Fooled by Economics and Politics of the Day
One of the problems with societies driven solely by markets is that the social - norms, decency, shared beliefs, the stuff that binds us together - dies.
And so stuff like this - Rush Limbaugh attacking Michael J Fox for having Parkinsons's (check the video to be truly disgusted) - happens.
In the discourse of the market, anything goes. When the discourse of the market comes to dominate the public sphere, it is transformed from a space for conversation, to a space for power, discipline, and domination.
OK, you know all that.
It would almost be funny - if the American right wasn't so eminently racist, sexist, in love with violence, just plain sleazy - and is there even a word for something as loathsome as making fun of someone with a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder?
I'm not a Democrat - but I find it hard to describe just how much I want to the American right's ass get absolutely, totally kicked.
Remember my Fox news anecdote - where the speaker at a small conf, actually a very nice guy, kept referring to brown people as "child molesters"?
How different is this? Not different at all. It's the same poisoning of discourse that the right has perfected throughout the 20th century.
NB - For all those who've been sending me emails telling me "I love your work, I hate your politics" - you're more than welcome to stop reading any time you like; subsidizing people who are still die-hard Republicans at this point, despite Katrina, Iraq, cronyism/corruption, Rumsfeld, debt explosion, etc, is something I can live without (yes, even you, Chuck).
(I mean, you don't have to agree with what I say - but you
could try and understand why a young brown guy like me feels compelled to write about politics in the first place).
NB (2) - That Chuck Norris thread (ie, Chuck Norris is now writing an anti-evolution column for a wingnut website) is
hilarious. Check it, highly recommended, this should be all over the intarweb:
"...i heard chuck norris decapitated himself when he heard himself say something that stupid.
...An evolution denier can’t be the world’s biggest badass. World’s biggest dumbass, maybe."
Innovation Wednesdays
Will be happening on
Thursday evening this week, not Wednesday.
Same place, same time - Coco Momo, 79 Marylebone High St, between Bond St and Baker St tubes.
Open to all, bring a friend, etc.
And if you're one of the roughly 10,000 people who's told me you want to come - come!
Topic for this week - what are the Next Big Things/where should we be putting our bets? As always, feel free to suggest away...