New Voice

Whole acres of searing months have dissolved since my last post. Well, ok, just under two months has past with a distinct lack of writing on my part. I would obfuscate and manoeuvre and say things like – I was so busy, don’t you know how it is; or, My God, but where did the time go. Unfortunately, the truth is more accurate, I was finishing out a series of books that I had been plodding through and with no firm conclusions made on the subject matter I did not have any posts wandering around my mind. But, of course, now I do. Well, Newsweek, in all its genius, has helped. (continue reading…)

I endeavoured to follow through my readings of the Vietnam conflict, from my last post, with a shopping excursion to right my centre of gravity and ensure that I tackle the history from every angle – well, more than one. Being a historian first and foremost this is part of the obligation that is owed to the seriousness of the subject, apparently. I, of course, am not a historian, but I can read and do and pretend at the writing part.  My esteemed colleague, of the Secular Sundays posts, lent me his encyclopaedic knowledge of sixties and seventies American writings with a collection of Michael Herr-equalling shots of literature to vacuum up my soul into the US Armed Forces. Two things happened to impel a slight discursion on my Nam – centric world view. (continue reading…)

 ”Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson 

There is a great deal to go on in Don DeLillo’s taut, contemplative new novel (or novella) Point Omega, only some of which I will comment on here.  I have no wish to review the book, or summarise its contents.  In the opening pages the author, always an accommodating if often misjudged, guide, teaches us how the book should be read, and how much can be gleaned from its apparently slim leavings.  A lone figure in the cool darkness of a gallery space is focusing on the art installation 24-Hour-Psycho: “It was only the closest watching that yielded this perception.  He found himself undistracted for some minutes by the coming and going of others and he was able to look at the film with the degree of intensity that was required.  The nature of the film permitted total concentration and also depended on it.  The film’s merciless pacing had no meaning without a corresponding watchfulness, the individual whose absolute alertness did not betray what was demanded” (p5).  His stillness is contrasted with the other visitors “wandering … in a daze” (p3).  (continue reading…)

A World of Computers

Networking is a significant impediment on my life. I have been offline for what seems an age, in reality a shocking three and half weeks. Often the issue, when I am down and out from the interweb, is the catastrophic nastiness that is wireless networking devices. LAN is just so much more logical. Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all: may they be technologically flawless.

Before Christmas I was nattering on about the German soldier, which was jumping up all over my radar due to their involvement in Afghanistan. Similarly, there is a deal of talk these days about the return of the Russian to the forefront of international relations. Given this, I thought I might look at an aspect of Russian history that has always stood out to my mind. (continue reading…)

Reading a science blog isn’t always the most comforting of past times. Many hours are subjected to the ignominy of bumbling theories and negative exposition. This is not to say, though, that such time is lost on the reader. Often the indulgent wording, and overly dramatic use of the exclamation point, embellish facts that are required reading; that are necessary points made to the ongoing debate. Regardless of whether that debate is climate change or the use of animals in drug testing, for instance. I have read recently a number of blogs that appear to have sprung up in an endeavour to reach the public on matters of pro or anti global warming merits. Their infusion in the debate is attributable to their opposition to the ‘other sides’ series of points, or blatant misrepresentation of certain facts. When reading some of these I was reminded continuously of a certain referendum that is currently in debate here in Ireland; and the ongoing difficulty for each side to approach the topic in a positive fashion. The thing is there is a consistent battle to reach the public and only finite room to make an impression. And in the absence of sufficient time, negative (and hence alarming) suggestions appear to receive greater attention. (continue reading…)

I must begin with a quick qualification: I’m not a socialist by any interesting stretch of the word, though I would espouse an interest in socialistic matters – in that I would like to be helpful to my fellow citizen, if I can. But further than this, I have always been deeply curious of economic history and read so accordingly, which is (certainly for the twentieth century) heavily inundated with multitudinous words of a Marxist flavor. Incorporating all of this, I have been reading the auto-biography of Mr. Fidel Castro for the last few days. It is defined as an auto-biography but is essentially a printed interview. The interviewer, the French thinker Ignacio Ramonet, is somewhat left-leaning (though it would be unfair to call him a socialist or entirely a follower of the Cuban socialist project), which makes for a central theme that follows the movement of Castro’s Marxist ideas from their beginnings right through their revolutionary achievements. And at what rate these ideas are delivered! I could get bogged down at suffocating length in an attempt to tackle just a few of the plethora of interesting ways the socialist subject is delved into throughout the interview; but there is not the time or space (our website is terribly finite) to do so. But more importantly, I was immediately struck by the subject of Marxism itself, and how in the twenty first century it still remains such an antagonist to a capitalist view point. (continue reading…)

Is war a guaranteed consequence of humanity? I think most people would consider it is, given the planets consistent, and extremely long-term infatuation, with war – and all other forms of violence. But is it really in our nature to be violent? I read an article recently in which scientists examined the human propensity for war craft. Archaeologists have confirmed that civilization itself had only commenced before weaponry is known to have come into increasing use: archaeological remains seem to tie the strong arrival of warlike tendencies to movement of our ancestors from hunter gather status to farmers; which makes sense since farming forms a connection to the land, and hence there then exists something to fight to control. Though violence would have existed before this point, it seems not to have been more than individuals, as opposed to large numbers of organised participants. But apparently it does not stop there: it has been noted extensively in chimpanzees that some contain a violent disposition – say a member of one grouping clubbing to death a member of another grouping (2001: A Space Odyssey style), for no noticable gain. This illogical violent nature leads some to believe that war is part of our biological heritage. (continue reading…)

Nuclear proliferation is the hottest of topics, and as I discussed a few weeks ago, the foundation is now available for a comprehensive treaty to begin to deal with this thorny issue. The international community (at least those seeking stable society) can commit to the deceleration of nuclear production and manufacture a way forward for a world still cognisant of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States is at the very centre of any progress that can be made, not least because they control the vast majority of active nuclear warheads, but also given they are thus far the only nation to have made use of the weaponry: the Soviet Union’s feint in 1962 being an alarming follow up. (continue reading…)

The shockwaves from the North Korean nuclear weapon test have begun to recede, yet the issue of a response likely fills the halls of global power. What to do when a rogue state chimes an international warning bell and effectively draws a shot across the proverbial bow of the United States? Surely the answer is in nuclear disarmament. (continue reading…)

I sit down to write about the state of modern Ireland and as if by magic ‘Think Happy Thoughts’ by Vyvienne Long comes on the radio. For those who have yet to have the pleasure, ‘Think Happy Thoughts’ is a song that strikes child-like chords. It’s comes across as a return to the happy innocence of infancy with its toddler lyrics and pouting tempo. ‘Goddamn them’, I think, ‘they’re trying to brainwash me! This surely is Orwellian mind-control’. (continue reading…)