– Clive James, “Cultural Amnesia,” discussing the impact of Ludwig Wittgenstein on philosophy and culture.

Oh snap!

Okay, maybe this one only amuses me.  But I still wish I’d said it first.

I have a hard time with John Gray, not because I think he’s wrong – though I do – but because I think he’s right.

(Anyone who can’t hold more than one contradictory thought in his head at a time has no business reading Gray.)

Our foremost chronicler of the stark cliff that what passes for modern thought comes to when taken far enough, his work is a necessary, even joyful, antidote to the easy delusions that come pre-packaged in a comfortable 21st century Western life, like so much salt in a Happy Meal.

But while the philosophical chemotherapy he offers is a tasty butterscotch, one can’t help but wonder if in some ways the cure is worse than the disease.

I’m not going to settle this question.  But I’m reminded to ask it because of a wonderful review of Gray’s latest work in the L.A. Review of Books, which you should read right now.

Oh man … I can feel the impact from the other coast.

Evgeny Morozov’s review of Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen’s new book is a truly epic takedown.  A key point:

But more than semantics is at stake here. The fake novelty is invoked not only to make wild predictions but also to suggest that we all need to make sacrifices—a message that is very much in line with Google’s rhetoric on matters such as privacy. “How much will we have to give up to be part of the new digital age?” ask Cohen and Schmidt. Well, if this age is neither new nor digital, we don’t need to give up very much at all.

Read the whole thing.

If all I ever did was to use this blog to record the insightful things Clive James wrote in his book “Cultural Amnesia,” it would still be a better thing than most of the ways I spend my time.

Today’s quotes, one from a profiles of German writer (and disillusioned communist) Manes Sperber, the other from a profile of Margret Thatcher (both well worth reading in their entirety) highlight dangerous territories in politics.  The first, feeling too much – the second thinking too much.

There is no excuse, either passionate or intellectualized, for denying each other our common humanity.

As always with James, every word is good – but it’s the last line that kills.  Enjoy.

Continue reading More amazing things Clive James said →

Cultural Amnesia has long been on my shelf of books to re-read over and over again for the rest of my life.  Here’s one reason:

“In whichever way a democratic system might be sick, terrorism does not heal it, it kills it.  Democracy is healed with democracy.”  – Virginio Rognoni (quoted in Cultural Amnesia, page 616)

Such words may seen carved in stone for our time, but Rognoni spoke them for the ages.  As per Clive James:

“As the minister of the interior between 1978 and 1983, Rognoni was the man on the spot in the period the Italians still call gli anni di piombo – the years of lead.  It was a period in which the extreme right and the extreme left staged a period of shooting and bombing competitions when held the spectators on tenterhooks, because they were among the targets.  As the death toll mounted, Rognini was under tremendous pressure to arrogate emergency powers to himself” … “Rognoni resisted the temptation and settled in for a long battle.  The blessed day when a full thirty-two leaders of the Red Brigades were sent to goal – it was Monday, January 24, 1983 – happened on his watch.  Terrorism in Italy wasn’t over, but its back was broken.”

The calls at that time and place were far louder than ours for an extra-judicial force to emerge:  to say that civil society was incapable of rendering justice against those who attacked civil society.  But this is a sickness – one that has been caught and cured before.  We forget because it is easy to forget;  it is convenient.

Neither law nor history is convenient.  Laws that are too convenient for the powerful are indistinguishable from tyranny.  History is what allows us to remember this fact … and the fact that men like Rognoni have already done the hard work, showing us the lesson we must, inevitably, no matter how much blood we spill in righteous indignation, learn again.

If only we weren’t so inclined to forget – if only we were willing to do a little of the hard work up front, to prevent much bigger tragedies tomorrow.

“Cultural Amnesia” indeed.