Of all the people the pond needs to hear from regarding the state of democracy, the least likely is that noddy from the north, can't do Campbell Newman ...
A minor martinet and an epic failure as a politician at a state level, why would Newman think that he has anything to offer?
It seems that the thirst for ongoing relevance is inversely proportional to being considered something of a success as a politician, but that's not always the case.
Until the Donald came along, few thought that George W. Bush's presidency was remotely related to success, but at least Bush in retirement had the decency to toddle off and be discreet ...
Now there's nothing wrong with bad amateur paintings. The world is full of bad art and bad music, but at least if Hitler had stayed a painter, the world would have been all the better for it ...
Does the world need to hear another word from Tony Abbott, be it nuclear submarines or character references for Cardinal Pell? Tony Abbott seems to think so ...
Singular failure that he was in the top job, the embittered, irrelevant onion muncher just can't shut up, and the mainstream media can't shut up reporting whatever he's banging on about ...
And the result's a massive dose of increased irrelevance in the world. At least the pond could hang a painting on its wall, and if it bought it at a school day, it might have even provided a few badly needed textbooks for the school ...
Even some of the reptiles now think the onion muncher's a tiresome loon who should have the grace to retire or at least to shut up ...
Even some of the reptiles now think the onion muncher's a tiresome loon who should have the grace to retire or at least to shut up ...
Well yes, which brings the pond back to can't do Newman.
Once upon a time, when politicians got canned, they went away to do gardening, spend time with friends and family or returned to the private sector and made useful contributions, or accepted a government gig which required discretion in relation to political matters.
These days it seems retired, sacked or failed pollies must preach from a pulpit at the lizard Oz, and being narcissist, these contributions frequently start, Donald-style, with "I" ...with plenty more "I's" to follow ...
"Thinks" is the operative word here? "I's" is the operative word, and they poke out the pond's eyes with their operative force ...
Right from the get go - that blather about "real people power" - the pond realised it had entered a complete vacuum, more empty and desolate than the furthest reaches of space ...
Right from the get go - that blather about "real people power" - the pond realised it had entered a complete vacuum, more empty and desolate than the furthest reaches of space ...
Dare I say it?
Well you could just shut the fuck up and go away, and everybody would be happy, and probably a good deal wiser ...
Suddenly the pond began developing a deep affection for the paintings of George W. Bush ...
By golly, there's a real likeness there, while Noddy has all the appeal of a genuine can't do ... can't write much, can't think well, and can't seem to understand why he's a complete irrelevance ...
Now those who want to can pile on from every angle, but the pond will just settle for the abject stupidity of a man dissing the polling of a thousand people, only to go on blithely to talk of randomly picking and polling a hundred good citizens ...
And now since this is Friday and dedicated to bubble-headed boobies - in space at least no one can hear the screaming - as well as re-heated Noddy from yesterday, thanks to the reptiles the pond can now wheel in another hugely irrelevant figure ...
Followers of the reptiles will remember that Anderson had already contributed a thought bubble a week ago, celebrated in the pond here ...
It occurred to the pond that Anderson, the world and the pond would have been much better off if he'd done a Churchill and developed a good hobby as something to do in retirement ...
Not the greatest paintings in the world perhaps, but where's the harm?
Compare the mental damage done by wading through this dross ...
The moment anyone thinks an acronym like WEIRD is cute, useful, insightful and meaningful, the pond knows it's in the company of deeply weird shit ...
As for Anderson imagining he introduced many readers to Haidt, that might be true of those somewhere out beyond the black stump, but anyone with an internet connection could have been reading Tasmin Shaw's The Psychologists Take Power back in February 2016 in the NYRB and still outside the paywall for the moment ... (and don't forget the follow-up exchange here).
What earthly use does Anderson serve by using half-digested Haidt to blather on about the left yet again?
And there it is in action. The blithering idiot blathers on about the virtues of pluralism while at the same time displaying a deeply rigid mindset and a profound intolerance for anyone daring to walk down a different path, be it called progressive or leftist - the two not necessarily being the same.
The point about pluralism is that you don't blather on about the way your opponents are deeply undemocratic, or deeply unAustralian, or suchlike deeply defamatory and offensive name-calling ...
You know, back in the day, confronted with Ming the Merciless's McCarthyist desire to ban the Communist party, the Australian people decided that they didn't need to endorse that desire. That didn't mean the country had a deep desire to turn pink, it just meant that they didn't need to indulge in Chicken Little hysteria about the dangers of leftism ...
The point about pluralism is that you don't blather on about the way your opponents are deeply undemocratic, or deeply unAustralian, or suchlike deeply defamatory and offensive name-calling ...
You know, back in the day, confronted with Ming the Merciless's McCarthyist desire to ban the Communist party, the Australian people decided that they didn't need to endorse that desire. That didn't mean the country had a deep desire to turn pink, it just meant that they didn't need to indulge in Chicken Little hysteria about the dangers of leftism ...
Did Anderson ever wonder whether a hobby might produce more interesting results than a war in Iraq?
Now anyone who thinks their five year old could do that is being unfair. The pond thinks it much more likely that a ten year old could manage the task ...
And speaking of ten year olds, it's time for a final gobbet ...
The pond doesn't want to get on a high horse, but it's high time that former politicians realised that anyone saying "it's high time" are out of time and past their prime ...
And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence.
She that doth call me husband, even my soul
Doth for a wife abhor. But her fair sister,
Possess'd with such a gentle sovereign grace,
Of such enchanting presence and discourse,
Hath almost made me traitor to myself:
But, lest myself be guilty to self-wrong,
I'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's song.
(here for phrase finder and Shakespeare).
And don't get the pond started on "real" action, or the next thing you know we'll be talking about unreal and surreal action.
And then there's the way that Anderson, like so many other cliche addicted munchkins, decided to trot out Uncle Joe and Adolf references while blathering on about grave concerns, and Australian taxpayers and foundation stones ...
Why not put his Godwin's Law swear jar collection of fines towards a few brushes, some oils and a canvas from a two dollar store ...?
That way the pond won't have to stop its ears against the songs of mermaids, Anderson, Newman and the onion muncher ...
And who knows we might get a painting that contributes to world peace ... or at least a a piece of irony ...
Oh dear there goes John Anderson misrepresenting and misunderstanding Haidt again. Claiming that the values of loyalty authority sanctity provide conservatives with a broader base for their belief system, he misses the point that these values are irrational and nothing to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteBeing loyal to wrong ideas or leaders is not a good thing for a society; authority needs to be challenged when it leads to the stupidity of right wing ideas and thoughts and particularly right wing religion and there is nothing that should be sacred when it comes to critical and rational analysis.
The reason academe is progressive is brute force selection for IQ over many years and the relative non-competitiveness of conservative ideology in the 21st century - it is not some progressive conspiracy by people captured by radical individualism.
Anderson finds the historical and social reasons for the growth of this radical individualism to be complex and manifold but basically he blames the left. But it can't be progressives who have advocated for the individual over the social. Has he forgotten Thatcher's immortal words "there is no such thing as society"?
Progressives are 'collectivists' and do not regard themselves as magnificent individuals; that delusion is part of the conservative and the libertarian belief system.
He talks about the welfare of the group missing entirely the point that there is only one group that benefits from conservative values.
I do wonder though what initiatives Haidt and his colleagues are undertaking in the US.
Now be fair. At least Ando the abysmal produced a good comment on the pond ...
DeleteMuch to agree with in your exposition, there, Anony. However, after hearing about the life and times of William (the) Marshal (1st Earl of Pembroke) I'm inclined to a more tolerant view of what might be called 'the loyalty of a reasonable man'. Marshal's loyalty was strong but able to be redirected: from Henry II to Richard to John to, eventually. Henry III (aged 9) to whom Marshall became regent after driving out the invading 'French' and re-establishing Norman Britain.
DeleteBecause of this Marshal was able to attach his own seal to, and thus revive, Magna Carta; and without which, it may never have been heard of again.
" .. the thirst for ongoing relevance"
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the 'Relevance Deprivation Syndrome' as observed by Gareth Evans, using himself as his main source of evocation.
"... is inversely proportional to being considered something of a success as a politician"
Well that's true: if, like Newman (and Evans), you've always been irrelevant, then you've always suffered the Syndrome, but were generally too coccooned and stupid to realise it. Evans finally did get the message, Newman never has, and never will.
So, according to Newman: "... no one can complain about the way things are, then complain about trials of new approaches."
The common understanding of that is: 'we've got to do something, this is something, so we've got to do it'. But why the Irrelevant Newman thinks we'll all rush to the vanity project founded by a Transfield oligarch I just don't get.
Anyway, there's a lot better thing to be doing than random "public juries" and that's "random politicians", sortition. It worked for the Athenians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
T'rrific reference on the Haidt et al gang, DP, much thanks.
Strange aint it.
ReplyDeleteAll of the usual suspects that regularly bloviate for the reptilian "news"-paper are in-your-face examples of the righteous mind at work. As are most of those who bloviate for the IPA/Spectator/Quadrant nexus.
Log on to any right-wing website such as the US National Review or the worse than horrible American Spectator and the righteous minds featured there are on full display.
So too with the many right-wing religious websites, especially the "catholic" ones, and even more so with those that are part of the opus dei propaganda network.