distinguishing quality

It may be remarked that the harsh opinion of Machiavelli has been more widespread in England and the United States than in the nations of Continental Europe. This is no doubt natural, because the distinguishing quality of Anglo-Saxon politics has always been hypocrisy, and hypocrisy must always be at pains to shy away from the truth. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, by James Burnham

pdf

курение убивает

more on heresy

Pier did not feel that he was in danger, or under pressure either to divulge or to disguise his opinions, which he expressed with some vigour. The God who had given the law to Moses, he said, was a malevolent scoundrel, who would damn nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand men he had made; Pier, if he got hold of him, would spit in his face, bite and scratch him, break him in pieces, ‘May he die of gout!’ He expressed the anticlerical sentiments and anti-ecclesiastical views that had been current in the region – and not only in this region – for a century or more with the same vehemence: the church should have no property; its sacraments were invalid and its alms and penances worthless, since there was no purgatory; its buildings were not churches, but mere structures in which falsity and nonsense were spoken; its liturgy unintelligible, meant to deceive simple people; and the cross merely a piece of wood. Nobody should be condemned to death, and officials who pronounced such sentences, such as preachers of the crusade, were murderers. Marriage was prostitution, and nobody who slept with a woman, even his own wife, could be saved; Pier himself had not done so for two years, though his wife was not a believer but ‘an idiot like you’.

The War On Heresy, pg 207

Есть здесь театры?

— А на что тебе Барабаев?
— Он меня выписал... Две тысячи, вообрази, прислал... По триста в месяц, кроме того, буду получать. Есть здесь театры?..

А.П. Чехов, Вор / youtube

Оксана Тихомирова

Junge Frau

Wilhelm List, Junge Frau in Unterwäsche, 1911

пролетарии всех стран

Belgian priest arrested after deadly night of sex and drugs with British cleric. --CBS News

вопрос

Вам дроном переслать или на пейджер?

Охота на Снарка Трампа

becomes some kind of a sport in this country

особенности национальной охоты

Натурщица

— Неужто, по-твоему, весело так гулять, не раскрывая рта? Люди разговаривают, если они не идиоты!

...
Художник шел рядом с женой, и за целый час они не перемолвились ни словом.

Ги де Мопассан. Натурщица

they just keep scrolling

Back in February, the music historian Ted Gioia wrote an essay on the state of American culture. He argued that many creative people want to create art (work that puts demands on people), but all the commercial pressures push them to create entertainment (which gives audiences what they want). As a result, for the past many years, entertainment (superhero movies) has been swallowing up art (literary novels and serious dramas).

But now, Gioia observed, even the entertainment business is in crisis. Hollywood studios are laying off employees. The number of new scripted TV series is down. That’s because entertainment is being swallowed up by distraction (TikTok, Instagram). People stay on their phones because it’s easier. Each object of distraction lasts only a few seconds and doesn’t require any cognitive work; the audience just keeps scrolling. --The Junkification of American Life

новости

Если убрать из новостей пропаганду и рекламу, останутся только пустые страницы. ©впс

more on heresy

Ad abolendam was promulgated at a time when the scale, variety and effectiveness of mechanisms of government of every kind and at every level, and of the number of men trained and available to operate them, taking full advantage of the consequent opportunities to develop their careers, line their pockets and undermine their rivals, were increasing exponentially. -The War on Heresy, pg 142

“When Statesmen gravely say ‘We must be realistic’
The chances are they’re weak, and therefore pacifistic:
But when they speak of Principles, look out: perhaps
Their generals are already poring over maps."

--W. H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems

pg 148

ну да, when politicians talk about morals - watch your pockets

more on albigensian crusade starting from pg 171:

The most notorious of the events and atrocities that have given the Albigensian wars the reputation of reaching new levels of savagery and destructiveness took place during this first phase of the campaigns and triumphs of Simon de Montfort.

...

In describing these holocausts Peter of Les Vaux de Cernay uses the Latin phrase cum ingenti gaudio (‘with great joy’)...

The level of cynicism

The level of cynicism is just boundless. @FischerKing64

the rest is history obvious

on hate-watching

... hate-watching is now part of the cultural conversation and arguably contemporary life. Chalk it up to morbid curiosity: We start watching a show because it looks appealing, but we keep watching because we want to complain about it at happy hour. It’s fun to be the person who describes a particularly terrible story arc or performance to our friends’ disbelief. Besides, it’s better than whatever is on the news. --I ❤️ a Hate-Watch. Don’t You?

неплохое эссе, еще и познавательное: целый список кандидатов на hate-watching. и фраза про новости удачная. еще там хороший термин doomscrolling

Tech companies recognize an unfortunate truth: incentivizing our worst impulses is far more lucrative than harnessing our best ones. In this context-free void, an eyeball is an eyeball, whether the brain behind it is being flooded with dopamine or adrenaline. A click is a click, whether you’re glad or mad.

...
It is also the kind of behavior, like doomscrolling and replying to trolls, that feeds our less charitable instincts. The more we do it, the more it becomes a habit, a negative approach to the world. We start to expect to be mad, even crave the feeling, and that cynicism spills over into more than just our TV diet.

ну и ударный финал: To borrow a sentiment, the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. от себя добавлю: хоть я и hate-read NYT, иногда в ней встречаются достойные вещи, как это эссе.

difficult to ignore

They denounced clerical vice and avarice, and repudiated most sources of clerical income and power. They denied the authority of the church fathers to interpret the scriptures and insisted on their own right to do so.

They maintained that marriage was a matter for those concerned and not a sacrament of the church. They advocated the baptism of adults, not of infants, and confession in public before the community, not in private to priests.

In short, the faith they preached plainly affirmed the values of a world in which small groups of men and women stood together as equals, dependent on each other, suspicious of outsiders and hostile to every external claim on their obedience, allegiance or wealth. They represented a challenge increasingly difficult for the reformers to ignore. --The War on Heresy, pg 100-101

it's difficult indeed.

As with many radical thinkers, Arnold’s principal achievement was to unite his enemies. -pg 113

"Augustine’s uncritical reliance on the inadequate Latin translations of the original Greek and Hebrew versions made things worse." - he didn't know neither Hebrew nor Greek 🤡 это из Closing of the Western Mind. дальше я читать не стал.

женщины и спорт

Четко, грамотно про пол и спорт - там ссылка на статью Майи Гусейновой.

ну и заодно о женском боксе у avva - дурь в основном.

разве вот

Весь спорт достижений — это меряться тем, чья мутация круче. Один выиграл генетическую лотерею, вырос высокий и играет в баскетбол. Другая выиграла генетическую лотерею, имеет высокий уровень тестостерона, благодаря чему мышцы лучше растут. Прогонять мутантов с выставки мутантов за то, что они мутанты, абсолютно не логично. © talk_a_bit

Wolfe, Vance and Brooks

The Secret to Tom Wolfe’s Irresistible Snap, Crackle and Pop - essay by David Brooks (usual suspect), not too bad, not too good either, but did they place it in NYT just because he mentions JD Vance?

Wolfe’s goal was to be like Balzac, not JD Vance. He was a provocateur, not an advocate. He came to examine fashions, not legislate morality.

not sure what this supposed to mean really. just to kick in passing?

два фото

Looking cool in Harlem,1972                   Fashion shoot on Clifton beach,                                                              Cape Argus, 1977

Cunt for Red October

Captain of nuclear sub armed with doomsday weapons made sex tape with underling at sea @nypost