Just in case anyone hasn’t discovered Sarah Silverman yet and isn’t completely in love with her, here’s a little taster. I can’t really post much at the moment because I’m busy with other things so this’ll have to keep you going for a while. That said Joe and Matt have agreed to write for this blog so watch out for their contributions coming soon. Actually if you read some of the comments it will tell you that Joe has already posted, but this is incorrect. There are few bugs in the system that need to be looked at (or rather it’s me being an idiot) . It could get confusing.
I’ve just noticed that when you log out of MySpace you’re confronted with a full page advert for gym membership. I suppose this is because they’re trying to capitalize on that unloved johnny no-mates feeling that sometimes accompanies a fruitless trip to the all conquering social networking site (nobody likes facebook). People think “I really have to do something about my fat arse or nobody is going to want to be friends with me or sleep with me ever again”, and hey presto there’s the solution. I wouldn’t know about any of this of course, it’s merely speculation.
It’s really interesting reading Huxley’s Brave New World again after Houllebecq. Houellebecq’s reading of the society portrayed in the novel is morally ambiguous in comparison to the way in which the phrase ‘Brave New World’ has entered the vernacular to signify a technological consumerist dystopia.
The idea that Houllebecq borrows is that, in late capitalist society the traditional family unit and viviparous motherhood are totally incommensurate with a system where sex is just another commodity. This dissonance results in epidemic levels of depression and to some degree, ideological conflict. The so-called sexual revolution of the sixties, in conjunction with certain other factors, precipitated the total meltdown of western society.
The solution: remove competitiveness from reproduction; engineer the animal out of the man. Humans have outgrown their biology. It’s time create our successors. Pretty wacky I know – but after you’ve read enough sordid Houellebecq sex scenes it seems quite an attractive idea.
Sometimes when I look at the all the evidence of our ‘raunch’ culture I think Houellebecq may be correct in this rather depressing view of things. Maybe the Jihadists are right! But predictably enough, I’m more inclined to just blame capitalism, or rather the way it’s managed, or not managed, if you see what I mean. Not much of a conclusion I know, but it’s a start.
I can now proudly say that I am a signatory of the Euston Manifesto. Having been aware of it for about a year, and having spent a great deal of time over the last year arguing and rehearsing some of it’s central points, I finally decided to sign. This decision has been helped along greatly by what I’ve been reading in 2007, but also lately by Joe introducing me to Little Atoms and all the great interview downloads on the site. Little Atoms has been a revelation in reassuring me that I’m not alone in my views.
The pro-intervention left have been poorly represented in the mainstream liberal media (so a common refrain of signatories of the Euston Manifesto is what a relief it is to be connected to others of a similar position via the wonders of the Internet). Lots of factors have contributed to this situation but I especially feel that post-modernism’s challenge to enlightenment values is somehow at the heart of this.
Some of the creators of the manifesto opposed the war in Iraq and this is clearly written into it as a valid position to hold. As Norman Geras said at the Launch: “Reasonable people can reasonably disagree”. But both sides of that debate are united in a disillusionment with the state of the left, with its marginal far-left factions, but perhaps more importantly with the left’s representatives within the liberal establishment. The massive schism created by the 9 11 terrorist attacks and the end of the cold war has thrown the left into a crisis. The Euston Manifesto is an attempt to formulate a progressive program that is true to the left’s best historical values.
Whilst half asleep recently I half heard a report on the today program about the launch of a new magazine. I’d forgotten the name of it until this morning, or perhaps thought it was a dream. Monocle Magazine, the name of which hitherto eluded me, is now counting down to the release of issue three. The website is worth looking at for the quality of the design alone. It was conceived by the founder of Wallpaper so you would expect a level of visual panache.
The concept outlined on the website is nothing if not ambitious:
We believe it’s time for a new, global, European-based media brand. With a keen focus, strong reporting, sharp wit and a more classic approach to design, we’ve dubbed our venture Monocle. At the core there’s a monthly magazine delivering the most original coverage in global affairs, business, culture and design. Alongside, there’s a web-based broadcast component covering the same areas through a variety of bulletins, mini-documentaries and talk formats. Focused on informing and entertaining an international audience of disillusioned readers, listeners and viewers, it is our intention to create a community of the most interested and interesting people in the world.
I have to admit that on the surface it doesn’t seem quite like the kind of magazine I had wished for. I haven’t bought a magazine regularly since The Face and Jockey Slut folded and I was hoping this might be the one to the fill the gap. Annual subscription is seventy five pounds which is a bit steep, and no doubt individual issues are at least a fiver. Worth looking at in the library though.
What do you make of these? Apparently Bowie loves them, and we all know he’s never wrong about anything ever don’t we?
Mr. Cameron’s ascent to the premiership of the British regime looks set to continue unabated with the news that he’s won ‘2nd best dressed man’ in GQ’s annual list!
“Is David Cameron tough enough to be prime minister?” it asked on the cover of an earlier issue that had also boosted the conservative leader’s profile. What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean? Well he does look kind of hard in that picture; one toff you’re probably not going to mess with. For some reason GQ seem to love him. You know what, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of Eton connection between him and the editorial there. Maybe him and Charles what’s-his-name who works for the magazine used to smoke pot together behind the Egerton room together back in 82′. Or else it’s something much more sinister.
In just a few months Britain will have a new Prime Minister. It’s looking like it will be Gordon Brown, (though David Miliband is potentially a contender). And I think it’s going to take more than a few glossy magazine covers to get the tories back into power at the next general election. I think Gordon Brown is more popular with the electorate than some sections of the media would have us believe.
On April the first I was nearly taken in by a Channel 4 news article about The Arctic Monkeys offering their support to David Miliband as a potential leader of the Labour party. He was to join them on stage at Glastonbury in a bid to launch his campaign to younger voters. It seemed plausible enough. It seems that everything in the political sphere is becoming increasingly divorced from reality, and at the moment that seems to be in the in the conservatives favor. I’m half expecting Cameron to launch a radical new conservative policy of re-nationalising the railways or something.