Halftalk Post : Newsworthy: culture

Kim Kardashian: how did she become such a threat to western civilisation? | Life and style | The Observer
Extracts:
But others point beyond the "media" to the consumers of celebrity culture. "Kim Kardashian is not famous for being famous," said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at New York state's Syracuse University, who pointed out that "most celebrities get rich because we line their pockets."Now it may be that her skill is one that's harder to identify than a prize-winning scientist, but she's good at what she does: getting people to pay attention to her. People have been complaining about it as long as it's existed – it's an abstraction. I don't think we really want it to go away." Thompson believes if all celebrities disappeared tomorrow, we would clamour for them to be back.
The desire for attention is, however, where the major danger of celebrity culture lies, according to Dr Angie Hobbs, a senior fellow in the public understanding of philosophy at the University of Warwick. She said the human desire for status had been documented as far back as Plato. "But when a society starts divorcing status from doing honourable things and awards it for materialistic things, that's when you are in trouble. You have to look very carefully at why people want to be famous, what they are lacking. And at why people who don't want to be famous themselves want to follow famous people, what they are lacking."

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Why working-class people vote conservative | Society | The Guardian

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The dark side of Poland and Ukraine

Euro 2012: antisemitic echoes that threaten celebration of football | World news | The Observer
What is most bizarre is the antisemitism in Poland, despite there being virtually no Jews (for the obvious reason), but still horrific.
" Perhaps that's to be expected given the catastrophic destruction visited on the two countries, but it has led many to a world-view that is a perversion of the golden rule: do unto others as others have done unto you.
It is most visible in the culture surrounding football. Racism, xenophobia, Jew hatred, all manifest themselves at the footie. Why this hatred should be so strong has social historians grasping for answers.
Jan Olaszek, of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, says: "People don't know history. They know stereotypes." This is what lies behind one of the strangest phenomena of contemporary Polish life, what Olaszek calls "antisemitism without Jews".
Poland was the centre of the Holocaust. There are virtually no Jews left in the country, yet antisemitism persists. This is what Olaszek means by stereotypes. "Some Poles think all Jews were communists."

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Mein Kampf to be re-released with notes countering Hitler's arguments

When I heard that Mein Kampf was to be allowed be published again in Germany (due to the copyright, currently held by the German government, lapsing) while not being exactly cheered by the news, overall thought a necessary evil, since simply banning the book would I believe be the wrong approach (fueling the oxygen of parnoic conspiracy arguments). But it is actually refreshing to read the details behind the story, namely that the Germans are publishing it themselves precisely to counter the inevitable surge in readings once it leaves copyright.

Mein Kampf to be re-released with notes countering Hitler's arguments | World news | guardian.co.uk

"Academics are working on producing an annotated version of the book which will include commentaries on the text that will seek to dissect and rubbish Hitler's arguments. A separate, more simplified version for schools is being produced together with academics from the Munich Institute for Contemporary History, which Bavaria's finance minister, Markus Söder, said was necessary, as more people would be reading it. The expiration of the copyright in three years' time might well lead to more young people reading Mein Kampf," he said, adding that he hoped the school version would help to demystify the book – which lays out the Nazi version of Aryan racial supremacy – and emphasise the "global catastrophe that this dangerous way of thinking led to", he added.
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Surely this is overall the best approach with despicable books, don't ban or bury them, but hold them up to the 'market place of ideas' and make the case against them, since it is often the case they achieve more through mystique and fame, than meaning and fact.

Monday, April 23, 2012

The test card: when a girl and a clown ruled the airwaves

Many an impatient early morning hour spent waiting for this to end and the cartoons to start (Penelope pitstop? Yogi bear? Flintstones Scooby Doo? Ah, Hannah Barbera...)
The test card: when a girl and a clown ruled the airwaves | Television & radio | The Guardian