Things are piling up very quickly for me and so I’ve decided to go on hiatus here and on my blog for the rest of January. I expect to be posting again by February 1. I’ll log on semiregularly to put through comments, so the conversation can continue as before. Have a good month, and I’ll be back in due time!
26 Comments
Courteous, concise comments relevant to the topic of the current post are welcome, whether or not they agree with the views expressed here, and I try to respond to each comment as time permits. Long screeds proclaiming the infallibility of some ideology or other, however, will be deleted; so will repeated attempts to hammer on a point already addressed; so will comments containing profanity, abusive language, flamebaiting and the like -- I filled up my supply of Troll Bingo cards years ago and have no interest in adding any more to my collection; and so will sales spam and offers of "guest posts" pitching products. I'm quite aware that the concept of polite discourse is hopelessly dowdy and out of date, but then some people would say the same thing about the traditions this blog is meant to discuss. Thank you for reading Ecosophia! -- JMG
JMG, wishing you a good January. Please keep doing what you do, some of us genuinely rely on your writing to help keep our sanity. 😊
A hiatus? Now?!? But the President just decided to reenact the plot of Twilight’s Last Gleaming in Venezuela today!
Well, I wish you good fortune with whatever piles come your way. Although I must say the timing of this hiatus is curious enough to make me wonder if something came up in your crystal ball…
Anyway, see you next month!
Hi JMG,
Yeah, disengage. Do an about face. Take a ferry. One meets the most interesting people on ferries of New England.
In 1965, my mother and older brother and I did lighthouse-hopping, visit lighthouses as we came to them. The lighthouses and ferries of New England are magic. Ya never know what conversations are started while leaning at the rail of a ship, hopefully, not up-chucking. Take a dramamine, if necessary.
Visit someplace fire.
Visit someplace water.
Visit someplace earth.
Visit someplace air.
Visit an island. Visit a marsh. Granny says so. Have a good one.
Have a great “month off.”
💨🏚️⛴️💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Best wishes for a happy and productive January JMG.
Dear John Michael,
Before warning others of the impending changes to the winds, recall to look after thyself. If the Titanic sunk, what good would you be in the -2’C water wearing less than seven (the lucky number) pairs of long johns? Think of the baker who survived. He was on the money that day.
Cheers
Chris
Hello JMG and commentariat:
Oops! This “hiatus” has caught me by surprise! Well, John, I’ll have patience to wait your next post (like the rest of commentariat, I hope it). Have a good January! Now, with JMG permission, let’s comment some things.
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I’ve read last John comment about Dali greatness, and I agree. He looked himself as the last great figurative painter, and indeed he was right about it. Although his big egocentrism and bizarre personality led him to perform a personal Spectacle in which he pretended to be mad, me think. However, geniuses can be excused for his excentricities when they do real art.
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I think too there could be a secret deal between Trump and Putin to give up Venezuela failed state in exchange for Ukraine regime (which it’s not a failed state yet, but without USA huge help it won’t last much time). If this theory is right, I’m afraid EU is going to be in a ridiculous and pitiful situation, by evident reasons. Today EU governments can be cheering the Maduro regime fall, but tomorrow…We’ll see in near future.
If John and other online proffessional and “dilettante” analysts have said about the Venezuela raid (it could be and affordable loss to Russia because in exchange the USA give Putin the Kiev regime head)and they’re right, the EU attitude seems to me not wise. Spanish language has an expression which unluckily can’t be translated into English easily:””Aplaudir con las orejas”. Well, can you make applause with your own ears? I bet you can’t. I don’t know if you haven’t understood this expression irony. Well, I think Brussels and their national governments could regret his today happiness, if this US/Russia exchange theory is confirmed soon. Let’s wait…
A last comment about Salvador Dalí. I think his biggest life tragedy (and his biggest wry irony) was he was pretending to be crazy, since his younger age; but when his loved wife and muse, Gala, died, and he realized he was become an old man, he gave up painting and he really got depressed. Depression isn’t properly to become nuts, but indeed is a mental disorder, so I think in a wide sense, Dali pretended crazyness became real. I was a child when Dali started his last and sad life stage, so I remember only a very old man in a wheelchair who said one of his last famous phrases: “Geniuses mustn’t die”. Of course, Dali finally died like everybody does, in spite of being a genius, but nowadays we can admire his beautiful and disturbing (alike) art works.
I wonder if you’ve understood well the metaphore implicit in the vernacular spanish expression which I could translate roughly like “clapping with your ears”. When you clap with your own ears (which it’s really impossible in the real world), you do it because you can’t clap your hands; so you’re not in a very good situation, but you don’t recognize it and pretend everything is OK. I think EU nowadays would be in a similar situation if the Russian/American influence zones exchange is confirmed. If Zelenski falls, Brussels situation could be worse than bad. Translating roughly another spanish expression, Trump could leave European leaders “with their pants down”. I think you may understand its meaning. In a less rude mode, I can remember the biblical quote “Those who laugh today, tomorrow will cry”. However, let’s wait if future events confirm John and other online people hypothesis…
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This morning (local time), during my coffee time, I’ve read in my favorite bar the local newspaper Sunday magazine. Its main article title was: “Comparing Trump and Hitler brains”. Here we go with the “Reductio ad Hitlerum” phallacy. I think this article was perpetrated…cough…written days before the Venezuela mess, but of course after “Nuremberg” movie was released in theaters here. So it’s very opportunistic, me think. Technically, Hitler wasn’t crazy until maybe his last war time (the bunker time), and the journalist indeed can’t show hard evidences of Trump brain/mind damages, only circunstancial cherry picked stories about his “strange” behavior. I think it’s a dishonest tactic against Trump, a politician who I don’t like very much, but he deserves a basic respect, at least to criticise him.
The same magazine had has a couple of years ago another article asking rhetorically wether Putin was crazy or not. So its propaganda disguised of fake psychological science doesn’t surprise me.
May your January be restorative and productive. Looking forward to your return in February.
Chuaquin,
I’m answering your comments on the previous post.
I’ve had some trouble keeping up with the comments lately, so I didn’t read your assessment of Vox. Yes, it pretty much sums up my own views. It’s nice to find someone who doesn’t fall for the addiction to hatred within our country’s politics for once.
Yes, I had Pedro Baños in mind. I’m fine with approaching our former territories but, given our alleged betters’ recent record, I distrust their real intentions when pushing these ideas. I tend to think they see Hispanic America merely as a mass of slightly less problematic immigrants that will drive salaries down and their profits up by sheer demand. But I could be wrong, of course.
“Traduttore traitore”: Indeed. I’d rather believe our translator just had a bad day while working on the part I happened to read. But I can’t help thinking any of us would do better.
Best wishes for continued health and sanity.
Have a restful hiatus.
Wishing you a well deserved rest and catch up.
Drew
Mr. Greer, I hope things are piling up in a positive way .. at least mostly. Enjoy the respite from the ‘daily blogger’s grind’. ‘;]
Take care and stay safe, JMG. All the best.
Wishing you a good and refreshing month, wherever you go, whatever you do.
Stephen
Have a good hiatus. Your schedule must be exhausting with having to run and moderate your blog, especially on Monday-Wednesday.
I look forward to the book club post next month!
Hope the time off goes well for you, and you get done the things you need and want to do.
It has been a long time since you took a break. Not counting your working week in Great Britain.
Have a nice blogging respite.
Best regards,
V
Wer here
Well it isn’t over yet there in Venezuela. The vice president and the chavez people are arming themselfs looks like it’s gonna be a partisan warfare soon. If Trump decides that sending boots on the ground will necessary he will have a second Iraq/Vietnam over there. I don’t think that the deal between Trump and Putin is correct.
The Us tries to put boots on the ground it will be a mess espacially since people in Venezuelan goverment are procvaming they will not give up it reminds me of Iran when the war started and there were assasinations and everything but then they started an response to the attack. The EU is turning into a Third World during Christmas many Germans came to Poland to visit Christmas Markets in our country why? Because many german towns had banned them because of not hurting others fellings etc. Muslims are already an majority in Brussels and soon in other nations. EU ranting about failed states should be soon looking at themselfs…
I wish you success on the hiatus, and hope it is productive for you. I don’t know how you keep up with things as it is. Will you suspend the Dreamwidth postings as well?
We will be waiting on your return.
Miguel # 11:
I’m glad we mainly agree. I only would like to write in addition to your comment about this party, I think Vox leaders seem to be avoiding very carefully an open fall outside the democratic consensus; which of course would lead them into the legal and constitutional radar. If themselves aren’t so smart, they indeed have good paid lawyers to their service. It seems the last thing they would dream is reaching the power bluntly and ruling the country according a one party regime (like classical Fascists did and like neofascists usually imagine it). That reality contradicts the weared, rehashed and spectacular usual denounciations against Vox as fascists by the woke left (usual brainless propaganda me think).
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Mr. Baños can say what he says because he’s allowed to say it by the economical elites and his former fellows in the intel services, so you’re quite right about him. I think he’s pointing ideas towards spanish Overton Window, which only a few years ago were unthinkable in public debate (limited only within fringe online and personal arguments). I think this is good and bad alike. Of course we don’t have access to hidden agendas in high spheres…
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About the translación topic: I agree too. When you start reading a foreign book translated to your language, you trust the translator has been a proffessional and has done well his/her job. A bad translation “hurts” that trust.
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I may understand John decision to make an hiatus now, though actual news can push us to pay more attention to internet now. However, it’s also paradoxically true John and more people need some rest and to go away from a heavy over-charge and over-stimulation. Maybe I didn’t understand well Mr. Greer motives to leave for a while his blog, maybe I’m wrong. In every case, I wish John enjoys these “hiatus” days peacefully.
Wer # 21:
I’m glad to see you again in JMG blog, though I can’t always agree with your views. I think Venezuela thing is a turning point in every trends which are evolving in nowadays world (wether there’s a tacit USA/Russia deal to exchange countries or not). I also think it’s too early to reach a full view over the whole situation, because propaganda from several ideological fronts doesn’t let us to see what’s happening under competing Spectacles. Are the most fanatic Chavists preparing a guerrilla style insurgence? It’s possible. But we don’t know how many Maduro supporters are really eager to kill and die for his hijacked leader. So we can’t guess wether there would be only terrorism, a located guerrilla or a full civil war in spite of the American “help” to the possible puppet government. We also don’t know what’s the real power of self proclamed “majoritarian” anti-Chavist opposition, and its effective influence on Venezuela Army. By the way, I din’t think Trump isn’t fool enough to send ground troops to secure that oil rich country, unless he would be compelled by a full scale civil war (which although it isn’t impossible, I think it’s not very probable because Maduro economical policies have been a disaster, so he’s been lost partly some former Chavist supporters, me think). I tell you: let’s wait and watch the future events carefully…
Here the Left has mourned the Trumpist raid, and Right has cheered Maduro arrest. Nothing new under the sun. What worries me is the possibility of political unstability in an after Maduro Venezuela, which could provoke an even bigger migration towards Spain.
If you’ve witnessed personally or you have reliable sources to trust, I can only confirm EU is headed towards the failed status level (well, I should write maybe: failed super-status).
You deserve your hiatus. Enjoy it and catch up.
See you in February!
Anyone giving odds that JMG is activating a contingency plan and will be resuming blogging in February from Lower Slobbovia?