Notes and Comments: 27/03/2008

NOTES:

A very good article by Rodger Kimball about how the wonderful 1960s, especially that ‘very good year’ 1968, weren’t. An edited version of it appears at The Grauniad’s CiF where I added this comment:

My comment:

Excellent article!
Right on the spot, expect for this 'the authority of churches and other repositories of moral wisdom', when everyone knows that religion has nothing meaningful to say about morality. It is - at best - amoral, but more usually is the very antithesis of morality as the current hoo-ha about the embryology bill proves.

There are several points in the article concerning the mythology of the 60s and the disasters that the mistakes form that period caused that I want to get back to some time in future pieces here. However, this will have to do for now.

Here’s one I’ve had hanging around for a while:

The joy of boredom, link from Arts Journal:

Paradoxically, as cures for boredom have proliferated, people do not seem to feel less bored; they simply flee it with more energy, flitting from one activity to the next. Ralley has noticed a kind of placid look among his students over the past few years, a "laptop culture" that he finds perplexing. They have more channels to be social; there are always things to do. And yet people seem oddly numb. They are not quite bored, but not really interested either.’

A long piece, but interesting about how we seem to be losing the space to be ourselves to technology.

COMMENTS:

Low voter turnout in an article at The Grauniad’s CiF by James Ball

My comment:

I think most 'non-voters' are like me in having no-one on the ballot paper they want to vote for.

I have always voted Labour in the past (latterly in spite of Blair, not because of him), but now my conscience will no longer allow me to vote for them any longer. I don't see the point of the Lib Dems, let alone any of the even smaller parties and I don't envisage myself ever being capable of voting Tory (let alone with the odious Cameron in charge).

So what can I do?

The only option in future elections that would get me into the voting booth would be a 'none of the above' option with severe penalties for candidates and parties whose share of the vote falls below the total for the 'none of the above' option.