Talking of Which, 07.11.23

Journalists, Daisies and My Great-Granny’s Handbag

Current Affairs

With the exception of the odd titbit, I’ve pretty much stopped commenting on current affairs — NATO’s proxy war in the Ukraine, Russell Brand’s fascinating penis, Israel’s final annihilation of its two million imprisoned refugees — unless something grander or deeper can be teased from an issue. There are a few reasons for this. 1) It is becoming more and more difficult to ascertain the truth of spectacular matters. Related to this, 2) I believe (to paraphrase situationist Gianfranco Sanguinetti) that forcing people to continually take moral positions for this or that far-away spectacular outrage is the real terrorism and an almighty distraction from the horror of [post] modernity. 3) My position on Today’s Story should be clear to anyone who has read and understood my work. 4) What I say has no effect on the world, at least not the world as it is. What I mean is: 5) My influence, such as it is, is not a spatial one, but a temporal one. I am speaking through time, not through space. By the time what I have to say does have an effect on the world, today’s news, like today’s art and today’s literature, will be forgotten. The more one succeeds in writing something that endures, the more likely it will be overlooked by those looking for ‘topical’, ‘relevant’ and ‘current’ affairs.

Talking of which…

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Journalism

There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

Oscar Wilde

Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say
because they write.

Karl Kraus

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

Mohandas Gandhi

In the young journalist or TV reporter the excitement and power-without-responsibility manifests as frantic enthusiasm, and blind dedication to the propagation of the untruth as the truth. The position he or she holds is the utopia of the herd; and not given to many. But in maturity his or her unhappiness ossifies into chronic world-weariness, a sterile scepticism that comes from having seen all the effects but never the cause.

Barry Long

A great many bad writers make their whole living by that foolish mania of the public for reading nothing but what has just been printed, — journalists, I mean. Truly, a most appropriate name. In plain language it is journeymen, day-laborers!

Arthur Schopenhauer

[Journalists] are neither more nor less than ill, inexperienced and illiterate, as far as human life is concerned.

George Gurdjieff, Meetings with Remarkable Men

The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word ‘journalist’. If I were a father and had a daughter who was seduced I should not despair over her; I would hope for her salvation. But if I had a son who became a journalist and continued to be one for five years, I would give him up.

Søren Kierkegaard

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A Popular Preacher

I was walking through the main shopping area in Reading on a Saturday afternoon, marvelling, as I often do, at the fact that everyone there appears to be visibly brain-damaged — walking, speaking and thinking with difficulty — when I heard the strident tones of a street preacher. Not in itself unusual, but this man, in his sixties I’d say, had a larger crowd than normal (i.e. more than none) and was speaking with much more authority. Often I am accosted by young, awkward men who don’t seem to understand that if they are going to sell God, words are not enough. This old fellow however, although unprepossessing, had a quality of character which was in itself attractive. His beaten up face had seen a thing or two, although his eyes were dark little beads, difficult to read, even as they twinkled with passion. The remarkable thing though was his passionately delivered speech, which went something like this: