Comments | imomus: The nihilism of heat

imomus

The nihilism of heat

Jun 19, 2009 08:45

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Comments 33

ataxi June 19 2009, 06:56:41 UTC

"And, if we meet, we shall not ’scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring."

anonymous June 19 2009, 07:41:27 UTC

Paradoxically, hot places are also the location of Divine revelation and the science of morality. Maybe they needed it more.

anonymous June 19 2009, 07:47:33 UTC

PS If you think baksheesh is a hot-climate thing only you obviously haven't tendered for contracts in western Europe or the US. Brussels itself is massively on the take. Every time you buy something you pay 17.5% baksheesh. What were WW1 and 2 about for that matter?

angiereedgarner June 19 2009, 08:13:03 UTC

IAWTCx100

imomus June 19 2009, 09:31:36 UTC

But come on, this "plague on both their houses, they're all as bad as each other" cynicism is too easy -- it's what I call "Procrustean thinking". Why should people all over the world be exactly as corrupt as each other? Is it some kind of negative version of PC wishful thinking that makes you say so? Are corruption indices meaningless? Is VAT sales tax really "as bad" as having to pay several thousand to stop building inspectors coming to see whether your house can resist earthquake codes? Are government employees taking money to ensure regulations are NOT enforced really no worse than government employees taking money to ensure they ARE?

Such cynicism may play well to the stalls on the imternet, but the world isn't like that. Your wished equality of evil is just that; a wish.

imomus June 19 2009, 09:34:18 UTC

http://www.transparency.org

Thread 8

petit_paradis June 19 2009, 09:42:07 UTC

I always wonder if you just pull out a drawer in your head with instant quotations from literyary works, in this case graham greene, joseph conrad etc., or you go home and quickly scan the books you like to refer to in your posts for the quotes??

I always loved divine comedy's song "the booklovers" with the list of classic authors with snippets of "literary dialoque" (or in the case of katherine mansfield just a cough) to each name.

imomus June 19 2009, 14:33:30 UTC

This time I used Google Books to track down heat refs in books I'd read.

(The comment has been removed)

anonymous June 19 2009, 11:06:53 UTC

I love the British weather! What I can't stand is the predictable complaints and 2D way of looking at / experiencing it.

Socialist brothers! pay_option07 June 19 2009, 13:17:20 UTC

http://www.volunteerinchina.org/kunming.htm

It is lacking the western exploitation, but

Eternal Spring!