| politics today and tomorrow

This is the punchline of a cartoon in the London Guardian on 9 February 2013 entitled “Baking with Kafka. This week: lemon drizzle cake”. No, don’t ask. We haven’t got a clue.

Reminds us of a story about the philosopher who wrote a book called “The Secret of Hegel” about the notoriously hermetic German sage. A critic reviewing it said that the secret had been well kept.

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Germany, Philosophy | Tagged Czechoslovakia, Hegel, Kafka, lemon drizzle cake | Leave a comment

Not so fruity

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

9 February 2013

A snippet concerning a well-known soft drinks company in commentator Simon Hoggart’s weekly miscellany column in today’s London Guardian shows up the mismatch between what it says on the tin and what is actually in the tin.

Two of his readers, he says, bought a fruit smoothie, marketed by Innocent, sporting a faux-naïf label “showing a happy fruit with a halo around its head”.

The front of the pack promises “strawberries, blackberries and raspberries”.

The back of the pack reveals, however, that the drink contains three-quarters of a crushed strawberry, one crushed raspberry and the grand total of two blackberries.

Hoggart adds the less than mind-boggling information that Innocent is owned by Coca-Cola. Well, who would have thunk it?

Says it all, really. No need for comment.

Thank goodness for the benefits of the global market-place!

And for those nice cuddly multinationals catering so scrupulously and transparently to our every need!

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Economics | Tagged misinformation, multinationals, smoothie, what it says on the tin | Leave a comment

Beyonce and the European Union

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

7 February 2013

“BEYONCE ORDERS IMAGE CHANGE”

While checking out breaking news on the BBC website on the budget of the 27-nation European Union budget for the next seven years (2014-2020) – a decision on which has just been agreed today by the European Council – we alight, to the side of the text we are reading, upon the headline above (which has attracted more readers than the decision on the European budget).

Our questions are these:

Is the headline above the most unimportant news item in the history of humanity?

Is it not, at the very least, a candidate for the least interesting development ever recorded in Guinness Book of Records?

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Europe | Tagged Beyonce, European Union budget, Guinness Book of Records | Leave a comment

Ozymandias

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

7 February 2013

“I am Darius, the Great King, King of Kings, King in Persia, King of countries, son of Hystaspes, grandson of Arsamenes, an Achaemenian.”

A paean to himself by the Achaemenid Emperor Darius in a rodomontade inscribed in three cuneiform languages – Babylonian, Elamite and Old Persian – on the side of Mount Behistun near Kermanshah (Bakhtaran) in what is now Iran.

Darius was Emperor of Persia from 521 to 486 BC.

From the Persian heartlands, he conquered Thrace, Macedonia and India as far as the Indus. He developed a highly sophisticated administration using Aramaic as the common language of communication. Persia was divided into 20 provinces, each under a satrap (governor). Imperial control was facilitated by a first-class postal service. The inscription on Mount Behistun, carved during the reign of Darius, charts his achievements. His only significant setback on the battlefield was when the Greeks defeated him at Marathon in 490 BC.

Antigone1984:

So this guy was a big shot in Persepolis. That’s all very well. But where is he now? How avails him now all his derring-do?

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear —

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). English poet.

Antigone1984:

It will be the same with the Emperor of our own day. Today it is Obama this and Obama that. Tomorrow it will be Obama nada.

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Greece, India, Iran, Literature, Politics | Tagged Barack Obama, Darius, Mt Behistun, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Persia | Leave a comment

Monotheism with two Gods

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

6 February 2013

“When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’”

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), British writer, illustrator, actor and artist’s model.

Antigone1984:

Readers unfamiliar with the history of Northern Ireland, which is the only part of Ireland still subject to the British Crown, should be aware that most of the inhabitants of the province are divided by religion into two communities – Catholics and Protestants – each professing a competing version of Christianity. Simmering antagonism between the two communities has often erupted into open conflict. Factional discord of this kind, of course, is not unique to the Christian religion. One thinks, for instance, of the Sunni and Shia versions of Islam.

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Ireland, Religion, UK | Tagged atheism, Catholics, Islam, Protestants, Quentin Crisp, Shias, Sunnis | Leave a comment

Capitalism

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

5 February 2013

“Capitalism requires people to be pious souls in the workplace, wild pagans at the cash register.”

Ron Chernow (b. 1949), US journalist, historian and biographer.

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Economics, Politics, USA | Tagged capitalism, cash register, Karl Marx, pagans, piety, workplace | Leave a comment

Church and State

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

4 February 2013

“Do you pray for the senators, Dr Hale?” I was asked. “No, I look at the senators and pray for the country,” I replied.

Dr Edward Evert Hale (1822-1909), American clergyman.

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Politics, Religion, USA | Tagged Edward Evert Hale, US Senate | Leave a comment

Jam tomorrow

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context.

3 February 2013

Yesterday the London Guardian published an obituary of Irish trade unionist and human rights activist Inez McCormack, who died on 21 January 2013. The obituary was written by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. The text contained the following passage:

“Experience taught Inez that change could not be delivered through well-intentioned promises for the future. Change required timetables, outcomes and a keen awareness of power relationships. As she said: ‘Those who “have” can always argue that tomorrow is the right time for change. For the “have-nots” today is not soon enough.’”

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You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts. For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice (4 July 2012)

5.Ladder (21 June 2012)

6. A tale of two cities (1) (6 June 2012)

7. A tale of two cities (2) (7 June 2012)

8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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