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Otto's Journal - Otto watches some films and comments on them...
Posted Oct 18, 2006
Oh indeed. Seen some great films recently.
Children of Men
A futuristic Brit-thriller dystopia set in a world where something has caused sterility, and the youngest person alive is 18. Never mind the thriller plot, the real revelation here was the backdrop. It's said that all scifi is about the present, and this certainly was - taking many contemporary fears and running with them. You'd see an image from a dark future - facisitic guards etc - but then they'd suddenly run in front of an old phonebox. Bexhill is turned into a refugee camp. Brilliant and terrifying at the same time.
The Departed
Just great. I never thought I'd say that about a film with LDiC in it, but he was good, as was Matt Damon playing his opposite. People talk about Jack Nicholson, but for me, Mark Walhberg's acidic 'bad cop' stole the show. Funny, tense, unpredictable - the best film I've seen in a long time. And what an ending.....
Whisper of the Heart
This is a Japanese animated film which I stumbled across on Film4 by accident. It's essentially about a teenage girl finding her soulmate and finding herself, and gaining the confidence to use her talents. Usually I'd run a mile from romances or romantic comedy films, but this was very, very beautiful. I missed the first 20 minutes or so of this, so I didn't catch everything, but it was really engrossing and engaging. I'm not sure why. In terms of plot, it's fairly straightforward, though I know I missed a complicated setup involving library books. I also enjoyed 'Spirited Away', but I wonder whether what was engaging was the Japanishness of the films, because I really can't picture myself watching an English version of either film. Perhaps it was the music - including a really haunting Japanese version of 'Country Road', which the main character translates into Japanese early in the film, and which sums up a lot of what the film is about.
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Latest reply: Oct 18, 2006
Otto'sJournal: The shrill of secular illiberalism
Posted Jul 6, 2006
My philosophical hero, John Rawls, wrote a book called 'Political Liberalism' in which he explored the consequences of what he called 'permanent pluralism' (or something like that). Roughly, this is the view that there are now and will always be very different conceptions of the 'good life', very different world views, very different moral and metaphysical outlooks. Given this, how can people agree to live together within a stable state?
Rawls' suggestion is what he calls an 'overlapping consensus' - trying to find points of agreement between otherwise very different views about what the state should look like. He aruged that people should have a sense of themselves as citizen, and as private individual. As private individual, I might believe x and y and z, but as a citizen I accept that I have the right to believe this and argue for it, but not to impose it on others.
Thus, the state stays neutral between these competing conceptions. Rawls argued that people should have a loyalty to this 'overlapping consensus' as something that protects their rights now, and their rights to change their mind about their life in the future. Not a 'mere modus vivendi'.
What troubles me is a tendancy to reject this overlapping consensus. Surprisingly, it's coming not from the religous fundamentalist, but from a new kind of secular fundamentalist. These SFs are not content just to fight and argue against certain metaphysical viewpoints and to try to reduce the religious influence in society (which is reasonable), but to try to silence voices from the political debate (which is not).
This is often accompanied by the setting up of 'straw target' religious views that are attacked and easily destroyed, ignoring or failing to engage with more sophisticated versions. The typical 'straw target' religious person is a fanatic, a controller, a fascist, an evolution denier, completely irrational. There are many like that in all religions - Christianity has its Taliban as well as Islam. But a great many religious people, particularly in the western world, are not like that at all.
I'm a liberal, secular, humanist. I don't want to live in a more religious society, but it's only possible to advance liberal, secular, and humanist aims by understanding the arguments of one's opponents. And understanding them properly, not just attacking straw targets. And in general, I think, people have a duty as citizens and as credible thoughtful people to properly understand the viewpoints of others.
I find it worrying when secular, sensible people start to close themselves off to other ideas, to ridicule other views rather than trying to understand them, to try to silence and attack ad homenim rather than letting the arguments be heard, and then seeking to win the debate properly and fairly. Especially as that's what they accuse their opponents of doing.
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Latest reply: Jul 6, 2006
Otto's Journal: Chinese Food
Posted Jun 28, 2006
My local Chinese takeaway is called the 'Tasty Wok', and is very good indeed. Food excellent, prepared quickly, staff friendly and efficient.
However, I had something of a shock when I phoned to place an order the other day. Usually I'd just drop in on the way home. 'Tasty Wok' is a good name for a Chinese takeaway when written down, but when spoken, it sounds rather too much like "Taste Ewok". And when people answer the phone, they sometimes use a question intonation tone, so it sounds like an offer or a question....
"Sweet and Sour Wicket, please, and a Chief Chirpa Chop Suey....."
Beeeeechaaawawa.....
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Latest reply: Jun 28, 2006
Otto's Journal: Moderators
Posted Feb 12, 2006
I just read a post about moderators and moderation, and started thinking about the concept in general.
The Moderator. The enemy (no, that's not moderate enough), the foe (no...), the opponent (better) of extreme opinions and violent sentiments on any subject.
In charge of upholding the standards of moderateness everywhere, The Moderator sits in his moderately confortable armchair in front of his moderately powerful PC. Wearing tweed and smoking a pipe, he's there, ready with a quick "steady on, old chap" for anyone being more than moderately immoderate....
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Latest reply: Feb 12, 2006
Otto's Journal: The scariest thing on TV ever....
Posted Jan 24, 2006
.... was in 'Life on Mars' this week and last. This is an excellent TV show about a cop who has an accident and wakes in the 1970s, which might be a hallucination or might not be. He might have really time travelled, he might not because he occasionally hears voices indicating that he's in a coma.
One of these hallucinations was the little girl with the clown toy from the BBC test card becoming real and being sinister and scary....
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
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Latest reply: Jan 24, 2006
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Otto Fisch ("Stop analysing Strava.... and cut your hedge")
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