[the enlightenment] time honoured tradition of missing the point

I've never much bothered to raise the intellectual tone of this blog, preferring that type of poor man's intellectualism which obscures itself behind a sea of diverse comments of all shapes and sizes.

But this post by Deogolwulf, in which I largely agree with his thrust and yet feel he is missing the main underpinning, demanded reply. Deogolwulf wrote, in his comments section:

There is no necessity from liberty of thought to pluralism, for pluralism is an idea about the desirability of plurality, and if there really is liberty of thought, then I am free to come up with other ideas, even ones that might seek to reduce the liberty of thought in my rivals, ideas that are explicitly anti-pluralistic, Indeed, given the urge to dominate that we find amongst humans, that wouldn't be a surprise to find -- indeed as we do find.

As I put in footnote [5]: "As a mere matter of consequences, let us also acknowledge that from the fact of a plurality of views, derived from the call for the equal right of every man to express his own, it does not follow that any one of those views itself will have as its object, let alone its effect, a plurality of views, that is to say, that any view will itself be in favour of pluralism."

But this is rather by-the-by as far as the post is concerned; for, as said therein, right from the beginning of the radical current of the Enlightenment, liberty was conceived, in a very odd way, as being based on equality and tied to the general will.

Pluralism wasn't on their minds - nor on the minds of all those universal systemisers which you seem to have overlooked. My argument isn't that the Enlightenment had no good ideas conducive to liberty of thought; only that it had some very bad ones -- which is just as one would expect when you have liberality of thought.

That's as maybe, Deogolwulf and yet it misses the main purpose of the Enlightenment, as espoused by an as yet non-existent school of ersatz philosophical thought for which it might well be time to find a coffee house therein to promote it. I humbly reply:

"It is therefore neither an exaggeration nor a weary old canard to say that some projects of the Enlightenment were themselves totalitarian in character or that they were an inspiration to subsequent regimes."

In temporal terms, a truism indeed but the ultimate black joke is the metaphysical underpinning of the essential purpose of the wonderfully misnamed Enlightenment [I refer to it as the Darkening] which led man down hopeful country lanes only to be caught in the quagmire beyond.

This is the sum total of philosophic thinking which takes not into account the metaphysical aspects of life. In short, it was a superb con, appealing to the Babel-like egotistical presumption of the capacity of man to out-G-d G-d but without the perceptive capacity to achieve this end.

Like a dog chasing its tail.

So paying its dues to its powerful antecedents in such movements as the French Revolution and long before e'en to 1688 and earlier, which in turn paid its dues to the inevitably inept godless morality and subsequently spawning delusion in the form of otherwise sentient thinkers such as François-Marie Arouet, who under the guise of "freedom of religion" actually set up the mechanism for its suppression, religion being merely the moniker applied by those who would have spiritual connection of humans deflected, then the Darkening was on a hiding to nothing.

And even today with the Grayling delusion couched in professional philosopher approved intellectual tones, the myth is perpetuated that the explanation for humankind can exclude consideration of the spiritual aspects which make possible the eventual understanding, given the initial spirit of enquiry and intellectual equipment to be able to discern and differentiate the wheat from the chaff and posturing from imposture.

In short, it's the most natural and logical thing in the world that totalitarianism should sprout from the fertile bed of Enlightenment manure, itself patiently laid by the most perniciously cynical demagogue of all.

Callest ye this claptrap? So be it.

[thought for the day] baby photo evening

There's a Russian term which is as well known here as the Spanish "mañana" is in Spain.

This word is "бывает" [biva'yet] and it means, roughly, "it happens" but can be broadened into "it just is" or even "it's just logical". So when something doesn't go as planned, this expression keeps one's head clear and one's feet on the ground.

The baby photo parade will now be tomorrow morning for two reasons:

1. I have 5 entries but shall wait for 8;
2. The eyes are now closing and I'd like to do that post some justice.

So, with apologies, dear reader - бывает!

[troubles] question of relativity

I don't know if there's something in the air but every which way I turn this evening, bad luck and dire situations appear before my eyes.

1. The sudden quadriplegic

A promising career as a policeman, a vigorous life spent in karate classes and fishing the lakes of his beloved North Carolina, future plans conjured when things were perfect -- plans that seemed irrelevant and impossible now.

It had been eight months since John shattered his C-5 vertebra diving over a wave during a family vacation. Eight months spent in either a hospital bed or that detestable chair.Eight months, also, for Marci to hunt for the miracle that just might bring him and their family back from despair.

And now, staring at her laptop, she prayed she had found it.

2. The heartless medical jobsworths

"OK, well this is the situation. I have these recurrent eye problems that I have been told to report to the hospital every time they occur as it needs immediate attention."

"No you don't. No one can see one of the doctors here without a referral."

"You don't understand. The doctors themselves have told me to ring and book an appointment every time it happens, and I have been going in to the hospital a number of times now over the past eighteen months."

"No, you haven't. No one can see a doctor without a referral."

"Check the records."

"No one can see a doctor here without a referral."

"Look I...Oh for God's sake, forget it!" And I slammed the phone down.

3. The voice in the wilderness

I am very grateful for the support of fellow bloggers. I have spoken on many occasions to her GP and various consultants; I have written to her GP and consultants; our MSP wrote to NHS Lothian all without a glimmer of success.

I have spoken to experts outwith the NHS and one from within: all have said that Mrs Carr is the type of patient they should be seeing but yet access is denied.

Mrs Carr needs help NOW!

Others need help now!!

You can help.

Let's spread this story across the web until it so big that it cannot be ignored. If you can please post about Mrs Carr's plight; please link to my posts and ask your readers to do likewise. Even if you are not in the UK please help.

As I wrote at Ginro's:

I feel this situation of yours is far worse than mine. Mine is so laughably dire that it is going to mean a total life change. That can be handled. But to endure the sort of run around you were getting, particularly with your condition, this was beyond the pale.

Allow me to explain.

There are problems which are ongoing, soul-sapping, day after day when it seems no one cares, no one will help. These are the ones described above and they're ultimately debilitating.

Then there is mine where, through one stroke of a pen in another city, the whole bottom has dropped out and I'm now living on borrowed time but even more. I must leave country X but I technically can't because country Y will not accept entry without a return entry to country X. My problem, says country X. So I can't actually move and get incarcerated for it.

Strangely, this sort of thing is not as stressful as the other type. All representations which can be made will be - it's out of my hands and is pointless now dwelling on it until there is some result. All is in the pipeline. It will be resolved. Or else it will not - no halfway house.

My health is good, the brain is operating, the only sad part is to see friends starting to shy away - people always do if they know you have an ongoing problem. They fear you're actually going to rain on their parade and so they start to schedule a dutiful time when they feel strong enough to face you.

People are human and this is natural. Cityunslicker had something vaguely close to this in this post:

Equally quite a senior manager was effectively made redundant the other day too; true to form, everyone kept their own counsel and proceeded to ignore the poor chap and carry on as normal whilst he sat there contemplating what to do. No one must mention the unmentionable, even to someone they have worked with for years and years.

This reaction, assuming the chap was reasonably well liked, is worrying. Each of the other people in that office has his own family, mortgage, commitments and his household budget is already stretched. This reaction is not exactly dog eat dog but it is sitting back and watching colleagues picked off at random and praying it will not be him. Heads down and carry on, quite understandably, of course.

That chap has now moved, in the space of ten minutes, from trusted and respected senior colleague to an embarrassing blip on the radar whom we'd like to shift out of sight as soon as poss, thank you very much, if it's all the same to you.

JMB sounds a timely cautionary note, at this point, about this negative drift in thinking and I think she's right. Plus it's always well to sign off on an optimistic note:

Try not to judge your friends too harshly, they probably feel helpless and don't know what to say so it's easier to avoid than deal with it.

In the light of that comment, my penultimate sentence: "I'll amuse myself this third last Saturday evening by packing some boxes, bumbling around and ignoring the deafening and embarrassed silence," appears less than gracious.

For me, there are better prospects than for some of the other poor blighters I could mention.

[national stereotypes] n1 - the brummie

David Harrison, tutor in political science at Warwick University, who illustrates that Brummies occupy the upper echelons of the intelligentsia

There are some appalling things said of the Brummie and this post is intended as a service to non-British readers to help dispel those stereotypes. Wiki begins with a typical fallacy:

A study was conducted in 2008 where people were asked to grade the intelligence of a person based on their accent and the Brummie accent was ranked as the least intelligent accent. It even scored lower than being silent ...

According to Birmingham English: A Sociolinguistic Study (Steve Thorne, 2003), among UK listeners "Birmingham English in previous academic studies and opinion polls consistently fares as the most disfavoured variety of British English, yet with no satisfying account of the dislike".

At the same time, by the way:

[P]sychologists found that the Yorkshire accent has overtaken the Queen's English, also known as received pronunciation, as the dialect most commonly associated with wisdom and intellect.

Indeed yes - reassuring to find oneself wise. The previous study also notes:

overseas visitors in contrast find [the Brummie accent] "lilting and melodious"

Hmmmm:

The BBC has alleged that intonation and rhythm is unvaried and that most sentences end with downward intonation. This can give a false impression of despondency and lack of imagination.

... but what would the BBC know? In an excellent commentary on Brummyism, Sackerson gets down to brass tacks:

First, I think the affected contempt for Brummies is a displaced scorn for industrial labour perhaps impermissible to express so baldly in relation to Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians.

Decades of regarding going into industry as the wooden spoon in life's competition, has brought Britain to our current sorry pass.

There may be a London-centric jealousy because Birmingham is not Britain's Second City, but, technically speaking, its first in geographical area and population.

On the accent, Sackers adds:

My personal preference is Sedgley, an exceptionally musical tone. Their pronunciation of the word "flowers" makes me think there must indeed have been a Golden Age in which men sang rather than spoke.

Some Brummie expressions include:

• "Rock" ... a children's hard sweet (as in "give us a rock").

• "Snap" ... food, a meal, allegedly derived from the act of eating itself (example usage "I'm off to get my snap" equates to "I'm leaving to get my dinner").

• "Trap" ... to leave suddenly, or flee.

• "Up the cut" ... Up the canal (not uniquely Birmingham).

For some homespun Brummie philosophy, try here. Well that's the accent but what about the behaviour of Brummies? This Alan Partridge analysis throws some light on this:





A fine initiative breaking down prejudice was National Talk like a Brummie Day in 2007 but I'm not sure if Britain is being prepared for a repeat dose in 2008.

[it's boris] now the hard work begins

Well that's a relief. Now comes the sober reflection. I'm sure many others are issuing words of warning so why should I be any different?

But historically, poor results for the ruling party in local British elections are not necessarily harbingers of poor results in subsequent general elections.

“We’ve been here before,” said Patrick Dunleavy, a professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics.

“It’s a bad time for the government, but not nearly so bad that the government couldn’t recover, even as early as spring 2009.”

And as for the Boris result being applicable to Brown:

In London, Mr. Livingstone was seen as an authoritarian figure who had become increasingly isolated and prickly. His efforts to write off Mr. Johnson as a lightweight buffoon failed to pay off, and by the time he began attacking his opponent on the substance of issues like the cost of the Tories’ transportation program, it was too late.

FIRST PREFERENCE VOTES

Boris Johnson (Tory): 1,043,761

Ken Livingstone (Lab): 893,877

Brian Paddick (Lib Dem): 236,685

Sian Berry, (Green): 77,374

Richard Barnbrook (BNP): 69,710

Alan Craig, (Christian Choice): 39,249

Lindsey German (Left List): 16,796

Matt O'Connor, (Eng Democrats): 10,695

Winston McKenzie (Ind): 5,389

I thought the acceptance and concession speeches were gracious.

[thought for the day] friday evening

[Image courtesy of Luc Viatour]


Never consume an entire packet of frozen strawberries at one sitting.

[Higham, 2008]