tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47102500865329239222024-03-06T07:27:52.911+00:00OxzenEnquiries into philosophy, zen, enlightenment, peace, justice, music, spiritual and emotional intelligence, current affairs, politics and education.Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.comBlogger560125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-70484909603131843992013-04-13T09:00:00.002+01:002013-04-13T09:00:57.256+01:00Alexei on Thatcher . . . and Personality DisordersDamn you, Alexei Sayle! You beat me to it! - the observation that Thatcher was a classic case of Borderline Personality Disorder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofmFNggh8lk
This is what Alexei actually said to Jon Snow on Channel 4 News on the day that Thatcher died:
"I think of her as the first modern Personality Disorder politician. I think that's why Blair is so cut up [distressed].Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-88934457130684690872013-04-12T00:30:00.000+01:002013-04-12T11:40:26.803+01:00On The Day That Thatcher Died . . . An Epitaph of TweetsOn the day that Thatcher died there were millions of tweets pouring into cyberspace. This selection of them is an archive for anyone who didn't really understand the feelings of the majority of people in Britain about Thatcher.
How dare politicians tell us we must respect Mrs Thatcher - she ruined our society - she was as loathed as Saddam Hussein, she really was. -- Julie-Ann (@BienSoeur)Best Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-33869897818561610082013-04-11T01:02:00.000+01:002013-04-11T01:02:24.005+01:00Rejoice! More Thoughts on the Death of ThatcherIt's looking quite possible that "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" will be the most downloaded track of the week by the time Thatcher's funeral takes place next Tuesday. Meanwhile, street parties have been taking place, along with chants of "Maggie Maggie Maggie: Dead Dead Dead!"It's impossible to underestimate just how hated Thatcher had become in this country by the time her Conservative Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-46732170855260136912013-04-09T14:31:00.000+01:002013-04-09T14:34:26.062+01:00Tales of Iron Ladies
The smug, self-satisfied voice of Andrew Neil continues to drone from the radio, thanks to the BBC, so it's time to string a few thoughts together on an amazing woman who's been a constant in my life for as far back as I can remember.
Aunt O is my mum's eldest sister and also my godmother. Having no children of her own she's been exceptionally conscientious in carrying out her assigned role. Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-42441054540727085042013-02-06T18:00:00.000+00:002013-02-06T18:00:23.469+00:00Why It's Still Kicking Off Everywhere - Part TwoNotes from Paul Mason's lecture:Why It's Still Kicking Off EverywhereSOAS, London University, 10th January, 2013
http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/trustinfo/conferences.htmThe digital communications revolution is having a profound impact on the world. [NB Clay Shirky - Here Comes Everybody]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_EverybodyIn the four years since 2008 the iPhone and its Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-20826124853865133272013-02-05T17:00:00.000+00:002013-02-05T17:28:41.331+00:00Why It's Still Kicking Off Everywhere
The journalist and writer Paul Mason recently gave a brilliant talk to a large audience at SOAS, London University - based on his book -
Our world is changing dramatically. The global economic crisis has given way to social crisis: corrupt and dictatorial politics enmeshed with a global financial elite - and an ever-widening gulf between the haves and Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-76921567185284506952012-10-22T02:19:00.002+01:002012-10-22T02:59:38.921+01:00Layer 548 . . . The Streets of London
The streets of London were busy on Saturday. Situation normal? Walking through the almost car-free, semi-pedestrianised streets of Soho and Covent Garden there were crowds of people of every age and ethnicity; hundreds of people - shopping, socialising, enjoying themselves. Prosperous-looking people, many of them laden with shopping bags - the majority of those bags bearing the names of Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-11721655907797271032012-10-01T21:34:00.002+01:002012-10-02T08:32:54.140+01:00Layer 547 . . . It was 50 years ago today - Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play . . .
Not quite true, of course. It was 50 years ago this week that the Beatles released their first single - Love Me Do. On October 5th 1962, to be precise.
It was 50 years ago this week the Beatles taught the world to play, in all senses of the word.
The Beatles were four strong characters who had worked and played hard for several years in dark, smoke-filled clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-85413960101286388372012-09-12T13:47:00.000+01:002012-09-12T13:47:08.888+01:00Layer 546 . . . The Rebellious Imperatives of the Self
It looks as though the word 'hipster' might be forcing its way into mainstream discourse, even though its meaning is still far from clear. For example, the Guardian's young film critic described the two lead characters in "Take This Waltz" as hipsters and was promptly and quite rightly denounced for it by various commenters. Even I could see that those characters weren't hipsters. The fact that Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-64793027281024150092012-09-10T10:42:00.000+01:002012-09-10T10:42:21.163+01:00Layer 545 . . . The Paralympics Closing Ceremony, or Death By ColdplayThe final event of the 2012 Paralympic Games - the closing ceremony - apparently had a worldwide television audience of over a billion people, so it was something very significant which was worthy of some attention. The problem for me is that the more I reflect on it the angrier I get. Maybe it's because I'm a patriot that I actually care about the quality of what Britain offers the world. Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-6190788522731238212012-09-08T18:46:00.000+01:002012-09-08T18:56:13.589+01:00Layer 544 . . . The Buzz, The Waltz and the Human Condition Lying in the blazing September sun this afternoon in my fabulously comfortable rocking sunlounger I felt more relaxed than I've done in years, or perhaps decades. Is it any wonder when the past six summers, at least, have been so bad, or simply non-existent? We now know that this change for the worse in our climate is down to a shift in the position of the Jet Stream, which may or may not have Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-24288702161843556242012-08-24T21:40:00.000+01:002012-08-24T21:44:01.318+01:00Layer 543 . . . Reflections in the Rain
What a pleasure and a privilege it is to be back in Bungalowland. It's a privilege to have a private place to come to where it's possible to properly touch base with oneself; to be quiet, reflective . . . meditative even. It's a proper retreat from day to day routines, and whatever passes for normality.
It's a pleasure to be somewhere where there's a calm, quiet, civilised atmosphere, bigOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-47574077885935619742012-08-18T15:00:00.000+01:002012-08-18T15:00:04.164+01:00Layer 542 . . . Being Ray Davies.Ray Davies is the most famous Ray Davies on the planet. If you google his name, then THE Ray Davies is the only Ray Davies to appear in the first few pages of search results.
There's a kind of global warmness and fondness for Ray Davies that has built up over the years. He's become some sort of national treasure.
Maybe it was unkind of Oxzen to mention in a recent post how bad Ray's singingOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-41266683066266332202012-08-17T16:02:00.000+01:002012-08-17T16:04:12.758+01:00Layer 541 . . . Simply a Banana.
One of the more interesting comments I've come across in defence of the 2012 Olympics' closing ceremony is, "A banana is just a banana". In other words, we shouldn't expect such a thing to be anything more than a facile, shallow entertainment, or some kind of gaudy circus with sound and lights.
I disagree. In fact I strongly disagree.
This is like saying that movies and television programmesOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-75395024609252960872012-08-16T08:41:00.000+01:002012-08-16T08:43:29.005+01:00Layer 540 . . . Yet More on the Olympics Closing Ceremony!
.
Either the Olympics closing ceremony was a ceremony or it wasn't. What I'm saying, of course, is that it wasn't. In which case it shouldn't have been advertised as one. What it was, was an outrageous waste of time and money, which its organisers were finally reduced to calling "a big party". So we gave these people - these idiots - several million pounds to organise a fitting ceremony for an Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-30343448374907365282012-08-15T09:12:00.000+01:002012-08-15T09:12:01.788+01:00Layer 539 . . . The Closing Ceremony - More ReviewsI'm still feeling baffled and unhappy about the Olympics closing ceremony, and how badly it reflected on Britain and on what had been a near-perfect two weeks of Olympic Games. Michael Billington in the Guardian completely failed to get to grips with it in his review, and it may be that Michael is now past his sell-by date as a reviewer. Here's part of what he said:
How do you review an OlympicsOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-41310626892975067232012-08-14T18:00:00.000+01:002012-08-14T18:06:54.448+01:00Layer 538 . . . The Closing Ceremony.
First of all we need to know who was responsible for doing precisely what to a Closing Ceremony which was meant to be a proper tribute to an amazing two weeks of sporting endeavor. Or did someone decide beforehand that Team GB was bound to end up with 'null points' a la Eurovision, or something similar, so we might just as well produce a Eurovision-style crass "spectacular" which would be Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-22990199848998777632012-08-13T16:08:00.000+01:002012-08-13T16:26:37.480+01:00Layer 537 . . . A Summer of Sport, and a New Beginning .
After four years of regular blogging Oxzen has needed a sabbatical and some time off to refresh, reflect and take stock. It's been an interesting few months. 2012 has been an interesting year.
So what's been occurring?
As far as Oxzen is concerned, since the beginning of April - a great deal of watching television. March was glorious, warm and sunny, but the rain began at the start of Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-81785180245017949262012-05-07T18:21:00.000+01:002012-05-07T18:21:55.728+01:00Layer 536 . . . Hollande's Victory, Clegg's Nonsense, and a Web of Privilege
Brilliant news yesterday from France - every bit as uplifting as the day Berlusconi was booted out of power in Italy -
French president François Hollande promises 'a new start' for Europe
After victory over Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist says he will fight back against German-led austerity measures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/06/francois-hollande-becomes-french-president
François Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-71336981644570724002012-05-01T15:29:00.000+01:002012-05-01T15:29:24.696+01:00Layer 535 . . . May Day, May Day . . . and News Corp
It's May 1st, and once again we celebrate International Workers' Day - except in the UK we do no such thing. How could such a celebration possibly happen - in a country that's still ruled by a monarchy and a parliament of toffs and spivs? No, we do things differently here, and we prefer to have a quiet May Bank Holiday on the Monday that follows May Day, when we enjoy a little Morris dancing andOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-32481203588654885562012-04-30T15:20:00.000+01:002012-05-07T11:18:16.078+01:00Layer 534 . . . Hunt, Cameron, Murdoch, BSkyB, and Urgent Questions for the Prime Minister
So the latest polls indicate that support for the Conservatives has fallen back to 29% - which is pretty much their 'core' vote. This simply confirms that come hell or come high water somewhere between a quarter and a third of our population will continue to support the Nasty Party - either because those supporters are wealthy enough to directly benefit from Tory policies, OR because they are Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-62098629306995771722012-04-27T20:24:00.000+01:002012-04-28T09:55:04.195+01:00Layer 533 . . . It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Raging (Again)
Who knows where the time goes? It's not as though anything much has been happening in the world of late. The government's ratings have plummeted in opinion polls - not least because they produced a ridiculous budget that made no sense either politically or economically. The economy is officially back in recession, if not depression. Aren't we all?
This week's headlines have all concerned the Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-14967218693191574062012-03-27T10:58:00.000+01:002012-03-27T11:02:33.388+01:00Layer 532 . . . The Guardian, Banks of Ideas and a Progressive Counterculture
For years I've put up with people going on about my apparent obsession with the Guardian. This has nothing to do with the political stance of the paper. It's more the fact that I have piles of old copies lying around, some of them half or a quarter read, some with articles highlighted in various shades of green, yellow, blue and magenta. (And no - I'm not organised enough to use any Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-17475006396870790452012-03-26T13:34:00.002+01:002012-03-26T16:04:23.780+01:00Layer 531 . . . The Guardian, Open Weekend and a Festival of Truth and Reasonableness
Oxzen Pics
There's a wall inside the Guardian's HQ where various front pages from the paper's illustrious past areOxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4710250086532923922.post-86230402563770359692012-03-18T07:32:00.000+00:002012-03-18T07:36:13.957+00:00Layer 530 . . . The Questioning of Capitalism, and Culture after the Credit Crunch
There was an interesting piece in the Guardian yesterday which readers of Layer 528 might want to pick up on. It sheds some more light on the state of post-apartheid South Africa, and the reasons why a country that so many of us had such great hopes for is so fucked. You just have to wonder what Mandela and Tutu make of it all. Are they writing about it now? And do their views carry any weight?Oxzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16353093872818421124noreply@blogger.com0