Author: janus

I'm back......and front - in sunny Sussex-by-the-sea

I’m a catfish

In webspeak, that is. Old Backside and I, his ever-controlling head prefect, are conning you all into buying our ginormous pile of ordure; leading you up the proverbial garden path, as it were; painting a portrait which might not be a reflection of reality.

I recall that some years ago I appeared at the Big House purporting to be a young ballet dancer learning flamenco in Iberia; family in Surrey, etc., etc. and quite a few correspondents chose to befriend me. It was frighteningly simple to become a persona. When I owned up, some were less than complimentary; others disappointed.

Here on the chariot we are so few that it’s had to imagine any of is a simulacrum, to use an old word. But maybe we have the odd catfish lurking in the shadows? I wonder.

A modern diaspora

We accept the media cliches. Destitute families with young children, exhausted and hungry from the gruelling trek from war-stricken places, arriving in their hundreds every day at the ferry port less than 15 miles from here. They are grateful for help from local people who will drive them up to Sweden or they will stay and wait for asylum here.

Of course it’s true. But it’s only part of the story.

A less publicised component is the young men who accompany them. They are not distraught or at their wit’s end. In fact they are confident, even demanding. They know their rights. They show no gratitude or sense of relief. They have their iphones, checking the latest international news and show disdain for mere border cops  trying to cope with the human tsunami.

Being a refugee is no longer demeaning; no longer just for the dispossessed. It is a life-style choice for many. Should we be concerned?

PC again

Last week it was a politician being rebuked for comparing disabled with ‘normal’ folk for the purposes of employment. This week Snow White is making an appearance on stage but friends have to take the place of dwarves.

Is the norm – in any social context – no longer a suitable topic for comment? Are we not allowed to refer to any less usual combination of attributes except by avoiding mention of the usual?

The trouble is that a significant number of common English adjectives is now outlawed: blind, deaf, crippled, etc., unless euphemisms replace them. Which ironically takes us back to the reign of Victoria, when so many conditions were unspeakable.

I am not proposing offensive bluntness. Just a proper understanding that censorship tends to have effects quite opposite to those intended. Calling a spade a coloured person doesn’t advance the cause of integration.

Plus ça change……..

My hero, Socrates (or at least Plato’s characterisation of his old teacher) would have enjoyed gaz’s post about changing the world and all therein; seven steps towards happiness perhaps, the pursuit of which is every American’s dream, alongside life and liberty.

The snub-nosed Greek’s starting point for his discussion with gaz would have been his own eirôneia or ignorance, his clean sheet on which he jotted the answers to his questions, in a quest for the truth. And funnily enough, he would have passed quickly over gaz’s nos. 1, 3, 5 and 7! Why ? Because he could see the commonsense they demonstrate. (And to prove a point, he took the hemlock after disagreeing with the politically correct opinions of the sophists, whose own greed and casuistry caused his blood to boil.)

Continue reading “Plus ça change……..”

Select few

Almost everyone’s gone. Maybe not to the moon (but who knows?). And parting is such…er….sorrow. Especially when y’all left without so much as a flounce, a strop or a fond farewell. Was it something we said or failed to say? Was it fickle fate that tempted you to pastures new? Was it the Big House or twatter or facebonk?

No answers unless you’re planning to stick around. Excuses are so yesterday.

 

Rewilding

Apart from the horror of the word, let’s pause to consider the sheer madness involved in reintroducing species which man deliberately wiped out long ago.

I like the article’s final line: ‘The Scottish government has said there are no plans to reintroduce large predators’.

But what about fish? The little Sturgeon is quite enough, thank you; not to mention the untameable Salmond.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rewilding-reintroduction-extinct-species-back-to-britain-will-be-enormous-challenge-study-finds-10478370.html