Comments on: The curious half-life of an ethically inadequate object

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:22:54 +0000

I have a different view. I think it’s impossible to overstate the anti-intellectualism of Australia’s leaders. And I reckon this is because the electorate sees effectiveness and intellect as inimical. Rudd succeeds, and Carr succeeded, in spite of what are, after all, very modest displays of intellectualism. They don’t succeed because of them. And this is what I’d like to see.

By: Rodney

Rodney — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:14:26 +0000

I sometimes think the anti-intellectualism of Australia’s leaders can be a bit overstated.

The former NSW premier, Bob Carr is certainly an intellectual – he regularly quoted Marcus Aurelius to a bemused press corps – ultimately he turned out to be a very popular politician for over 10 years but in hindsight proved to be a very poor leader.

No person with any attachment to Sydney or NSW would now regard his reign in Government as productive – maybe he spent too much time reading biographies of Abraham Lincoln, his hero, to deal with the mundanities of public transport or hospitals, etc??

By: Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing « Darcy Moore’s Blog

Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing « Darcy Moore’s Blog — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:35:04 +0000

[...] The curious half-life of an ethically inadequate object is a piece of writing that any ‘reader’ would love to have written. The intelligence of the writer is what one finds really enjoyable and the subject matter, perception, Macbeth and Bill Clinton, is of interest to a very wide audience. I now have an RSS feed from the Solid Gold Creativity blog and would recommend it to all. [...]

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:31:42 +0000

Been there, done that. Here, she went by the name of Pauline Hanson and her constituency was not hockey moms but racists. She was a former fish and chip shop proprietor who won about 10% of the vote. Once asked if was xenophobic, she famously replied, rabbit in headlights, “please explain,” which became a popular song and club act. In latter years, she’s been jailed for some electoral roll mix-up, been impersonated in some “raunchy” photos and finished second in “Dancing with the Stars.”

By: andreaskluth

andreaskluth — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:47:42 +0000

Sarah Palin would do well in Australia, by the sounds of it.

I’m not sure what I like less: this Anglo-Saxon philistinism or “Continental” (French) pseudo-intellectual pretension.

There must be a culture somewhere where you can have good, soulful conversations with people who read books and not feel ridiculous.

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:10:13 +0000

I’ve got it now. Beautiful passage from Camus. Opening line is wonderful. Also very characteristic with the grief over a lost Eden and the morbid fear of growing older that he discusses in The First Man. Makes me wonder a bit about the car crash that killed him. He managed to avoid, by drastic means, that which he feared.

By: Phillip S Phogg

Phillip S Phogg — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:13:18 +0000

“……I’m a bit confused…..”

I’m often told this when I try to be too clever by half, which I now see I obviously had been when I used the metaphor of the belly of the beast. The “beast”, I should explain, is the sunbaked philistine colonial society (now mercifully gone with the wind) of which I, myself, was a product.

Hence my attraction to Camus, who was a product of a similar mileau, whose essence he captures beautifully in this passage from “Summer in Algiers”:

Men find here throughout all their youth a way of living commensurate with their beauty. After that, decay and oblivion. They’ve staked all on the body and they know that they must lose. In Algiers, for those who are young and alive, everything is their haven and an occasion for excelling – the bay, the sun, the red and white checkerboard of terraces going down to the sea, the flowers and stadiums, the fresh brown bodies……..But for those whose youth is past no place exists, no sanctuary to absorb their memory.

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:38:23 +0000

Mr P, I’m a bit confused. I thought you were “lashing out” at the mindless philistines. Are you saying it’s actually the colonising “beast” that makes you a feel a bit discombobulated? Actually the whole thing is rather horrid, really. Do tell, what’s your favourite Camus? Wouldn’t you just love to live in Oran, plague and philistines n’ all?

By: Phillip S Phogg

Phillip S Phogg — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:42:21 +0000

When I talked about the mindless philistinism of the Anglo-Saxon, I was thinking more of the sunbaked colonial expat kind, who settled and ruled the old Empire.

I, myself, come from the belly of this beast, so I know him well. Thus I still lash out at him (at myself really) at opportune moments.

To be fair, the mindless philistine (hedonistic) thing would apply to any ex-colonial society (including America) made up of Anglo-Saxons, French, or those of any other European provenance (Albert Camus’ observations of his fellow pieds-noirs of Algeria are instructive).

Needless to say, it comes out of being cut-off geographically from one’s cultural roots.

By: solidgoldcreativity

solidgoldcreativity — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:49:20 +0000

Hello Mr Pip. Would you say “this mindless philistinism” applies to the UK too? I would say no, but I only lived there for a few years. And for some reason I have the impression you’d know because you’re originally English. Where did I get this idea from? Don’t tell me I just made it up because I think of you as Mr P … If it doesn’t apply to the UK, maybe it’s a “new world” thing???