Wednesday 12 December 2007

Simply Unfit

Einstein's view that “Everything should be made as as simple as possible — but not simpler.”, is quoted in the Times this morning. The regime's new scientific adviser has an uphill struggle against the brain dead Labour ministers who choose simpler self aggrandisement coupled with force in response to socio -cultural complexity that offends their authoritarianism.

Yet once a monopoly of power has been gained, by whatever means, no regime can just keep smacking the people into line, and politics becomes largely the science and craft of words; rarely and memorably it becomes the art of words. Schiller's:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, Dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo Dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

seems appropriate currently.

Angels are in Berlin till Monday; the German philosophers' Christmas shindig at the Humboldt on experimental pragmatics, which is considering syntax- semantics mismatch and the neural bases of semantic composition, and how pragmatic differences between affirmative and negative sentences are captured in the processes and representations of language comprehension, (and other hot topics), might seem irrelevant to the Leader of the Labour party; not simple enough.

But, speaking with the simplicity necessarily embraced by Gordon Brown: his brain is unable to function at the levels of complexity and emotional responsiveness that are regarded and required as neuro-typical. His unfortunate physical and psychic incapacities have led to death and misery, particularly within our country and in the Middle East. Being Prime Minister , an office for which he is literally not fit, is not his achievement, it is his permanent and public disgrace.

13 comments:

Nick Drew said...

oh excellent !

post of the month, sans doute, perfect in its symmetry

have fun: I'm sure you will

lilith said...

Thank God for brains like yours, and with a mouth to go with it. Love it :-)

Electro-Kevin said...

Do you think that a wide vocabulary enhances consciousness ? That the more articulate the more abstract the thought ?

You seem to be saying that the Prime Minister is stilted.

I just think that he is arrogant, forceful and nasty. Above all he is - and always was - wrong.


Happy Christmas

My New Year resolution is to visit you more often. I'm sorry I haven't been by in a while and thank you for your great comment on my blog recently.

hatfield girl said...

It was fun ND, Christmas and Germany go together; the temperature is low enough for glowing with wine (and all the rest) to be virtuous.
As we stood in the Dome of the Reichstag looking across the city on the day of the Signing, it was hard not to see the capital of federal Europe spreading before us, as one of our party remarked.

It is not good to have a government that is surly, vulgar and widely regarded with shocked surprise that they represent the English, who enjoy a reputation for courtesy and affability. We do not belong in the European contintental dream but neither do we deserve to be daubed as party poopers.

The problem is that the unelected Leader hasn't got a mind to make up, so he's just rude and silly.

hatfield girl said...

It certainly enhances communication EK - you know.
Yes, of course it must because so much of our culture is word based. I'm unsure if talking about painting, or music, is the best way to enhance its understanding though. I wish I'd had better training in non-word understanding.
Emotion and interplay with understanding and communication are my current game. ( Game is used advisedly; mostly I'm playing, as are most of us).
I can't think articulacy would limit thought but nor could it be essential. Not sure what is intended by 'abstract'.

Nick Drew said...

You are right (of course, on all counts) about Xmas in Germany

I was once on exercise in north Germany late in December and in a quiet moment sneaked off to the Krippenmarkt in Kevelaer, it was totally gothic + enchanting, only had enough cash to buy a small one but we have it still

hatfield girl said...

Opens mouth, places foot inside, story of my life L.

Newmania said...

Throbbing temples HG I can imagine stitting opposite you just listening for hours...sigh... its incantory somehow.

After Chomsky isn`t all that old German stuff about language redundant ?Are you in fact a female Casaubon?

hatfield girl said...

I thought it was German scholarship that undermined his claims to be working on finding the key, N. Didn't Will make some biting asides about not having German? It has worried me always (well, idly crossed my mind occasionally) that placing her happiness in the hands of someone who destroyed her husband's credibility was the second time Dorothea backed a loser.

It wouldn't be wise to get into a discussion with you - wear your learning like gossamer - on linguistics; I was responding to EK on being lost for words, which you must admit, is a nasty situation for a politician, regardless of what it might betray.

Newmania said...

Believe it or not that occurred to me HG.I read once that in all of Middlemarch the single failure of George Elliot was to conjure a convincing young romantic. He is an old blue stocking`s idea of what such a thing might be. ...

Electro-Kevin said...

Abstract - ability to think out of the box to visualise that which is yet to exist or yet to happen and to either seek it or at least prepare for it.

I know that certain members of the 'community' always speak in the present tense. Their paradigm has no vista of opportunity and no appreciation of history - they fight, fornicate, gorge and stupefy and are doomed to an evolutionary cul de sac. Nu Lab would rather condemn ME for pointing this out rather than condemn THEM for dragging us backwards.

By extension the limiting of our own thoughts through the stultifying language of political correctness restricts our paradigm too and imprisons us with invisible bars and chains.

I believe that our leaders are themselves partially brainwashed by this Newspeak - they actually believe it on one level but cannot see it through on others. Their behavior is schizophrenic.


I prefer the expression 'political correction' actually. This is more reflective of the crossroads at which we find ourselves.

hatfield girl said...

That's two comments ending badly, N: 'female Casaubon', 'old blue-stocking'...mmm Perhaps I should take a little sit down in the garden. I'll get my cloak.

hatfield girl said...

'Political correction', lovely.