Sunday, May 02, 2010

this is deliberately incendiary and subversive but in certain ways it is sadly very true

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word.

7 comments:

  1. That sounds like a dream to me! My little girl will be out of mummy's tummy in a couple of months and I'm wondering how I'm going to manage to spend any meaningful amount of time with her what with being the bread winner and all. Yeah, that post reminds me strongly of why I hate the British education system.

    Fucking. Weak.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello . I am the author of the piece. I have to say, Mr Punkscience, it is not about the British education system. I have worked in schools around the world - it is about everywhere.

    Anyway, that you for your kind attention and thanks for your interesting site. Stride on!

    *Oh, and why on earth do you have the bloody Guardian down on your 'anti-ignorance' links... right next to MediaLens too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Darren, I was going to ask him the same question but been too lazy to do so. :-)

    Hey, this could be the postage of the daughters' dads.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I link to the Guardian because it publishes some excellent reporting. Don't get me wrong, I don't consider it to be infallible and have criticised its work when I feel it is appropriate. However, it remains THE mouthpiece of the progressive movement, even when giving column inches to racists, murderers, imperialists, climate change deniers (I could provide links but I'm sure informed people like your good selves can find appropriate examples).

    Linking to Media Lens is a good example of my Guardianista skepticism as the ML boys regularly detail examples of hypocritical and wrong-headed reporting and ananlysis that it publishes. I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bath water, however.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What this 'progressive movement' is, or where it is progressing to, I cannot be sure. But if The Guardian really is its mouthpiece it is clearly headed to a slightly more comfortable corner of a prison in a story in a madman's dream.

    If articles about Apple products, television detectives, Dr Who, party politics, civil liberty, recycling, the diets of models, Islam, football, fashion, the best adverts on television last week, and tiny little slices of fact completely cut off from the context that will move the progressives closer to their goal, then The Guardian and its journalists are doing their job; although I suspect, considering that the Guardian is owned by a trust which, along with the GMG board, has connections with the Labour party, Cadbury Schweppes, Tesco, KPMG Corporate Finance, the chemicals company Hickson International Plc, Fenner Plc, the investment management company Rathbone Brothers Plc, (now bankrupt) global investment company Lehman Brothers, global financial services firm Morgan Stanley and the Bank of England; that most of its journalists are Oxbridge graduates, and that is almost entirely financed from advertising revenue, it might have other, more pressing, goals.

    ReplyDelete
  6. An interesting list of corporations and vested interests. If I could be bothered I might post a list of excellent pieces of journalism from the Guardian advocating sustainable development, human rights, electoral reform, social justice, etc. etc.

    If you know of a news website or publication offering a uniquely perspective then please share it with me.

    You won't, of course, because no such entity exists. The sort of fundamentalist position you've presented here is purely obstructive and I will not engage with it. To condemn the organisation that routinely publishes people like Monbiot, Ben Goldacre and Fred Pearce is just stupid. Would you rather that the Guardian adhered rigidly to your impossible high principles and sank into bankruptcy? That would be such a victory for PROGRESS.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_%28history%29

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm afraid I don't know of a website that is as comprehensive as the Guardian that offers a unique perspective. As far as politics go, MediaLens, Znet and Democracy Now! are infinitely better than the Guardian, but they are also very limited. So, yes, you are right, no such entity exists; at the moment, although, as far as I'm concerned that's no reason to support the Guardian.

    Monbiot's good of course, a hint of smug and very very rarely criticises the news media (his campaign against fossil-fuel burning Guardian advertisers notwithstanding), but a man of integrity. But again, just because there's a good warder (or, indeed, electoral reform, social justice, human rights and sustainable development) doesn't mean the prison is any good.

    Yes, I would rather the Guardian sank into bankruptcy.

    And finally, as for progress. Perhaps if we all work hard enough, consume enough, make enough stuff and 'progress' enough we'll get to a world where we can work pleasantly for less than 20 hours a week, eat well, play well, live full creative lives in egalitarian communities of staggering natural beauty... in other words reach the state we were all at six thousand years AGO...

    http://www.steventaylor.talktalk.net/beforethefallessays.htm

    ...although I suspect that, with six - nine billion of us working on 'progressing', peace will be a desert.

    Worth mentioning that all great fascists, totalitarian regimes and dictators ardently believe in PROGRESS.

    All the best,

    Darren

    :)

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to share your opinions of my opinions. Oh- and cocking fuckmouse.