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Monthly Archives: April 2013
Spring-ing into action? Yeah, good luck with that.
Finally, I am learning (I think). I am not, (wife-be-happy) going to dance to the Masochism Tango. There was a time I might have enthusiastically attended this, in Manchester on Saturday May 11th. No more. Why? Well, here’s the comment … Continue reading
Normalcy bias; completely unrelated to #climate change
From the Financial Times March 3rd/4th 2012 For David Alexander, a professor and specialist in disaster management who has tracked the case of the Costa Concordia, the captain appears to have succumbed to “normalcy bias”, where disbelief and overconfidence obscure … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, apocalypse, climate
Tagged Cognitive Humility, normalcy bias
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Of meetings and pass-the-parcel blame. #lrb #nhs
And the Peter Principle too. From the latest London Review of Books letters page …. Taylor’s suggestion that doctors haven’t played their part in management is a half-truth. Many have, and found it a bruising and futile experience; typically the … Continue reading
Posted in bureaucracy
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Red Pepper #189 reviewed.
Red Pepper April/May 2013 The tl;dr – Plus ca change (as in, here’s a review of the last one) – a mix of the worthy, the tedious, with flashes of real insight. The big problem with Red Pepper is the … Continue reading
#Chomsky on “Obama’s attacks on civil liberties”. #awesome
There’s a story – possibly apocryphal – that in the 1980s Polish dissidents assumed there were two guys called Noam Chomsky – one a linguist and the other a political activist. Why did they assume this? Because no single human … Continue reading
Feminism is one of those “duh, well clearly” things, no?
Of course, it’s inaccurate to talk about feminism – there are feminisms. And true, some of them are bat-shit crazy. This below is not one of those; it’s bang on the money… Some Reflections on Negotiating the Five Stages of … Continue reading
Posted in activism
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The whines on the bus go round and round, round and round…
The left “extra-parliamentary left” is utterly hooked on proclaiming their own moral superiority, their victim status, on doling out little pats on the back to each other at miserabilist meetings/rallies. A shopping list of grievances. The grievances are all real … Continue reading
Posted in activism, competence
Tagged movement-building, social capital, social movements
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What books/films have you read/seen the most times?
What are the joys of re-reading? In some books you see new things, things that you weren’t ready for at the outset. I remember standing in a queue (I was either 16 or so, or possibly 19) at the library … Continue reading
Posted in activism
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Film Review: 16 Blocks
It’s nice to see David Morse getting work. He always gives such good aggrieved hang-dog (St Elsewhere, The Rock, etc). But this is diabolically silly and not very entertaining. Director Richard Donner is trying here to do another “Lethal Weapon … Continue reading
Quotes from “Pravda” about newspapers and politicians
From Pravda by Howard Brenton and David Hare 1985 Methuen Quince [an ambitious and venal backbencher]: The press and politicians. A delicate relationship Too close, and danger ensues. Too far apart and democracy itself cannot function without the essential exchange … Continue reading
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