Things to think about in 2005
As well as assorted waffle and moaning about the weather, I decided to make a list of things to occupy that grey matter not thinking about Cicero.1) 1789-1989 looks distinctly like an era. What era have we just entered?
2) China. It's important, but everybody talks bollocks about it. Especially the now sumissive to Murdoch Lord Rees-Mogg, who used to have a mind of his own.
3) Noam Chomsky. Si's hero, but it is hard to read his views on Cambodia without feeling distinctly uneasy. Not genocide?
4) Post-modernism. The most misunderstood and misused phrase in the world. I'm going to explain it simply, clearly and briefly. After which I will not tolerate further misunderstanding. OK?
5) Italy. No, forget it. This country is one messed up puppy.
6) Max Weber. He is on the list every year, and, wearily, I'm still grinding away.
7) The depredations of age. Why does the music of Nanci Griffith become more alluring with every passing year?
8) Why do Americans go to the cinema? Don't ask, its all Si's fault.
9) Bioethics. Don't ask, its all somebody else's fault.
...Which gives me three spare months. Suggestions will be taken on board and marked "ballast".
2 Comments:
Can we have a source on 3 please, Jim? My understanding is that Chomsky's criticism was largely of the Western media and intellectual establishment, who under-estimated the killing while the Khmer Rouge enjoyed US support, and over-estimated it (based on the information then available) when the Khmer Rouge lost US support. A bit like Halabja, which oddly entered the world's conciousness in 2003, 15 years after it happened...
Let me know when you have done 4). I know what postmodernism is less than ever these days.
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