Author: stevendouglasblog

Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.

The harmful ignorance of Boris Johnson, or when will we dead awake and feel the oppression we foster in others.

December 30, 2024

The Rape of Ganymede – attitudes to rape in Ancient Literature The right wing press (the dailies Mail, and Telegraph) and GB News, and only they, are doing their best to continue the attitude of culture war and making news stories about ‘woke’ attitudes and their effect on freedom of speech. Their latest target is … More The harmful ignorance of Boris Johnson, or when will we dead awake and feel the oppression we foster in others.

Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves’ says George Eliot magisterially with perhaps this issue in mind. If we are born thus, the emergence of independent moral understanding is painful as a result, for in that emergence we begin to know the otherness of others beneath the barriers set by our thick skins. (Cue George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ from the end of Book 1, Chapter XXI).

December 29, 2024

Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? Can thinking become its own object rather an an eternally self-reflecting subject seeing itself repeated infinitely in a Hall of Mirrors. A Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room. ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an … More Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves’ says George Eliot magisterially with perhaps this issue in mind. If we are born thus, the emergence of independent moral understanding is painful as a result, for in that emergence we begin to know the otherness of others beneath the barriers set by our thick skins. (Cue George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ from the end of Book 1, Chapter XXI).

Liz Truss called demands for ‘regulation’ of the ‘free market’ an anti-growth alliance’. That politics of despair for any environmental and socially just action is now embodied in Keir Starmer.

December 28, 2024

Green objectives are only one of the many ways in which Labour asks decency and regulated advance to lie down in front of the Juggernaut of Economic Growth. We need a new voice even for the supposed notion of a ‘centre’ left, for this is the bullying capitalist state of the nineteenth century resurrected. Meanwhile … More Liz Truss called demands for ‘regulation’ of the ‘free market’ an anti-growth alliance’. That politics of despair for any environmental and socially just action is now embodied in Keir Starmer.

“If there were no time there would still be some / Sometimes, …. / :Cocooned in comfort where there’s no splendour”.

December 27, 2024

If there were no time there would still be someSometimes, wherein we would find time containedIn some special relationship with us:Cocooned in comfort where there’s no splendour. It does not surprise me that when I think of time I type some plangent iambic pentameters like those I typed above with echoes of the moment in … More “If there were no time there would still be some / Sometimes, …. / :Cocooned in comfort where there’s no splendour”.

“O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us / To see oursels as others see us! / “:

December 26, 2024

The ‘gift’ is a complicated notion. It is considered as a possession by natural right, whose possession carries with it no obligation to the giver and yet is seen as something that could not be ours without someone have gifted it in the first place. A ‘gifted’ person may possess some quality or talent that … More “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us / To see oursels as others see us! / “:

“We can’t celebrate in Gaza or Bethlehem”.

December 25, 2024

In Gaza, Palestinian Christians are undivided from Muslims as their holy place and places of family refuge are destroyed by Israel. They recognise a unity among Palestinians that must be destroyed. This gentleman’s  whole family was wiped out while sheltering in the Church of St. Porhyry, a Byzantine jewel. This is greater than GENOCIDE. It … More “We can’t celebrate in Gaza or Bethlehem”.

Marianne Hirsch, ‘a retired professor at Columbia University, whose field, traumatic memory, is interwoven with Holocaust and genocide studies’, says, “Genocide prevention is a responsibility,” but despite that, “Now, we’re watching on our iPhones, and still people are holding back.” Why study genocide at all, then?

December 24, 2024

Will there ever be a vocabulary that describes  adequately the vengeful annihilation of a whole people? This is the more poignant in that this is a people that is already displaced and sequestered  by international agreement and deprived of the definition and identity held by other  recognised nation-states. Palestine 🇵🇸 is a nation whose very … More Marianne Hirsch, ‘a retired professor at Columbia University, whose field, traumatic memory, is interwoven with Holocaust and genocide studies’, says, “Genocide prevention is a responsibility,” but despite that, “Now, we’re watching on our iPhones, and still people are holding back.” Why study genocide at all, then?

What Socrates ought to have said: ‘The unchallenged life is not worth living’.

December 23, 2024

The only thing that is usually certain about the many quotations attributed to Socrates is that he probably never said them. Both of the main sources of Socrates’ sayings in Plato and Zenophon are unreliable. It is clear that neither were as interested in Socrates per se, as in using him to promote their own … More What Socrates ought to have said: ‘The unchallenged life is not worth living’.

On First seeing Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.

December 22, 2024

When Spain to monsters fell, OfeliaFollowed a Faun’s fairies to the hard heartLabyrinthine, there finding a Pale Man,Devoid of eyes in’s head, though in his palms,Hunted what they fed upon. Fair SpainBled when Pale Man bit off a fairy’s headAnd swallowed another because two grapesHad been consumed from off the fascists’ feast To tempt ordinary … More On First seeing Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.

Relationships of Causation or Correlation: Some playful ‘statistical rigour’ about event categories and their impacts on oneself.

December 21, 2024

This prompt ties itself up in knots. It is the nature of WordPress prompts, so to do, in order perhaps to draw ouf variants in response, or, in the worst case scenario, because they rely on assumptions about commonsense definitions of complex words. First of all, they nearly always invoke indeterminate categories, such as ‘impact,’ … More Relationships of Causation or Correlation: Some playful ‘statistical rigour’ about event categories and their impacts on oneself.

Hey Johnny: Me, Tarzan, ….you, Cecil. Some queer verse less lush than its subject.

December 20, 2024

Roused from his torpor, on a set of sandAnd potted jungle plants – the pots by handBuried in that sand – Johnny’s torsoRose, in expectation, although more soAs to see what they who viewed him wantedFrom that body, so wondrously vaunted.”Weissmüller! Be wise”. A quick scan overCaught at a glance, what was a sad botherOf … More Hey Johnny: Me, Tarzan, ….you, Cecil. Some queer verse less lush than its subject.

To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.

December 19, 2024

‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875, which earned Ruskin’s scorn. Oil on panel, by Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903); 60.2×46.7 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; © Detroit Institute of Arts ; Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr.; American, out of copyright. Credit: Bridgeman Images One of the strangest aspects of my … More To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.