Charlie Brooker on Cultural Drought

I enjoy most of what Guardian TV critic Charlie Brooker writes, mainly because he’s able, with the ease of a fish to water, to make a complete mockery of the banal and empty-headed nonsense frequently thrust on the general public by ratings-hungry, money-grabbing television executives under the rubric of “entertainment”. He is also very witty. Very witty indeed. The article below is worth reading, though, for anyone who lives in Britain and owns a television, because I think, underneath the jokiness, Brooker’s actually made quite a serious point about our cultural impoverishment, as exemplified in prime-time TV shows like the X Factor:

<CLICK HERE>

(Not that I don’t often watch the X Factor; I do, though not every week… indeed, I sometimes even enjoy it. But if I enjoy it, I enjoy it like some people enjoy picking their nose and eating it, or like other people enjoy scratching themselves and having a sniff… you know, in a kind of debased way that reduces and empties life of its beauty/worth/wonder. Anything that goes by the name of art or culture should have the opposite effect, surely).

On Righteous Anger – or, The Internet As Seventh Circle Of Hell

It still irritates the heck out of me when I hear someone say something, seemingly from a place of authority, which is either quite patently false, or with which I utterly disagree. This irritation tips over into mild fury when it concerns a topic in which I fancy myself (sometimes in error, I admit) to be reasonably well versed. The mitigating factor when face-to-face, however, is that one can look the person in the eye and remember that they, like oneself, are just finite flesh and blood, with a family, and bodily functions, and probably some decency.

This mitigating factor dissolves when such interactions occur on the internet, when one usually finds oneself in the presence of nothing but letters on a screen – and often quite stupid letters, forming even more stupid words, forming idiotic sentences. On these occasions, there is little chance of calming the fires of one’s righteous anger; indeed, if a picture of the individual in question accompanies these sentences, in light of the nonsense they have just spouted, the picture will take on an overall resonance of ignorant smugness… the general result being a profound impulse to want to punch the picture in the face.

Just such an occasion presented itself this morning while I was perusing Facebook, and it ruined my breakfast. I learnt a while ago that the internet is awash with idiocy, and have elected not to hang around on sites or blogs that represent perspectives on life that I deem to be obviously stupid. Facebook is different, however, insofar as people’s views, when spouted, rather invade one’s personal (virtual) space. When those views are disagreeable, they reveal themselves as an army of marauding barbarians who wish to rape and pillage the righteous townspeople of one’s mind. It seems plain wrong to let such things lie. I have, however, learnt that it usually makes things worse to enter into a dialogue, and so I am getting into the habit of refraining, mainly for my own sanity and mood. I have learnt that I become a bad husband when I do otherwise. The job of policing such intellectual crimes will have to be left to someone with more patience. I have retired.

(I am aware that my own views probably irritate people too. The difference, of course, is that I’m right).

Music, Books, Beverages (3rd Edition)

I haven’t done one of these lists for a while (since March 8th apparently), so here’s a new, slightly longer one.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
REM – Accelerate
U2 – Zooropa
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Jeff Buckley – Grace

What I’ve Been Reading:

Kierkegaard – Repetition & Either/Or
Ivan Illich – The Right To Useful Unemployment
George MacDonald – Fairy Stories
Michel Henry – I Am The Truth
David Held – Introduction To Critical Theory

What I’ve Been Drinking:

An unusual amount of tea, often with a few ginger biscuits
Bodegas Salado Fina Blanca Paloma – a dry white sherry (well, technically a fortified wine ‘cos of the region, but that’s being fussy), which my sister & brother-in-law brought back for me from Spain
Dry ginger ale, again in unusual quantity
Rock Mild – the best mild I’ve ever had, brewed locally in Nottingham
Courvoisier VS – a standard, but very nice, cognac

“The God Delusion made me ashamed to be an atheist”

It’s quite often noted that Dawkins and the rest of the fanatical “New Atheists” are not very highly thought of by more ‘reasonable’ atheists. Given that Dawkins has never come across to me as anything other than a complete idiot, however, I still find it fun to read what they have to say about him… if simply as evidence that my own opinion of him is not solely due to my theistic bias, but may actually be because he is – ontologically – an idiot.

As such, I offer the following article at The Guardian, by atheist philosopher of biology, Michael Ruse:

“Dawkins et al bring us into disrepute“

Enjoy!

Wild Beasts

Another music tip. Saw this northern band for the first time on Later w/ Jools Holland on Friday night; then watched their performances back a couple times on the iPlayer; then looked for their album on iTunes and found it for £4 (astonishingly cheap), and snapped it up. They won’t be everyone’s “cup of tea” (whatever the heck that means… surely an old colonial English phrase, as it kind of presumes the “cup of tea” is universally adored and represents heaven-come-to-earth for absolutely everyone. Anyway…), but once you click into what they’re doing, their stuff becomes pretty interesting. So far (about 6 tracks through the album), I like them.

This is one of the tracks they did on Later. The best part is where one of the other artists on the show, Maxwell, is briefly shown doing a little jig, with a rather funny smile on his face. Enjoy.