Fat Man on a Keyboard

'It’s not history’s job to be relevant to us; ...

2013-06-11T13:00:15.624+01:00

'It’s not history’s job to be relevant to us; it’s our job to be relevant to history'

This really did make me laugh!

Well after Bolton nicked the manager ... Seems t...

2013-06-06T15:40:44.646+01:00

Well after Bolton nicked the manager ...

Seems to be quite good at this promotion lark too.

But I should have said, financial sanity.

Its nice to see you have retained your sense of hu...

2013-06-03T12:40:54.033+01:00

Its nice to see you have retained your sense of humour Pete. "sanity returning to the boardroom"! Its one way to describe the appointment of Holloway.

Brilliant Peter. One of your best. Anyone (such a ...

2013-05-28T11:11:04.340+01:00

Brilliant Peter. One of your best. Anyone (such a one as myself) who has stood in front of a class and tried sincerely to fulfil their duty to get children and students interested in topics and times far removed from their own would understand.

Peter - delighted to see you're about to be pu...

2013-05-27T16:07:05.408+01:00

Peter - delighted to see you're about to be published by a REAL publishing house - Bloomsbury - I suppose with all the Harry Potter profits they can afford you! I don't know if I've sent you a copy of my current 600 pages of tripe, (Phenomena) but let me know if not and I'll post one off to Eccles post haste. Can't wait to read your book! (And love the way you tracked down Moose Turd Pie!)
luv, STOUT #2

Sorry, but that is really funny.

2013-05-12T06:49:52.565+01:00

Sorry, but that is really funny.

Mensch-in-residence. Now that's an honorific ...

2013-05-07T15:06:11.071+01:00

Mensch-in-residence.

Now that's an honorific worth aspiring to!

Ah! I remember it well! Home from school watching ...

2013-05-03T13:24:34.836+01:00

Ah! I remember it well! Home from school watching on a 16 inch 405 lines black & white television.

Perhaps you should read them more carefully cubic....

2013-05-02T16:49:30.669+01:00

Perhaps you should read them more carefully cubic. Hitchens included a large section in praise of Martin Luther King in God is not Great, agreeing with his philosophy and politics but disagreeing with his theology.

Dawkins has spoken of being an agnostic not an atheist in the same terms that you mention. See http://www.theweek.co.uk/religion/religion/45552/outspoken-atheist-dawkins-admits-he-agnostic

In regards to things that are mysterious, the general approach taken is to say that there are phenomena that we do not yet understand, but that they are explicable using scientific method and not through metaphysics. Modern physics is precisely trying to answer the question of why there is something rather than nothing and about the existence of matter and the universe. Its enquiries increasingly distance us from the notion of a supreme being.

Aristotle's understanding of physics was wrong...

2013-05-02T13:45:45.367+01:00

Aristotle's understanding of physics was wrong, but it may have been necessary to reach Newton. In the same way, religion may be wrong, but I hate to think what the past of the western world would have been like without Judaism and Christianity.

The distinctive feature of the new atheists is the mocking tone they adopt when speaking of religious beliefs and their consequences. A good part of history is being erased, mocked to death -- like Karl Barth, Dorothea Day, and Martin Luthor King.

Modern religion, at least in the west, is largely prompted by one question -- why is there something and not nothing? It is not the depth of stupidity to answer, "there are mysteries we do not understand, and among these is a supreme being."

Dawkins tone will be understandable when there are no mysteries left. Until then, he may be right but not so right that he can afford to mock someone with different beliefs.

-- cubic

I don’t take the alleged death of polemical atheis...

2013-04-30T14:18:39.640+01:00

I don’t take the alleged death of polemical atheism that seriously. It’s religion that’s looking seriously poorly to me, with many of its most thoughtful defenders having given up any attempt to convince outsiders that their core beliefs correspond to reality.

If the literal truth of your credo no longer really matters, why take Christianity, or Islam any more seriously than the Temple of the Jedi Order?

The post was put up for Holocaust remembrance day,...

2013-04-27T14:00:43.171+01:00

The post was put up for Holocaust remembrance day, so it isn't about Mao, unsurprisingly.

If you conflate socialism (undefined) with communism, Stalinism, Maoism, the Khmer Rouge and the Nazis then you end up with a term so imprecise as to be meaningless.

On the Paulo di Canio theory of history here is one of many:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nas/summary/v006/6.1pankhurst.html

"more shocking still is that the Red Cross...

2013-04-26T21:55:20.243+01:00
"more shocking still is that the Red Cross were taken in"

Why is it so shocking? Western media refused to believe that millions were being starved and slaughtered in the Ukraine in the 1930s. People reporting the truth, like Gareth Jones, were attacked by those sympathetic to Communism. The full story of Stalin's or Mao's rule and their associated unpleasantnesses took decades to come out.

"it is at times like these that we should remember that fascism should be offered no respectability, no excuses, no understanding; it only ends in death"

You could, with just as much evidence, say the same thing of socialism - more so, in that Italian fascism wasn't terribly murderous when compared with Russian, Cambodian and Chinese socialism, or German National Socialism.

Isn't it better to proclaim that "it is necessary to return to the simpler principle that the wholesale slaughter of unarmed or disarmed men marks with a mordant and eternal brand the memory of conquerors however they may have prospered ... it is therefore only necessary to strip men capable of such deeds of all title to honour .."

Laban

brilliant stuff as usual peter

2013-04-19T15:57:48.001+01:00
brilliant stuff as usual peter

It takes a university education to work it out, Pe...

2013-04-07T13:44:09.625+01:00
It takes a university education to work it out, Peter. Tripling tuition fees might not have helped either.

Beg your pardon, my mistake--you can register for ...

2013-04-01T13:04:25.533+01:00
Beg your pardon, my mistake--you can register for free and then you can read it.

Just to say, the article about Germany linked here...

2013-03-31T12:42:01.511+01:00
Just to say, the article about Germany linked here is paywalled.

I can sympathise with that feeling! Life in this c...

2013-03-29T11:39:33.526Z
I can sympathise with that feeling! Life in this century is one long succession of surprises and shocks at the depths of cruelty and utter lack of fellow feeling displayed by our rulers.

In such difficult times I resort to old Eurovision Song Contest videos.

Yes there is. I was being provocative. And I rea...

2013-03-18T00:14:50.109Z
Yes there is. I was being provocative. And I realised the connection, which is why I added the caveat about being abused by zealots.

But, I think that there is a difference between PC and censorship in Hungary. It strikes me that in Hungary the language being officially sanctioned is language that is supposed to abuse, exclude and insult. It is official hate speech. What PC is trying do do is to eradicate such language. They are enemies, not allies. PC does not exist in a moral vacuum. This is why conservatives attack PC, they are trying to reclaim the right to be abusive, it is the basis of their power. PC is a political project and ultimately one of which I approve.

The politics of offence is an area that is closer, but still distinct. PC is aimed at respecting people rather than doctrines. The culture of offence is trying to claim the protection of PC for doctrines that themselves are pretty offensive. Hence the flexible elision of the term Islamophobia from referring to hatred of Muslims to cover opposition to Islamism as a political movement. Including people should not preclude robust debate of their political and religious beliefs, nor some social practices.

There are three things to highlight. The first is the importance of precision in language, preventing elision. Second, is the avoidance of zealotry as a point of principle. And finally, to remember that PC is a moral project and that we should not lose sight of the essence of its morality. Sometimes we have to be combative in establishing that morality. I think back to the seventies and the easy, abusive prejudice of those times. They were followed by the rigorous PC of the earnest eighties. How we scoffed then at things we take for granted now and what a better world it is as a result.

"There is a connection, or so I think, Peter,...

2013-03-18T00:10:51.139Z
"There is a connection, or so I think, Peter, between such things as 'political correctness', the culture of offence, and the fear of litigation or at least of exclusion. Sometimes it is not far from Newspeak.

The point of Newspeak was to render some thoughts unthinkable. The real trouble however is not that Newspeak-style political correctness exists, since it has always done (it may be more pervasive now) but that those who accuse others of using it are very likely to be using it themselves for the opposite purposes. The current Hungarian administration is trying to impose its own political correctness on press and media.

The essence of political correctness is: 'the right way to refer to such and such is X, all other ways are subject to our disapproval and may lead to exclusion or loss of privileges' That is how it works in Hungary, albeit in an ever more institutional framework: but, in its own less formal way, it is how it works here too.

The struggle for language lies at the heart of most political projects.A degree of robust debate should be permissible.

You write: The most important point that Cohen...

2013-03-14T11:49:57.368Z

You write:

The most important point that Cohen makes, one that shouts out from the pages of his book, is that censorship is one of the most potent weapons that can be used by the powerful to secure their power.

And not only the powerful. I wrote recently about the moderators on the Guardian's Comment is Free - "Censorship of the Comment is Free historical record" where comments and responses to comments that have existed for six years have recently been removed, with the result that the remaining comments are often rendered meaningless.

Yeah, and Iran is the most Politically Correct pla...

2013-03-13T11:13:13.568Z
Yeah, and Iran is the most Politically Correct place on earth.

If Ralph Musgrave were Gay he might think differen...

2013-03-13T06:12:32.452Z
If Ralph Musgrave were Gay he might think differently.

People are still being murdered in Iran and elsewhere for being Gay and figures like Alan Turing paid a heavy price for prejudice despite being responsible for winning the war.

The motivation for political correctness is the pr...

2013-03-12T19:34:05.734Z
The motivation for political correctness is the prevention of harm? You must be joking.

You can scream abuse at your mother in law all day long, and do her a fair amount of psychological harm in the process, but there’s not a cat in Hell’s chance of political correctness zealots prosecuting you. There must be a millions rows between friends and married couples in the UK every day, during which millions suffer hurt feelings. There again, those hurt would be wasting their time appealing to the police or anyone else on the grounds of “hate speech”.

In contrast, if you say something that’s not in accordance with the political left’s agenda, and your in trouble: e.g. taking the mick out of homosexuals or someone with a disability.

I.e. political correctness is an attempt to push a particular political view. Genuine “hate” has next to nothing to do with it.

I’m far from being a fan of homophobic or disability so called “hate speech” but the fact is (far as I can see from the crime figures) that these offences are EXTREMELY rare: a homosexual is about three hundred times more likely to have their house broken into, as far as I can see, than to find themselves on the receiving end of “hate speech”.

A very fine exposition.

2013-02-28T08:01:42.229Z
A very fine exposition.

Fat Man on a Keyboard

'It’s not history’s job to be relevant to us; ...

Well after Bolton nicked the manager ... Seems t...

Its nice to see you have retained your sense of hu...

Brilliant Peter. One of your best. Anyone (such a ...

Peter - delighted to see you're about to be pu...

Sorry, but that is really funny.

Mensch-in-residence. Now that's an honorific ...

Ah! I remember it well! Home from school watching ...

Perhaps you should read them more carefully cubic....

Aristotle's understanding of physics was wrong...

I don’t take the alleged death of polemical atheis...

The post was put up for Holocaust remembrance day,...

"more shocking still is that the Red Cross...

brilliant stuff as usual peter

It takes a university education to work it out, Pe...

Beg your pardon, my mistake--you can register for ...

Just to say, the article about Germany linked here...

I can sympathise with that feeling! Life in this c...

Yes there is. I was being provocative. And I rea...

"There is a connection, or so I think, Peter,...

You write: The most important point that Cohen...

Yeah, and Iran is the most Politically Correct pla...

If Ralph Musgrave were Gay he might think differen...

The motivation for political correctness is the pr...

A very fine exposition.