The pond slept in today, which was just as well, because it needed the strength when greeted with this sight at the top of the digital page ...
Not the old SM gear treatment ... reinforcing prejudices about those who enjoy the SM lifestyle!
Albo can look after himself, and at least he didn't cop the Nazi outfit treatment usually preferred by the Murdochians ... but still, is there a cheaper or a lower laugh than this, including the old silent slapstick banana routine?
And lo, there next to the SM gear was a picture of the baleful, dolorous Henry, no doubt still wondering how to fix so many holes in so many buckets.
Let us then grasp the absurd, clichéd notion of history whole, objectively and subjectively free of today's dogma, a monstrous stupidity which sinks the enterprise from the get go ...
Let us cast off the SM drag, and begin by wallowing in our Henry's words ...
Fuck the pond dead, and do it in SM style. First let it be noted that our Henry swims in the seas of today's dogma, as we all do, and then as to the restoration of Napoleon's glory, fuck Napoleon and fuck the perfidious French.
Sure he fucked over Paris to provide a fine set of boulevards, and he set up a bureaucracy that has been the ruination of France ever since, but mainly he fucked over Europe for a considerable period, and all for his own sociopathic sense of self-importance ... thereby helping explain why the French kept setting off nukes in the Pacific long after it was seemly or polite to even think about doing it ...
What next? A lesson on Adolf's soaring achievements - he did after all restore the country's economic fortunes after a troubled time, introduce autobahns and the people's wagon and so on and so forth, before mentioning the odd appalling error?
Why Ming the Merciless himself thought Adolf a notable leader ...
Yes, one of the great men of the century, and now back to one of the great lizard Oz scribblers ...
Actually, the pond spent far too many years studying history, to what avail, and the pond feels perfectly free to judge the past as it chooses, that's what you're allowed to do if you happen to believe in freedom of thought, and it isn't contingent on having wasted years of your life in a university history department. If you see a sociopath in action marching all over Europe and looting it so that the Louvre might have a fine collection, then you can call it for what it is.
You're allowed to say what you think, including what you might think of old-fashioned luddites and fogeys of the 'our Henry school of sublime nonsense' ... but do go on ...
Oh sweet long absent lord, here we go again, but will there be a mention of the price that SloMo's mob has put on a history-laden degree? Probably not ...
Indeed, but then the development of Australian society cannot be sensibly explained without giving considerable weight to the impact of unions and the Labor party and socialist thinking or unthinking capitalism, or the way we now end up with the leader of the opposition portrayed in SM gear ... because that's what fuckwitted Murdochians do ... but please, finish off this saga ....
Not the old Orwellian newspeak! But here's a thought. Who would you rather be stuck in a desert with? Napoleon, Henry, or an Aboriginal person with knowledge of traditional ways of survival?
As for ending with a quote from Napoleon, please allow the pond to match our Henry ... "But I shall not shrink from war with Britain if it is necessary. Where Napoleon failed, I shall succeed. Today there is no such thing as an island. I shall land on the shores of Britain ..."
Off to Elba with the lot of you, and take Henry and some buckets, for fixing what ails ya, with you ...
And now please, a drum roll, as we have a final word from the infallible Pope on education ...
And so to the rest of the day's offerings, and what a dismal feast it was ...
There was Shanners and simplistic Simon doing what they do best, and the war on covid pronounced over (that must be big news in India and Brazil), and the meretricious Merritt doing his usual attack dog work on watchdogs ...
The pond thought of heading back up to the top to see what Killer Creighton had to say ...
Oh woe unto the pond, Killer had turned reporter. Sure it was a grave and uncertain time, a message which sang to the heart of our Killer, but still ... a mere reporter of the sage thoughts of a pollie?
Lauded by a turtle? On social media, that tool of Satan, that place of devil worship. worse than the basement of a pizza shop? It was painful to read, but at least the reptiles kept "just the facts ma'am" Killer on a short leash ...
They sent the Killer to the US for this? Clearly the Murdochians still have more money than sense ...
Then for a bonus the pond noted another item ...
Funny to read all this, having just finished Killer evoking Marise evoking all sorts of saucy doubts and fears ... but while at that game, why not celebrate with the immortal Rowe, as here ...
Yes, that feels decidedly better, that feels really up ... and now back to the blogger ...
Oh indeed, indeed, there's absolutely no upside at all for SloMo banging the drums of war, which is why he and his mob have been so subtle and nuanced in their diplomacy, while the bromancer has been advising them of the kit they'll need for the big one that's soon to follow ... the ultimate crusade that will culminate in the rapture, because Napoleon wasn't the only one with warrior delusions of grandeur ... not when there's a mutton Dutton standing ready for war!
A bloody blogger at the lizard Oz! Oh how the mighty reptiles have fallen, and fallen so low ... and worse, one given to absurd thoughts, along the lines of "To elevate the idea of looming war, contraire Kevin Rudd, is more likely to diminish the risk of World War III than provoke it."
In the spirit of our Henry, tell that to Winston Churchill, the pond says ...has our blogger forgotten our Winnie, always elevating the idea of looming war, and sure enough, around it came ... and a fun, Napoleonic time was had by all ...
And so to a Rowe the pond missed, capturing the essence of the impending winter of despair ...
Henry quoting the Froggie Macron: "resisting the temptation to judge yesterday by today". Oh, so today I don't have to feel guilty for anything I did yesterday if I didn't already feel that way. That's good to know, isn't it, because if I only judge yesterday by yesterday, then there's a great swath of things that are forever ok. Centuries of imperialist colonialism, anybody ?
ReplyDeleteSomewhat odd that the holey one chose the little corporal as a reference point re the study of history, but then again probably predictable. He never mentions the devastation that the little corporal caused throughout much of Europe.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the holey one should check out the essay The Meat Grinder of War Why the Napoleonic Wars Cost So Many Lives on the War History site.
Never mind too that all "official" his-stories are written by the winners and are essentially used as weapons as described here www.historyisaweapon.com
"ALP assumes the defensive position"? It looks to me from that pic like it's simplistic, squirming Simon who's assuming the defensive position.
ReplyDeleteThe best method of defence is attack, Merc and every reptile knows it. So Simplistic Simon is girded up for whatever it is that he thinks is "attack".
DeleteThe Henry wants us to believe that Herodotus placed unprecedented stress on ensuring that his accounts were as thoroughly evidenced as they were fair-minded.
ReplyDeleteWhich took me to my copy (yes, translation) of Herodotus. I have returned to this several times because it is entertaining. For example, when I encounter Aussie ‘Inch Ants’ on the estate here, I am reminded of the ants of the Indian plains - larger than a fox, smaller than a dog.
And of course, that was thoroughly evidenced - someone told Herodotus he had seen them, so - what more do you want?
Thucydides remarked on an historian who preceded him, that that work was essentially prepared for recitation, so included much that was fanciful, but intended to keep an audience entertained. The best bet for the identity of that person is Herodotus.
Not that we know much about the person Herodotus himself - it seems there is not agreed account of his own ‘history’, including dates and places of birth and death - and anything resembling personal detail in between.
But, in a way, the Henry is correct - that IS the tradition of history to the Henries who write for the Flagship; it is just a matter of making my myth superior to yours, because it has more powerful stories. Until the advent of “Marvel’ comics, it was difficult to top crucifixion and resurrection, particularly when accompanied by bunnies that deliver chocolate eggs.
Aw c'mon Chad, for the Henry if it's in a book - especially a book written by either famous or basically unknown people (Momigliano ?) - then it must all be literally true.
DeleteNow surely you remember Nicholas Gruen's account of the Holely as a hugely avid reader (many books read every week) with almost eidetic recall of the contents then you'd be aware that people like that are so busy reading and remembering and achieving 100-upmanship (why settle for only one ?) that they never have any time for thinking or understanding.
The pond's two favorites when assigned this stuff at university were Herodutus, for his travelling salesman willingness to give credence to everything, including griffins and the phoenix, followed by Suetonius, because who didn't enjoy reading about the sex lives of emperors? As for the rest, it only confirms that our Henry is a prize goose, heavily stuffed with Murdochian corn ...
DeleteWell yeah, DP, but only if the sex lives of the emperors were actually interesting. I couldn't imagine wasting time on the sex lives of British royals (want to be a tampon, anybody ?).
DeleteThough I am just mildly curious as to the precise details of how Henry Tudor got Jane Seymour pregnant.
Having gratuitously thrown in his set of "famous names" for this day's outing - Miletus, Herodotus and Thucydides, plus Momigliano (anybody ever heard of him ?) - the Holely Henry goes on to show his ignorance of human history and human development: "...the scientific method which only emerged in the 17th century..."
ReplyDeleteWell of course it only emerged in the 17th century, so basically in the thousands of years since the invention of agriculture until the 1600s (Newton and Galileo wasn't it) there was absolutely no science anywhere on Planet Earth. And all those Europeans, Middle Easteners and Asians - who by about 4000 years ago had developed writing - only had "the gradual accretion of customary knowledge", just the same as the Aussie Abos.
So there ya go. Absolutely no science anywhere on Earth until "the scientific method" was invented in the 17th century.
Now it's true the Aussie Abos didn't develop as much "customary knowledge" as other places, but they were very much isolated from the main human streams of development whereas the Romans, for instance, had a heap of history of discovery - much of it written, and some of it even backed by "mathematics" to which they added their own, and passed it on. (Roman concrete, anybody ?)
And if you have to wonder what the Aussie Abos were up to for the 50,000 or so years they've been here, then you might also like to wonder what the whole human race was up to for the 150,000 years before the Abos got here. Lots of "customary knowledge" developed in that time period, wasn't there. You might even ask what the Budj Bim got up to:
https://www.budjbim.com.au/
Yes - in our search for pattern in events that affect us, our observations may show us actual cause and effect, or may encourage us to attribute events to some unexplained spirit. One of my observations with the people of Arnhem Land, in the 70s, was that they had arrived at an understanding of what was a sustainable take of sea turtles. The 'answer', for any particular area, appeared to be based on knowledge of how many turtle had been observed swimming by during each season, and, I suspected, an absolute number, never to be exceeded.
ReplyDeleteI could not discover more than that, because the authority was vested in the old men. If a couple of young men wanted to take a turtle, they approached the old men, who said yay or nay. The actual take, if approved, also took up ceremony and ritual, and - every portion of that turtle was accounted for, to be distributed across the clan, before they set out.
So they had a steady take of turtle, with celebration (I was privileged to receive some pieces of meat, and found it good, if chewy).
Then an ambitious herp. persuaded people in Canberra to fund an outfit called 'Applied Ecology' - based on the best science, y'understand. The idea (?) was to build ponds in the coastal settlements, take hatchlings from nests, nurture them until they were of eatin' size, sell some, eat others.
I sat through a couple of presentations to communities on this. Years of work, hand-mixing concrete in the tropics, years of finding food to raise turtles, all to be able to consume about the same amount of turtle flesh each season.
The indigenous people were polite, and asked eminently sensible questions, but the scientific white fellas did not understand the points they were making. Why spend years digging ponds, mixing concrete, and so on - when all you need to do to get turtle is to check with the old men, and, if they give the OK - go get one? With some young lad tapped to do the dive with the spear and line - which was part of the ritual.
Applied Ecology, rightly, folded. Much of the failure was attributed to lack of commitment - arising from a claimed lack of understanding of its manifold benefits - by the indigenous people.
With customary knowledge, the hunter/gatherer lifestyle of coastal Arnhem Land, had a lot going for it. In particular, it avoided unnecessary hand mixing of concrete in temperatures in the high 30s (C.) and nigh 100% humidity, for a supposed benefit around 15 years away.
Oh, the sacrifices we must make for the advancement of non-science, Chad. But I am curious: did you ever discover what method they used for counting the turtles swimming by ? It really must have been a bit more sophisticated than 1,2,many.
Deletehttps://numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/is-one-two-many-a-myth/
Great comment. A whole different way of looking at problems and solutions - also a nice little parable about arrogance.
DeleteHi Chadwick,
DeleteFascinating post. I shared it with some friends and most of my cousins. I have almost
50 first cousins, so it will be getting around. If you and GrueBleen and the rest of
DP's crew of Bush Rangers ever do a podcast let me know.
GB - I doubt that 'one, two, many' applied to the people I knew. With turtle, for example, there was no problem apportioning the body to the people who qualified for a share, and there was a hierarchy of who got, for example, meat, or a length of gut, or other organs.
ReplyDeleteThe women and children also had a good sense of proportion for what they gathered during their day, and its adequacy for the rest of the clan.
I never really got to chat with the old men who held real authority, and I suspect that many others who claim to have translated languages and culture have not either.
The sense I got of apparent seasonal abundance for turtle was along the lines that the young men who were given approval to take a turtle would say things like 'been plenty of turtle this season', otherwise it was more like 'old men say no' - carried on authority, rather than detailed presentation of numbers.
Now, all of these people had basic English-style education, and most were actually very acute with money matters, so difficult to determine what the 'ur' concept of number might have been.
So basically no 'formal' counting as might be done with, say, a herd of cattle or sheep. Of interest because I reckon that learning to count - beyond the simplicity of '1,2,many' - has been one of humanity's greatest challenges. Far more so than inventing languages. Think of how long it took even to come up with Roman numerals - a quite awkward and arithmetic resistant way of counting.
DeleteOne of these days, I must seriously try to find out how the Indians invented such an arithmetic friendly system as the positional power series with coefficients that we mistakenly call 'arabic numbers'.
Oh, and, Dorothy, on 'Quad Rant' - I had thought it had sunk to its natural level, as a place for a small group of 'frequent contributors' to say the same things every week or so, in defence of what they claim to be 'conservative' values. I had thought that that had the virtue of keeping them out of other publications (well, most also get a run in 'Spectator', but, as its editor has established, it isn't really a publication to be taken in any way seriously.)
ReplyDeleteI would have thought that - was it the Arts Council? - might have considered that and continued its cash in paw from national Treasury, just to keep these contributors occupied and away from anywhere they might frighten children. But to have them spill over into what purports to be a newspaper?
The best explanation for that might be that the Flagship gets the material for free, and now that the compliant government has done the buccaneer stunt with social media, for them to pay Limited News for - whatever - then free stuff, as it comes from McCann, or Keith Windschuttle, or there's a Smith in the list, Babones pops up from time to time - is a good deal.