The pond thought it might start off this day with click bait of the lovely Hermaphrodite …
What brought this on? It's the reptiles' fault of course …
But enough of the thoughts of absolutists dressed as """, though referencing pagan Herm will come in handy later, down the page, when the pond gets into the glories of western civilisation, dirty deeds done quick and IPA style …
First however, the pond must report a strange case of déjà vu. It seemed only yesterday that the reptiles were rabbiting on about wind and coal and nattering "Ned" was stalking the pages.
Hang on, it was only yesterday, and at one point it was top of the digital pages, ma, which is almost top of the world …
Good old Lloydie, always leading the way, but then you could've knock the pond down with a feather, because who should turn up at the top of the commentary page today but nattering "Ned"?
As well as the déjà vu the pond couldn't shake through the entire bizarre experience, the pond was immediately reminded of the Dirty Harry riff, that movie having aired recently on snail mail FTA television …
Did the pond feel lucky, did the pond get it right, did it count the columns, was this "Ned" really from today, or was it an eternal "Ned", recycling the same material like some Sisyphean scribbler (ah, western civilisation), in the hope of blowing some punk or the pond away?
There was only one way to find out ...
Fucketty fuck, the pond still doesn't know whether it was fresh eggs, or the stale sort that float to the surface, and bob about before emitting a little hydrogen sulphide, though perhaps that new formulation, "alleged unsustainable past", could pass muster as a "Ned" original, because it's utterly meaningless.
If only he'd referenced "alleged unsustainable future."
But "Ned" is no rocket scientist, nor even one of the climate science brigade, and so the pond makes no apology for stuffing a lot of his thoughts in a huge gobbet ...
Phew, a tough nut, but that are some classic "Neddisms" in there as a reward, not least "environmental idealism", which it has to be conceded is a shift from talking of "fundamentalist climate theologians" …
Meanwhile, the planet will go on responding as the planet is inclined to do, and not give a flying fuck about "Ned's" petulant hand-wringing on behalf of the coal-loving ScoMo …
And the pond is inclined to go with the planet, and with climate scientists ...
A crusade driven by elites? Well that's one way of re-phrasing the notion of humanity fucking the planet, not, as a correspondent pointed out, because the planet will go away, but because it will be fucking tricky for humans to go on living in the comfortable style the Chairman provides for the likes of "Ned" while they cluck around in a Chicken Little-induced form of hysteria.
Luckily there's only one gobbet of hand-wringing to go ...
And if you wanted to understand why this coal-loving country, and the rest of the planet is doomed, could that bout of defeatist hand-wringing be matched by anyone else?
Meanwhile, the immortal Rowe has noted other difficulties poor old SloMo is facing, with more Rowe here, as always ...
And so to the real reptile treat of the day ...
Yes, it's Dame Slap delivering the IPA view of the world … and the reptiles have honoured her by using what seems to be an Ionic shape - pedants go here to argue - which seemed to suggest that we might be talking about the ancient pagan Greeks or the rip-off heathen Romans, when the silly old pond thought that the glories of western civilisation were the result of righteous, politically correct, IPA approved Judeo-Christian thinking ...
Now the pond has been through this nonsense endless times before. The pond, as a y'artz graduate, can guarantee that the students doing this degree will be looked on with pity, as being full of irrelevance and silliness … all so they can reach Dame Slap's immortal civilised status, hang out with "Lords" of the Monckton kind, invent conspiracy theories, and don a MAGA cap so they can talk about the peaks of western civilisation ...
The pond makes no apology. It's the only way to get through a burst of IPA propaganda from the woman above the faraway tree, apparently with a fierce hatred of science and clocks …
A gobbet and a cartoon, a cartoon and a gobbet, and soon enough we'll reach the end … but first a burst of megalomania and a shaking of the world ...
Was there a mention of the rule of law in all that gibberish? The pond can't rightly remember, it seems to have lost the ability to count bullets or punks or delusions or whatever, so here's a cartoon ...
Well the pond's pick is IPA poison, so on we go ...
Indeed, indeed, who needs sympathy? It's empathy, and if say, you might happen to run across the attempted genocide of native Tasmanians, make sure you cultivate empathy for the hapless settlers, who merely wanted the land and a good cattle run, and were constantly being upset by rascally, thieving, difficult, uppity blacks …
Of course if you happen to cultivate empathy for Adolf and his mob, that might be a tad tricky with the Jewish lobby, so perhaps instead you might like to cultivate empathy for the eugenics crowd that turn up in Boris's employ …
Gadzooks, the pond knew an illustration of an ancient temple would come in handy ...
And there you have it, the pond has made it to the last gobbet, with nothing to do but marvel at the way western civilisation seems to have devolved into paranoia and a persecution complex, and if Dame Slap is the IPA peak of its intellectual life, what a pity we started out on the journey ...
Academics are ready to sully the degrees? The academics won't have to do a thing; the marketplace and the reptiles will do that …
How many years have the reptiles rabbited on it a rabid way about y'artz and 'leets, and out of touch wretches with a useless degree, and lauded the plumbers of Penrith as being the real, dinkum Australians? Apparently Dame Slap once upon a time could only find real degree-less people in Maitland to listen to her Plimer-ish wisdom.
What stupid reptiles they are, and the mugs busy off studying western civilisation will inherit their IPA wind …with the only job prospect perhaps to become a columnist for the Spectator, with its stupendous average of 9,201 an issue ...
And so to a few more cartoons, featuring the joys of capitalism, and the ongoing relevance of Latin, at least of the piggish IPA kind ...
A warning to you, DP, not to get too highfalutin' in the composition of your daily digest:
ReplyDeletehttps://johnmenadue.com/stuart-rees-copyright-laws-corporate-greed-legal-farce/
The classics might be exempt - probably a nod to the wonders of western civilisation - but don't try it with any of those woke pc modern snowflake (dead less than 70 years) types.
It seems our wonderful caring government has unleashed yet another 'licence for free market greed.'
Re the copyright contretemps, I wonder how much Fitzgerald had to pay to the family of Omar Khayyam.
DeleteBut as to the rest of it, surely people can say what needs to be said without having to (mis)appropriate the words of others. Is there any process for determining whether a quoter has correctly understood the quotee and whether the quoter is using the quotees words for a purpose the quotee would approve of ?
I instance "let's kill all the lawyers".
The nihilistic Neddy: "The gap between what the science demands and what governments pledge is too large, such that today's rational pledges need to be increased threefold to meet the temperature targets. The prospect of this is remote."
ReplyDeleteOh, ok Ned, now that you've pronounced the death warrant for humanity and most of the rest of our Earthly cohabitants, your job is done. Retire now, put up your feet and enjoy watching the planetary death throes. It's what your grandchildren would want you to do.
Now for Janet of the IPA: "...taking in Western masterpieces in art and architecture, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and the philosophy of democracy."
And not a single word, not even a silent bleat, about the things that truly make for the greatness of Western civilisation: logic, advanced mathematics and evidence based science. But then, neither Janet nor the Institute for Paid Agitprop know anything about such radical matters.
But whoops: "five year bachelor degrees" ? Five years is the time for most masters degrees. Five years of "Westen civilisation course" to cover about 3000 years (if we take earlier dates for the life of Homer) and still there won't be any clear study of logic, mathematics or rational science. Yep, that's our Dame Slap alright.
But hang on, isn't it really only part of a composite degree: 3 year BA plus 2 year "Western Self-propaganda'. You know, a BA so you can get a job and 2 years of "westernism" so you can become a Murdochian or an IPApe or maybe a Spectator. Dame Slap must feel so envious that she missed out.
And talking about arts degrees: "The pond, as a y'artz graduate ..."
Yes, but, butt DP, what you haven't taken in is that your degree was all over the place, no order, no organisation. But the Ramsay degreelet has, according to Dame Slap "students learning about Western civilisation in a chronologically ordered fashion".
So, not following themes or historical progressions, just straight chronological order. Aren't you jealous of such a wondrous thing, DP ?
"Its concern is that without the target (of zero emissions by 2050) the multinationals and investment community won't put the funds into the new technologies the Morrison government talks about."
ReplyDeleteWell I know an efficient mechanism for lowering emissions that has been proved, doesn't destroy the economy, and doesn't rely on technology that hasn't been invented yet. It's also one that the multinationals and investment community can get right behind, as they have shown in the past. It's called a carbon tax.
But I wouldn't expect that to register with nattering "Ned". Resilience and adaptation, after all, are the only bits of the debate the reptiles seem to have understood. He would sooner the multinationals tie their brands to technological idealism.
"The problem for the Morrison government is not Labor." But the Morrison government certainly has a problem with reality when it comes to the environment, which 'Ned" concedes "is that 2050 targets are being imposed because the short-term targets are not being met", whether ScoMo and Co like it or not.
"It's called a carbon tax."
DeleteOh shoot, Merc, for a moment I was sure you were describing a trillion trees ! Now that's a fantasy we can all get behind, can't we.
Back in The Onion Muncher's day it was just going to be 20 million trees - 1/50th of the current nonsense. Does anybody recall how many were actually planted ? And how many survived those "unprecedented" mass fires Australia has just had and is still having ?
Now let me cogitate on that one, GB. A trillion trees. If we assume we will plant a trillion trees between now and 2050, that's 30 years. That's 33 billion odd trees per year, or 91 million per day. Assuming an Australian population of 25 million, that's a touch over three and a half trees per person per day.
DeleteThat Green Army had best get cracking. I don't imagine Gina Rinehart or most of the IPA, and associated fellow lickspittle travellers would be interested in planting trees, so it could round up to 4 trees per person, every day.
I didn't just make it up, you know. Morrison has already announced plans to plant 1 billion trees by 2030 (hence my 1/50th figure for Abbott's 20 million trees):
Deletehttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/australia-to-plant-1-billion-trees-in-the-next-11-years-bringing-the-country-closer-to-paris-agreements-goals
But 1 trillion trees are in the future plans for the world:
Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis
Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions
So there ya go, Merc; it's all a done deal and the world is saved !
Ned is channelling Hanrahan again. He is every old duffer, from every age, worried about the new-fangled gas lights, horseless carriages and uppity suffragettes (I know an a guy who has all his correspondence on floppy disks. Unfortunately the old HP has carked it so the disks might as well be re-purposed as drinks coasters).
ReplyDeleteThe default assumption seems to be that we are living in a near perfect state of social and technological development that is threatened by any change. It's not that Ned doesn't understand new technology, it's that he doesn't even understand existing technology.
People, particularly older folk, don't seem to understand that infrastructure in Australia is just a mishmash of legacy items duct taped together. Apart from some of the earlier parts of the nbn, before Malaware got his hands on it, most of our infrastructure show a remarkable lack of proper planning. Any real attempts just disappeared in a neoliberal fog of deregulation and privatisation over the last couple of decades.
Ironically, developing countries have the opportunity to bypass the problems we have embedded in our systems. You know - centralised grids, fossil fuels, copper wires etc
Maybe I am a Pollyanna as far as technology goes, but everything seems to get cheaper, better and more reliable at the same time. Renewables certainly lower costs and they seem to improve reliability where properly planned. Why shouldn't my default assumption be that transition will lower costs and provide work?
As for the Slapper. Just another paranoid rant. Every niche concern threatens the fall of our civilisation.
Needs to get a life.
Ooh, well I've got an old(ish) desktop that has both 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 floppy drives. And a version of Windoze that can drive them both. Mind, haven't used it in nearly 20 years but I reckon it will still work. :-)
DeleteAs to technology, Bef, the "getting better and cheaper" lurk has been the way of it since the industrial revolution got under way in Britain about 250 years ago. Sometimes radical, but more often incremental, changes and improvements. And a genuine revolution (eg the transistor) every now and then.
But I doubt that the Ramsay Pseudo degree will have anything much to say about technology and industrial revolutions; they aren't any part of "Western civilisation", are they.
I am unsure they would be able to define Western Civilisation. It's just some jingoistic tub thumping intended to bolster the prejudices they inherited from their parents.
DeleteLooking at the people pushing this course it was always going to be just another front in the culture wars. For the Slaps, Abbotts and Howards it's essentially defined by what it they think it isn't. It isn't Eastern or Middle Eastern civilisation as far as they are concerned. Trouble is that West and East are hopelessly intertwined, especially at the technological and scientific level. Maths, astronomy, medicine . . . .?
For your amusement
https://twitter.com/jdcivicscience/status/1127285936977522688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1127285936977522688&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iflscience.com%2Feditors-blog%2F56-percent-of-americans-dont-think-we-should-teach-arabic-numerals-in-school%2F
Hi BF,
DeleteAs an ‘Elite” I fancied signing up for a bit of “free” education so I nipped over to the Ramsay Centre webpage to what the eligibility criteria was in order to get on the gravy train. Actually there appears to be only two elements for selection.
1. You will need a high ATAR score (to be confirmed). At the same time, other circumstances may be taken into account during the selection and interview process.
2. You will need to show some evidence, through a CV, references and a personal statement, of your potential for leadership and community contribution.
Mmm references and a personal statement, of your potential for leadership. Would being a young Liberal/National tick those boxes? Maybe Mater and Pater will help out.
I suspect the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation is an attempt to replicate a more right wing version of the PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Oxford which has done so well to churn out a ‘professional’ political class in the UK, Australia and elsewhere to such great effect;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Oxford_people_with_PPE_degrees
Note: Rupert Murdoch is an alumni.
Hardly a noble calling when one of the PPE’s finest students described it thus;
“gives no training in scholarship, only refining to a high degree of perfection the ability to write short dilettantish essays on the basis of very little knowledge: ideal training for the social engineer”
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/23/ppe-oxford-university-degree-that-rules-britain
DW
Umm, yes but, Bef, they're not really "arabic" numerals, they're really Hindu (ie "Indian"). But then, I don't suppose they should teach "Indian" numerals in America either.
DeleteIIRC Sir Humphrey Appleby was a PPE alumnus, DW.
DeletePolitically, it's quite a collection of dumbums, isn't it.