So there was the pond thinking it could take a break from the lizards of Oz and their Western Civilisation crusade, and head off to the Speccie mob, as is its Friday wont, for a little peace and quiet…
How dumb is the pond? Of course the murmuration had spread to the Speccie mob …
Sheesh, such triumphalism. such hubris, is beyond the valley of the indecent. If Rowan Dean represents the progress of Western Civilisation, and its march towards sanity, then Western Civilisation is beyond the valley of the doomed, it's totally fucked, and not very funny either …
But please, do rant on … as if the pond hasn't already had an overflowing gutful of this nonsense from the reptiles ...
Such a stupid scribbler. Not that the pond is much of a fan of Daoism, but at one point in the hippie era, it was impossible to indulge in a joint without also being forced into a reading of the Tao Te Ching …
Even the pond has to confess to having a copy of the hippie-preferred edition in the house somewhere …
Suggestion: said stupid scribbler should perhaps do a Greg Hunt with an introduction to Chinese philosophy …
Hey nonny no, on we go with the jingoism, worthy of a late Victorian or early Edwardian twit, before the first world war provided a reality check ...
There's such immense stupidity on view in that editorial that for a moment the pond almost thought that there might be a need for a course in Western Civilisation.
But all it proved was how little that the scribbler had learned from courses in British and European history, let alone courses in the histories of other countries … so perhaps a university education does nothing to improve or remove stupidity …
But the pond will confess there was a bonus.
As it ferreted around looking for some alternative from the Speccie mob - no Flinty, no Giles, epic fail - a new talent swarmed into view …
Let us assume for the moment, without providing proof that David Long sounds like a remarkably silly man … but hang on for a moment, there is proof, and it comes in the header, with said Long promising a short explication …because you see, Tony Abbott is too dumb to say what he really meant, so the said Long must provide a short explication of what he really meant …
It doesn't get much sillier than that ...
Somehow, the pond began to get a sense that this Long was a little long in the tooth, and it took a little detour into other recent Long outings …
It only need to read this to realise that for too long the pond had been overlooking a man who should have been routinely celebrated as a worthy contender for the pond's Hall of Loon Fame …
Dear sweet long absent lord, it's easy enough to understand why the Long might have a short time trying to establish an intimate relationship with women, but the pond must also apologise, because this has interrupted the Long's short attempt to explicate the meaning of the inexplicable onion muncher …
Splendid barking mad stuff, and surely good enough to send devoted pond readers into a feeding frenzy … but sadly there's only a few pars left ...
Such a stupid, wilfully ignorant man, and why so determined to ignore figures like Bach and Beethoven?
Who knows, and ultimately who cares … because the pond realised that this was going to be it for the day, and another loon called …
Yes, the Latham himself had joined the Western Civilisation crusader swarm ...
Around this point, the pond could sense the taxi driver arm-breaker's wit might begin to kick in, and so it felt the need of a sustaining cartoon …
Ah there's nothing like the finest flowering of Western Civilisation to restore the pond's strength and to get on with a bit of head-kicking and arm-breaking in the Latham manner ...
Here's the thing.
Any time the pond reads Latham these days - a rare error - it's always reminded how the pond continues to be eternally grateful to John Howard…
Think of that …gratitude to little Johnny, because he kept the hand-pumping, glowering Latham from the top job.
It brings the pond to the brink of existential misery and despair just thinking about it.
Even worse, some sort of breakdown in Latham's mind followed, and now it's left to the Speccie mob to offer up the entrails for inspection ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, the man's barking mad, and the pond knew it, and yet it read on, in which case the only logical conclusion is that the pond is also barking mad, and in urgent need of a restorative cartoon …
And yet, as if confronted by the Ancient Mariner, the pond had to provide the final gobbet ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, he's not still blathering about the swamp is he, while enjoying his luxurious parliamentary stipend?
Well that's it, that's enough, the pond is totally over Western Civilisation … it's on to prattling Polonius on the weekend, with a few more cartoons needed to keep the fires of Western Civilisation burning …
Show me someone who buys the Spectator and I'll show you someone who sits alone at their window, wondering why the grandkids don't come for a visit anymore.
ReplyDelete"David Long sounds like a remarkably silly man " So very true Dot. He is so silly but also I am so very sad for him, because, even worse than not having visits from the grandkids, he and his fellow civilised men are failing to have "intimate relationships" with women because of those awful feminists of course.
ReplyDeleteI haven't noticed that the men I know are failing as badly as poor old David appears to be. I wonder if he is one of those Incels? Or does he have a 'wife' from the high point of Western civilisation; one who knows her place?
Rowan Dean: "...only one Australian university in the world's top fifty"
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe that depends on whose ranking you're following. But even looking up the Times Higher Education list for 2018, there's at least two: Uni of Melbourne (32nd) and ANU (48th).
On the other hand, the QS Topuniversities list includes:
ANU 20th
Uni Melb 41st (associated with 9 Nobel Prize winners)
Uni NSW 45th (produced more millionaires than any other Aussie uni)
Uni Qld joint 47th
Uni Syd 50th
See: https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/world-university-rankings/top-universities-australia-2018
So I guess it depends on who you're asking. But good ol' Rowan got it wrong again whoever you're asking.
Rowan Dean: "...the one civilisation that, above all others, has made the entire world what it is today."
Well, yeah, I guess somebody is responsible for all this shvt.
Rowan Dean: "...the very civilisation - Western European civilisation - that gave the world its first universities almost 1000 years ago."
Ooops, "Western civilisation" has suddenly become "Western European civilisation". Now when did that happen ? Did Ramsay require that specification ?
As to the world's first "universities", well yes, the European unis were indeed the first European style universities, but then there were precedents. For instance, according to Wikipedia:
"According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the earliest universities were founded in Asia and Africa, predating the first European medieval universities. The University of Al Quaraouiyine, founded in Morocco by Fatima al-Fihri in 859, is considered by some to be the oldest degree-granting university."
[See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University#Antecedents ]
And also:
"The Platonic Academy (sometimes referred to as the University of Athens), founded ca. 387 BC in Athens, Greece, by the philosopher Plato, lasted 916 years (until AD 529) with interruptions. It was emulated during the Renaissance by the Florentine Platonic Academy, whose members saw themselves as following Plato's tradition."
Also:
"During the Hellenistic period, the Museion in Alexandria (which included the Library of Alexandria) became the leading research institute for science and technology from which many Greek innovations sprang. The engineer Ctesibius (fl. 285–222 BC) may have been its first head. It was suppressed and burned between AD 216 and 272, and the library was destroyed between 272 and 391.
[ See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions#Hellenism ]
So I guess once more we've just had a fine lesson in journalistic commitment to truth. Well said, Bromancer.
"...so perhaps a university education does nothing to improve or remove stupidity".
Oh I dunno, DP, most of the uni graduates I've ever known have had their innate stupidity magnified several times by attending uni.
Thanks for that pointer, Joe - a worthwhile read.
DeleteGive the Centre to the Philosophy Department of the University of Woolloomooloo! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPFClJGqjBQ)
ReplyDeleteYes anyone who dismisses the arts and Music as merely interesting and entertaining is a culturally illiterate barbarian.
ReplyDeleteReferring to Plato his opinions are an extension of the indisputable fact that he is "living" or trapped in a very dark cave, or put more bluntly he has his head up his arse.