Ian Knox cartoons and political correctness as censorship, Ctd

[DISCLAIMER: When I speak of loyalists I do not speak of all loyalists. I speak of a small violent minority]*

[DISCLAIMER: I am an equal opportunities adversary and I hold violent republicans in equal contempt to violent loyalists]*

It's well documented that Ian Knox draws loyalists and loyalist paramilitaries as knuckle-dragging empty-heads. It nothing new. He's been doing it for decades. By doing this he adheres to two codes. 

Firstly, he is adhering to the unwritten convention of the political cartoonist. It is their job to be cutting and incisive and even to offend. 

Secondly, he is adhering to speaking plain English. To calling a stone-throwing thug a stone-throwing-thug. And the beauty of political cartoons is that they're super-distilled plain English. As John Gilroy, creator of the Guinness posters, said:

"The man in the street has no time for contemplation. My posters are therefore, a kind of aesthetic meal-in-a-minute."

Glenn Greenwald - Privacy is necessary for creativity

In an article in Salon, "Surveillance breeds conformity" Natasha Lennard spoke with Glenn Greenwald. He explained why privacy the prerequisite to being a fully formed human being and the prerequisite to creativity. He explained this with two points.

Firstly, Glenn Greenwald said that the first value of privacy is the personal:

"I think the primary value of privacy is personal as opposed to legalistic or constitutional or political, by which I mean it’s essential to what it means to be human that we have a private life. We interact with other human beings as social animals, and live part of our lives in the public eye — that’s crucial — that’s why if you put someone in solitary confinement for 23 and a half hours a day like we do in U.S. prisons, it’s a form of torture. And it makes people go insane, because we need, as part of our human functioning, to be seen by other human beings and to be perceived by them and understood through the eyes of other people. 

Secondly, it's about being free to explore and express oneself creatively:

Glenn Greenwald - The problem with endorsing abuse of state power

Gore Vidal (at 17 minutes) said:

"Every president wants to be a dictator. It is the nature of power. You don’t accept limited powers unless you’re a very limited man."

Gore Vidal said in 1999:

"I don’t know where the Internet is going to go but I do know that the government is going to try and take it over. You can count on that." 

Glenn Greenwald (at 26 minutes) said there are lots of reasons why people should be concerned about civil liberties, even if theirs aren’t being infringed or abridged. He gave two reasons.

Firstly:

"The first of which, history leaves no doubt that, although civil liberties infringements begin in a very confined way - directed at the most marginalized minorities about whom people don’t care or to whom they direct their hostility – it is inevitable, absolutely inevitable that those civil liberties abridgments, once they are entrenched, will spread ; and they’ll spread far beyond their original intended targets."

He continued:

The great opportunity of new media journalism

This is for @otrjasona @Jason_A_Murdock @bartoncreeth @LyraMcKee and @dmcbfs. Please watch the video above.

Legacy media is moribund. Legacy media is on a journey of managaed and inexorable decline. It's steady as she sinks. Yes, the relationship between words and money is off. But it will be corrected.

The decline of legacy media isn't all a matter of money. The decline of legacy media is the making of two entirely avoidable circumstances.

One it has lost it's soul. It has capitulated to advertising and public relations. It has been co-opted by those who govern us. As George Orwell said:

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."

Our press isn't this. Our press is flat, serving and servile. It isn't curious or courageous, partisan and adversarial. We need to fix that. Only a vigorous and voracious press will keep countries and governments honest. Our head of government, Peter Robinson wants the press to be more positive and cuddly. But if the press is accountable to Peter Robinson, who is Peter Robinson and our government accountable too?

Two, journalism has failed to iterate and innovate.

David Allen Green (@JackofKent) - The pointlessness of a law degree

David Allen Green wrote here about the pointlessness of a law degree:

"The one thing a law degree is not particularly useful for is the practice of law. In fact, it may well be the last degree one should do if the ambition is to be a practising lawyer."

Worse: 

"A law degree can even be worse than useless."

And so:

"Do not waste three years of your life on a LLB, for there is nothing in answering the clever questions of law academics that will get you very far in in a courtroom or with a client.

More:

"The only thing an LLB contract course and typical contract drafting and negotiation have in common is the word “contract”."

He finished with a flourishing metaphor:

"But the academic study of law is like reading sheet music without an instrument: one can more or less make it out, but as with music, law only comes alive in its performance."

Leonard Duricic of Bechstein Piano also gave us a flourishing metaphor:

"If you only learn theory, it’s like learning to swim by reading a book - it’s not the same, so you need both."

 This is an example of the wishy washy carers advice they're giving out now that I got in 2005:

"Employers across the spectrum respect law degrees because they know law is a tough discipline that helps you to develop analytical skills."

It's bollocks. An employer does not want you to think like a lawyer. They want you to do it. David Allen Green in full here.

Richard Haass on the need to create a larger context

In my last post on Richard Haass here, we learnt one thing. Negotiations require you to look behind your adversary and to take into consideration what forces lie behind them. In the video discussion above hosted by Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria), Richard Haass looked at the two main tensions in that can hold up negotiations.

One, was on the tension between passionate minorities and passive majorities. Richard Haass said:

"These passionate minorities in the full sinlight of public opinion can really lead to the unravelling of an agreement. So it's never enought to concoct a deal that has trade-offs that may make sense. You've got to always think, how do you prepare the world for it, so the [negotiating] individuals can sell it to their constituencies."

Two, concerned the tension between the politicians and their vocal minority base. He explained the need to prepare, explain and contextualise the dispute to the vocal base group on each side.

"We went to extraordinary lengths to try and shape the context [in Northern Ireland] and still it proved to be not enough... Even if you can get agreement among the experts... unless you've created a larger context, where they feel confident to be able to politically, not to mention physically, survive, then you haven't accomplished that much."

Will Social Media Change – or Even End – Journalism As We Know It?

[This is a guest post by Sarah Brooks from Freepeoplesearch.org]

"Social media are not so much mere tools as they are the ocean we’re going to be swimming in — at least until the next chapter of the digital revolution comes along."

- Geneva Overholser, for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard

Social Media services and websites have experienced phenomenal growth over the last decade – Facebook and Twitter users number in the millions – and the impact of so many people from all walks of life upon the process by which information is shared cannot be overstated. And one area that has likely felt the impact more than any other is the field of journalism.

Irish racism, Ctd "incredibly dehumanising"

Implying Northern Ireland is a colony is incredibly dangerous rhetoric, usually restricted to the ethno-fascist fringes of republicanism.
— Newton Emerson (@NewtonEmerson) March 20, 2014

@ChristopherOCon @AlexKane221b If every transfer of population in the past 500 years makes a place a colony, almost every place is a colony
— Newton Emerson (@NewtonEmerson) March 20, 2014

'Colonists' get de-colonised. That's clearly still the dream for some.
— Newton Emerson (@NewtonEmerson) March 20, 2014

 As I said:

""[Britain]" is not in Ireland. There is no occupation. This language of "England Out" and British occupation is incredibly dehumanising. There are people, like me, who wish to remain in the Union with great Britain. As John McCallister said: "I am no settler. No colonist." I am one of 800,000 citizens who want "England [in]". This language is tremendously dehumanising. This the sort of debasing language which allowed the IRA to murder innocent civilians and serving officers. As Tom  

Hartley, Sinn Féin strategist, said:

"In a way we made them [Unionists] a non-people... We didn't even see them as part of the problem, never mind as being part of the solution."

Irish America is Protestant too

St. Patrick’s Day Graph: Irish in America are Protestant, not Catholic

On the matter I first noted Fintan O’Toole, who said:

"And – here’s a thing that is almost always forgotten – most Irish-Americans are Protestant."

Then Professor John P. McCarthy of Fordham University, who NY said:

"I must acknowledge Mr [Fintan] O’Toole makes a valid note, often unappreciated in Ireland, about the substantial portion of the Irish American population, including many of the presidents, who were Protestant."

Northern Ireland - A world of policy free politics

Since its inception NI21 has found itself under a shower of inverted criticism as opponents cat call the party for its lack of policies. The doublespeak and hypocrisy is simply breathtaking. Ventriloquising Mick Fealty, editor of Slugger O'Toole, the old-order parties in Northern Ireland practice a special and unique branch of politics: that being, "policy-free politics." As Mick Fealty said:

"Policy is little in evidence anywhere in Stormont. Nor has there been any clearly articulated ambition to focus on solving real world problems through new policy formation at the political level. The non arrival of CSI and a long promised anti poverty strategy from OFMdFM is indicative.

In the absence of meaningful content, politics is reduced to a series of controversies over Orange parades, the flying of flags, the naming of play parks. Unnoticed, and largely unrermarked upon, the intimidation of minority communities continues on a low level and out of sight of the TV cameras."

More:

"The main act is a puppet show loosely themed around the politics of identity, which is both its greatest strength and a major vulnerability."

No policies equals no politics and deadlock at best, mismanagement and descent into conflict at worst.

Live Drawing - @RamorePortrush [Part 4]

On Friday 28 February I did a fourth evening of Live Drawing at Ramore Wine Bar Portush.Click below to see a full selection of images from the night.



Previous night of live drawing in the first of four evenings at the Ramore Wine Bar in Portrush (@RamorePortrush) here and here. Night of Live Drawing in Portrush in the Mermaid Restaurant here. With the Arts Council NI at their 2013 conference here, at the Pump House, Titanic Belfast with the Friday Night Mashup here, at the QUB Peace Journalism seminarhere, St Joseph's PS Christmas craft fair 2013 here, at the Thriftway Travel christmas party 2013 here, at the Civic Conversation 2013here. At a Christmas party (2013) here. At the DUP Conference 2013 here, and drawing the DUP politicians here. Doodling 6 guys in a pubhere. At Culture Night Belfast 2013 here. At the GEMS NI Conference here. At Funtastics indoor play park here. At John Hewitt here and here. At the Wickerman tourist shop here.

Live drawing in the Black Box with famous political cartoonist Ian Knox here. See my life drawings from the Loft Belfast at 99 North Street here, here and here. My thoughts on life drawing here. One of my favourite cartoonists Andre Carrilho talks about the challenge of caricature here.

The Cult of University, Ctd Val McDermid

Val McDermid (@valmcdermid) appeared on the Question Time of March 20 2014 held in Warrington and said (21 minutes):

"Young people who've been betrayed by the promises that have been made to them, who've gone off to university, got their degrees, run up a huge amount of debt and all they do is find themselves pushing a trolling up and down an inner-city train, because there aren't graduate jobs for them. These are actually the things that upset me, that I care about."

Yet university applications and entrants continues to increase. That is why I have said that 'University Is Now An ETHICAL Question.' And let's remember what Erica Buist said; she captured the betrayal of young people perfectly:

"The minute [young people] graduated, something switched in employers' heads. The same generation who had us sit... the 11-plus and the 12-plus... and mock GCSEs and real GCSEs and AS-levels and A-levels and BAs and MAs and MScs and PhDs decided education is an afterthought. Experience is what's really important."

Watch video here.

Glenn Greenwald - US violence is "noble" and "civilised" while Muslim violence is "primitive" and "without rational cause"

Following the murder of drummer Lee Rigby, bloggers Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan crossed keyboards and battled it out. The issue: Greenwald called it "a barbaric and horrendous act"; but fell short of calling it "terrorism". The premise being that Rigby was a soldier, not a citizen. Since America and Britain had declared the whole globe as a battlefield, the attack was a reaction to this. But as Glenn explained, by highlighting the cause, he does not seek to justify the act. As he said:

"People reflexively try to radically distort the argument beyond recognition in order to smear you as a Terror apologist, a Terrorist-lover or worse, all for the thought crime of raising these issues. To do so, they deceitfully conflate claims of causation (A is one of the causes of B) with justification (B is justified). Anyone operating with the most basic levels of rationality understands that these concepts are distinct. To discuss what motivates a person to engage in Action B is not remotely to justify Action B."

He then approached the related issue that the west has a boundless compulsion to depict others as the "Uniquely Primitive and Violent Evil." He said:

"Our violence is understandable, noble, well-intentioned, necessitated by their pure evil. By stark contrast, their violence is sub-human, senseless, and utterly unrelated to anything we do."

Live Drawing - #TweetUpNI

.@brianjohnspencr doing some live sketching while we watch @bbctheview! #tweetupni pic.twitter.com/a781gqKwOA
— Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) March 13, 2014

 

 

#tweetupni @dcmbfs kicks off the tweetup in McHughs pic.twitter.com/zJbVp9HPfl
— Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) March 13, 2014

 

Hey Irish America! Arthur Guinness was a Protestant, a Unionist and Irish and British

'England get out of Ireland', St. Patrick's Day Parade 2014, via Long Island Catholic Examiner, Deirdre Haggerty here.

[This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post, here and includes a number of corrections and an update.]

(Update below)

Irish America needs to go buy a book and learn some history. They don't have a baldy notion. Here's some context.

March 17th every year, every where is the day to be Irish. To celebrate Ireland. To celebrate Irishness. But for many, being Irish is a very exclusive and static thing. Padriag Reidy (@mePadraigReidy) alluded to it in the Guardian and rightly slapped it down, saying that'"authentic" cultural events are for faschists.' But I want to take this further.

I'm like Padraig, I'm Irish. But unlike Padraig, I'm from Northern Ireland, I'm a Protestant and I'm a Unionist who sees himself as both Irish and British.

Christopher Hitchens - The anti-Columbus Movement

[UPDATE - Below, with Ann Widdecomb]

I previously wrote about the American Empire, citing Christopher Hitchens who said, "The big secret of the US is class and empire; Everyone knows there's a class system and empire, but it's not officially admitted." Glenn Greenwald wrote an article in the Guardian, 'Afghanistan and American imperialism.' Christopher Hitchens awrote against left wing opposition to American imperialism in

Cult of university, Ctd @ericabuist: "We've done what you asked,society! Release the jobs!"

Erica Buist (@ericabuist) is the founder of the How To Be Jobless blog and now works on the Guardian Digital Journalism Scheme. She wrote a fantastic blog 'Telling a young person to 'Just get a job' is like going to the Sahara and yelling 'Just rain!'.' She said:  

"Today's youth has spent years chasing qualifications no one ever asks us about. The notion that algebra would ever be useful seemed fishy, but the grownups insisted: education, no matter how apparently arbitrary, leads to jobs."

Money quote right here:

"The minute we graduated, something switched in employers' heads. The same generation who had us sit Sats and the 11-plus and the 12-plus and Sats again and mock GCSEs and real GCSEs and AS-levels and A-levels and BAs and MAs and MScs and PhDs decided education is an afterthought. Experience is what's really important."

Another great bit:

Why we hate, Ctd Solomon Northup



Master Ford with Solomon Northup in Charlie Brooker's film adaption of the memoir by Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup wrote about his life in Twelve Years a Slave, the story of a free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South in 1841. In that he shared his thoughts about his slave master, master Ford:

"The influences and associations that had always surrounded him, blinded him to the inherent wrong at the bottom of the system of Slavery. He never doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. Brought up under other circumstances and other influences, his notions would undoubtedly have been different."

My previous post on 'Why we hate' with Andrew Sullivan here. On hate and mistrust as the basic canon of Northern Ireland life here. On Daniel Hannan and cognitive dissonance here. And my article 'Why we hate in Northern Ireland' on eamonnmallie.com here.

Being Irish is not about being not-British, Ctd

Taosieach Enda Kenny with the PSNI and An Garda Síochána (New York 2014)

For Saint Patrick's Day 2014 Gerry Gregg wrote an article in the Irish Herald, 'De Valera's dream is long dead, so why do we keep peddling it?':

"[Eamon De Valera's] vision of the Ireland he fought for and hoped to see was a fantastic description of a land and a people that never existed and whose like will never be seen...  Enda Kenny will march down New York's Fifth Avenue with men who still see Ireland through this prism of piety and patriotism. Kenny's vision of the "ould sod" is his gombeen pitch that we are the "best little country in the world to do business in"...  

This takes us back to 1943, to De Valera and that speech. Ireland was an oasis of tranquillity back then while Europe was going up in flames. We defined ourselves by one religion only, by our attachment to the land, and through our belief that, in some way, God was looking after us...  

National identity is all about agreeing on who "we" are. In 2014, the Irish are struggling on that. We are no longer automatically Catholic. We are also Protestants, Dissenters, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists... We have even discovered there are gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender citizens in our ranks. That Ireland will not be on parade abroad, of course. The old stereotypes will be out in force." 

Padraig Reidy wrote in the Guardian, 'Don't let the cynics and puritans ruin your St Patrick's Day':

"Irish people are equally attracted and reviled by the notion of "true Irish" (fior Gael) that De Valera and others pursued. It's led us to weird places... "Authentic" cultural events are for fascists. Embrace your entirely made-up identity this St Patrick's Day.

Blogging has enormous depth, Ctd

I've looked at the US bloggers Andrew Sullivan (@SullyDish)and Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) and Christopher Hitchens who all talked about the depth of blogging. I also looked at what Paul Krugman had to say about blogging. I've also looked the the UK legal bloggers David Allen Green (@JackofKent) and Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1). The internet has had an incredible democratic and levelling effect. As Paul Krugman said:

"Academic credentials are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for having your ideas taken seriously... if someone without formal credentials consistently makes trenchant, insightful observations, he or she has earned the right to be taken seriously, regardless of background."

All the above have attested to the depth, authority and veracity of the new medium. Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) added his voice to the debate:

"The separate categorisation of columnists, reporters, bloggers and interested readers is becoming meaningless. Every citizen is now a potential journalist. News and opinion are a conversation. We still hear occasional complaints from Leftie pundits that online media “lack quality control”. In fact, the dialectic element of blogging ensures a higher standard of accuracy than before. Mistakes are ruthlessly exposed and, because of the sheer number of outlets, a plausible new theory can spread with previously unimagined speed. 

Blogs have improved veracity, quality and diversity. They have not led to the segregation by opinion that many predicted: Leftists and Rightists argue online in a way that never happened when people took just one newspaper. It's true that bloggers, being human, are as prone to cruelty, stupidity and error as anyone else. But it has never been easier to go elsewhere: more people are reading more news and comment than at any time in history."

On what blogging is all about, Greenwald put it best:

"I began [blogging] without any plan to become a journalist or writer, but simply to participate as a citizen."