I have a bit of writer's block at the moment.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. I would just have a think about some of my least favourite things such as woo, Big Music, the media, global warming denialists or post-modernist/post-structuralist/deconstructionists.
But it's just not happening for me at the moment.
I hang out at my favourite blogs and some others looking for inspiration.
Nothing.
Someone's posted something good. I can't be bothered posting a comment.
What would it be like to create an anti-Dikkii? I could blog about stuff that I can't normally say.
Free speech is an illusion.
Peer-group pressure, contract law, defamation, perjury, contempt of court, copyright, national secrecy, corporate confidentiality - is it fair to say that these wouldn't exist either in their current form, or even at all, if it were possible for free speech to exist?
Would truly free speech usher in a new golden age of transparency? Or would it result in a few more failed marriages.
But anti-Dikkii interests me.
How would I protect myself from legal action?
What if I said something that was very, very wrong and it came back to haunt me? You can't even joke about terrorism or paedophilia any more. What was funny once becomes trial by hysterical media.
Do people really accept media releases which are clearly cleverly spin-doctored reverse ferrets as the facts all along?
Why woo? Why can't people just accept that there is usually a normal rational explanation for things that go bump in the night?
Why homeopathy? Why reiki? Why veterinary acupuncture?
If God existed, wouldn't He sentence evangelicals to hell? After all, even God couldn't possibly tolerate the self-interested sucking up that evangelicals do?
Is Richard Dawkins being a fascist in expecting religious moderates to speak out against religious extremists? If not, am I a hypocrite for not speaking out against the violence in Somalia? Is everyone condoning bad stuff in this world if they simply don't get the chance to speak out? Even if they speak out about as much as they can?
Do woo merchants with good intentions have a duty to expose fellow woo merchants who are frauds? And should they go after them with extreme prejudice?
Is apathy the ultimate payback for technological achievement?
Do I need more money?
Why does it not worry me that all my friends from school and uni are earning more than me? Is this wrong? Is it doubly wrong if I still consider myself a capitalist pig?
McMansions are offensive. And people buy them. What ever happened to taste? And why is it necessary to have a master bedroom that can fit three four-post king-size beds?
Who really needs an ensuite bathroom with two washbasins? And why these and not a bath?
Will our kids kill us for allowing them to grow up with shoebox-sized backyards?
How did the urban planners for the Plenty Valley manage to forget about parkland?
Anti-Dikkii is an interesting concept.
Why does economics not have an Alan Sokal figure to tell the theoretical humanities to butt out?
Why does everything that I'm doing at work have to coincide with this week? And why do we hide behind euphemisms such as "due diligence", "fair and reasonable", "meets expectations", "performance management" and "key responsibility areas"?
Do post-modernist/post-structuralist/deconstructionists now run senior management? And the public service? And why do they love Freud and Jung?
Reality used to be a friend of mine.
8 comments:
Gettin' ready to go play basketball now. If I don't "see" you again due to the heart-attack I'm most likely going to have from letting myself get so out of condition again, well, Have Fun being Anti.
And don't kidnap any post-modernist/de-constructionistas.
Or somethin'.
Do woo merchants with good intentions have a duty to expose fellow woo merchants who are frauds? And should they go after them with extreme prejudice?
Absolutely. Frauds just make it more difficult to get any kind of research in the area taken seriously. And there are an awful lot of them. It does have to be proof of fraud, of course. Otherwise it's libel - and in this world of free speech, you can't say things like that.
Although if you mean the CIA version of 'extreme prejudice', we're not actually allowed to do that. Anyway, they might come back to haunt me. Wouldn't that be ironic?
MB - I'm still weighing up the anti-Dikkii thing. Not sure if it's a goer yet - while I expect that it could be fun for a while, being wilfully politically incorrect really only has novelty value.
Romulus - I thought that using the term "extreme prejudice" might raise a smile. And you know, you've touched on about two layers of irony there.
It does have to be proof of fraud, of course. Otherwise it's libel - and in this world of free speech, you can't say things like that.
*smirks*
I do like Penn & Teller's approach. In the States you can't outright accuse a fraudster of being one, but you can call them "assholes", "bastards" and "low-life scum".
Great post Dikkii.
I had the same problem, but a comment in your previous post nudged a recent memory and provided all the inspiration I needed, so thanks...:)
Anti Dikkii is an interesting concept though....
Thanks Plonka. I had a read of that post. Very good. I'm now about to recommend it to someone who blogged about something very similar.
Thanks Dikkii. It's a contentious one sometimes, so I couldn't resist...:)
"Will our kids kill us for allowing them to grow up with shoebox-sized backyards?"
They should.
But that's coming from a country boy who grew up in the far-reaching fields and foothills of Southern Virginia.
I've thought about it a lot, and I've come to the conclusion that, if I hadn't been brought up on the outskirts of Nowhere, I would've been a completely different person.
No forests to explore? No creeks and rivers to swim in? No wild animals to capture, tame, and befriend? No starry sky to marvel at? No real concept of silence (save for crickets and tree frogs)? No room to run forever?
I can't even imagine what I'd be like if I'd grown up in the city.
And, by the way, for having writer's block, that was one Hell of a post...
Thanks for your kind words re my writer's block.
Jenner, I grew up in mid-suburbia in Sydney and cannot imagine what it would be like to grow up without a back yard.
I'm thinking of moving out to the boondocks and ensuring that my kids (if I bother to have any) have some place where they can play. Urban planning is getting silly where i currently live in suburban Melbourne.
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