Things That We Cannot Control

 

Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control.

It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.

Well I’ve been where you’re hanging, I think I can see how you’re pinned:

When you’re not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you’ve sinned

 

Leonard Cohen

 

In an early play, Aaron Sorkin tells the tale of a shot. It is the perfect shot. It is the end of a film, they are overspent, over run and now have one last shot to make to make the film perfect and all worthwhile, even if the rest has been compromised by their inability to stand up to the studio. The shot is the perfect sunset with thousands of marines running down the hill at a base in Guam. All has been set and timed to perfection. Having given his assistant the responsibility to say ‘shoot’ the director starts the tape rolling meaning that the gesture is, although secret, merely symbolic.

 

Then disaster strikes.

 

‘[pause] Three cows have walked into the shot’

 

Once it has been made clear what is meant by the words ‘three’, ‘cows’ and ‘shot’, action needs to be taken. The first plan is to shoo the cows away, but, as it is pointed out, ‘…an entire Marine infantry unit is running towards them with machine guns. They’re not moving anywhere’.

 

After trying to psychoanalyse the cows’ motivation and plans they resort to the next plan. Kill the cows. This, again, creates the same problem. Not only have cows appeared on a marine base in Guam but they then all drop dead for no reason, something which, may, confuse the audience. The next plan is to get usher to tell people to squint so that they look like Sherman tanks but this hits a snag

 

‘…the people who choose not to play along, will think the Sherman tanks look like cows. And they’ll be right’.

 

Then the bobbing of the cows eating may look like boats (on a Marine base?) but as one of the characters, Jeff, says ‘THEY LOOK LIKE COWS!’.

 

Jeff is then asked to offer some ‘Yale Drama crap’ to explain the symbolism of the cows on the Marine base in Guam with 1000s of Marines with machine guns running past them. It is then decided that it is symbolic of the film. A good film being ruined making the director (Robert) the ‘boldest director since (Orson) Welles’.

 

An assistant then wanders up and says shame about the cows, ‘I almost pissed my pants’ and then explains how the cows can be matted out (removed) in editing leading to (edited)

 

Robert: Why would I want to matte out the cows…I rehearsed the cows, I auditioned over four-hundred cows. Those were my favourites, they were my first choice. You gotta admit, the camera loves ‘em, Reuben

 

Reuben: You planned those cows?

 

Robert: You believe this guy? Rueben, you don’t understand? …. The scene. It’s the whole statement of the picture

 

Reuben: The cows?…sure, I thought you were talking about something else. [pause] I liked it [pause] I really did.’

 

And as the curtain falls Robert calls to the vista

 

‘THANK YOU! THAT’S A WRAP!’

 

When faced with things that we cannot control we sometimes look for reasons, meaning and justifications but, remember, sometimes a cow is just a cow.

 

‘till next time

East Meets West: The Sexualisation Of Innocence

 

 

In the 11^th Century memoir ‘As I Crossed A Bridge Of Dreams’ an unknown Japanese lady (known as Lady Sarashina) wrote of her life in court and with her family, her trials and tribulations and how her life was, ultimately, geared towards one thing, preparing for reincarnation by visiting holy sites. The journeys were long and hard for her as she left it until she was older than most do (no mention of how hard it was for her servants etc who had to go with her). Japanese life, it seems, was about two things. Family and preparing for reincarnation.

 

The Takarazuka Revue was founded by Ichizo Kobayashi in 1913. The revue was an all-female cast of performers who would sing and act. They lived in dormitories and as they went into the theatre and back children and other people would line the streets to see their idols. One lady would be the number one star and would gain the most attention from the owners, teachers, other students as well as the public. The women were not allowed to date and men were not allowed to visit the dormitories. The women, mostly young girls, are seen as pillars of virtue and most, if not all, were virgins, protecting the ideals of Japanese culture, no longer built around theological concerns but still abut innocence and family.

 

The tradition continues today with girl Idol groups such as AKB48. The group is built upon the same principle as the Takarazuka Revue with performances from over 130 girls, aged from early teens until their early-mid 20s when they ‘graduate’. Likewise, they cannot date and are seen as pillars of virtue with any violations of this resulting in, possible, ‘expulsion’ from the group. In 2013 a group member, Minami Minegishi, ‘her head shaved, appeared in a YouTube video to apologize after it was reported by a tabloid that she had spent the night with a man in violation of her contract; she was demoted to the status of trainee. Although her shaved head was self-inflicted in an apologetic response to her fans and peers for her demotion.’

 

 

They perform on stage in pink clothes with the childlike innocence singing about innocent themes. However, they are not as innocent as they seem. One song, Seifuku ga Jama o Suru” (制服が邪魔をする (School) uniform is getting in the way), has lyrics which refer to Enjo-kōsai (援助交際) which means when older men give gifts to little girls for sexual favours. Also, photoshoots and videos show the girls in their lingerie (sometimes nothing) showering together, kissing, being tender and other overtly sexually explicit situations including the use of teddy bears. This has given (quite understandably) to claims of a paedophilic element to the concept.

 

Of my brief exposure to Japanese culture, I have formulated the hypothesis that culture is caught between two schools of thought. Traditional Asian values of innocence combined with American sexploitation- making money from sexual advertising.  The sexualisation of School girls is something very common in Japanese culture (just look at Instagram: note: when researching the topic, I found, on Instagram, an Asian profile called ‘schoolgirllove’ (the second word is slightly changed) with over 63,000 followers. I clicked on it and it was a girl in her school uniform with close ups on various ‘underwear’ regions. Repulsed, I reported it to Instagram who replied that they had reviewed it and found no problem with it as it does not violate their guidelines and if I don’t like it I can block the profile. It seems, to me, Instagram was saying that it supports paedophilia as long as it makes them money*.) and is something which is encouraged by the West looking to exploit new markets. As the girls do not speak of their experiences it is impossible to know the long-term damage which may be done by this conflict of cultures. One thing is for certain though, although these are billed as being fun for the girls and their fans (they sell millions of records and (according to a 2016 documentary) there has been  a decline in romantic relationships between young Japanese boys and girls (even in their 30s) as they would much rather support their idols), it is really old, mostly white, men who the marketing is aimed at and as long as this is the case then the West will continue to erode the innocence of Japanese children and what is left of Japan’s soul and the world of Lady Sarashina will truly be an artefact of the past.

 

 

 

‘till next time

 

*After writing this I found, on Instagram, an advert for https://report.iwf.org.uk/en/report which is an organisation set up to protect children from sexual exploitation, violence etc. You can fill in a report form with URLs which you deem to be unsuitable for various reasons. They do not write back to you or respond but it is an important tool to have. I wrote the following to them:

 

I cannot speak to the age, but pages like the one above on Instagram depict or give the illusion of school children being sexual objects. It is all over Instagram which I find repulsive. I have reported the above link to Instagram and they replied to say that it did not breach their guidelines. The very name ‘schoolgirllove'(edited for blog) and the fact that it is a girl in school uniform with closeups on her breasts and between her legs from various angles cannot be anything expect the sexualisation of school children. As long as Instagram is allowed to get away with such perversions under its policy banner the internet cannot be a safe place for children, nor can it be safe for children off the internet as it give the impression that such perversions are normal and to be encouraged. There is a lot of sexual content on Instagram, for sure, it seems to be one of the main uses of the site, however, once children or the illusion of children become involved a line must be drawn between what is acceptable and what is, essentially, paedophilia, although maybe no falling within the medical definition of the term. I don’t expect much to be done by this report, if anything, but we must, must protect our children better. Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress has shown the difficulty in ‘policing’ such matters but surely steps must be taken. Thank you for your time.

 

Does God Exist?

 

The great question since the ‘birth’ of the scientific age is does God exist? The question is of significant importance to those who misunderstand Nietzsche and/or those who believe what comes now is better than what came before. All of the great facets of thought are the same since the dawn of time, however, as theology was supposed to replace mysticism so science is to have supplanted theology.

 

In the 13^th Century, the poet Rumi, as a child, saw angels and was sanctified whereas in the 18^th-19^th Centuries the English poet William Blake saw the face of God and was daemonised and in the words of a former lecturer of mine ‘off his face’. The difference between the two interpretations is that Blake was part of the scientific age and Rumi on the cusp of the mystic and theological ages.

 

To come back to the point, to say whether God exists or not we must first understand what it means, i.e. what the language used means. If I was to say ‘elephant’ I assume you would know what an elephant is, something with four legs, big ears, a magic feather and always off on holiday (gettit?) however, if I was to say فيل  to you, unless you speak Arabic, would be confused even though it is (according to google translate so maybe not) the Arabic word for ‘elephant’. We do not know if what we call elephant denotes the same thing but as a pure translation of the word it would be the same thing even if, maybe, the meaning was different.

 

Language follows accepted norms and through context meaning is given. I have had many disputes with people (once everyone in the room) as to what denotes language. I argued that paintings (such as hieroglyphs) were language and also music. This I was told is incorrect. Only that which is spoken and written are language. In my opinion, the purest form of language is sound be it silence or music. One does not need to know that Beethoven set Schiller’s poem ‘Ode To Joy’ (lucky girl) to music or even to know the name of the music or even the name Beethoven to be able to listen to the music and feel something so far beyond the confines of conventional language. This is why Beethoven’s 9^th symphony is beloved all over the world regardless of culture and language.

 

It is often argued that the purest form of language is mathematics. However, this too is dependent on context, context which creates rules and vice versa. If I was to say that, in front of me there are 7 desks then, by this new rule, the desk I am leaning on equates to 7. Thusly if I saw a dog I would also say that I can see seven dogs. Can I? By my rules yes. One question as to mathematics which no one I have asked has even humoured me with an attempt to answer is, is mathematics inherent in the universe or do we impose it upon the universe, as with my seven (7) dogs?. If it is inherent then that gives it more validity, however, if it is imposed upon the universe by our conceptualisation and laws then one cannot say that the universe is mathematical, which would mean that we can know, in terms of language, nothing for, as I have said, music is beyond such notions as conceptual language.

 

To return to the question at hand, ‘Does God Exist?’ one would have to say, given the conception of existence that God does not exist as existence is finite and corporeal and if there is anything which equates to a God then it must be beyond conceptualisation and the laws we understand/impose upon the universe.

 

Before asking ‘Does God Exist?’  I think we should first ask does language exist? Or, maybe better, stop trying to control everything, lay back and let Beethoven take you away to a place beyond conceptual language, maybe even into an understanding of God.

 

‘till next time

 

 

Middle Class Problems

 

More often than not, I keep finding myself having to address ‘problems’ which are, essentially (predominantly white) middle class problems, aka diluted enough and devoid of nuance enough to be on a BBC radio discussion or for dinner party conversation. These are serious issues which are not given the consideration they deserve and, annoyingly, are starting to dominate my blog. As I would rather be, and am, writing about other stuff, to celebrate the (apparently) anniversary of my Blog (thank you WordPress for informing me) I am going to do something a little different. In 2015 Bob Dylan released his first ‘American Songbook’ album, followed by one the next year followed by a triple cd set (imaginatively called Triplicate) of individual albums released as one set. In that spirit, to celebrate (yeah, I don’t care either) I am going to do likewise and present a three-piece set of what all seem to be middle class problems (predominantly white). Enjoy!

 

 

—-

Bang Bang, You Shot Me Down

 

There are 4.8 million people in Ireland and that number keeps Dublin.

 

One very popular issue for the affluent white middle class is animal welfare and rights. I have previously spoken about how this issue is not as simplistic as it might seem given the complex economics realities, for example if one was to stop cold turkey (pun intended) then the economic fallout would be terrible throughout the world as many small economies are built around, for example, the procurement of leather for sale to the rich white middle classes. And as this previously highlighted, if people can’t care for the same species, what chance is there for those of different species?

 

A friend of mine likes to tell me about his guns and hunting and how different guns do different things. My initial response was Pavlovian ‘hunting…bad…’ but then I started thinking about it. Which is more unethical? Going out and killing a deer to cut up and feed someone for a few months (preserved by smoking, freezing, salting etc) or going to a supermarket and seeing a ton of chickens being thrown away as no one deemed their bodies worthy of being eaten? I noticed that some of my objections to hunting may be BS (pun, again, intended, sorry) for there are ethical ways to do almost all things including the slaughter of humans past their use-by date, euthanasia, which in the film Soylent Green led to a new form of food for a staving world (Ocean’s dying, plankton’s dying… it’s people. Soylent Green is made out of people)

 

Worse things happen to animals than hunting. One of my favourite childhood books was The Animals of Farthing Wood. It is the tale of animals which have to leave Farthing Wood as it is being concreted over to build house for the affluent white middle class. Luckily the animals know of a nature reserve where they can go (made by man) after a terrible long journey.

 

This highlights two problems. 1) the biggest danger to animals is their habitats and eco-systems being destroyed to give people somewhere to sit around and discuss the ethics of veganism and b) many animals have been domesticated either directly, such as cattle and pets or indirectly, in nature reserves simulating ‘real’ life.

 

The best thing for animals would be if we would shuffle off, make ourselves into soylent green to feed the animals but given as how far we have destroyed the wildness of the animals it will take many generations for them to adapt back anyway, as how most of their natural habitats have been destroyed they wouldn’t have a place to go.

 

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Serious Issues For Serious Minds

 

 

Upon the release of Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List, a film about a German saving Jewish workers from being sent to the concentration camps and, probably, death, he received a great deal of backlash from the likes of the critic Theodor Adorno who said, ‘After Auschwitz, to write a poem is barbaric.’ And went on to establish that such serious issues as the genocide of the Jews should not be part of popular culture, rather should be reserved for serious minded critics such as himself. Adorno, for those who do not know, was a prominent member of the so-called Frankfurt School, a school of social theory and philosophy which is part of Goethe University in Frankfurt. Adorno did not seem to grasp that popular culture is a good way for people to find out about serious issues and then go and find out more about them. For Adorno, such knowledge should be reserved for the elite who can ‘understand’ it better than those who indulge in popular culture.

 

Adorno is widely read and adored-no by critics and academics, all, seemingly people who consider themselves to be both anti-establishment and the elite, not seeing the oxymoronic notion of this, something Nietzsche took issue with, especially in the guise of his Zarathustra, and not realising that they are themselves the establishment!

 

Hermann Hesse, whose works seem to be, in most parts, rather savage studies of his self, wrote a novel, called The Glass Bead Game, in which people live in massive ‘ivory’ towers and play a game which has evolved from the study of science, psychology, philosophy etc. In the book Hesse warns of the dangers of making an elite of knowledge by those who become an establishment and cannot understand the real-life implications of their studies.

 

One famous example of ‘anti-establishment’ success is in the 1960s. with cinema in a decline, almost bankrupt, the B-movie directors Coppola, Lucas, Hopper etc tapped into something, that is the times or, less accurately, the spirit of the times much as Brando, Dean, Kazan etc had done in the 50s. The film Easy Rider became a success aka it made money. The counter culture filmmakers had won! They were allowed to make their films because…they made money for the studios! As Oppenheimer was co-opted into the army to lead the Manhattan Project, so Coppola, Peckinpah et al were co-opted into Hollywood, becoming the new elite or the new establishment.

The conceit of Adorno et al to think that they were anti-establishment, after they had become not only been eaten by the beast but part of the very beast is why real revolutionaries, Marx, Wittgenstein, Einstein, Blake etc, all of whom have become staple diets for the elite struggled so hard to not only be adopted by the elite but also to be heard and taken seriously by the elite whom now worship them.

 

Popular culture can play an import role in introducing people to concepts which they know little about and encourage them to find out more. They have wide reaching powers and can, genuinely, change lives and minds. As long as those ‘anti-establishment’ establishment figures continue to sit in their small circles sniping and slapping the back of each other the knowledge that they hold, whilst it may be valid, will never be able to bring about any real change. History has taught us that those who rebel against the system, once in the system become part of it and rather like its perks (money, fame etc, just look at the life of Alexander the Great who rebelled against Persian decadence and then, once he had won, essentially became a Persian decadent) and instead of only clinging to the same small circle of books and notions remember what is written in a chapter of the most popular book of all time ‘All is vanity’ (Ecclesiastes) and maybe then they can be the change they wish to see and bring about a real change.

 

 

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Boom And Bust

 

Our lives work in a circular manner. We eat too much and the diet, we drink too much for 11 months and then have a ‘dry’ month, we buy too much and then give it away.  The post war generation worked hard to build up the world from the ruins of the war and to create a better future for their children. Their children then went on to earn more than their parents, live in bigger houses, have more technology, such as the internet and electric can openers, and rolled their eyes at their parents, unable to have amassed great fortunes and for living in relative small and simplistic houses littered with stuffed owls and china plates and not computers, TVs and other indulgences which have become the bear minimum to exist in this modern world. They lived fast, bought big houses, worked their way up the job ladder (‘when I was young I could get a job at 9, leave at 12, have another by supper’). Then 2008 happened. The excesses of the middle generation caught up with them, however, they were not the ones to suffer. With mortgages paid off on 2^nd/3^rd houses and a secure employment they could read about the story in the papers and sigh that times are hard in third world countries, and in terms of Brexit and the possible ramifications for future generations ‘it’s boring’. Meanwhile, their children were emerging into a world where the property ladder is dangled just out of reach and new business constraints meant that zero-hour contracts had become the norm meaning that one does not have a steady income, health care, paid holidays or job security.

 

These, so called (disparagingly) millennials retreated into virtual worlds as the ‘real’ world offered nothing but anxiety- can’t get a job, can’t buy a house, can’t get any thing which had been taken for granted until now. In American Universities homelessness is a reality even for students. Many sleep on friend’s couches or in the library, one university (I can’t recall the name) even has a shanty town on campus for its homeless students. Education used to be free and then those who got it for free started charging, the proverbial ‘pull up the ladder Jack, I’m alright’. Consequently, people are having children later as the stress and anxiety of just being able to ‘get by’ make one have to be hyper-focused on getting onto the ladder- health and family be damned!

 

Hardly anyone I spoke to under the age of 35 or over 35, if they are not already on the housing ladder, believes that they will ever own a house. Statistically, this is the first generation to earn less than its parents. Oak wardrobes have been replaced with sticks of plastic on wheels with a metal bar across. A holiday of a lifetime is now a cheap flight to a European city and two nights in a hostel, what was considered below the dignity of the middle generation and the wildest dreams of the first generation (flight! Holidays abroad!)  is now the aspiration of the so-called millennials.

 

More often than not people have boxes of clothes or books in their parent’s houses as their parents have big houses for a family for one or two people who fill it with, to quote Dave Ramsey (I think he gave the original quote) ‘things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.’ As the third generation live in one or two rooms (sometimes all in one!) and have no room for a second chair let alone a library or oak wardrobe!

 

We are currently in the bust aftermath of boom and bust and it will correct itself (hopefully) and then repeat, it is human nature. If it does not correct itself then it will only get worse, the job market, the housing markets already stressful and soul destroying, will become even worse (if that is possible) and historians will fondly look at the middle generation as the last days of Rome.

——-

 

Happy Easter!

 

‘till next time