Posts by John Armstrong
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Bart Janssen,
What worries me is that it becomes easy to say
“oh well he was xxxx, and therefore we don’t have to worry about anyone else unless they are xxxx”But has anyone really said that? I take your point about the possibility, but I was far less comfortable by Barack Obama's description of the shooting (within an otherwise sensitive speech) as 'unconscionable evil'. That's far more obfuscating, I reckon.
It seems to me that the conduct of this discussion so far lends itself to the opposite conclusion, which in itself provides the best 'answer' to the issue being discussed: people have cited different potential contributing factors (male chemistry, masculine cultural stereotypes, white privilege etc etc), and seem to have come to a place where we can agree that all of these apply some of the time. People are different, and acts like the one being discussed stem from a range of motivations, rational or otherwise.
This means that there is no one solution, and that addressing even the main issues will involve cultural shifts that will take time. And, if understanding and addressing the ends of mass killing does take time, surely limiting the means has to be a necessary interim measure?
PS thanks to all for an incredibly edifying discussion. This public sharing of such personal stuff really is a quite remarkable thing.
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No laughing here, those guys are great! The vocalist captures Dave's tone really well (slightly ropey high bits aside). And as for those Rickenbackers... I would be willing to do very embarrassing things for that bass, in particular.
Backyard gigs rule, as those who attended my recent 40th would surely attest.
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Ps I bagsed 'kiosk' in the party on thread a while back. Any prizes forthcoming to go to Mr Ng..
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Decade: wiki
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I know this is an older thread, but what a refreshingly real approach David Nutt brings!
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Field Theory: The Force will be with…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
they had to leave a little entranceway to a tunnel that Luke Skyshafter or somebody could fly up and blow the fucker up, Really.
A metaphor for MSD kiosks, if ever there was one.
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Seeing the first Star Wars film was certainly formative for me, but not (I hope) in a particularly geeky way. My grandmother took me to see it in a theatre in Huntly when I was 8 or 9, and I still remember looking up at her at one point to see if she shared my enthusiasm for laser-powered spaceship battles. She had both hands over her ears and looked to be in mild shock. Her experience was so clearly different from mine that I realised at that moment what a generation was, and that mine was very different to hers. I walked out of there with a different view of my place in the world.
Oh, yeah, and Princess Leia may have made an impression too.
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Up Front: Or It's Who We're Drinking With..., in reply to Bart Janssen,
I do find it such a pity that our culture has developed taboos around touch. We are tremendously affected by touch, much more than we think. So I find it sad that the act of touching, carressing, hugging have such restrictive boundaries.
I became acutely aware of this during a two month holiday in South America a few years ago. I found myself envious of the incredibly warm hugs exchanged between male friends, in public and in private. I consciously decided to make that a part of my life here, and after a few awkward (and some, happily, completely unawkward) attempts, it's now a pretty natural thing.
(In slightly tangential reference to Emma's post, I have since wondered if these cultural differences are related to the clear differences in alcohol use, which seemed in general to be much more controlled over there. Certainly had nothing to do with 'manliness': Argentinian men are about as macho as they come..) -
Hard News: Party on, dudes, in reply to Hilary Stace,
PAS word-of-the-year time must be coming up soon
I bags 'kiosks'. On Keith's behalf..
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Hard News: Party on, dudes, in reply to Mark Graham,
One more post, Sacha and it tips to 14,000 (My God, where do you find the time?) :)
And here's me getting excited about approaching my century...
I started listening to Hard News while driving a truck as a school leaver, which may or may not have involved me making the occasional trip around the block before unloading so as not to miss the end...
Now I am a month away from finishing my PhD in History. It's no understatement to say that Hard News played a big role in me making that transition. And for extending said PhD about six months longer that it should have been..
Cheers to Russell, and to the hundreds of wise voices that have gathered around you.