Fellowship of Punditry

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Cul Heath

Mick Arran

Jeffrey Barbose

Inspector Lohmann

Eric M. Fink

Michael Lane

Rep. Mark B. Cohen

The Fellowship is accepting new members. Inquire within.

The Sages

  • David Weinberger
  • Jon Lebkowsky
  • Jay Rosen
  • Rebecca MacKinnon
  • Nova Spivack
  • Dan Gillmor
  • Jim Moore
  • Lawerence Lessig
  • Ed Cone
  • Jeff Jarvis
  • Joi Ito
  • The Titans

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  • Jim Hightower
  • Wonkette
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  • The-Hamster
  • Matthew Yglesias
  • Pandagon
  • Altercation
  • Informed Comment
  • Donkey Rising
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  • Buzz Machine
  • Orcinus
  • Brad Delong
  • Eschaton
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    Distinguished Colleagues

  • Tom Burka
  • The American Street
  • wood s lot
  • Rox Populi
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  • Blond Sense
  • Cut To The Chase
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  • ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
  • Post-Atomic
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  • Friends of the Fellowship

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  • To The Teeth
  • Radically Inept
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  • Serial Blogonomy
  • The Bone
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  • Blogged In the Desert
  • One Fine Jay
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  • Into the Blogosphere
  • George Orwell

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    Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

    In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

    But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

    Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

    Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

    In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

    All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

    At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

    Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

    John Stuart Mill

    Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

    The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

    The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

    Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

    A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

    Mark Twain

    Don't let schooling interfere with your education.

    All generalizations are false, including this one.

    A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

    Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

    Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

    The Public is merely a multiplied "me."

    Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."

    Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

    Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

    Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

    Winston Churchill

    The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

    I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

    Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

    Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

    However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

    In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

    Otto Von Bismarck

    When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.

    I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

    Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

    Be polite; write diplomatically ;even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

    Voltaire

    A witty saying proves nothing.

    If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

    When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

    I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

    To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

    Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

    It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

    The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.

    Karl Marx

    Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

    All I know is I'm not a Marxist.

    The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

    Tuesday, November 09, 2004

    The Comedy of Politik: Part One

    By null

    Where did humour originate? By humour, I mean comedic humour, not the ancient Greek theories of humour in physiology, psychology and medicine. Nope. Instead, this is a reference to laughter, joviality, and yes....mirth. Did some caveman clumbsily stumble into a puddle of mud, only to turn around and find his fellow cromagnonites giggling mightily? As far as polical humour is concerned, one wonders exaclty what is so amusing about George W. and Condoleezza acting out a scene from Titanic.

    Comedy at its most common contemporary use of the term, is a a drama of light and amusing character and typically with a happy ending. At Mirthful Ones, the defintion we prefer is the lesser-mentioned one, the genre of dramatic literature dealing with the comic or with the serious in a light or satirical manner.

    Of late, immediately preceding the election and continuing until the forseeable future, my own mood has been even more comically oriented than usual. Of course, it's often satirizing that which others would find slightly risque or even bordering on the offensive end of the spectrum. Obviously, this is In the fine tradition of George Carlin sort of offense....highly satirical and pushing the boundaries of free speech. This probably why three of my feature writers hail from England, as their humour fits right in with the motif of mirth. The remaining writer is Nick Lewis, and I need not explain his oddities....

    As far as I can muster up the intelligence to ascertain, the first well-formed study of comedic theory started in the hands of Socrates and continued through Aristotle. “Comedy” designates certain traits of man's relationship with his fellows. More or less as fate is to the tragic hero, so society is to the comic hero. The idea of the comedic hero, then, refers to some aspect of man's conflict with his group (political, familial, professional, and so on) and its conventions, mores, ideals. But the same man is also part of that society; hence, in struggling with it he is apt to trip himself. Comedy, thus, is merely an ironic struggle with society.

    So many ways to explore this and relate it all back to politics, law, and their overlapping philosophical themes. At present moment, this is relevant to political satire and parody...both of which are used for different reasons, both legal and comedic. This will be a continuing series that will be forthcoming over the forseeable future. As your not-so-humble servant, I shall perform an investigative running of the gauntlet to cover Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Kafka, Faust, Nietsche, Freud, Camus, Edith Wharton (which should be mighty interesting, for reasons that Eric Fink of Red Harvest has already picked up on). OH I'm excited...and then it shall all culminate with an analysis of the contemporary political satire & parody, along with an ideally proper analysis of the associated laws in the United States. Perhaps some pop culture in the mix, as appropriate.

    For now though, I conclude this little ramble at a very wee hour and shall comedically stumble off in search of slumber.
    Crossposted at The Boileryard

    posted by null at 11/09/2004 07:18:00 AM |

    Comments: Post a Comment

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    "Netpolitik is a new style of diplomacy that seeks to exploit the powerful capabilities of the Internet to shape politics, culture, values, and personal identity. But unlike Realpolitik — which seeks to advance a nation’s political interests through amoral coercion — Netpolitik traffics in “softer” issues such as moral legitimacy, culturalidentity, societal values, and public perception." - The Rise of Netpolitik

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