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Comment on comment re Britain, Henman, Star Trek DS9
Posted on: Thursday, July 01, 2004
I got an interesting comment (as opposed to e-mail) yesterday. It was written by Hellman Jackson and I'll quote it here verbatim to save you the trouble of looking it up below:
"hello
"I find it a little odd that you variously condemn the lack of literacy in Britain, cite reports on the BBC and mention the positive impact of British administration on pre-Israeli palestine. Not to mention that your analysis of British behaviour in WWII omits any reference to the strong anti-fascist movement and, of course, that Britain (and Russia) turned the tide against Hitler. You accuse the English of being tribalistic, when that is the characteristic that you are exhibiting yourself in your bigotted and simplistic attitude to a tremendously complex nation. England has offered the world the best and worst of pretty much everything, which is not to say that it does not have much need of social change, but it has always managed that change with a stronger eye on common sense and decency than any other."
(BTW, do take a look at his blog, it's quite a good read.)
ראשית, תודה רבה להערות השלך -- Thanks a lot for your comments.
I'll correct a few specific points first. I never said all of Britain was a den of illiteracy; just that Britishers seem to have, shall we say, problems with literacy and numeracy to an above average degree. Also, my opinion of the Britishers does not prevent me from quoting reports from their national news network, however I may feel about that, too (and I'm not the biggest fan of the BBC owing to their less-than-impartial reporting spiel). The "positive" impact of the English administration in the Mandate!!? Where was that?!? Yes, they introduced certain standards and practices which in a fairly undeveloped region were ipso facto advantageous and welcome. But the positive aspects of their administration of the Palestinian Mandate were far outweighed by their negative and downright anti-Semitic ones. By the same token, just because colonialism saw schools being built in eg. India, it doesn't exculpate them for the eg. Amritsar massacre in which the teabags murdered several hundred Indian civilians, nor does it mitigate the evil of colonialism itself.
Yes, Britain had a very strong anti-fascist movement. But what came first: fascism or the anti-fascist movement? Or better, when did the anti-fascist movement start in earnest: once the fascist/Nazi evil had been fully unleashed fully unleashed or once that evil had actually attacked Britain? Of course the Britishers were anti-fascist when they were being attacked by fascism. But why did they decide to combat fascism/Nazism? Because they truly abhorred it or because it threatened their own position in the world? Ponder on that. And yes, there was anti-fascist movement in Britain prior to the actual war; but much good a movement is. Would Britain had entered the war had the Nazis stopped at Czechoslovakia and decided to exterminate "only" the Jews there? These are rhetorical questions but anyone who has convincing arguments the other way is welcome to present them.
Is England a complex nation? Naturally, it is! How in-depth an analysis do you expect me to proffer in five posts!? I AM antipathic toward them--and it is hard not to be when you know as much about them as I do--but that does not mean I tar them all with the same brush. Given our experience, do you think I would ever dream of forming a categorical opinion about a group of people? I was and am talking about prevalent trends in Britain. Fact is, it's a shithole full of ignorance, laziness, arrogance, complacency, xenophobia, retrospection and so on, AND they have only themselves to "thank" for it. That doesn't mean there aren't English people who are absolutely wonderful. But the overall perception of England is, let's encapsulate it in a word: pathetic.* Are they capable of a change? Capable yes, likely to happen no. Do I care? I wouldn't if they kept their idiocy to themselves. Problem is, it is very difficult to be a "foreigner" IN Britain (outside big conurbations) and Britain is still very keen to screw up places OUTSIDE Britain.
*Before I forget, good-bye, Mr. Henman!!! I couldn't believe Mario Ancic would whoop Henman's ass but none happier than I when he did. Remarkable.
So, am I a bigot? Bigotry presupposes lack of knowledge and/or unwillingness to acquire or act on knowledge. That is simply not I. I arrived at my attitude after accruing years (thirteen, to be precise) of knowledge and experience, mine and others', about Britain and its inhabitants. Is my view simplistic? Perhaps in the way I have presented it. But I assure you, as a matter of course I do not lump together people belonging to a group thru no choice of their own, and in this case I actively KNOW better than to do so.
Just a final thought: does anyone else find Star Trek Deep Space Nine imponderably tedious, annoying even? Who wrote that stuff!!? The original series were OK, although VERY naive and silly, watching it now. The Next Generation was probably the best, minus Picard and his asinine trips "back" to the 1950's which drove me absolutely insane. Voyager, too, was good and I can't think of a single instance which had me looking away from the TV and fiddling with something else waiting for the interesting bits to return. But DS9... It's too much like a bad Mexican soap-opera, and the characters and their so-called interactions can be an absolute pain. Take that guy "Odo" for example. Could that guy BE any more boring?! His face, his appearance, his voice, the parts he plays, the way he delivers his lines... If there's one thing that could cause me NEVER to warm to the series, it's his character. Oh, and also the bullshit about "the prophets". I mean, for crying out loud, it's supposed to be the 25th century or whichever, and there they are chanting like fuckwits, bowing to some priestess or whatever she's supposed to be and organizing to galaxy according to "what the prophets want me to do" (just heard that one from Sisko who's meant to be running the whole joint).
Anyway, boker tov vkol tuv.
Posted on: Thursday, July 01, 2004
ב''ה
I got an interesting comment (as opposed to e-mail) yesterday. It was written by Hellman Jackson and I'll quote it here verbatim to save you the trouble of looking it up below:
"hello
"I find it a little odd that you variously condemn the lack of literacy in Britain, cite reports on the BBC and mention the positive impact of British administration on pre-Israeli palestine. Not to mention that your analysis of British behaviour in WWII omits any reference to the strong anti-fascist movement and, of course, that Britain (and Russia) turned the tide against Hitler. You accuse the English of being tribalistic, when that is the characteristic that you are exhibiting yourself in your bigotted and simplistic attitude to a tremendously complex nation. England has offered the world the best and worst of pretty much everything, which is not to say that it does not have much need of social change, but it has always managed that change with a stronger eye on common sense and decency than any other."
(BTW, do take a look at his blog, it's quite a good read.)
ראשית, תודה רבה להערות השלך -- Thanks a lot for your comments.
I'll correct a few specific points first. I never said all of Britain was a den of illiteracy; just that Britishers seem to have, shall we say, problems with literacy and numeracy to an above average degree. Also, my opinion of the Britishers does not prevent me from quoting reports from their national news network, however I may feel about that, too (and I'm not the biggest fan of the BBC owing to their less-than-impartial reporting spiel). The "positive" impact of the English administration in the Mandate!!? Where was that?!? Yes, they introduced certain standards and practices which in a fairly undeveloped region were ipso facto advantageous and welcome. But the positive aspects of their administration of the Palestinian Mandate were far outweighed by their negative and downright anti-Semitic ones. By the same token, just because colonialism saw schools being built in eg. India, it doesn't exculpate them for the eg. Amritsar massacre in which the teabags murdered several hundred Indian civilians, nor does it mitigate the evil of colonialism itself.
Yes, Britain had a very strong anti-fascist movement. But what came first: fascism or the anti-fascist movement? Or better, when did the anti-fascist movement start in earnest: once the fascist/Nazi evil had been fully unleashed fully unleashed or once that evil had actually attacked Britain? Of course the Britishers were anti-fascist when they were being attacked by fascism. But why did they decide to combat fascism/Nazism? Because they truly abhorred it or because it threatened their own position in the world? Ponder on that. And yes, there was anti-fascist movement in Britain prior to the actual war; but much good a movement is. Would Britain had entered the war had the Nazis stopped at Czechoslovakia and decided to exterminate "only" the Jews there? These are rhetorical questions but anyone who has convincing arguments the other way is welcome to present them.
Is England a complex nation? Naturally, it is! How in-depth an analysis do you expect me to proffer in five posts!? I AM antipathic toward them--and it is hard not to be when you know as much about them as I do--but that does not mean I tar them all with the same brush. Given our experience, do you think I would ever dream of forming a categorical opinion about a group of people? I was and am talking about prevalent trends in Britain. Fact is, it's a shithole full of ignorance, laziness, arrogance, complacency, xenophobia, retrospection and so on, AND they have only themselves to "thank" for it. That doesn't mean there aren't English people who are absolutely wonderful. But the overall perception of England is, let's encapsulate it in a word: pathetic.* Are they capable of a change? Capable yes, likely to happen no. Do I care? I wouldn't if they kept their idiocy to themselves. Problem is, it is very difficult to be a "foreigner" IN Britain (outside big conurbations) and Britain is still very keen to screw up places OUTSIDE Britain.
*Before I forget, good-bye, Mr. Henman!!!
So, am I a bigot? Bigotry presupposes lack of knowledge and/or unwillingness to acquire or act on knowledge. That is simply not I. I arrived at my attitude after accruing years (thirteen, to be precise) of knowledge and experience, mine and others', about Britain and its inhabitants. Is my view simplistic? Perhaps in the way I have presented it. But I assure you, as a matter of course I do not lump together people belonging to a group thru no choice of their own, and in this case I actively KNOW better than to do so.
Just a final thought: does anyone else find Star Trek Deep Space Nine imponderably tedious, annoying even? Who wrote that stuff!!? The original series were OK, although VERY naive and silly, watching it now. The Next Generation was probably the best, minus Picard and his asinine trips "back" to the 1950's which drove me absolutely insane. Voyager, too, was good and I can't think of a single instance which had me looking away from the TV and fiddling with something else waiting for the interesting bits to return. But DS9... It's too much like a bad Mexican soap-opera, and the characters and their so-called interactions can be an absolute pain. Take that guy "Odo" for example. Could that guy BE any more boring?! His face, his appearance, his voice, the parts he plays, the way he delivers his lines...
Anyway, boker tov vkol tuv.
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