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a lot of tears followed...In 1943, Tucker painted "Victory Girls". It is a painting described as a grotesque night image of the young women who roamed the city, dressed in the victory colours of the allies, “making themselves available to the soldiers”.
A police officer at the time recorded these "before-#metoo" events:
"Melbourne with the large influx of troops is experiencing a condition of affairs that has hitherto been foreign to it… we are not able to deal with these young women as they should be dealt with … at night they frequent the streets looking for excitement. It strikes me they have no morals whatsoever.”
And then came the Weinsteins and the Rolf-Harrises who abused their positions to make inappropriate sexual gestures and performances in more recent times. The present counter-current of puritanism and prudent chastity of the #metoo-movement have now become the dead-end drivers of relationships — as well as the safe meeting of “decent”-other-sorts on websites. “Some intelligent lonely beautiful woman over 60 is waiting for you”. Old Gus can wait a few more years…
Against this, the counter-words in the 21st century (late 2018) streets and bars — and music concerts — from old rich codgers and young spunks (some gay) is that 30 (loose unofficial drunken estimate) per cent of men have been “sexually arrassed" by women recently. But there was no official complaints. These men were lucky they were not brought to justice for being deviants, after “refusals".
The association between loose morals and the spreading of venereal diseases by women was common during WW2 and it is still mentioned on slow news days, today. Despite women having “greater independence” at work — sex, before the sexual revolution, was still considered a male superior domain of influence. The men “who took advantage” of the females’ war offering, were thus seen as repulsive predators (or pigs) as seen in the painting.
Then, we entered the spaced-out world of “hippies” and of “free love” 20 years after the end of WW2. This is what the French filosofer and semi-sad satirist, Michel Houellebecq, has seen as the downfall of civilisation — the naked frolicking debauchery being brought on by liberalism, science and freedom from morals, rather than blame the fall of the civilised world on the status of unfinished wars, including the Vietnam war which was an eye opener onto the bad deeds of the West.
The American Conservative James McElroy writes pith-fully about Houellebecq having entered Ross Douthat’s Yale University class (Douthat — a young filo gun — also writes for The New York Times) and being beyond redemption…:
Who is the top conservative novelist today? One name that comes to mind is Michel Houellebecq, recently included by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat on the syllabus for his Yale University class on conservatism. And while Houellebecq’s books offer interesting ideas on metaphysics, Islam in Europe, and how the market impacts our love lives, if the right is going to allow nihilistic novels of sexual depravity into its canon, there is a stronger author out there….
James McElroy continues:
Cormac McCarthy is the greatest living novelist. It’s actually strange that he and Houellebecq aren’t compared more often since both write from a similar worldview about similar topics. Neither is necessarily conservative but both represent well the “cultural pessimism” portion of the Right. And only by grasping why McCarthy is the superior writer can we see see the proper way this slice of conservatism should be integrated into the larger canon. Conservative interest in Houellebecq stems from his criticisms of European liberalism, particularly his ideas on social isolation, the sexual revolution, and Islam. These are most clearly articulated in his novels The Elementary Particles and Submission. Houellebecq traces Europe’s cultural ennui to empiricist metaphysics that reduce the world to matter. He describes the sexual revolution of the ’60s and Europe’s recent embrace of Islam as symptoms of this disease. In Elementary Particles, he sneers at the hippie “free love” element of the ’60s and describes how the sexual revolution represented the intrusion of market principles into human relations. According to Houellebecq, hookup culture is a competitive commodity market that breeds the same inequality seen in global capitalism. Submission recasts bleeding-heart platitudes about diversity and Islam as the apathetic shrug of a people deracinated from authentic culture. Though he once called Islam the world’s stupidest religion, his real target is the West’s cultural ennervation. Houellebecq’s pessimism will appeal to conservatives concerned with the future of the West. Yet above and beyond those ideas, Houellebecq is interested primarily in Houellebecq. A close examination of his choices as a writer reveal the egotistical aspects of his imagination, which undermine his view of cultural pessimism. All of his protagonists are versions of himself; sometimes they even share his name. A certain amount of autobiography is permissible in novels, but Houellebecq’s self-obsession derails the form and structure of his art. For example, in the fourth chapter of Elementary Particles, the third-person narrative inexplicably switches to first person for a single sentence. This is amateur writing. Houellebecq also likes to plod away from the story to deliver streams of sexually explicit details. Occasionally this results in pitch black comedy, but more often it comes across as trying too hard to shock the pearl clutchers. In Elementary Particles, this sloppy writing is covered up with a narrative structure designed to entice the reader. The protagonist is a scientist who has invented something that changed mankind, though we’re not told what, a tune-in-next-week tease that drags the reader through Houellebecq’s musings. But this is a gimmick, not a story. If Houellebecq were to place his art above his ego, he might wonder whether there was a contradiction in using the storytelling technique of mass-produced entertainment in order to interest readers in his criticisms of mass-produced entertainment. This lack of artistic vigor undermines his portrayal of a lack of vigor in the West, and the absolute pessimism is belied by the palpable joy Houellebecq takes in his provocations. On the other hand, Cormac McCarthy seems genuinely anguished by his pessimism. McCarthy writes about murderers, scalp hunters, hobos with sacks full of bats, and cannibals. These nightmares are accompanied by Dostoevskian questions over the existence of God and the nature of evil. Not exactly cheery stuff. Like Houellebecq, McCarthy is interested in the after-effects of the Enlightenment’s metaphysical revolution, and he also casts doubt on the liberal project. But whereas in Houellebecq these ideas are tied together with egoism, with McCarthy they fall within an artistic vision. McCarthy’s primary interest is the limits of language, and his commitment to exploring them forces him to transcend the unrelenting darkness of his novels. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/cormac-mccarthys-conservative-pessimism/
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The American Conservative is not here to help the causes of “liberalism”. Nor is Ross Douthat at the New York Times… Nor is McCormack whose writings are more arthritic than artistic. Douthat and McElroy stick to the well-travelled pathways of touristic destinations. Full-on adventure is for the crazies and the sexually deprived individuals. Liberalism alla conservative needs depressive and pessimistic limits, sprinkled with hope.
Talking about the "limits' of languages, this is where we should go and visit Jacques Lacan:
It would be fair to say that there are few twentieth century thinkers who have had such a far-reaching influence on subsequent intellectual life in the humanities as Jacques Lacan. Lacan's "return to the meaning of Freud" profoundly changed the institutional face of the psychoanalytic movement internationally. His seminars in the 1950s were one of the formative environments of the currency of philosophical ideas that dominated French letters in the 1960s and'70s, and which has come to be known in the Anglophone world as "post-structuralism." Both inside and outside of France, Lacan's work has also been profoundly important in the fields of aesthetics, literary criticism and film theory. Through the work of Louis Pierre Althusser (and more lately Ernesto Laclau, Jannis Stavrokakis and Slavoj Zizek), Lacanian theory has also left its mark on political theory, and particularly the analysis of ideology and institutional reproduction. This article seeks to outline something of the philosophical heritage and importance of Lacan's theoretical work. After introducing Lacan, it focuses primarily on Lacan's philosophical anthropology, philosophy of language, psychoanalysis and philosophy of ethics.
https://www.iep.utm.edu/lacweb/
So we should let Lacan tell us the last (not quite yet) word:
Finally, If I am to rouse you to indignation that, after many centuries of religious hypocrisy and philosophical bravado, nothing valid has yet been articulated on what links metaphor to the question of being and metonymy to its lack, there must be an object there to answer to that indignation both as the provocateur and its victim : It is humanistic man and the credit, affirmed beyond reparation, which he has drawn on his intention.
May 1957.
—————————
Gus: It appears that understanding the evolution of language, even for an expert such as Lacan, is far more complex than that of DNA. While DNA is super complex, it’s very precise despite the shifts of evolution over 3.5 billion years — the structure still relying on its original integrity — while languages, the core of philosophical discourses and Sunday picnics, are flexible, foggy and floppy despite our recording of them through illegible writings and oral/noise transmission.
The original grunts have been lost in the mists of time. Latin is deaded. Jacques Lacan did his best to explain some obvious discreet shifts of meaning, some of which were already addressed by Freud in his “Book of Jokes”.
Sometimes the metonymy can be funny, very funny or serious — and/or be misunderstood unless there is an agreed interpretation on both sides of the transmission, or an impressive quantum leap is made by the receiver. At this stage most of the 20th century philosophers associated “man” instead of “human”, often undervaluing the input of women on languages — including saucy lingo (see Aphra Behn).
Yet, some of the 3500 languages in the human spectrum of communication are not easily disturbed by metaphors, metonymy or unusual associations of words. Precision of communications means survival is assured.
On the other side, some languages easily use new relationships as valid (even if not accepted by the elite dictionaries) additions to the vernacular, sometimes with a defined addiction to the new words — Gus’ stuff included.
We make puns, jokes and use secret lingo between mates. We create songs and poetry where the meter and the sounds become the essence of the usually succinct but condensed meaning-transfer. Thus we tell stories and we, the plebs, do our best to survive without going to the next level of “trituration” or “fiddling with the philosophy of everything” — otherwise our brain might explode.
We often prefer being happy in a practical ignorance, where a nice day, a glass of beer in hand during the weekend sausage sizzle while wearing a baseball cap, is a comfortable counterpoint to a paid rewarding routine of work. This barbecue is more pleasurable than asking the hard questions which to say the least won’t end up "paying the bills” nor make us smile large and wide. But we will tell jokes (some about women) that follow a well-oiled philosophical construct, the mystery of which we don’t have to fathom. There is no need to, except when we hurt with pain or start to misunderstand the purpose of our existence — which we could soon do, daily, without our hard carapace of necessary delusive refusal to go “deep”…
On average, we prefer enjoying the moment of barbecued hissing bliss, rather than being lured, then cooped-up in someone else’s dark deviant corners, such as Houellebecq's and Cormac McCarthy’s — these finite spaces often infected with bullshit (whether satirical or not) that is somewhat depressing and full of annoying deceptive traps — like a dungeon that has been used as a dunny for yonks rather than foster dreams about Juliet.
Here we could make a pun: we are told that Michel Houellebecq took the name of his grandmother in Algeria… But a sarcastic linguist such as my good friend Jules Letambour, could satirise the name as “ou-est-le-bec” which would translate in English as “where-is-the-beak?”. Now, Jules Letambour, translator extraordinaire, would intimate that in the French Language “le bec” (the beak) has many (just a few) under-layers of meanings. “Se casser le bec” for example means "to fail”. And in relation to Houellebecq’s philosophy, this could have plenty of accidental metaphoric meanings, while he miserably raves on.
The other dude, Cormac McCarthy, is a religious conservative, like the other such as that boring conservative horizontal religious bore — I see his face but cannot remember his name (oh I can – Scruton! see: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28510). With a bit more distinguished and possibly more “graceful” delivery, Cormac subtlety delivers with a hammer despite the dangerously weird nature of his deviant dreams…
Presently, we are caught in a new puritan world where women hold the high side of the street and we, males, should be ashamed of even thinking having a naughty relationship for five seconds. We can’t even make jokes about such with our mates, because since the invention of microphones, we, the warriors from Mars, can be spied upon by the Venusians — or be dobbed in by police undercover.
The National Party of Australia, The Nationals, has had a few of these men who went beyond the thoughts, and indulged in hypocritical behaviour. The age of “free love” was terminated when Bhagwan Rajneesh's Rolls Royces were repossessed by the tax department. Then we had the rise of “marriage equality”, at the end of a hard fought era when women could touch women and men could touch men without being rolled in front of the courts. But men barely touching women in friendly endearing gestures is now out of bound — full of dangers for these men, viewed like plagued murderers, being sent to prison and raped for 15 years.
A few bad apples with small dicks, like Trump, killed the fun of the cuddle and flirt. Some actors acted out of fun and in the spirit of their craft, but got hammered for not being puritan enough.
I must say that, as I get older by the too fast ticking minutes, long time cranky and full of hubris, I get annoyed at some female voices that shriek and talk non-stop drivel — the same important stuff we discussed and had solved at school before god took over Christmas — in a non-stop important radio fizz-fest like the hissing noise of a barbecue. At least we took a breather and played balls.
Lucky these women don’t talk to me anymore, they talk to their mates in the shops or, having become manager of a charitable enterprise for kids in distress — because all the males who had been screened were deemed deviants, even priests — they drivel on and on with passion at a murdering high pitch. Soldiers of WW2 would not care, as they knew they would soon face bullets hissing pass their soft curled hats — a few days after having attempted to sow their seeds in an uncontrollable urge, to be remembered as a fading photograph on the mantlepiece of a fireplace.
Love became a fixed point in time. A lot of tears followed the image above...
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happy days...
http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34605
pinochet supreme...
Right-wing New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, back in his Ivy League college days, wrote an op-ed defending US-backed ultra-capitalist dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military junta murdered and disappeared thousands of leftists, and tortured tens of thousands more.
Intellectual historian Timothy Barker dug through columns that Douthat penned for Harvard University’s right-wing student newspaper The Harvard Salient between 1998 and 2002.
Barker found a slew of bigoted articles in which Douthat echoed explicitly racist talking points that are popular among the so-called alt-right today, including the idea that white Europeans are “vanishing” and being replaced through immigration by supposed “barbarians” like Turks, Africans, and Arabs.
The future New York Times columnist attacked gay people, warned of “the evils of strident feminism,” and insisted that US “whites, too, suffered because of slavery.”
Already a big conservative with an even bigger ego, Douthat declared in a 2001 profile, “Coming to Harvard, I now have a new sense of the power and success that is at our fingertips – I know I will be one of the 25 richest writers of the future.”
But most striking of all the Douthat articles uncovered by Barker is a November 9, 1998 column titled “Reassessing Pinochet.”
Read more:
https://therealnews.com/columns/ny-times-columnist-ross-douthat-defended...
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the end of the affair...
According to an annual survey by HR company Challenger, Gray and Christmas just 65% of America companies were planning to hold a seasonal party in 2018; the lowest number since the recession in 2009. The freeze on festivities, Challenger notes, may be due to worries about “potential liability following the #MeToo movement”.
While #MeToo has helped topple predators and usher in new laws, it has also increased workplace paranoia. Cancelled office parties are just one example of this; a recent Bloomberg investigation found male Wall Street executives are now going out of their way not to be alone with female colleagues, avoiding one-on-one meetings and dinners. (Bloomberg calls this the “Mike Pence” effect, as the vice-president never dines alone with a woman who isn’t his wife.)
It shouldn’t need to be said, but apparently it does: #MeToo doesn’t mean gender segregation. It doesn’t mean an end to socializing or fun. It definitely doesn’t mean everyone needs to start acting like Pence. On the contrary, educating people about consent and creating working environments in which there are clear boundaries around behavior, is empowering for everyone.
And if you still need persuading that firm boundaries makes for a fun night out, I suggest you take a look at the House of Yes. Voted by Time Out as the second best thing to do in the world, the Brooklyn venue has been described as “the wildest night club on the planet”. A night at House of Yes might involve anything from naked hot tubs to drag wrestling to cage dancers – but it also involves adhering to a strict consent policy. The moment you buy a ticket you are told about this and you are reminded of it throughout the venue. Not just through posters but through “consenticorns”; so-called “consent guardians” who wear light-up unicorn horns.
“They wander around the room all night and serve two roles,” explained Jacqui Rabkin, marketing director at House of Yes. “They step in if they see a situation where someone looks uncomfortable or too drunk, and if ask if they need help.” Then, she says, because “they have a light-up headpiece, they also act like a beacon”. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation you can quickly find a consent guardian; all of whom have been trained in de-escalation techniques.
With #MeToo setting off a Pence effect, House of Yes’s success is an important reminder that the stricter we are about consent, the more fun everyone can have. Rather than cancelling holiday parties, companies should be working hard to create a culture where everyone feels safe. They should fix the problem, not try and avoid it. That fix might not involve light-up unicorn horns, but it does involve talking about how we talk about consent.
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/22/metoo-movement-off...
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Though the movement is filling the coffers of barristers and lawyers, talking to them about it is like having a serious conversation with a dead cartoonist at Charlie Hebdo. The most celebrious wigged persons of the law (secretly) "deplore" the way this far too wide netcasting has caught even the poor bastards (male) who comment on the sexy legs of a woman (who obviously wants males to see her sexy legs considering the length of her super-short miniskirt) to a colleague — and be dragged in front of a judge who can send him to a convict settlement for 15 years, on the account of a "witness".
Soon drinking alcohol at "office parties" will be replaced by prayers to god to prevent us to see legs — help me god. Flagellating tools will be supplied...
G. L.
Read from top. Shame on me...
ah women...
Women
Too fat
Too flat
Too thin
Too lean
Too average
Too lying about their age
Too made up
Too pumped
Too flbby
Too snappy
Too aggressive
Too passive
Too bold
Too old
Too young
Too strung
Too dumb
Too bombshell
Too Chanel
Too inconsistent
Too intelligent
Too belligerent
Too sick
Too slick
Too meek
Too plucked
Too tucked
Too Botoxed
Too boxed
Too demanding
Too bartering
Too deceitful
Too full as a boot
Too much in error
Too prone to terror
Too cheap
Too hip
Thank nature for testosterone
Otherwise this species be gone
As beauty is not enough
To attract Paddy McRuff
And me in the mirror
Oh shit!
Robert Still Burns
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Translated by Jules Letambour
Poem by Robert Cr. Bruley
solutions to end violence against women...
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman spotlights solutions to end gender violence
Bringing 16 Days of Activism campaign to a close, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, survivors and activists spotlight solutions to end violence against women
Fundraising event for the life-changing work of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women held in Los Angeles, with #HearMeToo voices taking centre-stage
(Los Angeles) - Commemorating Human Rights Day and the global advocacy campaign "16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence", the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) today held a fundraising luncheon in Santa Monica, California. In the hometown of the #MeToo movement, the event brought together a power-house of survivors, dignitaries, UN officials, gender experts and Hollywood celebrities.
Hosted by UN Women's Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, the event celebrated the ground-breaking initiatives supported by the UN Trust Fund across the world over the past 22 years and highlighted the work that remains to end this human rights violation, which impacts one in three women worldwide. The UN Trust Fund is the only global grant-making mechanism dedicated to eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls and is managed by UN Women, on behalf of the UN system.
Today's event brought to a close the global mobilization of the 16 Days of Activism campaign. This year's UN theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November) and the 16 Days of Activism was "Orange the World: #HearMeToo", amplifying the voices of women and girls around the world who have survived violence or who strive to defend women's rights-many of them very far away from the limelight or media headlines.
A relentless champion to end the global pandemic of violence against women and girls, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman highlighted why she personally raises her voice on this issue, and why it must be of utmost priority for all: "When I became UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador some time ago, I met with women and girls who had survived violence and who were supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. I saw first-hand the real difference it makes in the lives of women and girls. I'm here today to continue this work and amplify the voices of women survivors through the media and help raise significant funds for programs that address this issue."
"We are witnessing the power of a global sisterhood to end the normalization of violence against women and girls that is telling perpetrators "time is up". We must continue to amplify the voices of all survivors and activists, especially those who are typically marginalized or whose voices have been muted, and come together in global solidarity for change," said Under- Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka underlining the force of the mobilization that has taken hold globally, and the need to propel it further.
Mesmerizing the event guests, actor and activist Gabriella Wright narrated the powerful story of Alice Mathe, a young woman survivor of violence from Zimbabwe, who is deaf. Unlike many others in her situation, Alice managed to access justice by taking her attacker to court, with the support of an UN Trust Fund initiative providing specialist services to girls and women with disabilities, and he is now in jail.
An honoree at the event, the United States former Vice President Joe Biden received the Orange Heart award. Other notable speakers included Aldijana Sisic, Chief of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, and Clea Guerra Romero representing UN Trust Fund grantee Flora Tristan Women's Centre in Peru. Sherwin Bryce-Pease, UN Bureau Chief of South African Broadcasting Corporation as emcee and musical performances by David Hernandez, added their unique flavor to the powerful event.
The luncheon highlighted the continued dearth of resources for global interventions to end violence against women and girls and called upon those in attendance to contribute to support interventions funded by the UN Trust Fund, which has supported 460 organizations in the last 22 years, reaching over 6 million people last year alone.
Aldijana Sisic, Chief of the UN Trust Fund, highlighted the significance of investing in ending the human rights violation of violence against women and girls: "The long-term test for all of us is not whether we bring down a few powerful men, but whether we ensure we do not let down and leave behind millions of women and girls around the world. We now have an opportunity to build on the courage of survivors in the wake of the #MeToo movement, born in this very city, and demonstrate the systemic nature of violence against women and girls."
Since 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women) this year, the 16 Days of Activism have brought together governments, communities, survivors, activists and the public to raise awareness on the urgent need to end violence against women and girls. Over 600 campaign activities have been held in over 90 countries around the world, with iconic buildings and monuments being lit in orange to call for a violence-free future, such as the Angel of Independence in Mexico City, the majestic Giza pyramids in Egypt or the Yangon City Hall in Myanmar.
In powerful public events in dozens of countries around the world, including public concerts in Chile, Colombia and Bangladesh, using murals in Afghanistan and in public transportation hubs in El Salvador, Vanuatu, and The Philippines, global citizens have stood in solidarity with survivors and advocates.
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/society/anomal/12-12-2018/142117-gender_viol...
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love is sick...
“Where is the love?” Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack sang in an unforgettable hit from 1972. Their breakup ballad could now double as an odd anthem for American culture. Its people, art, and entertainment have rejected romance and sexual intimacy as subjects worthy of celebration and investment. In a sad commentary on an increasingly dysfunctional society, love has all but vanished from pop culture.
In 2014, the Journal of Advertising Research published a study documenting an odd decline in references to love throughout popular music. The word had fallen below phrases such as “good time” and epithets such as the N-word on the list of most commonly sung terms in the chart topping hits of the 2000s.
Music critic John Blake took notice seven years ago of how R&B—a genre that once gave the world Al Green and Aretha Franklin—no longer produced or broadcasted songs of romantic passion. The only four letter word impermissible in hip-hop is “love.” Sexuality is primarily a means of misogynistic conquest; committed bonds of affection are not worthy of pursuit.
Film is equally sterile and chaste. Leading men are more likely to wear face paint and capes than tuxedos or cowboy hats, and starlets jockey for “transgressive” roles as tattooed, gun wielding action heroes, rather than brides-to-be or even femme fatales.
Esquire recently reported that “moviegoers are tired of romance on the silver screen.” A writer for The Washington Post