Tagged: The Organization Man

Specialist in Albanian B Movies (Tweet Anthology 4)

April-May 2017. Others’ tweets are in italics.

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A Fascist is anyone with the wrong shoes.

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KKK

Imagine calling yourself grand dragon, cyclops, wizard &c straight from the books of the kiddies’ room. What would people think of you?

KKK’s Emperor W.J. Simmons on the Jew (1923): “His people is the chosen of Almighty God.”

Kool Kwality Klothes at Harry Karp’s; Kohn’s Korrect Klothes (advertisement posters, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews vol. 2, NOI Research Department, 2010, p. 418)

The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights, by Dick Lehr (United Black Books)

“The greatest of the Hollywood movie studios, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), was started by Jewish mogul Louis B. Mayer with the profits he earned from distributing the film.” (The Secret Relationship vol.2, p. 414)

[I also comment on The Secret Relationship vol. 1, 1st ed., 7th printing, pp. 203-4. Slavery among ancient Hebrews was not always as lenient as stated by the Jewish scholars quoted, for instance 1 Kings 4:6 “Adoniram son of Abda—in charge of forced labor” was Solomon’s overseer of the hosts of slaves who built the Temple of Jerusalem, quite Pharaoh-like. (One of the scholars quoted is a Dr Feingold claiming that Biblical slavery ‘’was of a precapitalist variety and had virtually no commerce connected with it. Unlike the situation in the plantation South, it did not shape the pastoral economy of ancient Israel which in any case found little use for masses of slaves.’’ So much for the little use.)

Intriguingly, on p. 220, one reads that white abolitionist senator Benjamin F. Wade called Jewish Confederate Judah Phillip Benjamin ‘’an Israelite with the principles of an Egyptian,’’ thus overlooking himself the Pharaoh-like slavery in vigor under Solomon for the latter’s monumental, pyramide-like projects. It is a little disappointing that people –Puritans– who seem to have read but one book do not even know it well.]

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AJUpFront talks to a former Trump campaigner about why the majority of evangelical Christians voted for Trump. (Al Jazeera English)

Because they think he’s a Jew.

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If you’re a woman on birth control, stop taking them. Embrace femininity and reject feminism. Have beautiful children and find true love. (David Duke)

Embrace femipicaninity.

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Students are led to believe there are no jobs with a liberal arts education and that employment is the sole purpose of education. (Historian Andy Hernandez)

There are no jobs for liberal arts degrees as “culture is the occupation of the leisure class.” (Economist Tibor Scitovsky, in The Joyless Economy)

While I take your point, there are a growing number of employers wanting adaptability and critical thinking–hallmarks of the liberal arts.

Employers were already saying that in the 1950s: cf The Organization Man, by William H. Whyte. People take liberal arts degrees because they hate the idea of working for business.

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Darwinian Altruism

Read Does Altruism Exist? (2015) by David Sloan Wilson if only to understand Ayn Rand’s both success and intellectual mediocrity.

Was Darwin an altruist (High-PRO), or would have mankind lost big if Darwin had spent his time helping others in his neighborhood? – Was deaf loner Beethoven prosocial?

Will the global village, i.e. the end of all subgroups, be the end of between-group competition–and altruism?

You [D.S. Wilson] have made an eloquent demonstration that altruism is the tool of supremacy–if there are to be several groups–, as individual altruism is the way one group becomes dominant among other groups.

You and I are no different. As a biologist you’ve studied worms, as an historian I’ve done the same.

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If I’m a slave with no prospects of mating, shall I sacrifice my life for a chimp knowing he’ll reproduce and possesses 98.5% of my genes?

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The Red Queen

“There is nothing inevitable about human nature.” (The Red Queen, by Matt Ridley) A fact often stressed by evolutionists and never accounted for by them.

Is there anything inevitable about chimpanzee nature?

As, at the same time, evolutionists call such isolating of humans from other animals ‘’hubristic,’’ they deprecate themselves (as evolutionists).

Environment pressures allow win-win situations but the Red Queen [sexual selection seen as an ‘’arms race’’] discards them. Your optimism does not seem rational, in fact. [Matt Ridley calls himself a ‘’rational optimist,’’ which is the title of one of his books, The Rational Optimist.]

The figures that you showcase [in The Evolution of Everything], global wealth, life expectancy, etc, are fundamentally immaterial because… of the Red Queen.

It’s fascinating that my hair receding is a good argument against my facts. (Matt Ridley, in reply to being called by someone a ‘’balding old Lord.’’)

You could also try to be above quoting the silly and to reply to reasoned objections. [Earlier, in February, I had quoted Ridley’s book The Evolution of Everything (2015); the quotes are in order here now: “The police have come to resemble an occupying army who see the citizenry as the enemy.” (p. 241) Yet our times have their Robin Hoods: “One of the reasons of the recent decline of violence in the U.S. may be that gangs have managed to impose slightly more order on the drug trade.” (p.238) & P. 199: Mendel’s laws “ought to have killed eugenics stone dead. Particulate inheritance and recessive genes made the idea of preventing the deterioration of the human race by selective breeding greatly more difficult and impractical.”

‘Tis strange, therefore, that selective breeding gives results with animals at all. Your views on eugenics are based on an ‘’exogenous’’ moral viewpoint, of which I suggest you try to account for ‘’endogenously’’ in a next book.

To the first sentence Matt Ridley replied:

No. Domestic animals have shorter life cycles and start with smaller populations. I carefully did not say “impossible”.

Beyond the number of people sterilized, there exist no assessments of the eugenic policies that were conducted, of their effects on the populations. Taboo. You endorse the taboo with all your heart, like a salvation-army major parading as a scientist.

(He did not say ‘’impossible,’’ as he stresses it, yet it is the impossibility, not the difficulty of a thing that kills that thing ‘’stone dead.’’ Rereading the sentence, ‘’greatly more difficult’’ seems to hint at something stated before, and in the light of his reply it would make sense that it means that eugenics is greatly more difficult than animal breeding; thus Ridley would in fact have prevented my remark, had I read more carefully, but then I have perused the whole passage again and found no object of comparison whatever.)]

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Could Bolivia become the ‘Saudi Arabia of lithium’? (Al Jazeera English)

Bolivia was the Saudi Arabia of silver in colonial times, and then the Saudi Arabia of tin, but the country has remained poor.

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Dear journalists worldwide, I wish to create a “Change for the Sake of Change Award” to help you sell paper. Help me help you.

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Rape in India

Explain to me why mass media only report rapes when they happen in India.

Interestingly in India there are 1.8 rapes per one lakh population. USA 23.3 per lakh. European countries on an average 24 per lakh.

Yes, that makes this media practice even more questionable. Perhaps it means rape is so rare in India that India is the only country where rapes make news…

But these stats are from women who actually report rape, Asian countries are lower because the women are afraid to actually report it?

We could also imagine it’s because Asian women are consenting more… [Not to exclude first off, unless with good reasons.]

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The reason why people in the U.S. smile more than people in other countries. (The Science of Us: link)

Because Americans are closer than others to chimps, for which smiling is a threat and, as capitalists, Americans like to threat one another all the time.

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Some psychologists now argue it’s irresponsible to suggest a link between violent video games and mass shootings. (The Science of Us)

It’s always irresponsible to fingerpoint a lucrative business, we all know that, don’t we?

Media violence and gore exposure shifts the acting-out borderline toward the middle of the psychoticism bell curve (Eysenck). For all others, it turns them into… cowards (Kenrick & Griskevicius).

[I don’t even know why I defend these views publicly since I still watch horror movies in my fourties and I consider horror movies to be art for art’s sake…]

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Are the US and France fighting the ‘War on Terror’ in Africa, or simply competing for natural resources? (Al Jazeera English)

The answer is different for each. 1/US wants the resources. 2/France has no clue whatever.

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Buddhists are atheists and clerical, just as Puritans are theists and anticlerical.

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Freemasonry

One can be fleeced by a religious organization and still get more net money than others. Devout Freemasons will tell you, if you can have them speak.

(Silence)

The best way to silence a chicken: talk about freemasons. Hush hush…

Unite against secret societies! #RiyadhSummit May 2017

“Freemasonry is illegal in all Arab countries except Lebanon and Morocco” (Wkpd)

Freemasonry historically has been banned in authoritarian governments. @KsigMason

Secret societies have no place in transparent societies.

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What, a university in Tasmania! There are universities in every backwater hole and I couldn’t get a chair!

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Reading this article [by Matt Ridley–again] about obesity on The Times online, you may find it interspersed with juicy ads for junk food–depending on your cookies.

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About 200 mothers breastfeed their babies at Beach Park in Fuzhou, Fujian province on Saturday to advocate the importance of breastfeeding. (People’s Daily, China)

Read Dr Robin Baker about the constitution and health losses that a bottlefed baby incurs (compared to a breastfed one), and curse the West. [See here]

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What Was That Glowing Orb Trump Touched in Saudi Arabia? (SMHub News)

As the Kaaba’s Black Stone comes from outer space, perhaps the Saudis salvaged more parts from the spacecraft, like that eerie orb…

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Artificial Intelligence

Pre-programmed likes and retweets, pre-defined welcome messages: Amazing the amount of interactions I’ve got with actual machines on Twitter.

Not to mention the machines that offer to tweet garbage, usually shallow quotes, for you.

Among other things, AI means millions of tweets that are bot-generated, and millions of users accepting that bots tweet in their name. [They must be millions, as one provider of such services boasts over a million customers.]

How to program your tweeting AI bot to send your prayers to future terror attack victims. Follow to know more.

Saudis take to social media to thank King Salman for successfully hosting two big summits. #RiyadhSummit (Saudi Gazette)

How to program your tweeting bot to send your deepest appreciations to King Salman for Riyadh Summit and future events. Follow to know more.

10,000 prayers a day by our AI Internet bot for your departed beloved–one month: $10, two months: $18. Feel free to ask our brochure.

Already one bot liked this tweet!

How do you know you’re not dealing with an AI tweeting bot? Answer: The guy sounds so weird.

It is good form to overlook that your interlocutor is an AI bot.

The fascinating world of Twitter Turing Test LIVE!

Make no mistake, already people are learning the practice and art of tweeting from AI tweeting bots.

Sometimes you think you’re being harassed by an otaku pervert and it’s an upbeat AI tweeting bot.

Already people are imitating AI bots on Twitter. They think like bots already!

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Grammar

The pronoun for a man-of-war is she.

Unless it’s a Portuguese man-of-war, in which case the pronoun is it.

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The 7 Most Awkward Moments From Trump’s Israel Trip.

My favorite moment is when Trump said nothing about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

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Lazy politicians must stop telling people to work.

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For previous entries in the series, see Index. May 24, 2017

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Subliminal XIV: From the Czech Republic with Junk

Travel diaries from Aug. 24 to Aug. 28, Prague, Czech Republic.

……………Socialist Child-Sex Propaganda

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This poster I photographed at the Museum of Communism. I think the artist had a lot of fun, but apparently no one noticed. This is a piece of propaganda (or information: let me know) from Socialist Czechoslovakia, during the war of Korea, accusing the US of using bacteriological weapons.

The group of children in the background drew my attention. The Negro boy, whose hand rests on the little blonde girl’s shoulder, is looking at her with a lecherous gaze. The Chinese girl plays at making sandcastles with a pail, while the blond boy kneeling behind her is holding her, arm stretched, by the shoulder, his face flushed and grinning. Looks like doggy-style sex! The penetration is concealed from the viewer by the dress of the grieved and indignant Korean woman. The third boy is looking at his comrade’s doing (not at the sandcastles game, mind) with evident enjoyment.

…………….Pretend You Saw Nothing

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This Cubist fellatio can be admired at the National Gallery – Veletrzni Palac. The artist is Russian painter Aristarkh Lentulov (who in Soviet times became chairman of the Society of Moscow Artists), and this work from 1912 is called A Ballet Theme.

If I be not the first to have noticed that peculiar detail in Lentulov’s masterpiece, yet nothing in the material environment of the gallery drew my attention to the explicit material I would encounter while looking at the painting (no mention like “this painting contains sexually oriented material that may be offensive to some people and not suitable for persons under the age of eighteen”).

……………Orgasm Guaranteed

From your regular Czech women’s magazine (lifestyle, cooking, children…), this sex toy ad. ORGASMUS guaranteed. The future belongs to machines.

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…………….The Benefits of Cannabis a la Czech

From the same women’s magazine as above, this ad for the Czech company Cannaderm’s products. [Removed]

From internet copywriting: “Cannaderm brings a new approach to skin care. Cannaderm for every age, for all skin types, even for the very sensitive skin of small children or skin with eczema, acne or psoriasis. The synergic effects of healing hemp, mutual combinability and the wide range of products guarantee the potential of putting together a cosmetic range ‘to fit’. For easier orientation the packaging is colour coded and also contains the recommended combination of products.

“Cannaderm Made in the Czech Republic. We use unique recipes, modern technology and the best quality ingredients. All our products Cannaderm are approved by the State Health Institute of the Czech Republic and are certified for sale in the EU.”

Not to omit (read “triple distilled”):

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From internet copywriting: “Euphoria Cannabis Vodka is made of extra smooth grain vodka, blended with natural cannabis leaves and cannabis seeds. It is 100% natural product. Each bottle is hand-made. Enjoy the rich taste of freedom!” &

“Beautiful cannabis bud infused in extra smooth vodka 40%. Cannabis leaves extract cannabis oil and CBD. 100% natural product with great cannabic taste and relaxing effects!” &c.

……………Complements

“All our dishes are served with a beer,” according to the placard at the entrance. But in the end the beer is charged. Seeing the bill, you say to yourself: “What’s the use complaining? I should have made the point clear with the waiter from the start.” However, it’s not even sure, not even likely that you would have paid the expected CZK270 for the ordered schnitzel; there must have been a trick even there, the placard probably contained a heap of qualifications in tiny fonts at the bottom, and so, after being made aware of these by the waiter, you would have had to raise from your chair and leave the place to find another one, no doubt with the same placard…

McDonald’s vs the Pettifoggers

It’s just the same where I live. Most cafés and restaurants in Paris touristic arrondissements are managed by people who want to make the most of your pockets at the fastest rate: poor quality of the food, poor service, not enough space, insane prices… Many play music loud so you will feel like leaving as soon as you sit down. French cafés and restaurants see tourists as pigeons. Once I saw the following at a café near the Pantheon (allegedly a prestigious, safe place). Some Japanese tourists ordered food, the waiter asked them what they wanted to drink, they said tap water (for free) and they insisted to make him understand. He pretended not to understand and brought a water bottle that he had just opened. They had to pay for it. He even cursed them in French, to himself, but of course they understood that they were insulted and had to swallow their pride.

Years ago, they said fast foods would never set foot in the country of gastronomy, i.e., France. More recently, they said Starbucks would never set foot in the country of cafés. Even more recently, I told my friends: “I’ve designed an advertising campaign for Pret A Manger – it says Pret A Manger: Soon in France,” and here they are, in the country of the baguette. The reason? People don’t care to go to nasty places where mean pettifoggers will treat them like dirt. When you come to Paris, let me recommend you three places where to eat and have a drink: McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Pret A Manger.

We all know tourism has generated those shoddy service industries that cater to the “ideal” customer, the tourist, one who will never come back, one, thus, who will never complain, returning to their countries the next day, replaced by a new wave. French cafés and restaurants don’t care what you, tourists, think of their food or of the service, they don’t even give a dime for what you think of la France: they take your money and what you get for it you’d rather pay for not having it. And don’t ask for tap water, because although it is free on the paper of which laws are made, it will cost you the humiliation of your life.

You may say guidebooks are here to help prevent such bad experiences. In theory, yes, but the addresses they will give you, if they’re good restaurants, then the chances are they will be full of people from all the offices around, in their workaday formal dress, whereas you will be dressed in tourist’s attire – casually – and you will soon feel that you look like morons.

Art & the Organization Man

From The Organization Man (1956) by William H. Foote: “Profiles are also worked up for work in individual companies. At Sears, Roebuck there are charts that diagram the optimum balance of qualities required. Here is the one an executive values:

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“A man does not have to match this profile exactly, but it won’t help him at all if his line zigs where the chart zags. Take a man who scores considerably higher than the 10th percentile on aesthetic values, for example; such people, Sears notes, ‘accept artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard of life. This is not a factor which makes for executive success. … Generally, cultural considerations are not important to Sears executives, and there is evidence that such interests are detrimental to success’.”

There is much good sense in that view expressed by Sears because, as the best definition ever for culture, concise and elegant, goes, “culture is the learning of the leisure class” (economist Tibor Scitovsky), which means that the organization man is an overworked windbag.

Interestingly, Whyte was already writing in the 1950s about those corporations that claimed they were willing to recruit people with literary (cultural) profile and training, yet never recruited them. I have heard this claim from today’s corporations repeated time and again – so nothing has changed and I guess the above diagram, with aesthetic taste seen as quite irrelevant, still holds for today’s organization man.

And yet, “Wu cites a 1990 study that claimed that in the US about 20 to 30 per cent of the market in New York was due to corporate collecting, and outside the city about half.” (Julian Stallabrass, Art Incorporated, 2004) Contemporary art is a reminder – the reminder that people that work are poor devils. Half the market for contemporary art is made of corporate collecting: top executives adorning their offices with the excremental fantasies of slackers! Ask the connoisseur how much corporations pay artists for splashed mud and monochromes (remember, the organization men’s aesthetic acumen – his taste – approximates zero: see diagram) and compare with your own earnings!

Possible consequences: “Recently, in the Netherlands, a middle-sized bank, i.e. the DSB Bank, came into serious financial trouble for this exact same reason. Only a couple of months before, the bank had bought art for tens of millions of euros, and received a loan from another bank in order to build a museum that was to be named after the DSB bank’s CEO. These prestigious undertakings were one of the reasons that the bank had no financial reserves left when business slowed down due to the financial crisis. As a result, in September 2009 the DSB Bank was declared bankrupt.” (A.P. Buunk et al., 2011) Bankrupted because of dabbling in art.

And then there is the advertising industry, packed with artists (renegades?) and so vital to the organization man’s economic interests…

September 2016

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