Alleged master race on tour...
Rees's Pieces
Have you ever been wandering around Soho, and just found yourself utterly frustrated with the lack of cafes and coffee shops? Well, don't worry. The glorious leader has taken time out of his busy schedule of debating the extra-marital affairs of racist footballers to focus on the overwhelming priority for the class struggle in Britain - the new Counterfire Cafe!
You'll be pleased to learn that this venture "will be at the heart of a new left" (until now, of course, my main concern was where the heart of the new left would be)and that it's menu will "be a showcase for all that is best on the left". Whether there is more on the menu than just nine hams, remains to be seen.
But they need your help. They want suggestions for a name for the venue. A few of us have come up with some ideas:
Tsarbucks
The Reestro
Sectway
Moccachinos of a Special Type
Left-Out
Gramsci's
John's Scones
Muteany
Muttony
Amuse Douche
Stratatea and TicTacs
The Totali-Tea
Hungry Hungry Hypocrites
Caffè Nero
Caesar's Palace
A Delicious Strawberry Defection
Hedge Money
The Cream-lin
A German Pie Geology
Munchie-viks
The Coalition of Restaurants
Pret-a-Menshevism
The Left Plate-form
John's Grease
Nineham-dos
What is to be Bun?
Lunching Marxism
Gerry Healy's Bastard Post Gaddafi Gold Coffee Feel Good Make Glorious Love in of a Special Type
Intriguingly, the post is signed "Counterfire and friends". Presumably these new friends have pretty deep pockets - rents in that part of the world ain't cheap.
Stupid, stupid, stupid
One of the cruellest, most unbearable things about the modern ruling class, at least in Britain is how stupid they are. Sure, they know how to rule, or at least, how to get away with it. When it comes to listing their attributes, our bourgey overlords, like to list things like refinement and education; nothing could be further from the truth.
Take Bozo Johnson, yesterday launching a multi-million pound display of the Olympic rings (a small example, I know). What do the rings symbolise? According to Johnson they symbolise the Olympic virtues of, um, chastity, poverty and other things. This was all, apparently, a joke. Aren’t you glad he’s taking all in his stride? You would have thought he might be under some kind of pressure, as the Mayor of London.
Bozo might have just half-remembered Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius. But then he also might have remembered the rings are nothing to do with the motto, or any other virtues. They are symbolic of the peaceful union of humankind across the five continents... which is nice.
But these are piffling details for the mayor of the Olympic host city…
In other news, according to Murdoch’s man in government (aren’t they all?) Jeremy Hunt, the Olympics are under budget. Yup, that’s £476 million under the £9.3 billion budget. OK, that’s almost double the original budget but what're you going to do? It makes you wonder what goes on in these people’s heads. Do they think ‘budget’ means ‘guess’?
Either way, there’s now ample money to pay the London bus drivers their Olympic bonus. It’s only right and fair.
Egypt - a note
The Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi has won the Egyptian presidential election. While this does not mean bread, peace, land and all power to the soviets this is a good thing. If the old regime managed to persuade, cajole, intimidate the population into voting away their own revolution that would have been a bad thing. Their man, Ahmed Shafiq basically promised to hang every troublemaker he could get his hands on. That would have been a bad thing too. For the time being the Egyptian revolution has a future. It's a shame to have to spell these things out... but there's always someone who needs reminding.
But, speaking of Ahmed Shafiq, he's gone. He's off to Abu Dhabi. I'm sure he'll have friends there. You have to admire that sort of commitment: if I can't kill everyone then, screw you guys, I'm outta here.
But, speaking of Ahmed Shafiq, he's gone. He's off to Abu Dhabi. I'm sure he'll have friends there. You have to admire that sort of commitment: if I can't kill everyone then, screw you guys, I'm outta here.
A warning from the future
To distract attention from his tax-dodging friends, David Cameron outlined what he would do if he had the majority he thinks he's entitled to. The headline story is Cameron wants to take away the right to housing benefit from the under 25s. There's over a million young unemployed, folks. That's right, if you're a middle-aged couple forget saving for retirement, you will have to support your unemployed graduate son or daughter while they do "work experience" in Poundland. Young people, if your parents are abusive or disabled or addicted or, who knows, maybe even dead... if you don't have a job, well, you're just going to have to live with it.
And, what makes it worse, is this will win votes, some votes, not all of them, but some for David Cameron. A large swathe of Britain hates the young, from university students, to school pupils, they even infants; this is the government that has cut funding to Bookstart - a scheme that gives books to children for free to get them reading, an effective scheme that is desperately needed. Even people who weren't born at the start of the recession are being made to suffer for the good of the capitalist class.
This is the future, if we don't act, if we don't fight: David Cameron pissing in a teenager's face - forever.
And, what makes it worse, is this will win votes, some votes, not all of them, but some for David Cameron. A large swathe of Britain hates the young, from university students, to school pupils, they even infants; this is the government that has cut funding to Bookstart - a scheme that gives books to children for free to get them reading, an effective scheme that is desperately needed. Even people who weren't born at the start of the recession are being made to suffer for the good of the capitalist class.
This is the future, if we don't act, if we don't fight: David Cameron pissing in a teenager's face - forever.
New slogan
I decided to leave the slogan/tag line section with something I like (we, especially back when this was a genuine team blog, used to change tag lines all the time). Now, FOR NO RAISIN, I've decided to have a poll to decide the next tag line. It's your decision... unless your decision is wrong.
Geography lesson with the European Ruling Class
Bus strike
It's a wonder Unite, the bus drivers union, still pays the Labour Party so much money, when it undermines its members interests like this, lets them down, so badly... But that's another story. Meanwhile, well done the bus drivers. Don't let the courts get in your way. Don't stop until you win.
Rumours of my death have been greatly exagerrated
It's rumoured the hit was put out by Dave Festive, Patrick J. Mullins and Johann Hari.
Thoughts for the brain - recycled thoughts
I was bumped into Dorian Lynskey's blog 33 Revolutions Per Minute yesterday. I've pretty much always liked the things he's written (though not bought his book - I'm not made of money!), and was pleased to find his website.
Amongst other things it has a version of his article from earlier this year, yet another attempt to nail down the protean problem of the hipster.
"Hipster-hating is seemingly a victimless crime because nobody will admit to actually being one, although if you’re at all bothered by them then you’re probably somewhere on the spectrum".
Indeed. One of the aspects of modern culture people are most concerned with is esoteric knowledge:
"Norman Cook recently said on 6Music that when he started DJing he could unearth a floorfilling obscurity and it would take months for a rival DJ to identify it and track down a copy".
This quality of The Scene is destroyed by pseudo-democratic forms of technology:
"If today’s cratedigging DJ plays a new discovery it’s on a thousand hard drives on the other side of the world by the next morning".
I say pseudo democratic, the audience, the mass have a much bigger role now in shaping culture than ever before. This is why, amongst other things, hipsters are fucking everywhere. They are the recycling agents of late capitalism, exposing and promoting cultural artifacts at a faster and faster rate. The greater the turnover of cultural capital the faster new forms of capital have to be appropriated and turned out. But this is not agency, let alone emancipation. There is still a sharp division, class-based, between those who can and can't participate. In the example given, you need access to a computer (and computer literacy). Not everyone has this.
Esotericism stems from the Middle Ages. It was a solution to passing on knowledge before mass education and mass media. Craft guilts were built on this kind of knowledge and ritual. It was also a response, in religion, to the counter-reformation. These days it is an anti-capitalist urge, to resist commodification and conformity. It fails (though it can produce great art) because it is an elitist outlook.
Amongst other things it has a version of his article from earlier this year, yet another attempt to nail down the protean problem of the hipster.
"Hipster-hating is seemingly a victimless crime because nobody will admit to actually being one, although if you’re at all bothered by them then you’re probably somewhere on the spectrum".
Indeed. One of the aspects of modern culture people are most concerned with is esoteric knowledge:
"Norman Cook recently said on 6Music that when he started DJing he could unearth a floorfilling obscurity and it would take months for a rival DJ to identify it and track down a copy".
This quality of The Scene is destroyed by pseudo-democratic forms of technology:
"If today’s cratedigging DJ plays a new discovery it’s on a thousand hard drives on the other side of the world by the next morning".
I say pseudo democratic, the audience, the mass have a much bigger role now in shaping culture than ever before. This is why, amongst other things, hipsters are fucking everywhere. They are the recycling agents of late capitalism, exposing and promoting cultural artifacts at a faster and faster rate. The greater the turnover of cultural capital the faster new forms of capital have to be appropriated and turned out. But this is not agency, let alone emancipation. There is still a sharp division, class-based, between those who can and can't participate. In the example given, you need access to a computer (and computer literacy). Not everyone has this.
Esotericism stems from the Middle Ages. It was a solution to passing on knowledge before mass education and mass media. Craft guilts were built on this kind of knowledge and ritual. It was also a response, in religion, to the counter-reformation. These days it is an anti-capitalist urge, to resist commodification and conformity. It fails (though it can produce great art) because it is an elitist outlook.
Ulysses on the BBC
Saturday was Bloomsday, 16th of June, the day on which Ulysses is set. This year BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new abridged version of the book. It featured Henry Goodman as Mr Bloom, Andrew Scott as Stephen Dedalus, Niamh Cusack as Molly Bloom and Stephen Rea as the Narrator.
Ulysses has so much to it, it is effectively a different book every time you approach it. The early chapters were very heavily abridged. While this makes sense in terms of getting the book down to a digestible size, I thought it did lose out of some of Bloom's poetry. Almost from his very first page, Joyce took care to show Bloom's rich inner life, which is contrasted with his outward failure to connect with his wife, Molly, to be emphasised by the events of the coming day. The opening segments of the broadcast showed Bloom as baffled and sad at his predicament, unable to see the greatness inside him. Lots of "she chose me... she kissed me": he is simultaneously pathetic but endearing.
The broadcast came into its own in the second half, the later chapters, where the prose really gets wild. The Oxen of the Sun chapter, set in the hospital, where Bloom and Stephen finally meet, was an actual improvement on the book I thought. In print it is an impressive but difficult chapter, the style obscures the fact that both Bloom and Stephen finally realise what they each have been looking for in each other. The second to last chapter, Ithaca, was superb, showing the beautiful meeting of their minds, poetic and moving.
Henry Goodman was an odd choice for Bloom, especially as Stephen Rea had already played the role (albeit in a straight to DVD film). Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty in the TV series Sherlock, was excellent as Stephen, a perfect, charismatic role for an engaging ham actor.
As for the social dimension, there was, quite rightly, an emphasis on Bloom's personal struggle against anti-semitism. Joyce was firmly anti-colonial but kept his distance from the reactionary parts (political and artistic) of the movement for Irish liberation. Prejudice toward Jews is shown coming from all sections of Dublin society, displayed in turn by an Englishman (Haines), an Anglo-Irishman (Deasy) and a Fenian (the Citizen). Bloom, for all his travails, was intended by Joyce as a model for the renewal of Irish society: the open-minded, progressive and eloquent new man.
One last observation, both the book and the broadcast shows the general applicability of Permanent Revolution, in particular the odd privilege of social backwardness. Ulysses was written at a point when an oral culture was being transformed, but at the dawn of visual media (James Joyce was a cinema pioneer in Dublin) skipping the literate, linear stage. This is what gives Ulysses it's spark, a most aural, visual, social, performable novel. It deserves a proper film made of it.
Ulysses has so much to it, it is effectively a different book every time you approach it. The early chapters were very heavily abridged. While this makes sense in terms of getting the book down to a digestible size, I thought it did lose out of some of Bloom's poetry. Almost from his very first page, Joyce took care to show Bloom's rich inner life, which is contrasted with his outward failure to connect with his wife, Molly, to be emphasised by the events of the coming day. The opening segments of the broadcast showed Bloom as baffled and sad at his predicament, unable to see the greatness inside him. Lots of "she chose me... she kissed me": he is simultaneously pathetic but endearing.
The broadcast came into its own in the second half, the later chapters, where the prose really gets wild. The Oxen of the Sun chapter, set in the hospital, where Bloom and Stephen finally meet, was an actual improvement on the book I thought. In print it is an impressive but difficult chapter, the style obscures the fact that both Bloom and Stephen finally realise what they each have been looking for in each other. The second to last chapter, Ithaca, was superb, showing the beautiful meeting of their minds, poetic and moving.
Henry Goodman was an odd choice for Bloom, especially as Stephen Rea had already played the role (albeit in a straight to DVD film). Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty in the TV series Sherlock, was excellent as Stephen, a perfect, charismatic role for an engaging ham actor.
As for the social dimension, there was, quite rightly, an emphasis on Bloom's personal struggle against anti-semitism. Joyce was firmly anti-colonial but kept his distance from the reactionary parts (political and artistic) of the movement for Irish liberation. Prejudice toward Jews is shown coming from all sections of Dublin society, displayed in turn by an Englishman (Haines), an Anglo-Irishman (Deasy) and a Fenian (the Citizen). Bloom, for all his travails, was intended by Joyce as a model for the renewal of Irish society: the open-minded, progressive and eloquent new man.
One last observation, both the book and the broadcast shows the general applicability of Permanent Revolution, in particular the odd privilege of social backwardness. Ulysses was written at a point when an oral culture was being transformed, but at the dawn of visual media (James Joyce was a cinema pioneer in Dublin) skipping the literate, linear stage. This is what gives Ulysses it's spark, a most aural, visual, social, performable novel. It deserves a proper film made of it.
In case you forgot...
The Breivik trial lumbers on. Yesterday there was a psychological report. It turns out Breivik had a troubled childhood. He was aggressive and withdrawn, lacking in spontaneity and elements of joy and pleasure, appearing to avoid emotional contact. He now suffers delusions of grandeur and an inflated sense of his own self-importance...
Yes, and fascism. Got to get that in there somewhere: THE FASCISM.
Yes, and fascism. Got to get that in there somewhere: THE FASCISM.
A little late, but never mind
"Silent celebrity" is a phrase cropping up round our mass media. The Queen, apparently, is a silent celebrity. Here is the Graun on Her Mutedness. Apart from missing the fact that all celebrity is proportional to silence, it hits the nail on the head (desperate acts of self-disclosure destroy celebrity, even if it's aimed at achieving it).
Celebrity is considered self-realisation in modern capitalism. A celebrity is an icon. An icon has strong definition but little detail. The Queen is a powerful icon in part because she is a personal non-entity. She is not enigmatic, she is hollow. The richest woman in the world (probably) with enough time to cultivate some kind of personality or recognised talent: she likes horse racing and corgis.
If you follow the propaganda you realise the Queen is whatever you want her to be (or whatever you value in yourself). The Queen is not a nice little old lady, or a constitutional rock, nor is she an elegant affirmation of Britain's wealth and power, she is a potent political weapon for the ruling class. The monarchy cultivates an image, in particular an impression of ancient history and grandeur, despite the fact that most royal institutions date back to the 19th Century and no further. This image is projected onto the greater ruling class. It accustomises people to their rule, teaches them to be deferent and grateful.
All of this is mildly obvious. The question is then, do we really want to be ruled by such blatant hucksters and a crowned non-entity?
Celebrity is considered self-realisation in modern capitalism. A celebrity is an icon. An icon has strong definition but little detail. The Queen is a powerful icon in part because she is a personal non-entity. She is not enigmatic, she is hollow. The richest woman in the world (probably) with enough time to cultivate some kind of personality or recognised talent: she likes horse racing and corgis.
If you follow the propaganda you realise the Queen is whatever you want her to be (or whatever you value in yourself). The Queen is not a nice little old lady, or a constitutional rock, nor is she an elegant affirmation of Britain's wealth and power, she is a potent political weapon for the ruling class. The monarchy cultivates an image, in particular an impression of ancient history and grandeur, despite the fact that most royal institutions date back to the 19th Century and no further. This image is projected onto the greater ruling class. It accustomises people to their rule, teaches them to be deferent and grateful.
All of this is mildly obvious. The question is then, do we really want to be ruled by such blatant hucksters and a crowned non-entity?
Spot the nazi
Greek police are unable to find the fascist MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who is wanted for assaulting two women on live television. Greek police are unable to find the prominent fascist MP Ilias Kasidiaris. Greek police are unable to find the prominent fascist MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who until recently acted as a public spokesman for the Golden Dawn party. Greek police are unable to find the prominent fascist MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who until recently acted as a public spokesman for the Golden Dawn party, and presumably has a place of residence, and list of friends and associates, whom he may also be staying with.
In other news half of Greek police officers polled recently said they voted for Golden Dawn.
In other news half of Greek police officers polled recently said they voted for Golden Dawn.
For no raisin
Mulder: His jiggling is almost hypnotic.
Scully: Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
More thoughts for the brain...
Marshall McLuhan noted that teeangers use(d) the radio to create a wall of sound, allowing them privacy, vital and prized at their stage of development. The modern urban working class in Britain faces long commutes on public transport, especially in London and especially this summer. As digital sound devices have become cheaper and more portable, more and more commuters have resorted to using them while they travel. It creates the same effect. The commuter is sealed off, aurally at least, from the rest of the world. Notes:
1) There is no such thing as music for music's sake, all music is ambience or soundtrack.
2) This is another expression of alienation. You cannot get more insulated from the world, millions of people together alone, short of people travelling to work in a personal plastic bubble.
3) This bodes ill for democracy, however one might define it. Cities are the home of democracy. Democracy relies on large-scale interchange of people, items, ideas, languages, religions, races. In dealing with the shock to the system delivered by late capitalism on a purely personal level, people are shutting down an aspect of themselves and of their society that makes it liveable and enjoyable. Without conscious intervention this process is self-reinforcing. Have you ever tried petitioning a tired worker with a headset on and eight hours of work ahead of them?
1) There is no such thing as music for music's sake, all music is ambience or soundtrack.
2) This is another expression of alienation. You cannot get more insulated from the world, millions of people together alone, short of people travelling to work in a personal plastic bubble.
3) This bodes ill for democracy, however one might define it. Cities are the home of democracy. Democracy relies on large-scale interchange of people, items, ideas, languages, religions, races. In dealing with the shock to the system delivered by late capitalism on a purely personal level, people are shutting down an aspect of themselves and of their society that makes it liveable and enjoyable. Without conscious intervention this process is self-reinforcing. Have you ever tried petitioning a tired worker with a headset on and eight hours of work ahead of them?
This week's thoughts for the brain...
A small story, perhaps, and the big news is this is not big news, however: 46% of Americans are out and out creationists. Another 32% believe in something called theistic evolution. On the face of it this is incredible for the country that's supposed to be the advanced outpost of capitalist civilisation (more incredible because these figures really haven't changed in years).
A few observations:
1) Tread carefully. Atheism is not in itself radical or left-wing, especially in a country like Britain. If it is it is more so in a place like the United States.
2) The separation of church and state is meaningless in conditions like these.
3) Beware, there are people paving the way for this kind of politics here.
4) National politics is impossible on the basis of economic self-interest, otherwise it suffers from the "sack of potatoes" phenomenon identified by Karl Marx. Long-term politics fade and passivity reigns, punctuated by occasional mass movements with little lasting impact. Economic interest is transformed into hegemony and counter-hegemony by ideology (an ideology is a set of ideas consistent with a defined point of view).
5) The Regan Revolution was a movement to counter and dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement in America. Popular religion already existed, however, as much as all class-based ideology was destroyed (we're not and never can talk in terms of absolute results here) religion has helped fill an ideological void.
6) Religion is a way of the 1% (as it's now called) remaining in contact with the rest of the population (and in control).
7) If the Tories are busy dismantling the basis and results of class-based politics in Britain, there will be a move by conservatives to replace this with a form of popular reactionary politics with religion at its core.
A few observations:
1) Tread carefully. Atheism is not in itself radical or left-wing, especially in a country like Britain. If it is it is more so in a place like the United States.
2) The separation of church and state is meaningless in conditions like these.
3) Beware, there are people paving the way for this kind of politics here.
4) National politics is impossible on the basis of economic self-interest, otherwise it suffers from the "sack of potatoes" phenomenon identified by Karl Marx. Long-term politics fade and passivity reigns, punctuated by occasional mass movements with little lasting impact. Economic interest is transformed into hegemony and counter-hegemony by ideology (an ideology is a set of ideas consistent with a defined point of view).
5) The Regan Revolution was a movement to counter and dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement in America. Popular religion already existed, however, as much as all class-based ideology was destroyed (we're not and never can talk in terms of absolute results here) religion has helped fill an ideological void.
6) Religion is a way of the 1% (as it's now called) remaining in contact with the rest of the population (and in control).
7) If the Tories are busy dismantling the basis and results of class-based politics in Britain, there will be a move by conservatives to replace this with a form of popular reactionary politics with religion at its core.
No royalists in space
Transit of Venus as seen from various parts of Eastern Europe and Asia. In January Venus was as far from the Sun as it could appear from Earth. It took months to reach this point, but the actual transit took less than two hours. Once you get a vaguely appreciable context you can see just how fast these objects are moving but how far they have to go.
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