Meandering Pontification 4
I went into a church today… I enjoy being in churches, cathedrals and religious buildings… I really like the peace and quiet, but I also like them for the same reason that conservatives do – they conserve things… The church in Dronfield is the same way it was ten years ago… It has the same podium and the same WWI memorial…
I read REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE by Edmund Burke and hardly remember anything about it… It is the holy book for conservatives the same way that ON LIBERTY by John Stuart Mill is for liberals (I remember a lot more about that…), EQUALITY by R. H. Tawney for social democrats/democratic socialists and DAS KAPITAL by Karl Marx for revolutionary socialists/communists…
Anyway, a quote by Burke always sticks in my head – ‘society is a contract between the unborn, the living and the dead.’ I don’t believe in God/the supernatural, but churches/cathedrals have that quality to them – they retain a link between previous, current and future generations…
Anyway, I can get why you might be repulsed by extreme political radicalism, but not by extreme aesthetic radicalism. A classicist in art might be repulsed by Jackson Pollock splattering paint all over a canvas, a jazz purist might be repulsed by Albert Ayler making weird noises on a saxophone and a classical music snob might be incensed by Karlheinz Stockhausen bashing a grand piano… I can get why you might like or dislike these things, but there is no real social harm involved here…
I can see the danger in extreme political radicalism… The collectivisation of agriculture led to famines that killed twelve million people, Pol Pot killed a third of his population, fascism led to the holocaust… There is a good case for caution and moderation in politics… You might disagree with moderate ideologies like liberalism, social democracy or conservatism, but they never produced famines or genocides…
Also, those three ideologies can coexist… A pluralistic society allows for values to co-exist and these values might clash with each other… A social democrat might try to make a society fairer by investing more in universal health/education, a conservative might want to protect family values and a liberal would want to defend free speech… But all of these values can co-exist in a liberal democracy… Fascism/communism are both antagonistic to value pluralism/liberal democracy, which is why they can both fuck off…
End of meandering pontifications. 
New acquisitions.
Four records: Woody Herman's Greatest Hits by Woody Herman, Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata by Gato Barbieri, Life & Times by Billy Cobham and I Live Jazz by Harry James and his Orchestra.
One book: The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.
One DVD: The Descendants by Alexander Payne.
New acquisitions.
Five books: Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics by P. J. O'rourke, The Logic of Scientific Discoveries by Karl Popper, The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962-1976 by Frank Dikotter, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World and The War that Ended Peace by Margaret Macmillan.
P. J. O'rourke was a journalist for years and always encountered a lot of economics. He didn't know much about it, so he wrote a book to learn more about it.
I am interested in Popper's contributions to philosophy of science, although I've been told that these theories are antiquated and disproven. I probably won't understand much of this, but there's no harm in giving a this a whirl. (I've waded through philosophical tomes without understanding most of it, but you always get something out of it.)
I bought a book about China's 'great leap forward.' I want to get clued up on all those egregious experiments in communism/pure socialism (even if those trendy Novara Media kids think that it's a cool word to use).
I bought a book about the lead up to the First World War and the aftermath - again, it' s something that I want to get clued up on.
These are all the books that I read last year.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2021/5993530?fbclid=IwAR0cyGfRQvcp9xdhBIT089figtJdZzuYbg0rEODH7wlzOskMQaRCkd_dTRo
New acquisitions.
Five CDs: The White Album by The Beatles, Abbey Road by The Beatles, Hot Rocks: 1964-71 by The Rolling Stones, Black Market by Weather Report and The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett.
New acquisitions.
Ten DVDs: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary by Robert Wiene, Ordet by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Day of Wrath by Carl Theodor Dreyer, M by Fritz Lang, Pickpocket by Robert Bresson, Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio de Sica, Rope by Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia by Sam Peckinpah and The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman.
I've enjoyed these films for a while, so it's good to own them.
New acquisitions.
Four books: Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction by A. C. Grayling, Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction by Catherine Wilson, Zona: A Book about a Film about a Journey to a Room by Geoff Dyer and Cuentos reunidos by José Donoso.
I've heard people talk about Wittgenstein in the past and I've not take a smidgen of it in. Hopefully I'll get a better idea of what he was all about when I read this book.
I've always struggled to construct a coherent philosophical and political worldview because, ultimately, I am a mass of contradictions. However, as I get older I realise that I do not NEED to have a coherent, well-constructed philosophical system and I do not NEED to be a politico who has an opinion about everything.
For instance, I am a bit of a hedonist, but I also think that I should act morally/justly... However, ultimately, I am much more of an indulgent wanker and a hedonist than a moralist... Which is why I bought a book about Epicureanism, a school which is all about maximising pleasure (though there's a lot more to it than that... and it's a bit of a myth that they were hedonists anyway).
Geoff Dyer writes non-fiction about a plethora of disparate subjects... and he also writes fiction... In other words, he's the kind of writer that I'd like to be, except that the is actually rather good at it and I'm amateurish crap.
Anyway, 'Stalker' by Tarkovsky is one of his favourite films... so he wrote a book about it... Tarksovsky is also one of my favourite filmmakers, so... I bought this book.
I really like José Donoso... For my undergrad dissertation, I compared his book 'The Obscene Bird of Night' with a book by J. G. Ballard. My dad went on a trip to Chile, so he picked up this book of short stories by him for me.
New acquisitions.
Three CDs: Nevermind by Nirvana, In Utero by Nirvana and Mutter by Rammstein.
According to policy wonks/experts (i.e. people who understand politics/current affairs at much greater detail than bozos like you and me), there is a greater chance of nuclear war now than at any time during the cold war.
Which reminds me of this cartoon by Robert Crumb… A cartoonist thinks that it’d be swell if Bertrand Russell could see his cartoons… But a H bomb brings that lofty dream to an end.
We all have personal goals and aspirations… Many Ukrainians have had to jettison their own personal goals just to survive… For instance, I want to finish writing a book of essays… And, on top of that, I want to write two novels and another book of essays… And think of all those doctors carrying out ground-breaking research, of all those physicists carrying out ground-breaking research into the behaviour of the proton, of all those concert pianists learning Rachmaninov, of all those people combating poverty in Africa, of all those football players who might become the next Messi, of all those filmmakers who might make the next Citizen Kane… All of these personal goals would come to an end thanks to the impetuousness of an unhinged dictator.
New acquisitions.
Four DVDs: The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino, Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade, Blue Collar by Paul Schrader and Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog.
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