When we last left our hero...
Hey All,
I know I promised to write some big exposition about something or other yesterday, but I honestly can't remember what it was supposed to be about.
In any case, this has to be a short post, since I am running late to catch a train down to Bognor Regis for the weekend again. I would have been leaving sooner, but my Swedish Flatmate had a compulsive urge to clean up the flat which proved to be contagious. Ergo I spent some time tidying up when I should have been packing and going.
Last Night: Watched Terminator while flicking back and forth to some Doco/Drama about animal liberationists imaginatively called Animals. Short interviews with people on all sides of the issue mixed in with dramatization and fictionalisation.
And it really got my back up. Don't get me wrong, I love small furry animals, but I do believe that animal testing is a necessary part of medical research and that the harrassment tactics by opponents of such research is just plain wrong. There is a point where legitimate protest stops and hooliganism ensues.
But the one thing that really stuck with me was one of the more militant animal liberationists from America, interviewed at the end, made a statement along the lines of 'America fought a civil war over slavery, it is conceivable that there will be a war over animal testing.'
First of all, the idea of a war over animal testing is pretty ludicrous. To roughly quote Bono, 'It's a revolution 90% of my country don't want'. Only in this case, it's closer to 99.9%.
Secondly, while not meaning to negate in any way the absolute evil that is Slavery (I say is because there are nations in the Middle East that still practise it), the American Civil War was so much more complex than can be summed up in one word. Slavery was a factor, it was a huge factor, but it was not the only one.
Naturally, (and I apologise in advance to Clyo for my sweeping generalisation), I guess I can't be too shocked at an American for not knowing what a war is about. Famous examples:
The Vietnam War: to America, it was about Communism, to the Vietnamese it was about reunification and the expelling of colonial powers.
World War Two: until Germany declared war on America post Pearl Harbour, they saw it as a European conflict involving the usual suspects in terms of national conflict. When in actuality it was the result of Nazi military insanity, itself the hangover from the economic, diplomatic and cultural maelstrom post WWI.
I could go on, but I think I'm much less likely to shoot myself in the foot if I lay the rifle at this point.
Besides I have places to be.
Reading Grant Morrison comics gets me thinking all kinds of thoughts about postmodernism and culture theory. The kind of stuff I try to read in a textbook and fall asleep after ten minutes. These threads of thought resonate when I browse DVD shops and think about the concept of Expanded Universes and so on. Layers within layers, meanings weaved into content, content weaved into narrative deconstructed into delineated hypertext etc.
I'm going to look at some more stuff here then I think I'll be on my way.
Over and out.
J
I know I promised to write some big exposition about something or other yesterday, but I honestly can't remember what it was supposed to be about.
In any case, this has to be a short post, since I am running late to catch a train down to Bognor Regis for the weekend again. I would have been leaving sooner, but my Swedish Flatmate had a compulsive urge to clean up the flat which proved to be contagious. Ergo I spent some time tidying up when I should have been packing and going.
Last Night: Watched Terminator while flicking back and forth to some Doco/Drama about animal liberationists imaginatively called Animals. Short interviews with people on all sides of the issue mixed in with dramatization and fictionalisation.
And it really got my back up. Don't get me wrong, I love small furry animals, but I do believe that animal testing is a necessary part of medical research and that the harrassment tactics by opponents of such research is just plain wrong. There is a point where legitimate protest stops and hooliganism ensues.
But the one thing that really stuck with me was one of the more militant animal liberationists from America, interviewed at the end, made a statement along the lines of 'America fought a civil war over slavery, it is conceivable that there will be a war over animal testing.'
First of all, the idea of a war over animal testing is pretty ludicrous. To roughly quote Bono, 'It's a revolution 90% of my country don't want'. Only in this case, it's closer to 99.9%.
Secondly, while not meaning to negate in any way the absolute evil that is Slavery (I say is because there are nations in the Middle East that still practise it), the American Civil War was so much more complex than can be summed up in one word. Slavery was a factor, it was a huge factor, but it was not the only one.
Naturally, (and I apologise in advance to Clyo for my sweeping generalisation), I guess I can't be too shocked at an American for not knowing what a war is about. Famous examples:
The Vietnam War: to America, it was about Communism, to the Vietnamese it was about reunification and the expelling of colonial powers.
World War Two: until Germany declared war on America post Pearl Harbour, they saw it as a European conflict involving the usual suspects in terms of national conflict. When in actuality it was the result of Nazi military insanity, itself the hangover from the economic, diplomatic and cultural maelstrom post WWI.
I could go on, but I think I'm much less likely to shoot myself in the foot if I lay the rifle at this point.
Besides I have places to be.
Reading Grant Morrison comics gets me thinking all kinds of thoughts about postmodernism and culture theory. The kind of stuff I try to read in a textbook and fall asleep after ten minutes. These threads of thought resonate when I browse DVD shops and think about the concept of Expanded Universes and so on. Layers within layers, meanings weaved into content, content weaved into narrative deconstructed into delineated hypertext etc.
I'm going to look at some more stuff here then I think I'll be on my way.
Over and out.
J
posted by the.exile at 5:07 pm
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