The New Bolivarians

It's funny how things are increasingly connected. I've mentioned I like Oliver Stone's work and that the person I most like listening to and reading at the moment is Tariq Ali. Well I recently watched both of them in a video clip as they worked together on Oliver Stone's "South of the border" documentary about American Imperialism in South American, so I downloaded it last night to check it out.

One of the reasons I'm still engaged in political thinking is because of the unchecked role of the media, particularly in the American Empire's politics. I have always kept a lazy eye on South American politics and particularly on Hugo Chavez and so it was a gust of clean fresh air to learn more about the man than I've ever managed to accumulate before. Most importantly it blew away some of the demonic myths circulated by the American propaganda machine.

I think it's self evident that the leaders Oliver Stone interviews here like Lula, Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, Fernando Lugo, Rafael Correa all come across as principled and decent men with countries that the U.S has fucked over at one time or another. Most surprising though is the modesty of Raul Castro and of course the inclusive societal vision of Hugo Chavez. Fox News make their usual retarded (for profit) contribution with one host confusing cocoa with cocaine in an attempt to demonize one of the most inspirational political figures of the 21st century. 


The U.S. elite has a lot to fear if the increasingly powerful Stateside Latino lobby catch on to the reality that democracy isn't about filling the pockets of the rich but instead about providing as much as possible to as many as possible.

As an interesting aside I learned last night that John Lennon's Power to the People was inspired by his interview with Tariq Ali in the sixties for The Black Dwarf. Tariq Ali is a very interesting guy.

The Bolivarian Revolution name comes from the 19th century Simon Bolivar who led many South American countries to freedom from the Spanish Empire. The latest country the U.S. has fucked over in South American is Honduras. Hardly anybody in the U.S. knows.

Google On My Blog

Checking through Google Analytics recently I noticed that Google had returned to visiting my blog. There was a time when this happened quite frequently and I posted about who  visited this blog most over here. However in the last month, I've notice that they've returned again a few times, and on one occasion spending upwards of 20 hours on this blog. Or did somebody land here and then head home for a nice snooze? 

Naturally this couldn't be because the content is so compelling though I admit the Which one is the ladyboy post is a cracker if only because you all voted a lady friend of mine in Hong Kong as being a transsexual. This is proof that none of us really know shit from shit, though why this and others would be of considerable interest to Google remains a mystery to me. 

I haven't even written my anti American imperialist post yet. But I will.

The Future Of Advertising Isn't Advertising

View more presentations from William Owen.

Thought provoking presentation by William Owen of Made by Many that references a withering attack on advertising over here that's worth having an opinion on unless keeping your head down and sucking on the FMCG teat till it runs dry is your game.

Jon Stewart - Rachel Maddow

Watching Jon Stewart interview a Republican politician a couple of weeks ago I was struck by his grasp of political detail. It occurred to me that if Congress were a place where the American people were taken care of these days that he might be considering running for congress one day like Al Franken did. What's notable about this discussion is how grown up it is compared to the dribble being peddled by the so called professionals.

Rachel and Jon both disagree a fair amount in this interview, in a way that highlights the soft balls thrown to interview subjects on the right by Fox News.Some time back I caught an American philosophy lecturer point out that for real news go to The Daily Show or The Onion which says to me that there's a problem in the way that news media works in the States. I don't think Jon Stewart realises his remit for satire doesn't include the idea that his viewing audience may have changed since those black and white days of comedy and news as distinctly separate. Either way it's reassuring knowing that discussion of this caliber still exists and that fine people engage in it. Stewart's comments at the end are both gracious and human.

I was initially going to post this to my tumblr as it's easy to get sucked into political discourse and start becoming irrelevant, but as I had a few things to say on the matter I've posted it here.

If that hasn't tempted you to watch this than I should point out that Stewart takes a wholly contextual view of waterboarding and war crimes that may or may not be wrong but is interesting as an example of a mind not interested in binary thinking. It may not be correct but it is evolved.

Disavowal - Zizek On Intolerance of Tolerance & Only Foreigners Should Vote

Al Jazeera has to be the only media outlet giving people like Slavoj Zizek (who can talk for hours, his friends call him Castro) at least half an hour to discuss some of the most important challenges of our times. Zizek's deconstruction of tolerance is why I'm leaning towards his somewhat humorous reframing of a Stalinist mandate to fix things. 

This is a topic I've been straddling the fence on since I first challenged it in a theoretical sense with Sandrine in Hong Kong. It's not as if the answers are easy, but at least Zizek makes the point that there's an imperative for all of us to be philosophers here.

Update: Zizek on only foreigners should vote is kind of the big thinking I'm attracted to.

Sam Ismail

sam ismail

View more documents from Sick Sam.

More on the background for this document over at Agency Spy and here, here, here, here, here and Sam's side here not to forget George over here.

Chris Hedges - Death Of The Liberal Class

Chris Hedges connects more powerful political punches then I've come across from any other American commentator. Liberal limpness, the power of permanent war, propaganda to Madison avenue, evils of objectivity, Foxes pursuit of emotional consistency against truth, hedonism of power, complicity in one's enslavement, distinction between revolution and rebellion, price of virtue, hope, intellectual ghettos, the rise of fascism and the new deal in the 1930's, moral nihilism, digital tribalism and more. 

His last words in this 20 minute interview in response to the tough nature of this interview: "Why not go down swinging? What's the point of letting them wipe their feet all over our faces?".

Shoulder to shoulder Chris.

Class Struggle

Throw them all into first.

Random Access Memory

If Fox news are airing this I'm inclined to believe as I blogged earlier, that the tipping point is approaching. However it's unlikely to change the most important achievement of 911 which as Zizek points out is a domestically satisfying sense of victimhood. 

It's hard for me to guess with respect to large swathes of the American electorate, if anything changes when one is still a victim even as the perpetrator changes masks? I mean, what chance does history have when memory so often barely stretches from one tweet to the next?

Asia's First Lady - Aung San Suu Kyi

I was cynically optimistic when I read that Gordon Brown's last correspondence as Prime Minister was a hand written letter to Aung San Suu Kyi. I suspect that this didn't happen without some smoke filled corridor meetings attended by the United States and China. Principally with trade deals as the sacrificial lamb whereby everyone benefits but the environment. Thailand most notably signed a reported 8 Billion dollar deal just recently with Burma so clearly they were privy to yesterdays news.

Burma is the place I've explored the most by backpack and skull bustingly long (24 hours +) dilapidated bus journeys outside of Thailand. I spent an idyllic week or so a few years back on one of the most beautiful and peaceful beaches off the bay of Bengal in Burma and took this favourite picture of cattle used by the fishermen to haul in the catch while immersed in the water. It's here and across the country that I got to know a little more of the people. Most importantly that the ethnic tribes of Burma are another Yugoslavia or Balkanisation of S.E Asia waiting to happen.

I'm extraordinarily happy that an historical olive branch as been extended. It's by no means going to be any easier from now on. Indeed it will be harder to avoid bloodshed, but this first difficult step has been taken by the military junta. Which means somewhere inside the General's clique, the story of evolution continues to gather speed with what is to employ  metaphorical adumbrations; a race against extinction. 

Grooveshark

Anyone else sodding about on Grooveshark? Spotify doesn't work in Asia so I've been mucking around with other services. The UX for Grooveshark has improved since I first joined.

Super Social

Just finished  a conversation with the very hip Helena in Athens. We were talking about all things super social (among other things) and I shared the video above with her as I watched it earlier in the week and it strikes me that it's worth posting here.

Mark's book Herd is in my opinion an important one, because like most big ideas, it's not so revolutionary that it's too much for us to digest but is equally recognisable as a tectonic shift in seeing who we are, how we are, why we are and any combo of those such as, why we are who we are. There's also a quite elusive to grasp explanation of group actions that I still think Mark needs a better soundbite for thus far. Here's Mark at the Do Lectures. I think he uses the super social term in this though I'm still gagging to know if he's read Will Self's Great Apes.

It doesn't get more anthropological.

Islamic Crescent?

I don't think the American right gets it. That's fine by me.

Apps

Cupertino based Apropos have just shipped an app that monitors desktop/notebook and  Smartphone usage dedicated to real time profile building that can also parse your social graph to determine the most effective app(s) pertinent to your needs through lifestream and social graph analysis.

That's right an app that figures out what app(s) are best tailored to your needs. It's a quintessential American pedagogic idea that ticks over in the background, surfacing at the point of purchase to either endorse, reject or recommend an alternative during the period of app consideration review including organic search, or as and when needed. 

Genius really. Here's the stats.

Ok I made all that up but the middle man is where it's at. I alluded to this in the pointillist podcast though I don't think I made a very good job of it. In any case. It's very democratic, very bespoke and dare I say it very convenient. Apps are OK.

Samurai.fm

I feel Samurai.fm are worth a plug too. I came across them when the Web 2.0 moniker was a buzz word around 2006 latest. Initially I was blown away with the sheer volume and quality of content. They're a bit different from the other services as it's a curated music service so someone is choosing who does or doesn't make it.

They have pulled a clean interface together since their original layout, and somewhat unusually, have a keen bias towards Tokyo. This minimal set by DJ Camiya works for me.

911

There was a time when it would have been imprudent to write this but over the years I've learned that as more people become aware of the events of 911, it has become a sort of byword for open minded critical thinking. I've also learned a few things about polarizing issues. The first is that we can't argue people into adopting a point of view. So please don't think I'm trying. I simply don't need to.

A few years ago I came across the Loose Change video and its audacity floored me. I thought I'd try and research it a bit and find something so inconsistent with its assertions that I could then stop thinking about it. I haven't found that evidence to date.

I'm not the greatest fan of Occam's razor but in this instance it supports claims to the contrary better than the orthodoxy. There's now a second edition of Loose Change and it's a lot tighter than the first. If you haven't seen it yet then you owe it to yourself to do so. It still goes into areas that baffle me completely (The Pentagon. WTF?) But pick the one you can get your head round easiest and stick to it as a litmus test for staking out a postion.

I've found that the visceral response from people who prefer to use the conspiratorial epithet means I should clarify a couple of points in case anybody makes the common mistake of assuming that I'm asserting I know the truth of what happened on 911. The answer is I don't. I do know it wasn't President George W. Bush. But I also know that the people who think a man in a cave plotted the downfall of the United States merit the response 'looks like it worked'. Again a bit too fantastic for my tastes.

If there's one 911 issue that is most awkward to explain. It's the Building 7 puzzle. There's a substantial segment of the population who don't believe something till a familiar news broadcaster says it, or a trusted newspaper prints it. 

That should change soon.

Looks like somebody raised some dough. The following ad is about to air 350 times in the New York area. It should be interesting to see if it creates any outrage. I've found that the implications of coming close to accepting some quasi version of Thomas Becket's apocryphal 'will no one rid me of this troublesome priest' scenario, are so unsettling that irrational defensiveness is a normal response. 

Love to hear from you if you've got a silver bullet theory on Building 7 in the comments below.

NB:This post is dedicated to Will Self. I love Will very much (particularly for Great Apes which is the gift that keeps on giving) but about that disappointing article on conspiracies in The New Statesman? You left yourself a bit naked there as time will tell. To conspire comes from the Old French to breath together. 

Conspiracies are felonies. Theories aren't. Facts are stubborn things.

Tariq Ali - Empire & Resistance

Once in while I'll come across one of those inexplicably embarrassing gaps in my knowledge of the world where it seems I've must have gone out of my way to avoid getting to know something or someone.

Is it just me who is only now discovering Tariq Ali? I came across him being interviewed the other day by Jonathan Derbyshire for his production of the Wittgenstein movie directed by Derek Jarman . I Googled Tariq to find out a little more about him. Here's a quote from Wikipedia.

In 1967 Ali was in Camiri, Bolivia, not far from where Che Guevara was captured, to observe the trial of Regis Debray. He was accused of being a Cuban revolutionary by authorities. Ali then said "If you torture me the whole night and I can speak Spanish in the morning I'll be grateful to you for the rest of my life."

This says a lot about a man. Even if it wasn't true it's a first class anecdote. If you want to know my politics by proxy then before this weekend, I'd have said listen/watch/read everything Chomsky has to say. I'm now adding Tariq Ali to the short list of people who can't seem to put a foot wrong. This isn't quite as gemütlich as it may sound. I'd prefer it if I disagreed with someone on some points and at least once or twice fundamentally.

It's more plausible to have some disagreement isn't it? 

However after working through a good deal of his online presence, I've yet to find that point. The video above is classy. I've noticed it seems to start at a slightly later point than when I originally watched it, so I may rectify that if it changes, but it's worth it just to see a man who can talk about the American Empire through the mind of the Roman Tacitus or even more juicy Neocon gossip, mentioning that the inside story on a troubled Korean peninsula is not about the North Korean's but  perversely about the South Korean Generals who have already factored in the potential of acquiring nuclear weapons overnight in the event of conflict with the North. This would destabilize the region putting pressure on the Japanese to nuke up in double quick time. It actually makes startling sense for East Asia watchers, but then so does much of what the erudite but avuncular Tariq Ali says.

I've learned something recently. The really class acts are the people who sound most relevant the further you dig back into their historical record. It's hard enough to stand out from the crowd in the present, but to consistently stand out in the past? That's quite rare. Don't take my word for it with respect to this gentleman. There's a lot online and I'll be coming back to some of it now and again to knock on the head some double standards I can no longer remain silent over.

HTML5

I've embedded this in the new Youtube iframe embed code for HTML5. I'd appreciate it if you could leave a comment for any viewing difficulties; particularly on mobile phones. Thanks a lot.

The Stoned Ape

The inexplicably rapid evolution of the neocortex is akin to an organic singularity event. It's the first piece of steak to recognise it is a piece of steak. Not quite a tautology but not far off either. I came across this yesterday night by accident. Peter Webster does a lovely job of reframing a potential hypothesis for why we have a garden of Eden story in our mythology, and he provides more evidence for Terrence McKenna's stoned ape theory which hits my confirmation bias hotspot.

The Great Internet Balloon Race

I'd really like to put this widget in the margin for the duration of Balloonacy, but I don't think it's going to fit. 

Balloonacy Is Back

The lovely people at Poke are doing Balloonacy for Orange again. You may have noticed a floating animal icon around the blog as you're reading this, but it's simpler to understand if you watch the video above that Orange made to explain how it all works. I hear that this latest version makes 2008 look like an 'Atari game of Pong'. That's tucked between the Babbage Difference engine and a ZX Spectrum I'm guessing.

I'm looking forward to joining in, and you can too. If you know where your blog template is then cutting and pasting a snippet of code into the end shouldn't be so hard. Then you're off. More over here.

Minnie Nandakwang - มินนี่ นันทขว้าง

Waiting for you. Email me here

Silence Is The Loudest Scream

This isn't the first time I've wanted to cut and paste a comment. I wrote this before my Sheepish post.  So a bit of seriousness after the madness.

Giles Ungapakorn is a Thai academic in political exile in the UK because of Lèse majesté laws. Nobody takes the subject seriously elsewhere, but Thailand is the world heavyweight champion, the undisputed leader. Full evidence in that first link. It's good that there's no such burden in the UK. A lot of people think Prince Charles is a bit of a tool. I don't know for sure as I've never met him though I like his multi-faith ideas, I think it's healthy to have a viewpoint on architecture even though I disagree with HRH. Other than that I could say openly and for all to hear on public transport for example that Prince Charles is a complete cunt and I'm almost certain that nobody would object to what I think but to the use of vulgarity.

More obscene would be the loss of freedom to talk about say Republicanism. Or how moved the Brits were as Charles Spencer delivered his eulogy at the funeral for his sister The Princess of Wales. These things matter. The importance of talking uninhibitedly about the large crowds listening to the service outside Westminster Abbey matters. How their applause for Charles Spencer's scathing speech against the Royal Family coalesced from outside Westminster Cathedral and swept inside and unquestionably humiliating the Queen. It was a gesture of solidarity for the Peoples Princess, as Tony Blair named her.


That's a freedom not fully appreciated until discussion of the monarchy can land a 20 year sentence.

I haven't read any of Giles' academic work. I'm sure he was a Marxist before me. I'm also sure he wouldn't agree with my Neo Marxist thinking which is principally about sharing as an economic model. However he's written a piece about the Royal Thai Military which I think is extremely interesting to those like me who find his analysis helpful in negotiating the rapidly shifting multi-factionalism that typifies Thailand's institutional and political relationships.

The article is also really useful as a ready reckoner for astute people who find Thai current affairs confusing. A lot of the contextual information is unintentionally informative. There's more glimpses of the national psyche than entire books I've read about Thailand. I've noticed that Giles attracts a lot of irrational venom. As far as I can see it's mostly the people who think that Marxism is historically obsolete . This is odd given that Capitalism's single largest failure is its inability to factor in the costs of relentlessly liquidating nature. A colossal miscalculation that is least easy to grasp by those who are rewarded for ignoring the blunt logic of corrosively global imbalances.


In any case. Once in a while a comment I write needs to be here so that there's no ambiguity about what I think. This ticks off a fair bit of where my heads at on a lot of things, and although I categorically accept that Communism was nothing less than a complete disaster for millions upon millions of people around the world. It's evident our current model is busted. I'm often surprised that nobody calls me out on this post I wrote back here, because I got some things the wrong way around. I totally underestimated Wall Street and The Federal Reserves' ability to game the system. My timing was wrong but I still stand by what I wrote back then. As indeed I stand by this comment.

Giles gets deserved airplay because nobody articulated the military triangulation dynamic better. His consistency and coherency are an anxiety to the bildungsphilister. A leitmotif to their impending loss.

That is loss of respect, loss of credibility, loss of status and finally loss of wealth not to mention the plot.

The Royal Thai Army has its own poetic consistency. Periodically massacring Thai citizens with asymmetric force while safeguarding with first class whitewash. A matter of least vulgarity to those most disinclined to sharing the peoples burden no less.

Instead of applauding he who speaks truth to power, the calumny commentariat debase reason, side with might and bully in unison. They are intolerant to pluralism, ignorant of Marxism, drunk on capitalism while hallucinating on history.

Why else would one solitary exiled voice continue to rock every institution his attention focuses on.

Mixcloud

I know I said back here that I was digging Soundcloud. I still do prefer it for scanning through sets and tracks, but I have to champion Mixcloud for having an elegant look, lovely UX, good sociability and suggested music. This is the track I'm working to right now. Trying to keep the girls' gossip from not distracting me too much. If only they talked in Laotian when I'm working. Instead they save that for when I join in their conversation. #asialiving

Travel Mix by Dj Phil G. on Mixcloud

 Love to know your thoughts on this. Shit? OK? Showing my age? Whatever :)

Tea Leaves

Via @diemkay

Straight To Video

Some things I take a bit too seriously. And some things I don't. I made the clip above a short while back so that I could test the Twitvid function on Tweetdeck. I bought the sheeps mask and tried it out. It's only worth embedding because I'm not taking myself seriously and it's consistent with the next clip.

Same shit right? Nope.


The trouble is, I have no recollection of doing the one above. I realised the next day something wasn't right as I couldn't recall getting home. Most unusual for me, so I retraced my steps. The main event was buying a couple of pairs of sunglasses from the night market. I did stop off beforehand to have a couple of local spirits called Lao Cow.

It's served in a small shot glass and often coupled with seasonal sour fruits like unripe tamarind pieces or wild berries and then dipped in chilli sugar. It's very blue collar, an acquired taste and most valuable for getting an unvarnished view of the world. I mean talking to people it's hard to normally break the ice with. I don't mean with beer Goggles on.

So as I lost my memory, I thought maybe I'd been spiked or something. But then I remembered a girl joining me who always turns up when I'm around. I roped her into a mini flurry of Lao Cow shots. Nothing that excessive, but definitely more than I've ever had before. I think six shots.

Then all mayhem apparently let loose.

I"m guessing I came home, tweeted about my glasses and then made the Twitvid above. There could easily be lots more carnage judging by the random replies to me on Twitter the next morning. I've still not checked my timeline to piece together the full story but just in case anything abrasive was said or done, I do apologise.

This post is sponsored by @pristyles who sheltered me (most graciously) from harm.

Who Let The Logs Out?

I've always liked politics though it wasn't till I turned my gaze on the United States and began to inhale a lot of political  biography that I discarded with European policy debate. The thing about American political life is that it's the only game in town. Noam Chomsky memorably pointed out in Manufacturing Content that the reason the European Press gets to say a lot more than its transatlantic other half is that they are largely irrelevant. That's the truth of it in much the same way that most E.U. politicians ignore the English Language Xinhua despite a prestigious and ostentatious recent Manhattan office lease deal.

The internet though is proving to be the most creatively fertile and outspoken media aperture ever. Here are two I came across yesterday. I'm usually suspicious of any appropriation of Rap because it gets done so badly but Robert Foster's Juice Media is exceptionally coherent, hip and engaging. 

And lest anyone accuse the internet of dumbing young peoples chances of learning then EconStories.tv is the most polished and tightly edited introduction to Keynesian Economics available anywhere.

I came across this thumb snapping content through the only news media organisation that I watch on screen. I don't have a TV by choice, and Al Jazeera are the most even handed global news service to my mind so I picked up on this via there Listening Post channel on Youtube. Incidentally one of their last shows titled Thais turn to New Media is worth a look.

Motorola

Just because Motorola slit their corporate wrists over RAZR's extended hubris there's no need to take this kind of position given it's mother nature that provides the materials to make their products. Or is this something to do with Motorola realising their rare earth supplies just got fist fucked in China and now they have to resume scrape mining in Mountain Pass, California?

T - Mobile Jumps The Shark

It's got Saatchi & Saatchi Lovemarks all over it hasn't it? I know if they asked me for my homecoming riff, I'd have responded that I get homesick as soon as I'm circling Heathrow ready for landing (I love the smell of the M4 in the morning), but then I find the chap brandishing my name on a card ready to drive me elsewhere a bit of an intrusion, so I'm not the best kind of punter to ask in this instance. 

Life is for sharing. I agree. But everything is contextual too, so shouldn't we be prudent what we share. Like venereal disease.

Here's the an earlier post on the subject.

America Fuck Yeah

Food For Thought

Some lovely soul had this in their feed and I don't recall who, which is a shame because I'd really like to connect a bit deeper with them? Is it you? Leave a comment please.

This TED talk came out in 2007 and I'm surprised I haven't seen it before. Not because I've seen all of them. But because it's the most robust case I've seen argued and presented at TED connected to this topic. You may recall that only recently I was switched on to Raj Patel and his ideas on food sovereignty, and so this is now two exemplary videos on a subject that is integral to our future unless you've bought into that monoculture vision peddled by Monsanto that the Gates Foundation is unfortunately investing in with a view to making profit out of hunger. (Zizek is so right on charity)

I heard a lovely quote earlier today. The people who want to sell you a nice smell are not interested in you. I think that's most interesting in light of the lovely touchy-feely Old Spice work which was responsive, warm, humorous and most importantly championed a seminal dialogue/real-time tone-of-voice (look at him, now look back at me) which could be tapped into later for what is now considered a text book case study for social media in marketing.

OK.... I've been interrupted and lost my train of thought so as I want to come back to paragraph above later. I'll just leave it up there as it will be useful. I hope it's not too distracting but if you find it confusing..... well just be grateful I haven't started mucking around with digital William Burroughs narrative cut up experiments. Not sold? No I don't blame you. Sorry about that.

So my point about this video is that it's so well argued I'm surprised it hasn't surfaced in my lifestream before. What it has done for me this morning is begun to coalesce further, some ideas on marketing, 21st century branding and most importantly reconciling that gap between wealth creation and consumption that nags at my amygdala like a rodent in 1984. 

I wont dip into the structural imbalance of capitalism and growth (I know I'm knee deep in Marx again) but what I will say is that this video re-enforces the point about food being pretty much the only link in the chain which can resolve the full spectrum of 21st century  impending doom.

From  diseases like type two diabetes epidemics in the USA and India, global obesity and starvation (an imbalance capitalism can't fix despite sufficient food being the hallmark of the 20th century) and say the extraordinary influence of big agra, big pharma, big retail and fast food (and yes I still see great work for McDonalds in all this which is why I love them). 

That's a tall claim but if, and if is a fucking huge word I know too well, but if we took all of those things really importantly, and actually we do but we're freaked out by the scale of our individual thoughts vis a vis planetary action. If we we're serious about nailing on the head some of the most pressing challenges of our time then what you and I next put into  our mouths, by hand or by silver cutlery, it doesn't matter. What you put in your mouth is the most influential consideration to make as a consumer ever I'd go as far as to say that once in control of that the word person is a much more powerful noun though we can settle on citizen if you wish.

Problem is, as I know all to very well from putting weight on a bit too quickly for my own liking. If self control over our own body mass is hard as hell to control. Then what chance has collective change got? Slim chance right?

I think there is a way though, and this video just nailed it a bit further for me. I hope you watch it because as I think things through I know I'm going to be asking for your input. I certainly don't have a hope in hell without it.

In Defense of Philosophy: Derek Jarman - Wittgenstein

Whenever I hit on a rich seam of content of the net I mine it empty like the hardcore info glutton I am. About 5 years ago there was nothing on the internet in video or audio that Chomsky had said, and which I hadn't consumed (the only use of that word I feel comfortable with). That's changed a bit as there are whole channels devoted to Chomsky who I fear is the last great American intellectual. The rest being too cowardly to take on the Anti Semitic Zionists dominating Israeli and AIPAC political discourse at present (though at least the formidable Haaretz is printing more bravely than any American newspaper has done).

Recently I just wolfed down Zizek's entire content except for a badly recorded lecture, a problem that recurs often with many amateur recordings, and may require a software solution that just irons out the speakers voice for something more synthetic but less aggressive on my ears and speakers.

I've been wanting to write about this Golden Age of the internet. It's truly awesome and I can't imagine it being any better than this. In fact I dread it all going downhill compared to the current flood of top quality content, peer to peer sharing, pretty good speeds/bandwidth, and net neutrality. I can't imagine this lasting given the disproportionate advantages that predatory business takes of any commons resources (House of Commons is next) and the depressing discretions that people/public seem willing to sacrifice, but I might be wrong on that as even China struggles to keep a lid on content it doesn't want shared and at least the French seem prepared to protest on behalf of Europe.

I don't want to write too much about Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein as I've not seen it yet. But it is 69.2% downloaded and as it's 4.33 am and I've an early start tomorrow I should try and grab another hour or so because the real point is I woke up in the wee hours and just passed a pleasant hour listening to Tariq Ali (lovely chap) and Jonathan Derbyshire (he seems like a nice lad too) talking about all things Ludwig and Jarman, through the generosity of the Tate Channel which just emphasises that point I want to elaborate on which is that that I'm finding a critical mass of content on the subjects and topics I'm most interested in. Often there's only a few thousand views of it on Youtube so I can't imagine this is any different and yet it's a lovely example of the long tail in action. Or at least keeping my boat floating.