On or About December 2007 Human Character Changed

By in books, the cult of multi, the great awokening No Comments

CBC:

She estimates more than 50 per cent of her school’s library books are gone.

In the spring, Takata says students were told by staff that “if the shelves look emptier right now it’s because we have to remove all books [published] prior to 2008.”

Takata is one of several Peel District School Board (PDSB) students, parents and community members CBC Toronto spoke to who are concerned about a seemingly inconsistent approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the board last spring in response to a provincial directive from the Minister of Education.

They say the new process, intended to ensure library books are inclusive, appears to have led some schools to remove thousands of books solely because they were published in 2008 or earlier.

“The Peel District School Board works to ensure that the books available in our school libraries are culturally responsive, relevant, inclusive, and reflective of the diversity of our school communities and the broader society,” said the board.

Directive 18 instructs the board to complete a diversity audit of schools, which includes libraries.

“The Board shall evaluate books, media and all other resources currently in use for teaching and learning English, History and Social Sciences for the purpose of utilizing resources that are inclusive and culturally responsive, relevant and reflective of students, and the Board’s broader school communities,” reads the directive.

PDSB’s “equitable curation cycle” is described generally in the board document as “a three-step process that holds Peel staff accountable for being critically conscious of how systems operate, so that we can dismantle inequities and foster practices that are culturally responsive and relevant.”

I would comment, but I’m too busy building an underground library before the Past Eaters figure out what I’m up to.

Whither Are We Moving?

By in books, the geist of the zeit No Comments

It’s strange that a book published in 2021 could already seem outdated, but that’s the case with Andrew Potter’s On Decline: Stagnation, Nostalgia, and Why Every Year Is the Worst One Ever. At fewer than 120 pages, it forgoes argumentation in favor of assertion, which leaves the author’s priors standing on their own. If you don’t happen to agree with those priors, it makes the experience irritating.

We’re told that “the bill for our exploitative approach to the natural world is finally coming due” in the form of climate change, which is happening even faster than we expected (allegedly).”Today the antipathy to reason is found predominantly (though still not exclusively) on the right,” he says (there is no mention in the book of the cultish belief in gender fluidity which has permeated all our major institutions). Cancel culture is acknowledged, but only as a reaction against the trollish provocations of the right. Reactionary populism comes in for a kicking — its characteristics include “the rejection of science and other forms of expertise, hostility toward immigrants [and] hatred of the mainstream media.”

This is what I mean about the book’s outdated feel — who, having witnessed the public health establishment commit reputational suicide in the summer of 2020, would not feel suspicious of experts claiming to speak for science? Who, having read the Twitter files, would not feel a healthy hatred toward the mainstream media? And where have the latest nativist protests against illegal immigration come from? Massachusetts and NYC, those…notorious strongholds of of Trumpist populism? As the old song says, there’s something happening here, and what it is ain’t exactly clear, but it seems evident that the world in which Potter’s version of liberalism made sense is changing fast. Even faster than the climate (allegedly).

Cloud Burst

By in music, technology No Comments

Ted Gioia:

I’d love to think I was wrong on this, but there’s simply too much evidence to support Theory #2. If Apple wanted to offer exclusive music to subscribers it wouldn’t buy a label that records so many works in the public domain. This is the first warning sign.

My favorite offerings on the BIS label are the Bach cantatas recorded by Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki. (I recommended them last year in my article about the cantatas.)

The BIS label has also released the full Beethoven symphony cycle—performed by the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, as well as lots of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and other core contributors to the classical repertoires. However, unlike the cantatas, these other BIS albums are seldom the most esteemed versions on the market.

But how many music fans searching for Beethoven or Mozart on streaming are picky about conductors and orchestras? If the first search results are the Minnesota Orchestra are they really going to dig deeper to find the Berlin Philharmonic?

Of course, some unique offerings can be found on BIS—especially of obscure Nordic composers. But do you really believe that Apple made this acquisition in order to corner the market on Kalevi Aho or Geirr Tveitt?

The very idea is ridiculous.

If Apple wanted to offer exclusive music, they would cut a deal with Taylor Swift. They have the cash to do it. They wouldn’t waste time on locking up Kalevi Aho. That’s so obvious I shouldn’t even have to say it, but (given all the smoke and mirrors here), I really do.

So we’re clearly dealing with the bad Apple here. And the fact that the company refused to comment on the deal, when CNBC tried to get more details, is revealing. If they really were proud of their sexy new classical label, they would take the opportunity to boast.

In my opinion, Apple Music is the least worst option for streaming music in the background while doing something else. That’s not saying much, of course. I’ve hated everything about the streaming age since it began. For me, the last straw was going to one of my playlists and seeing that one of the songs had been greyed-out and couldn’t be played. OK, fine, that’s always been the condition of using their service. You don’t own any of the music you download through their app. You pay ten bucks a month for the privilege of listening to whatever they have to offer. But if they decide to stop carrying a certain artist, album, or track, you’re out of luck. In this case, I just went to Amazon, bought the mp3 for a dollar, downloaded it to my hard drive, and uploaded it back into my iTunes library. Ah, but you see, iTunes and Apple Music are not the same thing. When I tried to add the song back to the playlist, I got a pop-up telling me that if I persisted in adding this foreign element, the entire playlist would be removed from Apple Music and I would only be able to listen to it on this computer.

So, I finally took Charles Cooke’s advice and set up my Plex library:

Over time, I have ripped all my music, my movies, and my TV shows and put them into Plex. It doesn’t matter where the files originally came from — be it DVDs, downloads, or even my iPhone (for home movies) — Plex is agnostic as to the source of the material, and it’s capable of playing pretty much any filetype you throw at it. Once it’s up and running, adding new material is as simple as putting it into the relevant folder on your computer, and then entering the metadata so that it shows up nicely in your apps (this is largely automated, but occasionally you need to intervene and correct its guess).

Why do this? Well, because while Netflix, Hulu, Disney + and so on are terrific — and I subscribe to all three — I have no control over what they keep in their library, and how. There’s something nice about having a large collection of media that can’t be removed at some else’s whim, especially given that the scolds have started to scour old material and remove anything from the canon that they consider offensive. In effect, Plex gives me the best of both worlds: I don’t have 5,000 DVDs and CDs cluttering up my house, but I’m also not reliant upon mega-corporations for access to my entertainment. If you have the interest and a little technical know-how, I’d highly recommend setting it up.

By which I mean, I pitched the idea to the Lady of the House as the sort of fun technical project that she loves, and she set it up while I sat there looking pretty and offering moral support. The important thing is, though, that now I have all my music library in one location, backed up on a detachable hard drive, and synced up so that any track I purchase from any source goes straight into my library. I highly recommend it for any other music-preppers who rightly distrust the reigning corporate dictum of, “You will own nothing and like it.”

 

Nothing Was Inevitable

By in books, eric hoffer, juxtapositions No Comments

Howe’s prediction rests on a model that at its core is timeless and simple. In fact, it can be summed up by a four-line Internet meme: “hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.” Howe’s version manages to fill most of 500 pages with further nuance, however.

At least in the Anglo-American world that Howe has surveyed, history appears to move in predictable cycles of about 80 to 100 years that, resurrecting a Roman term for the concept, he calls a saeculum. These cycles each have four distinct phases—or “Turnings”—of around 20 to 25 years that always flow in the same order: a “High,” an “Awakening,” an “Unraveling,” and a “Crisis.” Turnings are driven by the changing of generations, or those portions of the population whose collective character was shaped by coming of age amid the societal conditions specific to a previous turning. Each generation’s character, embodied by one of four generational archetypes (“Artists,” “Prophets,” “Nomads,” and “Heroes”) is largely determined by its proximity to the last Crisis. Howe goes into great detail about each generation, but for our purposes all you really need to know is that Prophets, coming of age knowing only the softness of a spring High, begin to dream of utopia during a hotheaded summer Awakening and rebel against the world that their Hero fathers built, seeking to tear it all down during a quarter-century-long autumn Unraveling. This process culminates in a winter of true Crisis (a Fourth Turning), which a new generation of Heroes must struggle to resolve, after which they establish a new order, leading to another High. And yes: the baby boomers of the 1960s counterculture are our most recent Prophets, which means the millennials will have to be our Heroes.

Don’t be (too) alarmed, Howe urges his readers. We’ve been here before, multiple times in fact, and managed not only to survive but also to thrive. Previous Fourth Turning crises (each occurring about a century apart) have included the Great Depression and World War II, the Civil War, and the American Revolution. Before that: England’s Glorious Revolution, the Spanish Armada Crisis, and the War of the Roses. Each was preceded by the same societal trends we’re seeing now, he argues, offering supporting data. But each cyclical crisis, in the end, gave birth to stronger nations.

Howe is grimly adamant, however, that “sometime before the mid-2030s, America will pass through a great gate in history” commensurate with these past crises.

— N.S Lyons, “Present at the Destruction”

****

Once events have taken place, a horde of learned commentators demonstrate that the unexpected was inevitable. Actually, chance, stupidity, and cowardice were chief factors. Nothing was inevitable.

— Eric Hoffer, Before the Sabbath

Kayfabe

By in fresh hell, the geist of the zeit No Comments

What makes me laugh is knowing that the people who produce and consume “news” like this would no doubt look down their noses at the people who sit ringside at a pro wrestling event and scream at the heels and refs. But really, there’s no difference. A heel named Trump makes his way to the ring. The fans, wearing t-shirts with his mugshot on them, jeer and chant, “You’re a short fatty! You’re a short fatty!” Trump pantomimes covering his ears while grimacing in rage. “Shut up! SHUT UP!” he yells. The fans laugh in delight. The promoter does too, as he looks over the gate receipts for the night and gets ready to take the show to the next town. Will the dastardly heel finally get his comeuppance at ElectionSlam next November? Or will he lose a “Loser Goes to Federal Prison” match before then? Stay tuned!

Noteworthies (52)

By in eric hoffer, noteworthies No Comments

You’ve seen me quote Eric Hoffer numerous times. You’ve heard me enthuse about his writings. But for some reason, perhaps owing to some inherent cussedness in human nature, you’ve never actually settled down to read one of his books. You say to yourself, “Self, I’m not actually convinced that this will be a rewarding experience.” Well, who can say why we’re led astray in these instances? I’m not here to judge. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s you. (I’ve thought it over. It’s you.) But if you won’t listen to me, maybe you’ll read Rob Henderson’s review of The True Believer and that will finally break down your recalcitrance.

I Am Serious. And Don’t Call Me Shirley

By in gender, the geist of the zeit No Comments

James Kirchick:

Examples of such “hate speech” that the signatories want banished from the internet include “targeted misgendering and deadnaming,” the latter being the practice of referring to a transgender person by their birth name rather than their chosen one. In a footnote, the letter links to an article declaring that the “relentless misgendering of Dr. Rachel Levine,” an assistant secretary for health and the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed government official, “is violence.” You know, violence, a category that now includes punching someone, stabbing them, and using the name on their birth certificate.

To be sure, deliberately misgendering and deadnaming are rude.

Many years ago, the philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote:

When you’re reading or skimming argumentative essays, especially by philosophers, here is a quick trick that may save you much time and effort, especially in this age of simple searching by computer: look for “surely” in the document, and check each occurrence. Not always, not even most of the time, but often the word “surely” is as good as a blinking light locating a weak point in the argument. Why? Because it marks the very edge of what the author is actually sure about and hopes readers will also be sure about. (If the author were really sure all the readers would agree, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning.) Being at the edge, the author has had to make a judgment call about whether or not to attempt to demonstrate the point at issue, or provide evidence for it, and—because life is short—has decided in favor of bald assertion, with the presumably well-grounded anticipation of agreement. Just the sort of place to find an ill-examined “truism” that isn’t true!

And so it has proved. “To be sure,” my ass. In this case, to use the terms “misgendering” and “deadnaming” in earnest is to concede the entire argument. First of all, outside of questions of grammatical structure, “gender” is a pointless term. When it comes to the sexes, let’s call “gender” what it is: another word for “stereotypes.” This used to be standard material for derivative stand-up comedians when I was young: “Men do things this way, but women do things this way!” Three decades and a lot of worthless dissertations later, this bilge is treated as something profound by lightweight academics and confused teenagers on TikTok. I don’t care if you “identify” with one set of stereotypes as opposed to another, any more than I care whether you’re a diehard fan of either Coke or Pepsi. Entertain whatever shallow, ridiculous thoughts you want, but don’t impose them on me and expect me to happily play along. If that makes me “rude,” so much the worse for politeness.

Obscene Joy

By in jests japes jokes jollies, world football No Comments

“Obscene joy”? Sounds fun, but I don’t even know what that is. Me, I was this guy:

Well, to be precise, when I saw that the US had lost, I chuckled. When I learned that it was thanks to Rapinoe sending her penalty kick into row Z, I did indeed laugh, because I was reminded once again that there is a trickster god who loves us and wants us to be amused, and laughter is how we show our thanks. It just had to be her! Her last act as a professional athlete! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer attention whore! Seeing some professional lib from MSNBC getting mad about it is a bonus chuckle. That same professional lib accusing me of being “too into politics,” rather than, say, the arrogant players who spent the last several years making their political showboating a major part of their “brand”? Well, now, that’s just goddamed hilarious. Enjoy your post-athletic career as a dime-a-dozen influencer, you silly bint.

Schoolyard Songbook

By in omnigatherum 2 Comments

“There you go, puppy! Some great gooey globs of meat!” said the Lady of the House as she put a few scraps of beef fat in the dog’s bowl this morning. Like a lowbrow Proust, I was instantly transported back to the elementary school playgrounds of my youth, and I sang the opening lines:

Greasy, grimy gopher guts!
Little dirty birdie feet!

“Mutilated monkey meat!” she chimed in. (This is apparently a regional variation; the standard I was raised on said “mashed-up baby monkey meat.”)

“Aren’t you glad I use a spooooon” I concluded.

This got me thinking about other schoolyard standards which would require sensitivity training and counseling today, such as:

Fatty, fatty, two by four!
Can’t fit through the bathroom door!
So he did it on the floor!
Licked it up and asked for more!

Then there was the old classic, “Diarrhea,” which I won’t quote, both out of mercy for my readers, and also because I was never quite sure what the standard verses were. I think the most common version was baseball-themed — “sliding into first, and you feel something burst, diarrhea, *clap clap*” — oh, right, I said I wasn’t going to quote it. Whoops.

I asked some younger employees if they remembered these. A 33-year-old recalled singing them. A 21-year-old claimed to be aware of them, but, perhaps still protective of his permanent record, disavowed ever giving voice to them himself. He further surmised that his generation was the last to even encounter them in samizdat form. Human nature being what it is, I somehow doubt today’s kids are any less fascinated by gross taboos than we were, no matter how hard their commissars try to re-educate it out of them. Nonetheless, perhaps we, like lowbrow Irish monks, should assemble an actual songbook to preserve the lore while we wait out these social justice dark ages.

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