tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post2927517593098517884..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: I lied (3)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-79512461517879726722011-10-27T15:17:46.956+01:002011-10-27T15:17:46.956+01:00Thank you, by the way, Mr. Rilstone, for making me...Thank you, by the way, Mr. Rilstone, for making me aware of this article: http://tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote.html<br />"The pseudo-quote is therefore without authenticity or meaning, and is just another of those political slogans which are used not as an assistance to, but as a substitute for real thought. It is not a deep truth, although it is constantly treated as one. Burke incidentally hated such things. He thought that cheap political slogans, or ‘maxims’ as he called them, enabled politicians to invoke principles of expediency, so they could pursue their own selfish interests instead of fulfilling their obligations to country, party and people. To him they were quite distinct from the deeps truths, or as he calls them here, ‘first principles’"I. Dallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427385974208305067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-63990768067172861702011-10-10T13:14:34.365+01:002011-10-10T13:14:34.365+01:00Mr. Rilstone? One of the ways I keep up with Old M...Mr. Rilstone? One of the ways I keep up with Old Media is by having you transalate it. I managed to get through Mein Kampf once, wich is more than Herr Speer did; it is not something one cares to do every day.<br /><br />What would be your going rate for reading newspapers, or, God forbid, watching telly programs?I. Dallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427385974208305067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-88338125897542934122011-10-09T12:34:29.101+01:002011-10-09T12:34:29.101+01:00Don't worry, there's more than enough auti...Don't worry, there's more than enough autism to go round for all of us.Andrew Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07412263807838661843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-9118592229550985532011-10-09T11:27:16.529+01:002011-10-09T11:27:16.529+01:00"Pete Ashton suggested, not unkindly, that I ...<i>"Pete Ashton suggested, not unkindly, that I might have a kind of high-functioning autism.'</i><br /><br />But... but Pete Ashton told me <i>I</i> was the one with the high-functioning autism?Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-16848296365554113832011-10-08T21:39:20.255+01:002011-10-08T21:39:20.255+01:00Given they are in response to a published article,...Given they are in response to a published article, that's pretty much the definition of not unprompted, isn't it? Indeed, given that the article's published with a form to fill in reactions to it, you could even say they were invited.SKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09102522819364312684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-60986302374624634792011-10-08T17:19:26.849+01:002011-10-08T17:19:26.849+01:00I don't have a web-log of my own because I am ...<b>I don't have a web-log of my own because I am not vain enough to think that my unprompted witterings are deserving of a worldwide audience </b><br /><br />Whereas you think your unprompted witterings on someone else's blog are deserving of a worldwide audience.Nick Mazonowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01672027642700116849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-36786828385222384002011-10-08T15:37:33.622+01:002011-10-08T15:37:33.622+01:00Someone once wrote a generic newspaper for when yo...Someone once wrote a generic newspaper for when you have missed the days news: Overseas :various upheavals: Sport: England lost. Weather; changeable. The politics entry was 'nothing of interest'. I suspect that this will get worse for the next few years, as arguments about what to spend the money on are a bit redundant if there is in fact no money.Richard Worthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09025201422909987658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-81398725912133318112011-10-07T18:52:06.682+01:002011-10-07T18:52:06.682+01:00The guy with the funny name is almost always entir...The guy with the funny name is almost always entirely wrong. I think his aim is to have the most ironically-named page on the internet ever. This time, though he's right by accident, it would be silly to present it as something he's discovered: it's an old journalistic maxim, in fact (if you're unsure as to how big a story is, ask yourself surprising would have been if they'd said the opposite). <br /><br />So it applied, say, to that time when the US commander in Afganistan said 'our reduction is troop numbers will depend on the situation on the ground,' and everyone acted like he had said the President smelled of wee. Can you imagine him saying 'we will reduce troop numbers regardless of any military considerations whatsoever'. <br /><br />I don't have a web-log of my own because I am not vain enough to think that my unprompted witterings are deserving of a worldwide audience (whether it's true or not that a given person's witterings <i>are</i> deserving of a worldwide audience, I don't think you can deny that the act of publishing them takes a certain vanity). So I'll just continue to respond to others, thanks.SKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09102522819364312684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-70768025599153605512011-10-07T16:57:19.621+01:002011-10-07T16:57:19.621+01:00Saunt Eliezer calls literal claptrap applause ligh...Saunt Eliezer calls literal claptrap <a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/" rel="nofollow">applause lights</a>. His point is that if you invert the statement and it's very surprising, the statement itself is very unsurprising and so conveys little information.<br /><br />I think your position on political speech is close to emotivism on moral speech.Paul Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07812075028283068443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-17595526819047212862011-10-07T16:44:28.320+01:002011-10-07T16:44:28.320+01:00We need to be sceptical without becoming cynical.
...<i>We need to be sceptical without becoming cynical.</i><br /><br />See also Paul Mason's famous <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/02/twenty_reasons_why_its_kicking.html" rel="nofollow">Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere</a> for what people are doing about it.Sam Dodsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01534273379447820097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-35266896763432763142011-10-07T16:38:33.930+01:002011-10-07T16:38:33.930+01:00Excellent observation from SK. Shame that he or s...Excellent observation from SK. Shame that he or she doesn't (seem to) have a blog of his or her own.<br /><br />Andrew, I absolutely understand your frustration, but your blanket condemnation is too much. It may well be that our current Prime Minister, if you want to call him that, truly is devoid of actual thoughts, but we can't just extend that to <i>all</i> politicians. We need to be sceptical without becoming cynical.Mike Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06039663158335543317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-35429840511070187392011-10-07T10:10:42.436+01:002011-10-07T10:10:42.436+01:00I'm with you right up until 'There's n...I'm with you right up until 'There's no point trying to work out what is going on in their heads. There's no point trying to work out what they mean. They don't mean anything. Nothing is going on in their heads. It's only noise.'<br /><br />There is of course something going on in their heads: it's just that its relationship to what comes out of their mouth (or onto their keyboard) is much more complex and interesting than 'an attempt to put down on paper (or get across in speech) exactly what is in their head'. <br /><br />I mean, if you walked in on a married couple having a blazing row about who failed to feed that cat last night, and you conclusively demonstrated which i=of them it was, and <i>yet they still kept arguing</i>, would you conclude 'there is nothing going on in their heads, they are just making noises for the sake of it' or would you conclude 'there is clearly <i>so much</i> going on in their heads, on so many fascinating and interrelated levels, that their relationship is a rich, complex, supremely <i>human</i> thing, and this argument, apparently about the cat, is actually a product and a reflection of the totality of their lives together and apart, and that is why human beings are the most most sublime paragons of creation: because when a dog is angry, it barks, but when we have vague dissatisfied existential angst combined with a fear of the future in an age of uncertainty, we pick a fight about the cat.'<br /><br />And you'll never work out what someone is <i>actually</i> talking about, or how they <i>actually</i> see the world, if all you do is try to fit their words into some coherent logical argument, rather than by trying to understand the dark, silent, submerged-iceberg-like mass of thought processes that caused them to utter those words at those time.<br /><br />Subtext. It's all about the subtext. And subtext is fascinating and amazing and wonderful. So much more fascinating and amazing and wonderful than language would be if we all just went around trying to lay out rational arguments that expressed out thought processes directly, even if that were possible.SKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09102522819364312684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-88558101561383899552011-10-07T09:39:59.322+01:002011-10-07T09:39:59.322+01:00(I think) I understand why you're stopping. If...(I think) I understand why you're stopping. If most people can simply read these things and move on, but you take it personally and fight it in the belief it can be stopped, it must be emotionally exhausting. <br />From a selfish point of view, I am sorry, because your struggles with idiocy help reassure me that I'm smarter than lots of other people because I read both the idiocy and the comment on the idiocy. Not sure whether more regressions make you smarter or stupider, to be honest. You have decided stupider, for the time being, and that's a good thing for you. <br />Anyway, I hope you enjoy the lead up to Winterval without your blood pressure being elevated. Again, selfishly I hope this allows you to recharge your batteries because I hugely enjoy your stuff, but even if you confine yourself to clearly marked fiction like Dr Who and comics, this would still be one of the first blogs I check up on in the morning.Cannaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15714728788145149941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-41147602408171455652011-10-06T20:05:38.688+01:002011-10-06T20:05:38.688+01:00Hooray for this!
Seriously, thanks so much for w...Hooray for this! <br /><br />Seriously, thanks so much for writing all this stuff. It's really helpful for those of us also trying to get our heads around what this week I'm calling "the abuses of narrative".Pete Ashtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03850579036751770929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-17486342899062883772011-10-06T18:52:48.926+01:002011-10-06T18:52:48.926+01:00Beautifully written, but saddening. Because while ...Beautifully written, but saddening. Because while most political 'debate' is, as you say, just about making noise (and thankfully, those noises are increasingly divorced from actual actions - we're not going to get rid of the Human Rights Act, or bring back the noose) there are a small number of people who will fall for the lies only if they're not shown the truth. And you've always been one of the better people on the side of showing people the truth.<br /><br />So I'll miss your writing about politics. But I'll look forward to your continuing writing about Doctor Who, Jack Kirby, folk music, theology, C.S. Lewis and anything else that isn't quite so upsetting.Andrew Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07412263807838661843noreply@blogger.com