fourth floor feminism | sociable speculation

I had been to two lectures in two weeks that dealt with the issues of fear and violence, both by men who spent 45 minutes flexing their not inconsiderable intellectual muscles to unpack the ideology of 'fear of the other' that is the obsession of the world today. In both lectures, groans of rueful liberal laughter greeted cleverly constructed barbs aimed at the beliefs of those less clever, questioning and therefore enlightened than those in the room, ranging from our boy George to anyone who has read a newspaper article that included the words terrorism, religious war or September 11. The scary thing about people with open minds (I try to belong to this group) is that we are just as absolutist, divisive and irrational as the neo-cons, the evangelicals, the jihadists and the Joe Average that we deride in our little nests of learning. We construct intricate arguments for all sides of the story, go to extraordinary lengths to qualify our remarks and use smoke and mirrors to h...

Second day at home sick, re-reading my post from yesterday , a little concerned that my 'humour'(?) may have been as logical as his 'facts', bored, bored, bored, I think I may have another crack at his ... what I would not like to flatter by calling writing, perhaps more a collection of words ..? Okay, let's start from the top shall we? Spanish Newspaper article on Judiasm (In English) Yup, sure does mention the Jews. Not sure it is an in depth exploration of Judaism as such, but it sure mentions the Jews. Great. Also mentions Muslims at least as prominently. Still, don't want to get too specific here. It is in English also. Points all round for the first line. All European life died in Auschwitz. Snappy, emotive, very self-flagellatory, good parallel between genocide and the death of Western Reason. Plenty of good, fact based arguments coming up I reckon. I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in A...

Just as my soapbox thought it was on holiday for two years as I prepare to write only for my honours thesis , I was gifted with the following annoying piece of written hokum in my inbox. All the senders that were listed on the forwarding addresses are friends, so I would like to preface this with a disclaimer: I am not arguing with anyone that sent it on, just the man who wrote the words and thought he had found the great truth of the 21st Century. Twat. Also, I am home sick with a head cold. Bear, sore head. You get the picture. *Warning - Historical Lessons Die Hideous Deaths Below* [oh, after a quick google I believe it is a Hoax as there seems to be no original source of the article. It has been bandied around the blogs and emails for months now, with so much Acclaim, that I want to say something.] Spanish newspaper article on Judiasm (In English) All European life died in Auschwitz By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discover...