re: Trumpism & the need for chaos. I realise citing Snow Patrol lyrics as a source of profundity marks me out as terminally middle-aged and middle of the road, but there's a line in one of their songs that always stood out to me: "Sometimes I want to be the car crash, not always just the traffic jam." I sort of get that: even if the thing happening is crappy, sometimes there is that desire for something to happen, as long as you're at the centre of it. I think Trump makes his supporters feel like the centre of things.
Comment about free time and polycules - yes! this is my point! To be fair, I have mainly been talking about cheaters who have multiple other women on the go. Leaving aside the moral implications, who has the time or energy for that?
Middle-aged (adj.): When you read about polygamy and you’re mostly jealous of . . . all the free time these people seem to have.
Made me really laugh... My husband and I both work full time and have a pre-teen, we barely have time to spend together let alone time (or energy) for anyone else!
Indeed, even the people who toodle about in caravans earning money making videos occasionally show themselves “working remotely” at a computer, for a few minutes a day at least.
Remarkable how much of the modern right is driven by personal resentment that individuals feel that they’re not getting their due, all the more amazing that so many of these people have a level of access and influence way beyond the dreams of most people but it’s not enough, it seems anything short of constant requests for their insight and all their thoughts being converted into government policy is proof that ‘woke elites’ are sabotaging the nation and only they can both see it and save us. That and the very concept of being held accountable for any mistakes or people disagreeing with their point of view is the equivalent of treason. They live in a fantasy world where they’re the heroes
It really is remarkably childish as much as anything else
Enjoying the serious journalism, don't get me wrong, but I had to comment to thank you for the Reacher suggestion. I'd never have given it a chance but then I thought, well, Helen Lewis's opinion is usually a good barometer for things I'll like. Watched episodes 1 and 2 and it's immensely satisfying sitting in my PJ's on a Saturday night watching this hulking, inscrutable man-slab earnestly dismantling baddies. Thanks Helen! Appreciate you monitoring democracy etc. as well.
Re: JK Rowling. I have recently finished the Running Grave, which I read at a gallop, as I did the previous Strike novels. I don't think I'll be reading another one though. This is why: although JKR is a superb plotmistress who can write a compelling story, her characters are one-dimensional (good/evil) and show no development whatsoever and I find her snobbery insufferable (use of dialect for instance), in the great English literary tradition of knowing observation of and commentary on social minutiae saying nothing except that the writer considers herself a superior being. Also I am fed up with the Cormoran/Robin 'will they, won't they' which I find utterly improbable because the dynamic never changes. Her two most recent books cry out for some savage editing, but I guess that, as seems to be the case with Quentin Tarantino in film, she has become so hallowed and untouchable that nobody dare edit her. Other writers tell equally good stories - Mick Herron, for example, or Christopher Brookmyre - but they manage to include a nuanced moral dimension which is lacking in JKR's work. At least in Robert Galbraith's - I last read a Harry Potter about twenty years ago and can't really remember them.
Much of the wit, such as it is, in season one of Reacher is difficult to locate in season two. The general mood is more dyspeptic as well - the lead actor struck me as a bit "roided up." Another take: Robert Patrick is the bad guy again?
And there is simply too much damn geography in the plot turns. "What city are they in now?" I kept asking. (The answer is Toronto. Both seasons were shot in the Toronto and environs.)
As a Trump-agnostic observer from across the pond, it seems to me that his appeal is that he comes across as a combative outsider who refuses to play by the rules of what so many across the Western world increasingly see as a political stacked deck. Secondly the fact that he has triggered Trump Derangement Syndrome in the millions of the Lefty-sheep-dipped graduate class who now control all the levers of power in America (and the Western world as a whole)....this must have enough appeal to compensate for the more annoying aspects of his personality.
I think it's really important to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time: a lot of the anti-Trump commentary has been overwrought but also he *is* trying to smash up democratic norms.
Yes to the "hold two thoughts" I described myself as "agnostic" about Trump. I have an antipathy to males drunk on their own bravado and he is surely one of that type.....(but to put this in perspective I have a fair degree of antipathy to the kind of people you even WANT to be politicians.)
Where I have to disagree with you is this: " a lot of the anti-Trump commentary has been overwrought" is a massive understatement (almost as if being in denial of reality somehow). Trump Derangement Syndrome - despite its meme-ness - is a much more accurate description of what happened across the Western commentariat from 2015 onwards....and it was THIS, far more than the man himself, that has "smashed democratic norms".
It's an awful thought that in November the choice is likely to be between Trump and the man who is the chief enabler of the terrible slaughter that is going on right now in Gaza. As a Briton I won't have to make that choice but if I did I'm not sure that I could vote for either.
Hmm, that's not my read on what's happening: I think Biden is trying to hold Netanyahu back, but Netanyahu is ignoring him (admittedly, so far without consequences, which the US has the power to impose).
I also think that Trump would be doing something very similar; the House Republicans didn't like military aid to Ukraine being woven into a recent finance bill, but were fine with military aid to Israel.
You claim to be agnostic, but it seems to me you’re definitely leaning towards becoming a true believer. If he were only annoying he wouldn’t be the DANGEROUS MAN he is who uses people 24/7.
Yes. Anyone believing that Trump is merely an annoying man must feel awfully secure in the knowledge that he will not be re-elected. Another Trump term will be a horror story.
OMG that is a tv show that I would love to watch on BBC. Get the Horrible Histories/Ghosts team to do a show about the PAs to various historical figures.
Back when Eddie Izzard was still funny, he did a bit about Pol Pot's diary and it being full of death. Death, death, death, lunch, death, death, death...
We found Reacher to be very entertaining. I also found that the "need for chaos" struck a note. And in another source, the notion that people are seeking power by broadcasting these whack theories. Chaos is the favored element of thieves, I think.
It’s interesting to read reviews of the other 2015 BBC documentary about the post office, ‘Signed, Sealed and Delivered’ extracts of which are in the 2nd Panorama documentary.
From the Independent “Given the extensive access granted, perhaps the Post Office really believed in their own management speak and heavy-handed methods. Methods such as forcing thinly-stretched staff to watch PowerPoint presentations in back rooms at the same time they were supposed to be serving.”
This documentary is about cutting branches and selling financial services to reduce government subsidy of £3 million a week. Even just compared to the cost of the trial £3 million a week seems good value...
Number 7 .... I think computer weekly were one of the first to break the post office horizon scandal as well? If so, are they the greatest investigative journalists in Britain?
One thing I enjoy with Reacher is that the title sequence literally just consists of REACHER in giant white type on black for about three seconds followed by perhaps four seconds of acknowledgment of the source, and when the title begins my Apple TV hopefully puts up “Skip intro” - come on don’t wait those seven seconds!
Same with Modern Family, where the title sequence lasts less than 10 seconds.
Nothing like Foundation or For All Mankind where the titles are yawn-inducing and endless.
Always glad to read your take on the big and small things in the world.
I would be very interested to
know what you think about John Grey’s analysis of the current crisis in capitalism in this podcast from late last year.
I find his argument that globalisation is dead and always was mistaken in thinking that Russia and China would become neutralised by it Entirely convincing. Likewise his suggestion that the vast numbers of people in the US now outside the work market plus the unprecedented rise in power of the Lords of the internet creates a version of feudalism and that the probable victory of Trump would see the US withdrawing support from Europe and even possibly from Taiwan while moving toward Autarky- also very persuasive.
Concerning Paula Vennells, I am reminded of the excellent book Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliott Aronson. I may have to reread,
There's a huge shocker in this Post Office scandal that still isn't getting the media attention it should. Bigger even than the breathtaking corruption/cowardice of the Post Office executives; bigger than a succession of negligent Justice Secretaries - and it is this: How did our supposedly 'envy of the world' legal culture and criminal justice system manage to not notice that the idea of 700 sub-postmasters suddenly becoming fraudsters was an utter absurdity? This legal culture comprises thousands of highly educated professionals and yet none of them seemingly picked up on the fact of this manifest absurdity....even 7 'fraudsters' should have given the system pause; by 70 it should have been blindingly obvious.....but no 700 and still no one makes it front page news! This GIGANTIC failure of the culture our lawyering elite is literally breathtaking.
Yes it's a mind boggling indictment of our whole legal system........ but our stupid British media would rather just obsess about relative trivia like thingy's CBS.
I think because they were all being privately prosecuted by the Post Office rather than their cases going through the Crown Prosecution Service, the only body which would normally have a synoptic view of such things.
Yes but in all professions - lawyers included - there is always a 'grapevine' flow of information....and so the hundreds (if not thousands) of lawyers involved in this madness must have KNOWN it was madness.
re: Trumpism & the need for chaos. I realise citing Snow Patrol lyrics as a source of profundity marks me out as terminally middle-aged and middle of the road, but there's a line in one of their songs that always stood out to me: "Sometimes I want to be the car crash, not always just the traffic jam." I sort of get that: even if the thing happening is crappy, sometimes there is that desire for something to happen, as long as you're at the centre of it. I think Trump makes his supporters feel like the centre of things.
And oblivious to consequence(s)
Comment about free time and polycules - yes! this is my point! To be fair, I have mainly been talking about cheaters who have multiple other women on the go. Leaving aside the moral implications, who has the time or energy for that?
There's a very funny Sara Pascoe bit on this exact question:
https://www.tiktok.com/@sara.pascoe/video/7306157095714344225?lang=en
Thsnks for this link, Helen. I’d never heard of her before and she’s hilarious so I’ll look for more clips to watch.
Middle-aged (adj.): When you read about polygamy and you’re mostly jealous of . . . all the free time these people seem to have.
Made me really laugh... My husband and I both work full time and have a pre-teen, we barely have time to spend together let alone time (or energy) for anyone else!
I always wonder if these people have jobs...
Indeed, even the people who toodle about in caravans earning money making videos occasionally show themselves “working remotely” at a computer, for a few minutes a day at least.
Remarkable how much of the modern right is driven by personal resentment that individuals feel that they’re not getting their due, all the more amazing that so many of these people have a level of access and influence way beyond the dreams of most people but it’s not enough, it seems anything short of constant requests for their insight and all their thoughts being converted into government policy is proof that ‘woke elites’ are sabotaging the nation and only they can both see it and save us. That and the very concept of being held accountable for any mistakes or people disagreeing with their point of view is the equivalent of treason. They live in a fantasy world where they’re the heroes
It really is remarkably childish as much as anything else
Enjoying the serious journalism, don't get me wrong, but I had to comment to thank you for the Reacher suggestion. I'd never have given it a chance but then I thought, well, Helen Lewis's opinion is usually a good barometer for things I'll like. Watched episodes 1 and 2 and it's immensely satisfying sitting in my PJ's on a Saturday night watching this hulking, inscrutable man-slab earnestly dismantling baddies. Thanks Helen! Appreciate you monitoring democracy etc. as well.
Re: JK Rowling. I have recently finished the Running Grave, which I read at a gallop, as I did the previous Strike novels. I don't think I'll be reading another one though. This is why: although JKR is a superb plotmistress who can write a compelling story, her characters are one-dimensional (good/evil) and show no development whatsoever and I find her snobbery insufferable (use of dialect for instance), in the great English literary tradition of knowing observation of and commentary on social minutiae saying nothing except that the writer considers herself a superior being. Also I am fed up with the Cormoran/Robin 'will they, won't they' which I find utterly improbable because the dynamic never changes. Her two most recent books cry out for some savage editing, but I guess that, as seems to be the case with Quentin Tarantino in film, she has become so hallowed and untouchable that nobody dare edit her. Other writers tell equally good stories - Mick Herron, for example, or Christopher Brookmyre - but they manage to include a nuanced moral dimension which is lacking in JKR's work. At least in Robert Galbraith's - I last read a Harry Potter about twenty years ago and can't really remember them.
Much of the wit, such as it is, in season one of Reacher is difficult to locate in season two. The general mood is more dyspeptic as well - the lead actor struck me as a bit "roided up." Another take: Robert Patrick is the bad guy again?
And there is simply too much damn geography in the plot turns. "What city are they in now?" I kept asking. (The answer is Toronto. Both seasons were shot in the Toronto and environs.)
Feels like with Season 2 they have raised the bar rather high, a long way above S1.
Re: Polycule.
OLD AGED: Definition.
When,likeme, you can only give a rueful smile a little shake of the head and remember the time when you could and did get up to such antics.
As a Trump-agnostic observer from across the pond, it seems to me that his appeal is that he comes across as a combative outsider who refuses to play by the rules of what so many across the Western world increasingly see as a political stacked deck. Secondly the fact that he has triggered Trump Derangement Syndrome in the millions of the Lefty-sheep-dipped graduate class who now control all the levers of power in America (and the Western world as a whole)....this must have enough appeal to compensate for the more annoying aspects of his personality.
I think it's really important to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time: a lot of the anti-Trump commentary has been overwrought but also he *is* trying to smash up democratic norms.
It's the Boy who Cried Nazi. If everyone is a fascist and/or a Nazi, its easy to overlook the people who DO actually have fascist or racist beliefs.
Trump is a dangerous man, period.
Yes to the "hold two thoughts" I described myself as "agnostic" about Trump. I have an antipathy to males drunk on their own bravado and he is surely one of that type.....(but to put this in perspective I have a fair degree of antipathy to the kind of people you even WANT to be politicians.)
Where I have to disagree with you is this: " a lot of the anti-Trump commentary has been overwrought" is a massive understatement (almost as if being in denial of reality somehow). Trump Derangement Syndrome - despite its meme-ness - is a much more accurate description of what happened across the Western commentariat from 2015 onwards....and it was THIS, far more than the man himself, that has "smashed democratic norms".
It's an awful thought that in November the choice is likely to be between Trump and the man who is the chief enabler of the terrible slaughter that is going on right now in Gaza. As a Briton I won't have to make that choice but if I did I'm not sure that I could vote for either.
Hmm, that's not my read on what's happening: I think Biden is trying to hold Netanyahu back, but Netanyahu is ignoring him (admittedly, so far without consequences, which the US has the power to impose).
I also think that Trump would be doing something very similar; the House Republicans didn't like military aid to Ukraine being woven into a recent finance bill, but were fine with military aid to Israel.
Helen, thank you for this reply. As a former Brit now a naturalized American your take on the mess in the Middle East seems spot on to me.
You claim to be agnostic, but it seems to me you’re definitely leaning towards becoming a true believer. If he were only annoying he wouldn’t be the DANGEROUS MAN he is who uses people 24/7.
Yes. Anyone believing that Trump is merely an annoying man must feel awfully secure in the knowledge that he will not be re-elected. Another Trump term will be a horror story.
To borrow Charlie Stross's wonderful term, Trump at least appears to oppose the Beige Dictatorship: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/political-failure-modes-and-th.html
After reading your comment I can only think that your idea of a ''lefty'' is something like Personal Assistant to Genghis Khan.
OMG that is a tv show that I would love to watch on BBC. Get the Horrible Histories/Ghosts team to do a show about the PAs to various historical figures.
Back when Eddie Izzard was still funny, he did a bit about Pol Pot's diary and it being full of death. Death, death, death, lunch, death, death, death...
Re: Pol Pot. It could have continued: Supper, write thankyou letter to Henry Kissinger for giving me the chance to continue his work.
We found Reacher to be very entertaining. I also found that the "need for chaos" struck a note. And in another source, the notion that people are seeking power by broadcasting these whack theories. Chaos is the favored element of thieves, I think.
It’s interesting to read reviews of the other 2015 BBC documentary about the post office, ‘Signed, Sealed and Delivered’ extracts of which are in the 2nd Panorama documentary.
From the Independent “Given the extensive access granted, perhaps the Post Office really believed in their own management speak and heavy-handed methods. Methods such as forcing thinly-stretched staff to watch PowerPoint presentations in back rooms at the same time they were supposed to be serving.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/signed-sealed-delivered-inside-the-post-office-tv-review-a-sad-tale-of-a-muchloved-institution-forced-to-put-profits-before-people-10425293.html#
This documentary is about cutting branches and selling financial services to reduce government subsidy of £3 million a week. Even just compared to the cost of the trial £3 million a week seems good value...
Number 7 .... I think computer weekly were one of the first to break the post office horizon scandal as well? If so, are they the greatest investigative journalists in Britain?
They were. Tony Collins and Rebecca Thompson did the initial work and then Karl Flinders stuck at it over literally years.
The Times wrote about it: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-tiny-magazine-exposed-the-horizon-scandal-they-underestimated-us-fpvfjl6cq
One thing I enjoy with Reacher is that the title sequence literally just consists of REACHER in giant white type on black for about three seconds followed by perhaps four seconds of acknowledgment of the source, and when the title begins my Apple TV hopefully puts up “Skip intro” - come on don’t wait those seven seconds!
Same with Modern Family, where the title sequence lasts less than 10 seconds.
Nothing like Foundation or For All Mankind where the titles are yawn-inducing and endless.
Always glad to read your take on the big and small things in the world.
I would be very interested to
know what you think about John Grey’s analysis of the current crisis in capitalism in this podcast from late last year.
I find his argument that globalisation is dead and always was mistaken in thinking that Russia and China would become neutralised by it Entirely convincing. Likewise his suggestion that the vast numbers of people in the US now outside the work market plus the unprecedented rise in power of the Lords of the internet creates a version of feudalism and that the probable victory of Trump would see the US withdrawing support from Europe and even possibly from Taiwan while moving toward Autarky- also very persuasive.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/novara-media/id1001507547?i=1000632273470
Concerning Paula Vennells, I am reminded of the excellent book Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliott Aronson. I may have to reread,
There's a huge shocker in this Post Office scandal that still isn't getting the media attention it should. Bigger even than the breathtaking corruption/cowardice of the Post Office executives; bigger than a succession of negligent Justice Secretaries - and it is this: How did our supposedly 'envy of the world' legal culture and criminal justice system manage to not notice that the idea of 700 sub-postmasters suddenly becoming fraudsters was an utter absurdity? This legal culture comprises thousands of highly educated professionals and yet none of them seemingly picked up on the fact of this manifest absurdity....even 7 'fraudsters' should have given the system pause; by 70 it should have been blindingly obvious.....but no 700 and still no one makes it front page news! This GIGANTIC failure of the culture our lawyering elite is literally breathtaking.
This is what I've been wondering. No one, at any point, stopped and thought, "hang on, that is *quite a lot* of fraud."
Did everyone just suddenly think sub-postmasters were a hitherto unknown uniquely criminal demographic?
Yes it's a mind boggling indictment of our whole legal system........ but our stupid British media would rather just obsess about relative trivia like thingy's CBS.
I think because they were all being privately prosecuted by the Post Office rather than their cases going through the Crown Prosecution Service, the only body which would normally have a synoptic view of such things.
Yes but in all professions - lawyers included - there is always a 'grapevine' flow of information....and so the hundreds (if not thousands) of lawyers involved in this madness must have KNOWN it was madness.