Posts by DCBCauchi
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Up Front: Casual, Shallow and Meaningless, in reply to Marcus Turner,
Words don't seem to be able to express the need for communion as well as many of us would like, so we've developed codes.
It's called phatic communion. The word 'phatic' means that what you're conveying is not the sense of your words as such, but an amorphous 'Yeah mate, I'm with you.'
(I'm only just working my way through this very interesting conversation now, so apologies if someone's already made this point.)
And cos I can't not say something about me: I'm hard on my friends, especially the people I care most about. I'm in no way a nice person. I'm not too worried about this. It all works out in the end.
I grew up in the 70s. Everyone told me 'Be yourself, and everything will turn out fine,' so I did. Ha ha. As my brother's wife said last night: 'Don't you mean "Be your selves!?!"' You are that you are.
And (re: Vanuatu) you know good friends when no-one feels the need to fill the silence.
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Hard News: Thinking Digital, in reply to George Darroch,
Policy and message should align certainly. And policy should be defensible against a range of ideological attacks. But the test of a policy should always be how well it grounds against reality. Anything else is theatrics and game-playing.
Nice. I'd just suggest 'and' rather than 'or'. Test against reality and effective game-playing.
It's crazy. I'm not even worried about the outcome of the election any more. Could it be that we're about to get a truly representative, transparent, and accountable government that works together for all our interests? Or am I dreaming?
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Some impressions:
I went along on the first day. Bit worried by a couple of things, but nothing too significant. It’s all good (mostly). I’ve got my own work to do. Stuff no-one else can do. Reckon I’m best supporting from the sidelines.
My favourite line was ‘The beginning is nigh!’
Lots of people tried to take over with their tired old lines, and no-one really paid them much attention. Sensible people are only interested in sensible solutions.
A couple of weeks ago we lived in a world ruled by lies, over-complication, and obfuscation. Now we’re seeing what it’s like where we govern ourselves according to truth and morality.
One of the many things I like about this movement is how everyone makes a free choice which side they’re on. But it’s not actually the ‘good’ side vs the ‘bad’ side. No-one is completely good, just as no-one is completely bad. Not even psychopaths. Unless you let (or make) them be.
I reckon it’s between adults and children. Those who will honestly face up to themselves (never pretty) and their responsibilities (never easy), and those who refuse to yet. Those who will willingly do the hard work needed and those who prefer to shirk it. (I say pompously yet again. Yawn.)
They should be pitied not hated. We need to get rid of the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. Who’s ‘them’? We’re all just ‘we’.
Everyone who thinks they can just repeat, carry on what they’ve always thought and done: Grow up!
It’s pathetic.
No-one gets everything they want, and everyone gets something they want. Even children can understand this. I tried to explain my partner’s ‘In NZ 1% owns 16%’ sign to a very small girl who asked nicely what it meant (and who I’m pretty sure didn’t know the word ‘percentage’). She clarified my explanation, thought about it carefully, then said with that wonderful childlike seriousness: ‘No, it’s not fair. Everyone should get the same amount [of the basic necessities of life].’ It really is that simple. Even a child can see things as they are. No-one’s fooled.
Time to get real.
Wish I’d seen more people that I knew, but the people that I talked with seemed very on to it. And we’re showing the rest of the world how it should be done. We really are.
Who’s the most developed Western nation now eh!?! Ha ha.
And that’s more than enough from me.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Islander,
He was my greatgreatgreat-grandfather, and his name was Kahuti/a. He was a rakatira, had become a bit estranged from his daughter Motoitoi (she cohabited with Richard Driver, pilot for Otepoti harbour, and produced 3 children thereby, one of whom was my great grandmother)and his wife was long dead.
Wow. Cheers for that! I often thought of him while sitting on the beach, wondering what his name and story was.
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And now for something completely different. (Will this work?, I wonder.)
Kind of. -
Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Sacha,
I think you may be hearing the word “torture” differently. To me, it has a moral dimension rather different than cooking does.
Oh ok, I thought you were referring to the use of physical torture techniques. Butcher's techniques.
(And this is not getting my glazing done.)
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Sacha,
*Inherent*, you mean?
There is nothing inherently wrong with using knives and heat etc to cut up and sear flesh. It’s how we cook food.
However, when you use those techniques on a living person, for whatever ends, that is morally wrong.
Except I’ve totally forgotten about the use of torture-related techniques in BDSM-style sex play. I’m told that’s quite trendy now. Nothing wrong with that.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Sacha,
Things don’t have any inherent moral value. It’s how they’re used that gives them value.
(Oops, missed quoting the highly relevant ‘Torture?’!)
Exactly. Can’t be used in any way possible that is compatible with any reasonable definition of ‘good’.
No matter what American legal experts might get paid to say. And it's a stupid tool to use anyway. It doesn't work as intended. Can't in fact work as intended.
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Another story, about white-bread Dunedin
Blueskin Bay is named after the old guy who lived there alone when the Pakeha settled there.
There is a marae on the end of the peninsula. I once flatted with a woman making sculpture out of flax. She was very miffed when her overtures to come learn flax-weaving techniques were sniffily rebuffed. She refused to realise she went about it entirely the wrong way.
I also once flatted with a woman who was entitled to a mutton-bird in season. Ye gods below, the smell of it cooking. It lingers for days. I stupidly didn’t try any, cos I’m vego.
There’s another old saying:
Grab a chance, and you won’t be sorry for a might-have-been!
Things don’t have any inherent moral value. It’s how they’re used that gives them value. Our use, our values, our responsibility.
I also remember once driving down the main street of Dunedin with, among others, a young, drunk, outraged Maori guy who grew up down there, an extremely good drummer. He wound down the window and shouted at the passers-by repeatedly 'Where are all the brown faces eh!?!'
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Another story, a what if story
A friend of mine grew up in communist Poland. One day, we were sitting around in the pub, and I mentioned his jokey t-shirt. Then we compared stories of what we thought now would be like when we were growing up. Mine was the usual capitalist-style technological leisure society dedicated to art, where everyone hoons around on jet-packs and holidays on the Moon.
He recounted how his primary school teachers seriously told them they’d be working on the great socialist space stations of the early 21st century.
That shut me up.
That said, when we were looking around at dives for a flat, I joked about how if we lived in a proper communist country we'd be allocated a house with lots of books and pictures to look at, told to go for it.
Oh how he, his wife, and his sister laughed at me. Oh how they laughed.