People are still in denial about the free-speech crisis. This week, a new report on how Brexit-backing and right-leaning academics feel ostracised and silenced on campus was dismissed by woke commentators. The same people insist cancel culture is a myth. Those who moan about cancellation are just rich columnists and writers who don’t like being disagreed with, they say, wilfully overlooking the fact that vast numbers of everyday people have been reprimanded, sacked from their jobs and even questioned by police over things they’ve said online. We have to keep exposing censorship every time it occurs – whether it’s being done by the state, Silicon Valley corporations or mobs of correct-thinkers – and stand up for the right of people to say, write, utter and disseminate any opinion they like.

Kleptocracy is a government whose corrupt leaders use political power to appropriate the wealth of their nation, typically by embezzling or misusing  government funds at the expense of the wider population.

Kleptocrats are rulers who implement highly inefficient economic policies, expropriate the wealth of citizens, and use the proceeds for their own glorification or consumption.

Lebanon is a classic case of kleptocratic government – corruption in Lebanon takes the form of the political elite. Corruption in Lebanon has old roots …

The Palace of my Beloved

I will build for you each night
A palace luminous
With whole blocks of emerald
And diamond stones.
Shall it be skyblue as your eyes,
Or green as your wishes:
Be, and the palace too shall be.

Said Akl is a Lebanese poet

“Leading their charge is Donald Trump, a bone spur warrior, a liar and a fraud, a grotesque caricature of a strong man, with the backbone of a bully”

The Unraveling of America   https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/ via @RollingStone

'God does not belong to the scientist, 
nor to the logician; 
he belongs to the poets,
to the realm of dreams; 
he is the symbol of Beauty,
Beauty itself.
 
Gaugin 1897

The Great Truth
 
No paradox for this great truth
for one without the other
does not exist.
 
Such noble aspirations
of intellect and strength
pale quickly in the heat of mid-day sun.
 
But marry such sweet intellect
with passion unabridged
then perfect is the world and thou.

(source unknown to me)

Apocalypse Now (1979) – Willard … “It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz’s memory, any more than being back in Saigon was an accident. “There is no way to tell his story without telling my own. And if his story is really a confession, then so is mine.”

The Fugitive Stag (2020) – “There is no way to tell her (Goddess) story without telling my own” – partly an exorcism, a confession, but primarily a celebration. G ap Iorwerth.

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.” — Joseph Goebbels

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” — Joseph Goebbels

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” — Joseph Goebbels

We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths. Joseph Goebbels

This film tells the story of a Russian soldier, who was subjected to terrible trials by the war, deprived of his home and family, threw in the concentration camp. But fate did not break his spirit – he survived, defended his right to be a man, preserved the ability to love…

Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk Composer Veniamin Basner Principal roles: Sergey Bondarchuk, Pavel Polunin, Zinaida Kiriyenko, Pavel Volkov, Yuri Averin, Kirill Alekseev, Pavel Vinnikov, Evgeny Teterin, Anatoly Chemodurov, Lev Borisov

FATE OF A MAN (drama, dir. Sergei Bondarchuk, 1959) https://youtu.be/ov7bKyahGL4 via @YouTube

A special experiment is in progress.

On my left is a group of primitives, and yet they are human or at least humanoid. Not ‘ape-like’ but short and stocky with long arms. 

‘We humans’ at the very start of our ‘journey’.

Genesis!

Present as a ‘strong youth and wise man,’ I am very protective towards them. I look deep into the eyes of some of them.

One in particular.

I see the fear of being misunderstood: the yearning to grow-up and to become more whole and human: the longing to be accepted and to be loved, the hope for immortality.

It is ‘that’ look’ that startled me. Startles me.

To look into those eyes from aeons ago. To be in close contact with our genesis. My genesis.

I am eager to look after ‘him’, because I don’t want ‘him’ to be misunderstood. I don’t want his ‘animal-ness’ or primitiveness to be conceived as something threatening.

The primitives have disappeared.

I become aware of advanced scientific-technical tests way in the future. I see advanced humans in speed-stress experiments, willing and eager to be pushed to their limits. I was part of the experiment and yet ‘in charge’ in some way.

As I wake up, I look again into those early humanoid eyes and once more I am startled.

Startled to be able to see into them – and ‘to know.’

Started it in April – for some reason stopped after 10 minutes. Re-visited last week (with Annap) and really enjoyed it. Hooked. So many disappointing home grown series on ‘the BBC’ these last few years. Good to watch a series with a mystico-philosophical bent … sometimes. Not sure why a female actor was picked to play a young boy and there was no need to introduce a visiting US senator scenario. The statue? Bit over the top. Excellent cast … and, once again, a satisfying ending. Definitely 9/10 for me.

Born in Tokyo, Sonaya was raised in Somerset England. Her mother is of half British and half Argentine descent and her father is Japanese. She graduated from the Royal Ballet School before dancing with several ballet companies in Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

81% AVERAGE TOMATOMETER

 75% AVERAGE AUDIENCE SCORE

The FX limited series Devs was the first foray into television by Alex Garland, the writer-director of Ex Machina.