4Vzbo2FFDwEJxRIGsN0HzhOGCP9Saw4gkqZ240zdR55EWFPNNClhVEnkWOUzqrcGOM0FjmPlOd2u0_9MPTHidvo5yiiXrq9z7aal-vCnD6wNZmgJqqBscQfN-W9ut5nGPNpEauvyznLykjMdl1qMhoIpg8kww=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Study carefully his mannerisms and listen carefully to his words. This is a man who knows his country might not exist in a fortnight's time, and who himself probably won't survive as long. He's showing all the emotions a man can be expected to show at such a time. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And laid bare the invincible soul of a people. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In what will surely go down as one of history's great speeches, Zelensky appealed to the better nature of his enemies, cutting through the Kremlin's Krap. There was fear, sure, but not a shred of cowardice. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Volodymir Zelensky single-handedly redefined the term "grace-under-pressure", and given us the very platonic ideal of courage, dignity, and statesmanship. In Zelensky, the Ukrainans have found their own Churchill, but without the colonial bullshit. A man who's tongue is worth more than a hundred tanks. He could not have emboldened people more if he had a red S emblazoned on his back. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Immediately after, he put his money where his mouth was, turning down a US offer of asylum and staying in the capital. He's addressed the nation every day, showing himself in battle fatigues, not cowering in a bunker but in sitting boldly in his Kyiv office by an open window. Walking the streets. Visiting troops. He's visibly aged; his skin is paler, his visage darker. Bags have appeared under his eyes. But his humour's intact. "When the country's at war," he says. "кожен день понеділок". <br /><br />The contrast with the cynical scoundrel Putin couldn't be more dramatic.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the West, we've eaten it up. Celebrity hungry as always, fat from our diet of fairy-tales, and bereft of real leadership since God-knows-when, living half-asleep under the likes of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Justin Trudeau, we've pounced on Zelenksy like a kind of paramilitary Beatle. The memes have sprung up, some more tasteless thank others. Full disclosure: I'm as bad as anyone, and worse than many. I'd definitely put his poster on my wall. I'd kiss the man's boot. I like heroes you see. I look for the light in the dark. Right now, the light is Volodymir Zelensky and the people of Ukraine. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They will lose. I've read too much military history to think otherwise. But they've made it clear that at least their little democracy won't go down without a fight. Most of them will die. That is the ice-cold reality. But, in words and such as these, there is that little thing we call Hope, which all the jack-boots in the world have not yet managed to stamp out. Hope that even if borders can be erased, people cannot. And hope that Truth will survive, even as autocracies don't. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-72072046493934649062022-02-25T11:37:00.004-08:002022-02-25T18:27:38.004-08:00War<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Was it George S. Patton who
said “Next to war, all other human endeavours pale to insignificance”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to argue with him. When bombs start
falling, bullets start flying, lives, and sometimes civilizations themselves
are at stake, it’s difficult to care about anything else. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There’s a war on now. Basically the start of every Cold-War
doomsday scenario. The Russian tanks have crossed their frontiers and are
streaming west. . .<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/international" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">https://www.theguardian.com/international</span></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/25/russia-ukraine-invasion-latest-news-live-updates-russian-war-vladimir-putin-explosions-bombing-invades-kyiv" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3Xdou69qh9VzvDKGtdeZxr0W9kza3TQTLgeqamqFHcez_IBbj7f0UlTkQ2ih5Kr5w1Mi6QDYCKfIvnUcUbicr3p1g2ZjLrL73bTyldyD0-YyR4ZLMxcHeTi2_IxxzcKO6LHQjKS3XIxkfkePZjExouY4QcAmbYAWhNBLtjEcs8Vf8BuJY8IPhdegfog=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kbdkbzh0AW0">https://youtu.be/kbdkbzh0AW0</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was in the middle of a blog about some super-obscure
Canadian rock band. Who’d care about it now? I like to go on Twitter and bitch
about Doctor Who. How can I now? People are dying. By this time next week, a
country might erased. Forty-four million people may be enslaved. A Democracy –
a flawed one to be sure, but one all the same, might vanish. A very big country
is swallowing a smaller one. I had been naive enough to hope that we as a
civilization might be past this. As the resident of a small country
neighbouring a much larger one, I have a vested interest in such developments.
these things do keep me up at night.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There has been a lot of hand wringing in the West, but
there will be no serious efforts to stop the Russians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>China is cheering them on. They think it’s perfectly swell,
and are slobbering over Taiwan as we speak.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Trump has been cheering them on. He described the invasion as “<a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-russia-crisis-donald-trump-110600350.html">genius” and ,“wonderful”, and referred to the Russian army as a “peace force</a>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke
longingly of employing such a “peace force” on the Mexican border. Yup, the guy
who won the second most votes in American history openly wants to invade Mexico.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0AgFlEEJxQNlQWz-DyAYwGXoAhnKNRSvzTCHj18W6p5YjLYDqsccCbAHESS1wiHPyeV4D2kcuUX6FC7LLifgHmYX3eiBYxFJtr1B-zljCJwJNfnIkE6bjzFML9IKMmriwXcfYokMQxbbDMCgFYnsf7sc6FNgraGIOJke420TBbkUmIKoajvAEjATY4w=s790" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="790" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0AgFlEEJxQNlQWz-DyAYwGXoAhnKNRSvzTCHj18W6p5YjLYDqsccCbAHESS1wiHPyeV4D2kcuUX6FC7LLifgHmYX3eiBYxFJtr1B-zljCJwJNfnIkE6bjzFML9IKMmriwXcfYokMQxbbDMCgFYnsf7sc6FNgraGIOJke420TBbkUmIKoajvAEjATY4w=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pals for life</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boris Johnson’s been talking tough, but who
can take him seriously? There’s as much Russian money in London as in Moscow,
and the Tory party of British Billionaires has done well by them. There’s
probably a sweet deal waiting for them afterwards.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrHDu80r9fdTIioMcckKtSKtIclNN9PAy5fFIcaP-HAY8sGSr374PESnZS9xj8z-94PEGnkpTmuzeNa7lXKNieWSOmRpLTsvs0EGgWdU7iD0v825kH5-qxM1Lgwvyc3qrWPZbjkdHUhs4CTbqFh8c-IQYzWS_Zm0bsbu5Z71ISpBWsPZCDQwpppMwVUA=s1200" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrHDu80r9fdTIioMcckKtSKtIclNN9PAy5fFIcaP-HAY8sGSr374PESnZS9xj8z-94PEGnkpTmuzeNa7lXKNieWSOmRpLTsvs0EGgWdU7iD0v825kH5-qxM1Lgwvyc3qrWPZbjkdHUhs4CTbqFh8c-IQYzWS_Zm0bsbu5Z71ISpBWsPZCDQwpppMwVUA=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fearless leader<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/22/germany-halts-certification-of-nord-stream-2-amid-russia-ukraine-crisis.html">The Germans have cancelled a pipeline</a>. That’s not nothing,
but the winter’s not over yet. . . </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgD3g_laep9s1EFFC3zHyv2oa-Fye2GbraN9x7vb51oPmYNGee3MPPzetV19XEwnTGyQQD7woRi7Z3XPiFjAzojcFbYLkzE5NzC_avd81iAKayNkWfJkki4ooTYI5ZzuKDQ9yqgEUkZMzSHg1lxQaZ6SMyAVrPCZ9chJa-Kc_PRn-Stha5MEna3NCvyLg=s1075" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="1075" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgD3g_laep9s1EFFC3zHyv2oa-Fye2GbraN9x7vb51oPmYNGee3MPPzetV19XEwnTGyQQD7woRi7Z3XPiFjAzojcFbYLkzE5NzC_avd81iAKayNkWfJkki4ooTYI5ZzuKDQ9yqgEUkZMzSHg1lxQaZ6SMyAVrPCZ9chJa-Kc_PRn-Stha5MEna3NCvyLg=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Freedom" Convoy<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And over here, Canadian truckers are still bitching that
they’ve got no freedom.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This stuff is keeping me up at night. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I’m feeling ill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A great comfort I used to get from reading history is – was
– putting the book down and knowing it’s all safely in the past. “Thank God
THAT’s over! We’re so much smarter now, we’d never do THAT again.” I miss
living in the post-historical era.</span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZL1FPkaQezleSLhXWa-Nk7EQ817-jH_inFYJnfHWztlQAWW6LAFQqzI7D_5pNSkawHNZqVKbyeYv6VqID41ZRBn3HMZcmBmAYmZLSHVClPzgk07XM9XUY8GMnT7HtlPeVHk0L2nnI7JsOu6p3ISBiH6ce-7dsQ8d_c5M_j5mYr-6Ukz-p-r62uf3idg=s1130" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="1130" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZL1FPkaQezleSLhXWa-Nk7EQ817-jH_inFYJnfHWztlQAWW6LAFQqzI7D_5pNSkawHNZqVKbyeYv6VqID41ZRBn3HMZcmBmAYmZLSHVClPzgk07XM9XUY8GMnT7HtlPeVHk0L2nnI7JsOu6p3ISBiH6ce-7dsQ8d_c5M_j5mYr-6Ukz-p-r62uf3idg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Meanwhile, thousands of brave Russians have taken to the
streets to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-protest-arrests-1.6362938">protest their dictator</a>. They haven't been taken in by nationalistic bullshit. They know right from wrong. They know how Putin treats protestors; they’ve
got guts. Things like this happen. Even in the darkest times, little flashes of
courage, decency, and humanity find a way. Vassily Grossman argued in <i>Life
and Fate </i>that the great struggles of history were not between good and
evil, but kindness and cruelty. And that however powerful cruelty gets, it can
never quite stamp out kindness.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Was it Trotsky (of all people)
or one of his biographers (Tony Cliff?) who said “The darker the night, the
brighter the star.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-64438915954628084572021-11-07T14:40:00.003-08:002021-11-08T18:20:49.434-08:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Every once in a while, I will grab a book off the library shelf at random. I will not recognize the title, and know nothing of the author. I do this to break out of ruts. I also like surprises. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvm2riWKnr2ZK0dSqQgHRKiIIJgIfmcWBNJl0UyBCy2EgoVt7qPV-oTKU1sRwDeVD7ikpOCc9Ho6-rdsDhhpmdQ9Y3DU2w_7cGbYCR95c_Im5Fhm239T26HHyHv4dDAUpOemzQiYBiIw0/s400/torday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvm2riWKnr2ZK0dSqQgHRKiIIJgIfmcWBNJl0UyBCy2EgoVt7qPV-oTKU1sRwDeVD7ikpOCc9Ho6-rdsDhhpmdQ9Y3DU2w_7cGbYCR95c_Im5Fhm239T26HHyHv4dDAUpOemzQiYBiIw0/s320/torday.jpg" width="210" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The latest volume consumed in this fashion <i>Two Eerie Tales of Suspense</i> by Paul<br /> Torday. Admitedly, its selection was not completely random: I was actively looking for some eerie stories to augment my October reading. But the author was new to me: I knew nothing of nor had even heard of Paul Torday (or the record: a British writer who’d turned to writing rather late in life, found quick success, then sadly died of cancer at 67). </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What did I find? Well, while it’s true you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can learn a lot by how the publisher tries to market it. Here we have a dark cover, an illustration of a church steel and little graveyard, text alternating between pale beige and dark purple. Jacket description (that which is not obscured by the placement of the barcode) includes words “mysterious and sinister events”, “unexplained happenings”, “enigmatic”, “unique and compelling”. Words like “horror” or “supernatural” are carefully avoided, as is the insufferable cop-out “magic realism”. My diagnosis: a mainstream writer, realizing he’s got nothing to lose, tries his hand at genre writing. Nervous publishers try and reassure snobby mainstream audiences that it’s still worth reading. Possibly they’re hoping for crossover audience. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Having finished the book (and Torday’s obituary), I’m convinced I wasn’t far off the mark. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The two titular tales are “Breakfast at the Hotel Deja Vu” and “Theo”. The former is the most successful – it’s more complete, and more satisfying. Appropriately enough, I spent most of the story wondering where I’d read it before. There are shades of Dead in Venice, but only shades rather than real similarities. Possibly an episode of Twilight Zone. Whatever it was, the whole thing felt deeply familiar. Possibly the theme has just been dealt with time and again. Seasoned genre readers will recognize fairly early what’s going on, and I do think they’re meant to – I don’t think the scenario’s meant to be a surprise. Rather, I think we’re meant to get caught up in the character’s journey and see the whole thing as symbolic of his inner struggles. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVVuh78d1urMGxzCVVRacndFF5eKAtLEHfcrzUp2W9t7ROMmdcluYaf0zy8a6tRLsQyr_qh1lVQdsfclBysripCQVwHLHolxRpZKGI-8Kf9BHCyInB8gecRB_RhqWH24o3jl4pTX3wQad/s225/tordayii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVVuh78d1urMGxzCVVRacndFF5eKAtLEHfcrzUp2W9t7ROMmdcluYaf0zy8a6tRLsQyr_qh1lVQdsfclBysripCQVwHLHolxRpZKGI-8Kf9BHCyInB8gecRB_RhqWH24o3jl4pTX3wQad/s0/tordayii.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Torday<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </span>“Theo”, is a more conventional horror story, though I’m not sure the author would appreciate the appellation. It certainly feels like a horror story, not too different from any title in Mammoth Book of Horror anthologies. Not least because it shares their apparent allergy to denouement . Modern writers of supernatural really seem to really hate climax, preferring to end stories mid-stream. Where the old masters like Poe and Lovecraft liked </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">to tell their readers things, Modern writers insist on telling us nothing. They don’t want us to feel shock or awe or surprise or even pleasure at having read a well-written story – they want us to scratch our heads and say “wtf?”. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is the Modernist curse, and “Theo” is not immune. I allowed myself to get pulled into the story of a reluctant vicar in an indifferent small town confronted with a potentially demonic phenomenon with a reasonable amount of curiosity an appreciation for the sympathetic an believable characters. But as the story continued and I noticed the page count, I had a sinking feeling that I knew exactly what was going to happen: absolutely nothing. Nothing would happen, nothing would be revealed, and I would have nothing to show for having read the story. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As it turns out, it isn’t quite so bad as that, though I will say (without fear of spoilers) that Torday was apparently an adherent of the “show don’t tell” bullshit, with emphasis on the “don’t tell”. I suppose we’re meant to ponder and speculate what went down, but it’s hard to care enough to do so. It’s disappointing because a great deal of time is spent establishing a recognizable world populated with believable and sympathetic people. It deserves a better narrative than the cop-out demanded by Modernism. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I do wonder if Today had ever read <i>The Green Man</i> by Kingsley Amis, or anything by Ramsey Campbell, both of whom “Theo” somewhat reminded me of. I recommend reading them instead. Or maybe give “Deju Vu” a try. Maybe you’ll remember where you’d read it. </span></p><div><br /></div>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-862066850776789632021-11-07T14:39:00.003-08:002021-11-08T18:34:57.378-08:00Mikhail Sholokhov and the allure of fame. . . <p> </p><p class="MsoListBullet"><b>Stal</b><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>in’s Scribe: Literature, Ambition, and Survival: The
Life and Times of Mikail Sholokhov</b> <span style="font-style: normal;">by Brian J
Boeck. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Mikhail Sholokhov's main claim to fame in the west was winning the 1965 Nobel Prize for literature. I don't know if this means anyone in the west actually reads him, but you can find his book(s) in libraries if you look hard enough. He is still mighty popular in Russia, and required reading in a lot of schools. <br /><br />I've not read much of his stuff, but his story interests me as much as his stories. I believe that the Portrait of the Artist Under Authoritarianism can teach a lot. So, I dove headlong into <i>Stalin's Scribe </i>by Brian J Boeck. <br /></span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNEpcONaOSrbTOnl3letNrE1b9wZGwZvtf0GcPb7eUjGoKgAUueoQJyJkCtmTnQZxoFOTtcnrtpcWnA4Rq4GZmOrJCgMkd0RAV3KkNP553T_DU8P7MhxkokcSOZEY_uUI5RiAN7ATTUxs/s499/51AEp6SaC1L._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNEpcONaOSrbTOnl3letNrE1b9wZGwZvtf0GcPb7eUjGoKgAUueoQJyJkCtmTnQZxoFOTtcnrtpcWnA4Rq4GZmOrJCgMkd0RAV3KkNP553T_DU8P7MhxkokcSOZEY_uUI5RiAN7ATTUxs/s320/51AEp6SaC1L._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Reading </span><i>Stalin’
Scribe</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">one thinks of Mikhail Sholokhov with
both pity and contempt. Contempt because by the end of his life he gave up any
pretence of writing and gave himself over totally to the needs of the regime.
Pity though as well, because in Boek’s telling at least, fate really left no
other path open to him. Circumstances made the man. If circumstances had been
different, so too would have been the man, less famous perhaps, but with his
soul intact. There is tragedy here. <o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Sholokhov owes his
legacy to a single he wrote early on in life: </span><i>Quiet Flows the Don</i>. <span style="font-style: normal;">He never wrote anything of consequence after it; most
scholars (including Boeck) think it was plagiarized. Stalin though loved the
book, and made Sholokhov the literary face of the Worker’s State. He was
showered with money, roomy apartments, country dachas, access to exclusive
restaurants and fine foreign liquor. On the basis of that book, Sholokhov enjoyed
privilege and luxury for the rest of his life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In the early days, he
would try to use his influence for good: he got friends out of the Lubianka,
and managed to shield his home-village (or was it his adapted home-village? I
forget which) from the worst parts of collectivization. As he grew older
though, he became shill for the regime, reliably denouncing dissidents on
demand, and sucking up to the Party. He churned out sickeningly sychophantic
poems and speeches for whoever happened to be at the top, first Stalin, then
Khrushchev than Brezhnev. He feuded <span style="background-color: black; color: white;">with <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Solzhenitsyn</span>.
</span></span><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Quiet Flows the Don </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">would win him a Nobel Prize, but it
seems pretty clear this was more of a political sop to the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">USSR</span></st1:place></st1:country-region></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">, who’d been grumbling that only
Russian dissidents like Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak got the prize. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; font-style: normal;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkGGXI2LNs8ig5k71TQgcL56E0vH9R_DwOnCOwEaMfuGJWCA_WG68HkL0Z4klXf_4cjVgVPFptpWGJ5aYXAuUe2-lj2-a9Tr807Y07A2NdLaVTAeQFoPEN5bzDkSHxjdFVUkfB8PdcQyS/s298/Boeck.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="250" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkGGXI2LNs8ig5k71TQgcL56E0vH9R_DwOnCOwEaMfuGJWCA_WG68HkL0Z4klXf_4cjVgVPFptpWGJ5aYXAuUe2-lj2-a9Tr807Y07A2NdLaVTAeQFoPEN5bzDkSHxjdFVUkfB8PdcQyS/s0/Boeck.jpg" width="250" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brian J. Boeck<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">The </span><st1:place><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Soviet Union</span></st1:place><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"> could be very generous to writers
it found useful. Stalin fancied himself a literati, and paid close attention
what was being written. His recommendation could mean a lifetime of luxury for
a writer, or imprisonment and execution. Often a combination of all three. He
liked </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><i>Quiet Flows the Don,</i> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">even if it did humanize the Cossacks
more than any good Bolshevik book strictly should have done. His blessing freed
Sholokhov from such petty concerns as making a living or staying artistically
relevant. Sholokhov got to travel widely and live lavishly off the public purse.
But it came at a price. <o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;">Scrutiny
from Stalin tended to be a protracted death sentence. It meant every word and
deed was closely watched and anything at all could be a pretext for one’s
liquidation. If at first Sholokhov tried to use his influence for good, he did
it knowing that with one false move he’d be finished. He walked a razor thin tight-wire,
tying to please this most hard to please of masters, outmanoeuvre his rivals
and give his enemies no excuse to take him down. He had to second guess every
damn thing he said or wrote, all the time never really knowing what was
expected of him. There wasn’t a minute of any day that couldn’t be disrupted by
a visit from the secret police. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Kremlin
intrigue was a game few players survived, and yet Sholokhov did. He outlived
Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. But the pressure tore him apart inside. He
became a raging alcoholic, at one point downing up to three bottles of cognac a
day, and would frequently embarrass himself at Party conferences. During his
international travels he would be under strict instructions to abstain, so as
not to make an ass of himself and his country in front of the foreign press. Once
he even missed an important appointment with Stalin by stopping at the bar
along the way and never making it out. How he survived </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">that </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">one is a miracle Boek doesn’t get into. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Under
the circumstances though, one can hardly blame him. It was a nerve shattering
existence. If he rarely wrote anything during this time, one has to remember
that writing the wrong thing in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">USSR</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"> could get you killed. Why risk it? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;">Sholokhov
stayed alive by learning how the game was played. He realized early on that his
survival depended on the good favour of the elite. So when Stalin died,
Sholokhov ingratiated himself with Khrushchev, and when Khrushchev died he
ingratiated himself with Brezhnev. And when Brezhnev died, Sholokhov himself
was just too old for anyone to take notice. He played the game, and he won. His
prize was the only one that mattered: he survived. Many in Communist Russia did
not. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListBullet"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Sholokhov
was not a particularly admirable figure. He was not a Pasternak or a Solzhenitsyn</span>.
But he wasn’t a <st1:city><st1:place><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Gorky</span></st1:place></st1:city></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> either. He did what he needed to do to survive. If we
wish that he hadn’t quite so vigorously supported the powerful against the
powerless, or abetted the oppressors against the oppressed, we may ask
ourselves if we would have don</span>e any better in his situation. </span><o:p style="background-color: white;"></o:p></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-85998630580158435892021-11-06T23:04:00.009-07:002021-11-08T20:31:46.417-08:00Doctor Doctor and the Halloween Apocalypse: In Which the Author Damns with Faint Praise<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I've got to say something about the Doctor. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV-PzZv-KGHmb5t6C0SIXLTs_I8rELgcxrMdqmjo73IuVwm1_NDe8CAcGhqwj5rgHXkDwYJIx5SbNMXTerSjtnnnyi2CgshqWfmm-jhwa9GQ0C9k6TrbNV3vx-ziDMl1VRwwpqS7nGiWaw/s726/doctor-who.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="726" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV-PzZv-KGHmb5t6C0SIXLTs_I8rELgcxrMdqmjo73IuVwm1_NDe8CAcGhqwj5rgHXkDwYJIx5SbNMXTerSjtnnnyi2CgshqWfmm-jhwa9GQ0C9k6TrbNV3vx-ziDMl1VRwwpqS7nGiWaw/s320/doctor-who.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />The new era's the pits - we all know that, (except for a bunch of really hysterical Twitterati, who protest too much methinks). So let's not dwell on it. I'm tired of complaining - at this point in life, I'm resigned to the probability of this little franchise never again doing what I most want it to do or most want it to be. So let's just put our expectations aside, take disappointment for granted, and just accept it for what it's become - a rather mindless children's program - and we'll all be much happier. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Having done that, I can say I rather enjoyed it. </span></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkYITLP3EpxMkXhTNSBGKFenaqGVFy7aw4kl5-6qIwjzD82rEsYwtUfkzl1PTCouAc6hHscIQgxBSDlFuk_vwrCRS3cBl_0Z1MShpQ7IKxJv5UMdr8OAXe_YElJNi_YONilF3cmcB6LSC9/s267/bishop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkYITLP3EpxMkXhTNSBGKFenaqGVFy7aw4kl5-6qIwjzD82rEsYwtUfkzl1PTCouAc6hHscIQgxBSDlFuk_vwrCRS3cBl_0Z1MShpQ7IKxJv5UMdr8OAXe_YElJNi_YONilF3cmcB6LSC9/s0/bishop.jpg" width="189" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Bishop as Dan</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">It was fun and it was funny. Most of the one-liners came off, the deadly menace felt<br /> thoroughly menacing, and I liked the new companion Dan (John Bishop). I liked the cliffhanger, an am anxious to see how it turns out. I liked all the different story threads it established. I thought the pacing and the tone were fine. What was there to complain of? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, I thought the Kavinista (my North American ears kept hearing "Cabinet Minister") were daft. I do not think that slapping the head of a household pet onto a humanoid body is a great way to invent alien species (and don't go throwing the Garm from <i>Terminus </i>at me because I thought he was daft too). I thought species bonding, with the resultant 7 billion ships, was a silly idea. It struck me as hasty, self consciously quirky. I wish they'd give up that cutesy crap and give a moment's thought to what kind of alien species might actually evolve on other planets. But the show's not about speculation, is it? It's about explosions. And there were plenty of those. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-ulQtQSp9QQcGlxHt7I7tpS-v33Jkzt7ShjdYvg41UVUCzruXeyx5r648UBdv4wL_C3l0us0KniHkIizHiSMG_Xlnpm38nD3ykxcE0fcpGLOhpRFWYeCrpDl0tv9eUtPkkhhs0cOhQpi/s275/flux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-ulQtQSp9QQcGlxHt7I7tpS-v33Jkzt7ShjdYvg41UVUCzruXeyx5r648UBdv4wL_C3l0us0KniHkIizHiSMG_Xlnpm38nD3ykxcE0fcpGLOhpRFWYeCrpDl0tv9eUtPkkhhs0cOhQpi/s0/flux.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Species bonded doggies</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There I go again. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I liked the return of the Sontarans. They looked appropriately ugly and sounded appropriately blood-thirsty. They do need rescuing from Dax. (While we're on the topic of "Looking at the Positives", can I just say I rather liked what Chibnal did with the Cybermen. . .) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9n3Xl4N8amHPX_9ulLDRxfPCM7Ryr7ig77QCNTa8IBW2pJBn6aVKw0wR4Z5jupLe6h9ckXuJZMVqgZXClPKfwl-9WCHQ5cLRDp1Y6SV4MYk3NhHgwABVCzZaAeLZyeaxzb9ZDK61_Rm2/s275/sontaran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9n3Xl4N8amHPX_9ulLDRxfPCM7Ryr7ig77QCNTa8IBW2pJBn6aVKw0wR4Z5jupLe6h9ckXuJZMVqgZXClPKfwl-9WCHQ5cLRDp1Y6SV4MYk3NhHgwABVCzZaAeLZyeaxzb9ZDK61_Rm2/s0/sontaran.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You know who. </td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They seem to be doing something rather unprecedented this time around, which is establish all the storylines up front, presumably with the intention of resolving them later. I think it's a great idea. It piqued my interest. It tickled my curiosity, which is the thing I want most from a Doctor Who episode. It is the thing which will probably ensure my returning next week. (Though, to be honest, grouchy as I get, I could never intentionally miss an episode of Doctor Who. I'm rather stuck with it.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So, there's plenty to love. Let's celebrate that and not worry that's it's become irretrievably unintellectual. Intelligence doesn't bring ratings, so we can forget about that.<br /><br />Funny. I had indented this to be a positive review. Is being better than what came before a celebration of the present or an indictment of the past? I suppose I'm still bitter over that Timeless Child nonsense, and it will take a really big bouquet of flowers to make me feel better. A full fledged Sontaran invasion might help. . .</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-37538973759244266272021-11-06T19:31:00.003-07:002021-11-08T18:34:08.477-08:00Zappatistas. . .<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So on the weekend I watched <i>Zappa,
</i>the 2020 documentary by Alex Winter (whom you may remember as Bill S.
Preston, Esq from the Wyld Stallions) . I wasn’t a huge fan: the first half
seemed a bit dis-jointed for me, cribbing together footage from other
documentaries, and interviews strung together in what struck me as a kind of
haphazard fashion. I mean, it’s great to hear from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>______________, Ruth Underwood and Steve Vai,
but they pop up without a whole lot of context – did they actually perform in
the songs we just heard, or appear in the footage we just saw? An newcomer
might be forgiven for missing who these people were or where they fit into
things.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRaKqMFXejXb4zOsT17voN6v6ErbYfHD6xdK8os1BIp-jumgvQzJagW3jZDQmTgeC0Y_rldrRyY-XJbN92Wel3_8s27T9gTo22f-FkmBggL-T75Z4G0uN8c9wkdVRj66qIMOUGQs2D6_kx/s1000/zappa+film.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="681" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRaKqMFXejXb4zOsT17voN6v6ErbYfHD6xdK8os1BIp-jumgvQzJagW3jZDQmTgeC0Y_rldrRyY-XJbN92Wel3_8s27T9gTo22f-FkmBggL-T75Z4G0uN8c9wkdVRj66qIMOUGQs2D6_kx/s320/zappa+film.jpg" width="218" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /> <o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That could go for most of the imagery and sounds from the
first half of the film. What is all this? All these backstage antics, this
decadent rock-pig excess, this random stock-footage, these crazy sounds – what
are we watching? What are we listening to? Where was this filmed and is this
even Zappa’s music? The intention seems to be creating a mood rather than
informing an audience. And, in the spirit of the <i>Lemmy<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Further%20thoughts%20on%20Zappa.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
</i>film, the focus is definitely the man rather than the music: at no point is
a piece identified and allowed to run for more than a few seconds. From a crass
commercial perspective, this is understandable - audiences prefer character to
plot, as do judges at prestigious film festivals. They did the same thing with <i>Last
Days Here </i>about Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling, and <i>Anvil! The Story of
Anvil. </i>Leave the music out (especially if it’s niche music), concentrate on
the personalities, and then maybe people who don’t like the music might still
like the documentary. On one level it makes sense, but it does seem kind of
perverse when the subjects are people who dedicated their lives to music.
Doubly so with Zappa, as single-minded a musician as ever there was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I suppose it’s a matter of personal taste. As
documentaries go, I preferred the <i>Classic Albums </i>installment for <i>Over-Nite
Sensation, </i>which covered a lot of the same ground, but was firmly focussed
on music. <a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Further%20thoughts%20on%20Zappa.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><i><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></i></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This could also
be because that era and that line-up remain by far my favourite of the Zappa
oeuvre. For my money, <i>One Size Fits All </i>is the cream of the crop, the
jewel in the crown. It’s here where all the elements really gel, the absurdist
humour, the subversive politics, the experimentation, and most all, the
brilliant musicianship. Like a Swiss clock, filled with innumerable,
interdependent bits, it all just fits. Every moment is fascinating, leading
irresistibly to the next one, and over all too soon. Like a really good movie
you just can’t tear your eyes away from. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The legendary early period, really doesn’t do it for me.
The early Mothers were indeed subversive, unpredictable, experimental, shocking
etc, insert what adjective you will. But I can’t listen to much of it with any
amount of pleasure. A lot of it feels like a prank rather than any coherent
musical statement. I can’t help feeling we’re not really meant to enjoy it;
after all, we are all the targets of the satire. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <span> </span><i> </i><i>“Go home and check yourself.
You think we’re singin’ about someone else.”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes indeed: look yourself in the mirror and question
everything. You are not apart or above society after all. An important message,
an important reminder, no question. But at the end of the day, it’s well-crafted
songs and music one wants to hear. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For all of Zappa’s silliness, there was unshakable
sincerity at his core. This mostly came out in the instrumentals.
“Watermelon”’s just about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. And I defy anyone
to miss the serious intent of “Strictly Genteel”, his long evolving classical
piece.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some did of course. Hipster godfather Robert Christgau
proved once again his uncanny ability to Absolutely Wrong about Absolutely
Everything when he wrote that Zappa’s songs were “as hard to play as they easy
to forget”. He must have had amnesia or dementia or both, for, love it or hate
it, no one with a fully functional frontal lobe can forget a Zappa tune.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> It's the music that made the man, more so than most when it came to Zappa. And yet, kinda like Lemmy, folks want to hear about the lifestyle. If it keeps the spotlight on the man, then this may yet be a necessary evil. </span><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Further%20thoughts%20on%20Zappa.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> On
a semi-related note, we learn here that Zappa did very nearly give his fist
child the same name as a certain English Rock-band emerging at the time, who
would begin to make waves right around the time of this child’s adolescence.
Moon-Unit dodged a bullet. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Blags/Further%20thoughts%20on%20Zappa.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Not to be confused with the aforementioned English Rock band’s album of the
same name. Ah, the unintentional connections continue. . .<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-45803095057994148182021-07-02T13:24:00.003-07:002021-11-06T21:51:12.158-07:00On Calendar dates and Flags. . . <p> <span style="font-size: medium;">Yesterday was Canada Day and it rained all day, which seemed appropriate enough. No decent person should have been in the mood for celebrating. <br /><br />Oh don't get me wrong: in a world where oligarchs seem more popular than ever, arbitrary detention more arbitrary than ever, due process less due, press freedom less free. . .where race hatred and ethnic conflict and religious wars and civil wars go on and on and on. . . In such a world, there are worse places to be born. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But that is a matter of sheer dumb luck, and going on like it's one's own personal achievement strikes me as more than a bit pathetic. And as mass graves are being uncovered each day, the unidentified remains of more than a thousand (and counting) children slaughtered by our beloved Fathers of Confederation. . . it would seem not quite the right time to wave flags and blow whistles (to say nothing of setting off bombs). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To commemorate this much more solemn-than-usual occasion, the <i>Toronto Sta</i>r published this cartoon </span></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorial_cartoon/2021/07/01/theo-moudakis-canada-day-2021.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorial_cartoon/2021/07/01/theo-moudakis-canada-day-2021.html</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> which prompted this idiotic letter to the editor: <br /><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>"The Star does not have the right to deface and disrespect Canada's flag"</span> </span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Au contraire mon ami! </i>It does. As do you and I. There are no laws in Canada against the desecration of the flag. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.torontodefencelawyers.com/crime-burn-canadian-flag/">Is it Crime to Burn the Canadian Flag? - Pyzer Criminal Lawyers (torontodefencelawyers.com)</a> <br /><br />And thank god for that I say. Freedom of expression becomes pretty meaningless when exceptions are made for arbitrary symbols. I think the health a democracy can be measured inversely to the importance it places on things like flags, songs, and statues. As soon as things are held to be more important that people, or an image more sacred than a person's ability to question, critique, reinterpret, repurpose or <i>think</i> about it, then we have the start of authoritarianism. <br /><br />Nor will invoking the war-dead particularly impress me: read any veteran's account of war, and you'll find most of them were fighting to stay alive. Precious few mention <i>flags (</i>which for most of Canada's history wasn't even the Maple Leaf)<i>. </i>I'm much more impressed by the idea of fighting for a system that doesn't include subservience to symbols. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">At its best, a flag represents an idea. Do not ever forget that it's the idea that's important, not the cloth. . .</span></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-57793143115822964122021-07-02T09:56:00.004-07:002021-11-06T21:51:51.107-07:00Jesus Christ Megastar<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">H</span><span style="font-size: medium;">appy
Easter!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
thing I can’t help noticing this time of year, besides the dramatically
improved weather, are the proliferations of bad Jesus Christ Superstar
productions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s
funny because I <i>adore </i>Jesus Christ Superstar. I watch it every year.
I’ve it twice on stage, both with Ted Neeley. I’ve got my picture taken with
Ian Gillan. I’ve practically memorized it, I could do the whole show for you
playing every part. I can hit all the notes too, except maybe Caiaphas’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I am definitely a believer as far as this
show’s concerned. But every year, I find myself enjoying new renditions of it
less and less. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Part
of it is because the robust rock singing it requires has long gone out of
style, and squeaky clean modern singers brought up on pop can’t do it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
even more than that, I feel like recent directors have obliterated what there
was of substance with inflated style. Massive special effects and costumes and
sets and props and huge casts doing huge numbers. It’s gaudy, tacky, shallow, gimmicky,
and self-indulgent. At times it’s borderline obscene. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
least two productions now have turned the finale into torture porn, with a
singing and dancing Judas, flanked by sexy chorus girls, gloating over the
broken body of Jesus. Not a trace of Christian redemption. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And audiences eat it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truly, we are Pontius Pilot’s vultures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
shows also fully buy into the modern fetish for anachronism. Just as
Shakespeare’s plays are rarely performed in their own era, JSC just about never
seems to take place in ancient Israel. In 2012, Lawrence Connor put it smack
dab into contemporary London, right after the riots. The Overture is drowned by
BBC news announcers, balaclava clad Black Blockers swarm the stage and perform
a pitched battle with riot cops. Then are tongues of fire bursting from the
sides, and a massive laser show in the background of revolving anarchy logos.
JSC as Kiss concert. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Anachronism
is a tricky thing. In small doses, it can keep you on your toes. It can broaden
the scope of meaning. But to life a work wholesale from its time and place, and
plunk it smack dab into a completely different time and place, robs it of its
context. Words and actions that meant one thing at one time, can mean a very
different thing at a different time. With JCS set in the modern world, what are
we to make of Judas’ lines <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“If you’d come today you
could have reached a whole nation, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Israel in BC had no mass
communication.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even as everyone around him
is texting and presumably updating their Instagram accounts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How about removing the Roman occupation from a play where
everyone complains about the Roman occupation? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What about Judas’ prudery in “Strange Thing”? An
Israelite nationalist from 4 BC might get away with it, but an anarchist
captain, as he’s portrayed here? Would a guy like this even hold such views? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Examples abound. In the new setting, the words just don’t
mean the same thing anymore, if they mean anything at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some of the imagery aren’t entirely without meaning.
Revolutionary Jesus is not a new motif, so putting him amidst the Occupy
movement is not necessary a bad idea, if for no other reason than it would
mightily piss-off the Mega-Church Pharisees who proclaim most loudly to follow
him now. (This was probably the idea). But it has its risks. Putting Simon
Zealot in a Che Guevara shirt makes sense because he and the others wanted
Jesus to be more of a Che-Guevara figure. But Jesus wasn’t having it. “None of
you understand what power is, understand what glory is.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having placed Christ firmly on the side of the
demonstrators, did Connor really want to show him taking the wind out of their
sails?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Don’t forget either, that these adoring crowds all <i>turned</i>
on him in the end. The rapturous fans waving palms at him as he entered
Jerusalem on a donkey and the braying mobs demanding his execution were largely
<i>the same people. </i>Are anti-poverty activists still the best analogy? It
does present its own possibilities: could all those cries of “Cru-Ci-Fy HIM!”
have been done over Twitter? Could not something be said about the fickle moods
of crowds? Maybe, but that would have taken more nuance than analogies this
forced can handle. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To make a long story short: a possible analogy isn’t the
same as parallel meaning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I keep thinking back to the Norman Jewison film of 1973.
It was far from perfect. At times it is very problematic. It’s as tacky as only
the early 70’s could be. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow though,
it works. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was jam packed with anachronism. But it’s anachronisms
were so small scale and impressionistic, all incongruous costumes and props,
that, as the opening made clear, could all fit into a rental bus (well, maybe
not the tanks). They fed the idea that this was a small-scale, impromptu
performance put on by a travelling hippie troop, wandering into the desert. It
certainly isn’t comparable to the multi-billion production Connor stages at the
OC. With a little imagination, props can represent things, abstract ideas or
just impressions of feelings, beyond time and space. When nothing’s left to the
imagination though. . .nothing’s left. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And the crucifixion itself. We’ve spoken of it already,
the apparently popular idea of Judas as Christ’s chief torturer. Why do I feel
that many of the same people who complain about nudity in horror films didn’t
mind one bit all that T&A jiggling around a bloody victim getting dragged
across the ground and strung up to a lighting fixture. You don’t need to be
religious to find the lack of humanity appalling. (Do you?)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jewison handles it differently. Pilot, Herod, the
Pharisees and the crowds disappear into a black void. The bruised, bloodied,
and broken Jesus sheds his mutilated flesh, and becomes blindingly bright
spirit. He reaches out to the audience, as if to say: “It’s alright. I’ll be
fine. Come unto me, and go in Peace.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cue Judas. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Oh, he’s still the ultra-skeptic, still the doubter,
still the questioner, but not an enemy. He’s sure as hell not gloating. Just now
they’re both dead, they can talk about these things. There will always be room
for doubt, but there’s no sadism anywhere. Maybe there’s even forgiveness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There’s enough of the Catholic left it me to still find
it powerful and beautiful and moving. I’ll stick with that vision, and the Vultures
can stick with theirs. </span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt;"></o:p></span></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-16752751857686495892021-01-26T14:39:00.006-08:002021-11-06T21:52:07.484-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Reading Orwell, as one does. Not just the obvious ones, but
his essays and radio broadcasts as well, which are no less important. It’s a
cliché now to say he’s more relevant than ever – indeed, at a time when a lot
of people – millions and millions – think that “truth” is whatever the former
President says it is, Orwell is incredibly important. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even
so, I can’t help thinking some of the direct historical parallels are no longer
quite so invocable. I thought that today while reading one of his essays, on the
response to atrocities of all things. “The worst thing about atrocities is that
they happen,” he writes, in that way of his, making blindingly obvious
statements that nevertheless sound profound because it didn’t occur to anyone
else to say them. His point being that in the run-up to WWII, fascist
atrocities, communist atrocities, imperialist atrocities and
capitalist-bourgeois atrocities were only selectively reported and selectively
condemned, depending on one’s traditional sympathy with the perpetrators. The
Left and the Right accused each other of atrocities, but turned a blind eye to
their own. When the Molotov-Rippentrop pact was signed, it got messier still,
with the radical Left forgetting all about both. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s a
huge theme of his – arguably the central one – and essential for understanding <i>1984
</i>and <i>Animal Farm</i>. It’s pointless to read either without understanding
this context. Orwell was writing at a time when the perception of reality was
being twisted to suit political agendas. At such a time, telling the truth, or
insisting there was such thing as Truth, became a revolutionary act. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s
not hard to see the relevance of this today. Truth is more malleable than ever,
and the concept itself more-or-less out of fashion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yet
it’s even weirder than what it was in Orwell’s time. Could Orwell have imagined
that Flat-Earth-Theory would be in vogue again? That germ-theory would be
widely disputed? That elections could be swayed by a belief that everything is
controlled by hidden satanic child-sex cults? Civilization isn’t being crushed
by competing tyrannies – it’s bleeding to death from a thousand delusional
cuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth is broken mirror. What would
Orwell have made of it all? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I
was younger I did dabble in Marxist-Leninist circles. Orwell’s descriptions
felt very familiar. I recognized the selective analysis of history, the
selective condemnation of atrocity – only when committed by, or attributed to,
the capitalist-bourgeois west, and selective memory required to rehabilitate
Lenin and Trotsky. Orwell talked about those kind of things, and it all felt
very close to home. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That
all feels so remote now. We’re pulled in so many different directions now, the
old Left/Right divide seems positively quaint. There’s no monolithic Leftist
bloc out there competing for legitimacy. China (literally) bought into
capitalism a long time ago. There was some blinkered thinking around Chavez and
Venezuela, but that was really just a blip. The response to Islamic terrorism
provoked intense debate, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but no one
denied that it happened – only what caused it and what to do about it. The
dominant ideological-fault line these days seems to have formed around “Woke”
culture, which is a poor substitute indeed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even if
you think it’s not completely ridiculous to compare university pronoun
guidelines to Zhdanov’s address to the Soviet Writer’s Congress, one has to
admit the stakes are so much lower here. No one’s been shot. No one’s been sent
to a Gulag. That’s not what’s happening here. I doubt that Orwell – who picked
up a rifle and literally fought fascism, and literally took a bullet – in the
throat – for Democracy- would have had much truck with all this bellyaching
over “cancel culture”. Nor would the author of “Politics and the English
Language” care one bit for all these stupid buzz-terms flying around. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All of
which is to say the analogies seem less perfect now, the parallels less
immediately obvious. We’re getting into really strange territory here, into
situations and scenarios Orwell wouldn’t recognize, and maybe can’t help us
with. If his analysis was intimately tied to the particulars of his time, it
might not perfectly apply to the particulars of our time. Maybe not. But I
think the gist of his thought – that Power lies, that language matters, and that
truth is a thing – will always apply. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370372521063245130.post-64754570545263640572021-01-18T21:50:00.016-08:002021-05-20T17:50:40.588-07:00Captain Maga Storms the Capitol: on the embrace of a Fascist Icon. <div style="text-align: left;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is a scene maybe three quarters of the way through</span>
<i><span style="font-size: medium;">Avenge</span></i><i><span style="font-size: medium; line-height: 115%;">rs</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Civil War </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">when Tony “Iron Man” Stark hands
Captain “America” Steve Rogers a pen to sign some agreement or other placing
the Avengers under some regulation or other. Stark proudly explains it is the
same pen his father, Howard, used to sign America’s first Lend Lease Bill,
authorizing military aid to Britain in World War Two.</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rogers is
unimpressed. “Some people say that led us closer to war”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> Woh. Back up a bit. Did he really just say that? </span>Holy shit,
oh my God. Did anyone else catch this line? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAZ2JO-AFIvuNCioih4ptIaqGeSPZ0IJXTEDw1RJsMMYSfuDkRmn_uXzfptybSCXy7Xbhz0OG6hq_ji7xLBcKP_FuqX8v8x7jLz12MDEz5ZdZacV9Jv2HjE0VWVVWs30bmYlSnDbeXpGw/s1080/civil+war.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAZ2JO-AFIvuNCioih4ptIaqGeSPZ0IJXTEDw1RJsMMYSfuDkRmn_uXzfptybSCXy7Xbhz0OG6hq_ji7xLBcKP_FuqX8v8x7jLz12MDEz5ZdZacV9Jv2HjE0VWVVWs30bmYlSnDbeXpGw/s320/civil+war.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It's a tiny little line, but it's got profound implications. A little history's in order: Lend Lease was the US plan to lend war materiel to Hitler's enemies in WWII. America itself wasn't at war yet - the idea was if it could supply Britain, it wouldn't have be. It had an ESSENTIAL role in Britain’s
survival in the face of Naziism. It was very nearly too little too late. For
Lend Lease was not popular – many people against it. Many people did say it would bring the country
closer to war, just like the Cap said. You know who? <br />
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>Anti-semites, fascists and nazi sympathizers. United with misguided pacifists
in an “America First” movement (sound familiar?), they didn't just try to keep the US out of the war, but from anyone who was. Lend Lease was opposed by
people who didn’t want to help the enemies of Naziism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Captain
America just echoed them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This was the
moment the Marvel Universe lost me forever. Captain America, as portrayed in <i>Avengers
Civil War </i>is a fascist. If not a full blown one, then an embryonic one. At
the very least, he is thick-skulled, self-righteous, dangerous and delusional.
He is a Captain America for <i>Trump’s </i>America. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lo and
behold, more than a few of the Capitol rioters were spotted sporting Captain
America paraphernalia. Colour me unsurprised. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What does
surprise me is how many other people seem surprised. “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/14/captain-america-creators-son-hits-out-at-capitol-mobs-use-of-superhero-imagery">Captain America is the absolute antithesis of Donald Trump</a>,” said Neil Kirby, son of the great Jack
Kirby who created the Cap. Alas, I wish I could believe him. Maybe Cap did once
represent all those idealistic notions America has about itself, back when
Kirby first uniced him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe in those
early comics, he is an emblem of the nation’s <i>better </i>natures. I’ll bet
you anything the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers waving Starred and Stiped shields in the
Senate chamber haven’t read those comics. I’ll bet you my left toe their entire
experience of Captain America is from <i>Avengers Civil War. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Think of it
this way: the titular civil war of the film is triggered when someone tries to
hold Captain Steve Rogers America accountable for his actions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He balks at the notion of being answerable to
anyone but himself. He reserves the right to intervene where and when he sees fit
with as much force as he please. He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.
He uses violence to solve his problems, beats up anyone in his way, including
his friends, and law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs. His first
act is to help a suspected terrorist evade arrest, and later aids and abets the
killer of Howard and Maria Stark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has
nothing but contempt for the rule of law, or civilian oversight. He is utterly
incapable of self reflection. He treats the world like his personal battlefield/playground.
He cannot be reasoned with. He doesn’t recognize higher authority, does not
abide by decisions he doesn’t like, and take it upon himself to reverse said
decisions, by force if necessary. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sound like
anyone else? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAgJA2BA0JJkDPaf5dYVRnoukqxuntXlTtk2Mls56yveoJ8jdx2A5KP4Nt6ojl5CctBZpvXqWd4COTrxLQOZFRPDGOVnqKDHXNRS-Ynk_q63m0uqLf0UjI-x7bfrIyCM7n5r1vujOLugzV/s620/cap+am.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAgJA2BA0JJkDPaf5dYVRnoukqxuntXlTtk2Mls56yveoJ8jdx2A5KP4Nt6ojl5CctBZpvXqWd4COTrxLQOZFRPDGOVnqKDHXNRS-Ynk_q63m0uqLf0UjI-x7bfrIyCM7n5r1vujOLugzV/s320/cap+am.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/14/captain-america-creators-son-hits-out-at-capitol-mobs-use-of-superhero-imagery">Photograph: John Lamparski/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is really
not a stretch to see <i>Civil War </i>as an analogy for very different visions
of how America should conduct itself in the world. Is it a citizen of the
world, subject to the UN, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Geneva Convention?
Or a freewheeling cowboy doing what it likes? It might actually have been
thought provoking if it approached this with anything resembling even-handedness.
But it doesn’t. Steve Rogers and his allies are clearly meant to be the heroes
here. Not once do any of them question their actions or accept responsibility
for the consequences. They don’t even recognize another side to their argument.
Their foes on the other hand, are full of doubts. Tony Stark, who at least seems
to have a conscience, questions his actions constantly. Rogers is full of blind
faith and terrible certainty. The former is shown as weakness; the latter as
righteousness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This sort of
intellectual blockheadedness, crouched in blatantly nationalist colours, is already
a indicator of fascism. Writing in “How to Spot a Fascist”, Umberto Eco writes that
under fascism “Action is beautiful in itself, and therefore must be implemented
before any form of reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation”. I think I’ve
just spotted a fascist. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I mean, he
cast doubt on Lend Lease aid for God’s sake – <i>LEND LEASE! <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fascist or not, this particular Captain America is a superhero for whom personal
conviction Trumps all, absence of restraint is the sum of all liberty, and
getting one’s way the highest possible principle. It does not surprise me in
the least that the Q-Anon types who <i>honestly think their election’s been
stolen </i>would identify with him and do precisely what they think he would
have done. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Accept my
analysis or not. But they were waving those shields. . .<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Steve Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05714072966237602916noreply@blogger.com1