Seven Deadly Spins

Posted on August 5, 2018 by leslie

D’après Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Portrait de Voltaire

Seven Deadly Spins

Seven Types of Atheism, John Gray, Allen Lane, 2018, hb, £17.99, reviewed by STODDARD MARTIN

The well-known English philosopher and academic John Gray offers a tour d’horizon of the idea of atheism. For those who have trod this territory before, his book is an engaging review. For those who have not, it may provide a useful primer. Taking his title from William Empson’s famous Seven Types of Ambiguity, Gray tilts his first lance at what he dubs ‘the tedious re-run of a Victorian squabble between science and religion’ which he sees at the core of ‘the God debate’ of recent decades. His adversaries presumably include such celebrated opponents of religion as Richard Dawkins, Anthony Grayling and Christopher Hitchens, though none is named. Gray himself is no proponent of Judaeo-Christian tradition.

He locates a ‘19th century orthodoxy of humanism’ in the work of Comte, Saint-Simon and John Stuart Mill and traces its descent to our times via Bertrand Russell. This doctrine he depicts as a substitute for a God who failed. For those whose faith in it is based on the nostrums of science, he points out: ‘science can only be a tool the human animal has invented to deal with a world it cannot fully understand.’ For those whose faith owes more to Platonic ideals, he reproves: ‘The human mind is programmed for survival, not truth.’ For those who, like Hegel and Marx, find in history a meliorative dynamic, he argues that in fact human progress constitutes no more than a cyclical or haphazard sequence of moral ups and downs.  

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Brexit – the Battle for Britain

Posted on August 5, 2018 by leslie

The Battle of Britain

Brexit – the Battle for Britain

by Stuart Millson

Despite enormous opposition from unreconciled pro-Remain MPs, Dominic Grieve, Anna Soubry from the Conservative benches and practically every Labour MP – save for principled, free-thinkers such as Frank Field and Kate Hoey – the Prime Minister succeeded in steering the EU Withdrawal legislation through the House of Commons, sidestepping along the way a brazen attempt by the Lords to paralyse the Bill. With Parliamentary ratification of the Referendum result and the all-important withdrawal date of the 29thMarch 2019 enshrined in statute (a clause which Remainiac campaigners had worked hard to expunge from the final Act), Britain is now set to end 40 depressing years of provincial status within the European super state.

A year-and-a-half ago, Remainist litigants, led by investment manager Gina Miller, attempted to thwart the Government’s Brexit strategy by bringing a case to the High Court – which argued that only Parliament could possibly authorise our EU withdrawal. After a subsequent Supreme Court hearing (its judges, incidentally, unable to pass a unanimous verdict), the Government was instructed to take the matter to Parliament. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The English Civil War

Posted on August 2, 2018 by leslie

King Charles I (1600-49), Studio of Sir Anthony van Dyck

 The English Civil War

by Mark Wegierski

PART ONE

The English Civil War of 1642-1648 and its aftermath, the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, constitutes one of the defining experiences of the cultural identity that can be termed Anglo-Americanism. The English Civil War is really the first great modern revolution and it set the pattern for subsequent revolutionary upheavals in the entire Anglo-American cultural sphere, and especially in America itself.

As in the American Civil War, with which it offers many parallels, the forces in this conflict were unevenly matched, because of the economic predominance of the Northern and Parliamentary sides, respectively. The Royalists, centered in the rural hinterlands of the country, with virtually no navy, and poor sources of munitions and supply, fought a losing war against the increasingly powerful forces paid for by the enormous resources of London and other trading-centers. The panache of the Cavaliers was no match for the iron drill and discipline of Cromwell’s New Model Army. The sense of the historical inevitability of Cromwell’s victory has a profoundly tragic dimension. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Crass Pragmatism of Shapiro and McCain

Posted on July 31, 2018 by leslie

William James b. 1842, credit Wikipedia

The Crass Pragmatism of Shapiro and McCain

By Ilana Mercer

Ben Shapiro is an anti-Trumper, who continues to assert baselessly that “the future of the Republican party is anti-Trump.”

Fox News, generally pro-POTUS, persists in exposing Deplorables to Shapiro’s twitter travails and spats with a left that, in turn, doesn’t know left from right—for Ben is no rightist; he’s a neoconservative media-pleaser.

In this farcical tradition, Ben was asked to comment on the election of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, whom Rush Limbaugh—he knows a thing or two—calls the female Barack Obama.

Since winning the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district, Cortez, a hard-core socialist, has been the toast of the town. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Humphrey Jennings – ‘poet’ of the British Cinema

Posted on July 30, 2018 by leslie

Still from London Can Take It

Humphrey Jennings – ‘poet’ of the
British Cinema

by Stuart Millson

Just a few years after the Second World War, a small film company – Wessex Film Productions Ltd. – issued a “short” – an information film (for the Central Office of Information) – with the title, The Dim Little Island. The subtitle was, for such a modest film, quite lengthy and intriguing: ‘A Short Film composed on some thoughts of our past, present and future from four men.’  The four men in question came from very different walks of life: the great composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams; a naturalist, James Fisher; John Ormston of Vickers Armstrong; and the artist and illustrator, Osbert Lancaster.

The aim of the Producer and Director, Humphrey Jennings, was to examine the idea, prevalent in that time of post-war austerity, that England and Great Britain was, despite its victory in war, an exhausted country, with little to be optimistic about. Jennings had spent most of his life producing “films to order” – documentary, even propaganda films (if you take the cynical view), but with sensitivity, subtlety, and a sense of involvement for the audience. His aim was not just to convey the view of government ministers, but to show the best of the country – and the truth of life in Britain. Even when presenting its less appealing aspects, such as “dark, satanic mills” or unemployment (Jennings was both a patriot and a social reformer), there was an emotional and moral purpose to what he did. If the works of author George Orwell contained a fusion of what (on the face of it, at least) are the two separate ideals of traditional nationhood and the welfare state, then it was Humphrey Jennings who celebrated – and fused – those ideals for the British cinema. Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Matters, Film Reviews, QR Home | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Eton Mess

Posted on July 29, 2018 by leslie

Lord Mayor’s Show 2008, Christ’s Hospital*

Eton Mess                                         

Posh Boys: How the English Public Schools Run Britain, by Robert Verkaik, One World Publications, 2018, pp 349, reviewed by Bill Hartley

Posh Boys takes a fresh look at a familiar story: the role of the public schools in Britain. Most people are aware that social mobility has scarcely shifted in decades and that the life chances of children from poorer families are severely restricted. Robert Verkaik argues convincingly that a significant impediment to change is the public or independent school, as they prefer to call themselves these days.

Posh Boys is no mere addition to the list of books advocating abolition of the public school system. For example, the author does a better job than many on the history of British education since the Middle Ages and how we got to where we are now. He shows how the ideals of those who founded and endowed these institutions have been corrupted. The most famous of them all, Eton College (est.1440), was founded by King Henry VI for the education of 70 poor boys. As a consequence the school and others like it are still able to claim charitable status. It would be interesting to know if this ever crosses the mind of a Russian Oligarch who sends his son there.

One less well known fact is how the British public school brand has been franchised with branches in China, Russia and even Kazakhstan and that the straw boaters of Harrow can be found in Bangkok. As Verkaik notes, having invented inequality of education Britain is now exporting it to the rest of the world. Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Doubting the Intelligence of the Intelligence Community

Posted on July 26, 2018 by leslie

Still from The Third Man

Doubting the Intelligence of the Intelligence Community

By Ilana Mercer

Peter Strzok, the disgraced and disgraceful Federal Bureau of Investigation official, is the very definition of a slimy swamp creature. Strzok twitched, grimaced and ranted his way to infamy during a joint hearing of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, on July 12.

In no way had he failed to discharge his professional unbiased obligation to the public, asserted Strzok. He had merely expressed the hope that “the American population would not elect somebody demonstrating such horrible, disgusting behavior.”

But we did not elect YOU, Mr. Strzok. We elected Mr. Trump.

Strzok is the youthful face of the venerated “Intelligence Community,” itself part of the sprawling political machine that makes up the D.C. comitatus, now writhing like a fire breathing, mythical monster against President Donald Trump. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Western own Goals, as Russia Scores Big League

Posted on July 23, 2018 by leslie

Western own Goals, as Russia Scores Big League

By Gregory Slysz

The huge success of the World Cup in Russia was certainly not part of the script of those who sought to undermine it. The initial reaction from Western quarters following Russia’s successful bid in 2010 to host the tournament was largely confined to sour grapes, especially from the losing bids, with accusations of corruption being the most pugnacious charges that were levelled against Moscow. Yet over the next few years, amidst worsening Western-Russo relations over the Ukrainian, Syria and the Skripal crises, all of which Russia stood accused of, this relatively benign approach steadily escalated into something much more menacing, that was to see a synchronised anti-Russia campaign between politicians of all hues and the Mainstream Media, for different ideological reasons, not witnessed since the bleakest days of the Cold War.

It was, therefore, imperative for Western governments to discredit the World Cup and even to prevent it from happening at all. Centred around a project fear, it foretold of mass terrorism,  state sponsored hooliganism, some of the ‘Nazi female thug’ type, risks of contracting various diseases, Putin organised ‘honey traps’, dirty hotels,  and racist and homophobic attacks. One player, England’s Danny Rose, went as far as to advise his family not to travel to Russia for fear of being racially abused. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Violence in a Civilised Society, part 2

Posted on July 19, 2018 by leslie

‾

Violence in a Civilised Society, part 2

by Mark Wegierski

Concerning the question of violence against the state or its ruling groups, some would argue that “one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.” However, are there in fact any right‑wing terrorist groups in the West today, apart from some miniscule fringes? Apropos the “right-wing threat,” many of the incidents of swastika‑daubing in the former West Germany were staged by the Soviet intelligence services and Far Left activists. Some liberals have portrayed the vicious terrorist attacks in Oklahoma City and in Norway as typical of a generalized right-wing and tried to link the Arizona shootings to the Tea Party.

There are a large number of criteria by which a terrorist can be distinguished from a legitimate fighter for national self‑determination or other cultural goals. Especially during the Cold War era, liberals tended to see many groups employing terror as “freedom‑fighters,” while at the same time seeing many quite restrained oppositionists as “terrorists.”

Liberals appear to be less concerned about threats to “social order” and even “civil order” when the threat is posed by the Far Left (e.g. the Red Army Faction) or by criminal elements. But any possible crimes that can be attributed to an unfairly generalized “right-wing,” such as the bombing of abortion clinics or shootings of doctors who provide abortion services (which are clearly carried out by obviously disturbed individuals), are met with the strictest severity, and by attempts to extend permanent blame onto the entire right-wing. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs and Comment, QR Home | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Rise of the New Right

Posted on July 17, 2018 by leslie

Rise of the New Right

The Rise of the Right: English Nationalism and the Transformation of Working-Class Politics, Simon Winlow et al., Policy Press, University of Bristol, 2017, reviewed by Allan Pond

The claim that the ‘left’ has replaced traditional socio-economic concerns with ‘intersectional’ issues such as gender and ethnicity is hardly original. Many commentators on both the left and the right have concluded that the left ‘lost the economic battle but won the cultural one’. A set of interviews with supporters and members of the English Defence League (EDL) is the peg upon which the authors hang a larger argument about the decline of the traditional working class left.

The middle class, liberal left preferred adaptation to capitalism rather than its transformation. This caused the working class to feel abandoned and patronized, so they adopted right wing’ ideas instead. That, in a nut-shell, is the authors’ argument. This new left no longer had faith in the working class and looked instead to the ‘fragments’ as the motor of change. The traditional (white) working class were now deemed ‘redundant’ (to use the title of one of their chapters) not only in the sense of being surplus to capital’s requirements, but also in terms of the liberal left’s analysis of agents capable of leveraging change. Continue reading →

Posted in QR Home | 1 Comment