tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post7018340732054489904..comments2024-03-27T09:05:59.436-07:00Comments on Jane Austen and Other Writers: On Woolf, Cruelty, Kindness, and Self-RighteousnessDianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-34227511445881379252020-01-06T06:09:27.804-08:002020-01-06T06:09:27.804-08:00Ellen,
Watching Australia, California, and the So...Ellen, <br />Watching Australia, California, and the South American rainforest burn as a result of our arrogance and socio-pathology is shocking. We are in a dangerous situation: in a few years this could be the whole world. The following piece from Naked Capitalism is utterly compelling, though you might find it too optimistic: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/01/australias-bushfires-are-a-wake-up-call-we-must-build-a-more-humane-economy-before-its-too-late.htmlDianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-52966369926644753382020-01-05T05:33:59.186-08:002020-01-05T05:33:59.186-08:00I do see this as part of the justification (not th...I do see this as part of the justification (not the real motives of such behavior and comments). <br />What I deplore is the contempt and dismissal of sympathy that I've seen in American culture. I have read students in papers quite explicitly condemning any judgement of a case or person which brings into play sympathy. They have not read Blackstone who very early on says that central to equity and good judgement of a case is empathy. I take this line of thought to be part of what we've inherited (and some of this is quite knowing propaganda) from HUAC and all the determined repression of any pro-social thought or general socially progressive scenes in movies. For this reason alone Gertwig's Little Women was so refreshing.<br /><br />Empathy is the last thing that ever enters Trump's brain -- it seems not to enter his brain at all. Last night he was threatening to rain down bombs on 52 places in Iran, in other words destroy the place, its people, everything he can.<br /><br />The real cause for all this is imperialistic capitalism; it is part of the ideology (unfunny joke alert). The PM of Australia would rather see his whole country burn down, billions of animals burnt to death, 100s of thousands of people displaced, many killed, many impoverished for life rather than at all curtail the activities of the fossil fuel industry in Australia. He's quite candid about it -- Diana Birchall has been using that term in her account of Austen's playing a role in a mild satiric play called School for Scandal (mild in the bland dull way it's usually done).Ellenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14979942382683140531noreply@blogger.com