of the seven deadly sins, the eighth and worst by far is emotional blackmail ... the diligent practise of this subtle and ancient art creates a constantly evolving darwinistic moral vacuum in which the brightest new manipulative ideas and stratagems flourish ... and which only you, or i, can fill !
Sunday, August 19, 2007
part four ... a serious discussion of gender etiquette
( The biscotte breaks and flies across the table )
Renato: You're doing it on purpose! You’ve got it in for me ! Now take another one and try again.
Albin: ( Whimpering continuously ) I'll never get it. Never.
Renato: Don't whine, please, don't whine! Now hold this piece firmly in your hand, steadily and confidently ... an iron fist in a velvet glove. Like a man. With a strong hand, understand? Like a real man! That’s right ! Now for something more difficult. A little jam ? Yes, take the spoon.
Albin: The teaspoon?
Renato: No, not like that! What are you doing ? It looks like you’re ringing a little bell ! It’s just a spoon ! It's only a spoon. Hold it without quivering, firmly ! Understand?
Albin: You have something against me.
The toast breaks and goes flying again,
Renato: You’re doing it again ! If you want to kill me, aim between the eyes !
Albin: I'll never get it. I've broken the toast again.
Renato: Yes, It's broken. It’s a disaster. The important thing is to know how to respond as a MAN ! Do you understand?
Albin: I understand. You're right.
Renato: You have to say to yourself, calmly... "Albin, so you made a mistake. It isn’t the end of the World. There’s no harm done. You can try again." Force yourself. Take another biscotte. Here ...
Renato lifts his own teacup, and his own little finger waggles exactly as did Albin’s.
Albin: You're right. In the end, it's not serious. After all, I still have more biscottes. And then …. Oh ! Be careful with your little finger !
part five ... renato shows albin how to walk the john wayne walk
Albin: Wait ! Wait ! I need to freshen up.
Albin hesitantly walks, minces, flutters towards the door of the bar in search of the toilets.
Renato: No ! No ! No !
Albin returns to Renato’s side.
Albin: What have I done now?
Renato: What kind of walk is that?
Albin: What's the matter with it?
Renato: Mince like that tonight and we're ruined.
Albin: What am I going to do ?
Renato: Come here.
Albin: What do you want?
Renato: Try to walk like John Wayne.
Albin: The cowboy?
Renato: Yes, John Wayne. Gets off your horse, walk towards the saloon, and send the doors flying ! Try it.
Albin: I have to be John Wayne? Here I go.
Minces again.
Renato: ( As Albin flings open the bar doors ) That's Miss John Wayne !
There is a most exquisite irony here because the score for this film is by Ennio Morricone, who also did the music for the Sergio Leone “spaghetti westerns”. Just a few wisps of that wild west saloon sound & a couple of piano chords in the same style set the mood for a confrontation …
Voice from the bar; ( mimicking an effeminate lisp in a not unfriendly way, but difficult to translate )
Alors pédé ! ( which maybe translates as … Hey, fag ! )
Albin: ( returning to their table ) Someone just called me a fag.
Renato, throws down his napkin, rolls up his sleeves & parodies the John Wayne swagger in an even more exaggerated way as he approaches the smallest man at the bar …
Albin: And now he shows me …
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
eltham palace ... amazing what you can do with a few millions
the quality of mercy ...
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 09, 2007
i'm beginning to wonder if i am quite human ... as i haven't watched any soap operas lately, and i'm struggling to finish this book
Steven Mithen is a university professor who thinks about that period when people first started to think like people. In his book The Prehistory Of The Mind, he discusses the limits of how chimpanzees and monkeys think about their own kind, compared to the ways in which social humans understand one another, and he quotes a modern philosopher, in the following part of a longer explanation.
“Orders of Intentionality” is a term that the philosopher Daniel Dennett introduced to help us think about how social intelligence works. If I believe you to know something, then I can cope with one ‘order of intentionality’. If I believe that you believe that I know something, then I can cope with two orders of intentionality. If I believe that you believe that my wife believes that I know something, then I can cope with three orders of intentionality.
We modern humans regularly encounter three orders of intentionality … or at least we do if we believe soap operas, which often revolve around beliefs of what others believe a third party believes, and which often turn out to be false beliefs. Five orders of intentionality seem to be our limit. Daniel Dennett demonstrated this quite effectively when he asked
if “you wonder whether I realize how hard it is for you to be sure that you understand whether I mean to be saying that you recognize that I can believe you to want me to explain that most of us can keep track of only about five or six orders of intentionality under the best of conditions”.
Under the best of conditions chimpanzees are likely to manage just two orders of intentionality.