miniZibaldone

“That Hitler came into political existence at all is directly owing to radio and public-address systems. This is not to say that these media relayed his thoughts effectively to the German people. His thoughts were of very little consequence. Radio provided the first massive experience of electronic implosion, that reversal of the entire direction and meaning of literate Western civilization. For tribal peoples, for those whose entire social existence is an extension of family life, radio will continue to be a violent experience. Highly literate societies, that have long subordinated family life to individualist stress in business and politics, have managed to absorb and to neutralize the radio implosion without revolution. Not so those communities that have had only brief or superficial experience of literacy. For them, radio is utterly explosive. [. . .] With TV came the end of bloc voting in politics, a form of specialism and fragmentation that won’t work since TV. Instead of the vot...

From  http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/English-Spoken-Here/ BREXIT/Italy to the collapse: It's all in the Asian '97-98 crisis? Francesco Sisi June 30, 2016 The largely dreaded Brexit has arrived, and the consequences are apparently so immense and unpredictable that they were neither seen nor anticipated. Neither the EU nor the Britons had prepared a plan B, that is, what they would’ve effectively done if the referendum had chosen to leave the Union . Such is clear from the first frantic reactions of the European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker, who, in substance, said to the British: “and now get the hell off of the EU ASAP” and from the British themselves, who, in the few hours following the results, garnered two million signatures to vote again, while the Scottish formally announced they would stay with the EU and leave the UK instead. However, many in the world don’t worry as much about the destruction of the Kingdom, which, through many diffi...

Philippine Star  "A borderless war" As of yesterday, 14 people had died in the airport attack and 20 in the Metro train.  The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for the worst terrorist attack in the city that hosts the headquarters of the European Union.  The attack is just the latest warning about the borderless war that ISIS is waging, if not directly then through adherents inspired by its gospel of hate.  In the Philippines, security officials have downplayed reports of local extremists pledging to support ISIS. The group is said to be trying to gain a solid foothold in the Philippines. This shouldn’t prove too hard, considering that the country is already home to several of Southeast Asia’s extremist troublemakers: the Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and other rogue elements of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front.   [full text] Manila Bu...

The Alps by Andrew Beattie The Soul of New Machine by Tracy Kidder  The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler The Atomic Bazaar by William Langewiesche