It takes a considerable level of reptile skill to bump prattling Polonius from his comfortable perch in the pond on a meditative Sunday … and who would have thought that reheated original Adam could manage the feat?
But then the pond likes its baked beans spooned cold from the can directly into the mouth, so that's why it could swallow the original Adam crap that came out a few days ago …
But before we get on to Foucault, let's examine our Adam's academic credentials...
He has degrees in the most dismal art of all, singularly useless economics, and worse, picked up a Commonwealth Scholarship, in the way of all student bludgers? This should be kept in mind as we read on …
Well yes dingbat climate denialist economists should surely be charged more for their abject failure to learn anything useful … where were they in 2008, where are they now in the middle of a major crisis? Building a new Tower of Babel ...
But please, do begin to rant, though the pond appreciates it's only a three minute read, and much of that time can be spent looking at the photos obligingly supplied by the sub-editor …
Well, that's a negative. Who wants, in the land of the reptiles, students that are more worldly, literate and tolerant?
Who wants a Prime Minister whose main claim to fame is a few Latin phrases, a prodigious capacity for lying, and a singular incompetence? Why not the total abject ignorance of a Donald, lumping Finland in with Russia?
But wouldn't you know it, just as our original Adam was getting wound up, along came the oscillating fan, creating a dire risk of cancer from his churning blades …
Well, it's no cult master werk, that illustration. Oh alright, it's downright banal … but it'll have to do, as the oscillating fan begins to whir …
So what's that dingbat climate denialist alleged economist got to offer? It turns out, not much, except blind prejudice, some statues under threat, and apparently arts students all to blame, along with Foucault …
Ah, the I'm alright, fuck you Jack (or Jill, as the case may be) syndrome. I've got a set of handsome feathers to put against my name to explain why I'm an expert in climate science denialism (because honours economics, you know, many field studies in Surry Hills and peer-reviewed publications - 'I say Adam, that was a good piece in today's paper denying it's hot in Siberia and the methane's escaping, because you once went to Vladivostok, want another sip of the kool-aid?')
What's the snap of the defaced statue got to do with any of it? Better ask the oscillating fan …
Oh come now, oscillating fan. These humanities students spend all their money on cans of spray paint. The pond knows it for a fact …
Now look back at our original Adam's CV for your full, complete load of irony for the day (the pond makes no guarantees about additional vitamin B).
But let's now have a final word from the oscillating fan ...
Okay, now it's the pond's turn.
For year after year, the pond has had to endure endless reptile blather about the Ramsay centre and western civilisation, and the gigantic necessity to study its best and noblest works …
Now what? Are the Ramsay Centre students going to be given an exemption from the 113% price hike? Or was all that blather just an endurance test for the pond?
Oh they came from everywhere, and often they were blessed by the presence of the cult master …
Dame Slap was in on the game … and she too was blessed … albeit by a lesser scroll artist ...
Now it''s true that Dame Slap went on to grumble in her usual way … but still she was all for the humanities, if of a certain kind …
The oscillating fan also joined in and scored a cryptic illustration from the cult master …
Just what does it mean?
Sadly these days the pond can't afford to do a degree in visual arts, or a 101 in crapping birds ...
Back in the day, the fan seemed in favour of studying the humanities, and blamed the onion muncher for it failing to happen at ANU …
Yes, whatever the cavils and the caveats, it's all there, all the hopes and yearnings for Western Civilisation and studying the humanities, and being a true conservative and so on and so forth …
And where are we now?
The pond has had to endure years of this reptile blather about Western Civilisation, only to find it marked up by 113%? Dubbed irrelevant and meaningless and useless and wasteful? Who wants a plumber with an awareness of T. S. Eliot? Next thing you know they'd be making a movie called Cats ...
So are we going to endure an outburst of reptile rage at all the dreams and hopes, now shattered, Tehaned, or if you will, Visigothed, Rome lying in ruins, and western civilisation abandoned to the dark ages?
Not bloody likely … you know the first lesson in western civilisation is to swear allegiance to the king, even if the king happens to be as barking mad as King George III on a bad urine day …
And now with that trip down memory lane done - farewell western civilisation, farewell history, farewell useless philosophy, farewell the study of logic and reason, farewell dead white male writers offering abundant insights - all the pond is left with is a celebratory cartoon …
Bloody Foucault! Proving the rotation of the earth, measuring the speed of light and inventing the gyroscope. Damn lefty Physicist!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pas.rochester.edu/~pavone/particle-www/teachers/demonstrations/FoucaultDemonstration.htm
Just a quickie for now: fascinating background on Killer Creighton: he's written for The Economist (wholly owned by the business group that's owned by the family who started FIAT) and Murdoch's fart rag the WSJ. And "chapters" about superannuation for OUP. Sounds not unlike The Oreo, doesn't it: her "writings" also "appear" in various universities.
ReplyDeleteThen we have a 1st Hons BE (presuming the 1st Hons means a 4 year Hons course, not just some first class results at the end of three years) and then a "Master of Philosophy" in Economics - which I take means that he couldn't manage to get a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). And all that resulted in a star studded career in the Reserve Bank of Aus and later in APRA before graduating to the status of Murdochrat paid agitpropist. Oh joy.
Otherwise speaking, here's a Conversation article that's worth a read:
Humanities graduates earn more than those who study science and maths
https://theconversation.com/humanities-graduates-earn-more-than-those-who-study-science-and-maths-141112.
Killer Creighton is an interesting case: "Graduates in queer and diversity studies, for instance, struggle to pay back taxpayer support..."
ReplyDeleteNow what on Earth did he mean by that ? Who are these "graduates in queer and diversity studies" ? And how did he get to know that they "struggle to pay back taxpayer support" ? Does he mean that their mums and dads have trouble paying enough tax to provide "taxpayer support" to the maternity hospitals in which they - and most likely he - were born ? Does he mean that their mums and dads have trouble paying enough tax to support the pre-, primary and secondary schools that they all went to ?
And considering that tax is collected (mainly GST) on almost everything that everybody buys, and that if they ever had some kind of part-time jobs that they also paid income tax, and that therefore everybody is a taxpayer for almost the entirety of their lifetime, what exactly did he mean ?
Liked this one too: "Government can pass all the laws it wants but the quantum and distribution of intelligence is more or less fixed." Now are those the words of perhaps a gauche and happy little eugenicist ? No point in teaching people anything is there because the entirety of human existence is determined by the IQ you're born with. Now where have I heard that before ?
Then for the big conclusion: "Just as printing currency devalues money, the explosion of degrees has sapped their value" Nobody had better tell that to the Ramsayists who are trying to introduce more and longer degrees throughout Australia. And what value does Killer Creighton think those degrees have ?
In conclusion: "...which compels the brighter students to toil away at university obtaining more and more credentials, delaying their ultimate contribution to the economy and society." And what, pray tell, does it do to the duller students ? So what is the Killer telling us - that his 4 year BE Hons plus multi-year PhM (E) were all a waste and that he should just a have done a 3 year quicky bachelor then raced out into the world to "contribute to the economy and society". That indeed, probably 3 or 4 years of his life were wasted on acquiring "sapped value" credentials. Given what we're seeing from him, yes, I can wholeheartedly endorse that.