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Elizabeth Schiemer's avatar

Both Konstantin Kissin, a Russian born immigrant to the UK and Lex Friedman, a Ukraine born Russian immigrant to the USA have talked about the profound difference in cultural norms in Russia and the 'Enlightened West" Both have interviewed a significant number of intelligent and well informed people and they have expressed their concerns that imposing a communist agenda in the 'Enlightened West" is going to end very badly. I doubt Anthony Albanese or any significant Australian member of the Labor party ever spent time in Russia. A generation ago there may have been an excuse to be so ignorant of cultural differences but today they have no excuse.

Fred Pawle's avatar

Elizabeth, I suspect all Albo and his peers know about Soviet Russia came from this film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Revolution_(1996_film)

Elizabeth Schiemer's avatar

I do believe he could fantasise himself as Stalin's son if he had grown up with conflict about who his real father is. That might explain his arrogance.

Lapun Ozymandias's avatar

Fred - I disagree with the conclusion of your statement:

“…that your taxes paid for a federal public servant to type “black woman dancing with white guy in a wheelchair” into a primitive AI image generator, then cut and paste that image along with dozens of other stupid images etc., etc…”

It is more likely that the ‘federal public servant’ went through the motions of putting the project out to tender in the ‘arts community’ - a member of which was then awarded the contract to create the artwork for the two wheelchair dancer figures, for which the agreed ‘mates rates’ cost was probably in the order of say - let’s guess - $5,000? That’s more likely how the system works! One should never assume that federal public servants actually create things themselves! Just sayin’ …

Fred Pawle's avatar

Dammit, you are definitely onto something here, Lapun. That is a textbook opportunity to siphon off some fat wads to an “artsy” friend who is so bad he/she can’t even crack the Archibalds, and needs help to pay for the monthly artist retreats to Byron and the Blue Mountains.

Samantha's avatar

Big fan of Konstantin.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend We The Living by Ayn Rand. It's one of her lesser known works but was written about her own experiences living under, and escaping, Communist Russia just after the Tsar Nicholas was toppled. The time was around the time (or just a bit after) of WWI.

Dean Morgan's avatar

Brilliant Fred. Keep shining the light on these devious (maybe dumb) individuals

Fred Pawle's avatar

Thanks Dean. They make their idiocy pretty clear to the rest of us, huh?

Dean Morgan's avatar

Sometimes I do think it’s deliberate. I think to myself if they make dumb decisions because they are dumb occasionally (random luck) they would get something right. They don’t get ANYTHING right…….🤔

Most Likely's avatar

Dumb & delusional

Most Likely's avatar

The Alboshevik regime ✊🇰🇵🇷🇺🇦🇺

Dianne Bentley's avatar

I had all sorts of things going through my mind as I read this, Fred. But your last comment about the consequences of the lunacy of the West is the most important one. I don't believe we can reverse what has been going on for quite some time now. When nations throw out their Judeo-Christian roots, there are consequences and they are not pleasant. I really like what you write and find you very relevant to what is happening in this country and around this crazy world

Fred Pawle's avatar

Thank you, Dianne.

Euan's avatar

The west is at a cultural and ideology war with the Marxist socialist islamic ideology wrapped up in the so called ' progressivism and wokeism ' which the left have grasped on to like someone hanging on a cliff edge looking in to the abyss of white privilege,

Woke origination come from the African Americans in the 1930/40 to awake social racial injustice and prejudice,

It's been captured by everyone, with a grudge against everyone who does not believe in progress

Their favourite if you don't atone to progressivism and submit to having' white privilege ' is your a Nazi, Racist, Xenophon

History is a powerful tool to predict the future but sadly it's subcomed to progressivism

Rafe Champion's avatar

Our delusions are santified by "the science" hence the importance of Barzuns proposal about teaching science. Will elaborate later.

Sandy's avatar

You didn't even mention the books that win "prestigious" literary prizes in Australia could have been written better by dyslexic three year olds.

Elizabeth Schiemer's avatar

If we are to survive we will we have to fight to retain a spiritual philosophy that respects human life ...................Albanese can go to a Mosque and be confronted by angry men but he did survive...... It isn't so easy being Putin........... If Albanese was to stay in Russia he might notice that about 2am Moscow is shut down and a convey of cars travel at excessive speeds through the streets transporting Putin from one location to another ....................... Albanese and Trump may still address a crowd and be protected {with kevlar } because the cultural norms in the "Enlightened West" have been governed by a Judaeo Christian philosophy of respect for human life and where the communist and Fascist philosophy of random starvation and sacrifice of life for "the common good" is still offensive. ...........The silence of the clergy and the arrogance of Albanese should send shivers down our spine.

Aumtatsat's avatar

Everything coming from the grubberment these days contributes to feelings of depression and dread. One hope is that this globohomo woke time that we live in will come to an end just by the very (lack of) nature and growth inherent in it.:-)

Fred Pawle's avatar

You could be right. Entropy isn't forever!

Rafe Champion's avatar

Our modern delusions are sanctified by "the science" hence the importance of Barzuns proposal about teaching science.

He wrote:

College science teaching in the junior colleges goes on to swell the ranks of the two great classes of modern men, the single track expert and the scientific ignoramus. This makes us think about the place of science teaching in a general education.

Fortunately there is no doubt whatever about the place of the sciences: they are humanities and they belong in the college curriculum. Accordingly, they should be introduced into it as humanities, at the earliest possible moment. How? I have some tentative suggestions to make, but first I want to stress the urgent need to do better.

The worst danger of science teaching in the way it is being done at present is the creation of a large, powerful, and complacent class of college-trained uneducated men at the very heart of our industrial and political system. Possibly one of the conditions that enabled the collapse of democracy in Germany during the 1930s was the split among three groups: the technicians, the citizens, and the irresponsible rabble.

This is clear if you consider the professional army caste as a group of unthinking technicians. The rabble, together with the technicians can cow the citizenry because the technicians - wedded solely to their workbench - will work for any group that hires. In the modern context translate technicians as scientists. And the mass of people – the citizens - are trained to accept the authority of experts.

Such principles will hardly give long life and happiness to a democracy. The only hope for a democratic state is to have more citizens than rabble and technicians/scientists. Hence technicians must be educated to become conscious, responsible, politically and morally active people. Otherwise they will become paid slaves in the service of some rabble, high or low.

END OF EXTRACT

HIS PROPOSAL

https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/teaching-science-as-a-humanities