Sometimes I do indeed find them as exhilarating, moving, educational or inspiring as touted, mostly when that happens they are non American talks.
Most of what TED does as far as I can see is continue and expand the work done by Coca cola, Pepsi, MacDonald's, which is selling the most repulsive, destructive, superficial, non humanitarian culture on Earth as not only normal but necessary and good.
I live in the Netherlands, increasingly I realise that one of the reasons I feel so ambiguously towards the land, it's people and it's culture, - swinging between utter loathing, dissatisfied contentment, grudging admiration and crushing contempt - is that WASP the epitome of desirability in US culture is actually 'The Dutch or Netherlanders' -
White - ain't they just and proud of it! To this day it doesn't matter if you and your parents (or grandparents in some cases) were born here if you ain't white they do not consider you to be Dutch.
Anglo Saxon - do I need to elucidate this point really?
Protestants - oh yeah Calvin may have been a German but it was here in the Netherlands and further North in Scandinavia that his ideas founded their deepest roots and became indistinguishable from the people/cultures.
Calvinism/Protestantism represents the antithesis of my beliefs of why we are here, what our lives are for, how we should strive to live them. It is a beloved foundation of ecocide, genocide, racism, homophobia, misogyny, capitalism, chauvinism in all it's forms, white supremacism and most of the current ills of the world.
One question definitenly worth considering in terms of the protestant faith is what would Calvin have preached with a healthier diet and less illness?
Charles L Cooke shares - most as the preacher himself detailed - Calvin's illnesses in his article "Calvin's illnesses and thier relation to Christian vocation" in thebook "John Calvin and the Church: A Prism of Reform"
He was plagued with pleurisy which turned into tuberculosis with hemoptysis, intestinal parasites probably accompanied by blood loss leading to anaemia and weakness, in all likelihood thrombosed hemorrhoids, irritable bowel or colon syndrome and migraines, all exacerbated by him only eating one meal a day.
An opinionated, driven, workaholic, living in Northern Europe in constant pain would seem to be unlikely to come up with a philosophy of positivity, kindness, love and gentleness. What do you know - he didn't!
Back to the TED talks. What seems to begin as an examination or a holding up of the culture to criticism inevitably turns into self praise and aggrandizement.
Listening to the guy who made super-size me talk about 'The Greatest Movie Ever Made" which actually is just a parody of itself that changes, achieves and demonstrates nothing except how up their own arses and completely sold on themselves the makers and their culture are.
That they are allowed to make a BBC program which is ultimately another big sell of the usual crap is an example of the depths to which the BBC has sunk in it's desire to get as into the bowels of the US as they can.
They are going to examine branding, look critically at it. No what they do is tell us that it is good because it makes us feel good and it makes us feel good because they tell us it does. I do not fit a single one of their descriptions of 'how people are."
NO, I do not get pleasure from something JUST because it is expensive.
You don't have to believe me. I lost my best job ever as the editor of a fashion magazine because I couldn't understand (or stop asking) why something flimsy and synthetic was automatically better (because of the designer) than something made from a natural fibre. I'd feel the cloth and go
"Ugh, it's synthetic." I understand super expensive clothing in silk, linen, cotton, satin, etc. I can't quite get with the bamboo production process, I can totally relate to the idea of wanting a fabric made from a natural product*. We can't have hemp but we can have any (all) synthetics that women put against their skin? Does my head in.
No, I don't like coke or pepsi or any of those murky brown, sugary, fizzy drinks unless they are loaded with dark rum, lemon/lime juice and ice and then I really don't care which one it is. but people (especially Americans) usually know which brand it is.
I think there are plenty of sekts that are better than the top champagnes and a few cavas that could compete. Some of those Russian ones are to die for. While everyone else seems to insist that French Champagne is the one and only, best thing on the planet. Of course it is very likely that I have never had a 'really good' champagne.
Everything made in the US has too much sugar in for me - that super sweetness tastes off. From the bread to the pasta anything. I can't get over that even the savoury food is too sweet. Same with salt.
Fashion is bollox. There is no way my body is ever going to look good in 99.9% of what designers draw. Not possible, it is not the way it is taught. There is one shape, to which all fashion designs are aimed.it's ridiculous.
I have a woman’s body and not one of the acceptable standard ones! Am I gonna hate my body? Well of course I do. But not enough to starve, exercise or cut it to try and make it fit crippling minimum requirements.
Is my body a temple? Sometimes, not every day. I'm working on that.
It does seem that research would suggest that I am an anomaly.
When my daughter set up a set of experiments on taste as in the sense, rather than the aesthetic ideas. What is it? How does it work? What affects it? The 'tests' included brands, blind testing, heat, cold, eat of the taste areas, salt, sweet, bitter, astringent, omami. Her observation, before, during and after was that the single most determining factor in taste (in her peer group) was the opinions of others. Which would tie in with what the TED people say.
But I think it has more to do with a society that covertly punishes any who do not conform. With blatant disapproval and ostracism.
*http://textilefashionstudy.com/difference-between-natural-fiber-and-synthetic-fiber/
I live in the Netherlands, increasingly I realise that one of the reasons I feel so ambiguously towards the land, it's people and it's culture, - swinging between utter loathing, dissatisfied contentment, grudging admiration and crushing contempt - is that WASP the epitome of desirability in US culture is actually 'The Dutch or Netherlanders' -
White - ain't they just and proud of it! To this day it doesn't matter if you and your parents (or grandparents in some cases) were born here if you ain't white they do not consider you to be Dutch.
Anglo Saxon - do I need to elucidate this point really?
Protestants - oh yeah Calvin may have been a German but it was here in the Netherlands and further North in Scandinavia that his ideas founded their deepest roots and became indistinguishable from the people/cultures.
Calvinism/Protestantism represents the antithesis of my beliefs of why we are here, what our lives are for, how we should strive to live them. It is a beloved foundation of ecocide, genocide, racism, homophobia, misogyny, capitalism, chauvinism in all it's forms, white supremacism and most of the current ills of the world.
One question definitenly worth considering in terms of the protestant faith is what would Calvin have preached with a healthier diet and less illness?
Charles L Cooke shares - most as the preacher himself detailed - Calvin's illnesses in his article "Calvin's illnesses and thier relation to Christian vocation" in thebook "John Calvin and the Church: A Prism of Reform"
He was plagued with pleurisy which turned into tuberculosis with hemoptysis, intestinal parasites probably accompanied by blood loss leading to anaemia and weakness, in all likelihood thrombosed hemorrhoids, irritable bowel or colon syndrome and migraines, all exacerbated by him only eating one meal a day.
An opinionated, driven, workaholic, living in Northern Europe in constant pain would seem to be unlikely to come up with a philosophy of positivity, kindness, love and gentleness. What do you know - he didn't!
Back to the TED talks. What seems to begin as an examination or a holding up of the culture to criticism inevitably turns into self praise and aggrandizement.
Listening to the guy who made super-size me talk about 'The Greatest Movie Ever Made" which actually is just a parody of itself that changes, achieves and demonstrates nothing except how up their own arses and completely sold on themselves the makers and their culture are.
That they are allowed to make a BBC program which is ultimately another big sell of the usual crap is an example of the depths to which the BBC has sunk in it's desire to get as into the bowels of the US as they can.
They are going to examine branding, look critically at it. No what they do is tell us that it is good because it makes us feel good and it makes us feel good because they tell us it does. I do not fit a single one of their descriptions of 'how people are."
NO, I do not get pleasure from something JUST because it is expensive.
You don't have to believe me. I lost my best job ever as the editor of a fashion magazine because I couldn't understand (or stop asking) why something flimsy and synthetic was automatically better (because of the designer) than something made from a natural fibre. I'd feel the cloth and go
"Ugh, it's synthetic." I understand super expensive clothing in silk, linen, cotton, satin, etc. I can't quite get with the bamboo production process, I can totally relate to the idea of wanting a fabric made from a natural product*. We can't have hemp but we can have any (all) synthetics that women put against their skin? Does my head in.
No, I don't like coke or pepsi or any of those murky brown, sugary, fizzy drinks unless they are loaded with dark rum, lemon/lime juice and ice and then I really don't care which one it is. but people (especially Americans) usually know which brand it is.
I think there are plenty of sekts that are better than the top champagnes and a few cavas that could compete. Some of those Russian ones are to die for. While everyone else seems to insist that French Champagne is the one and only, best thing on the planet. Of course it is very likely that I have never had a 'really good' champagne.
Everything made in the US has too much sugar in for me - that super sweetness tastes off. From the bread to the pasta anything. I can't get over that even the savoury food is too sweet. Same with salt.
Fashion is bollox. There is no way my body is ever going to look good in 99.9% of what designers draw. Not possible, it is not the way it is taught. There is one shape, to which all fashion designs are aimed.it's ridiculous.
I have a woman’s body and not one of the acceptable standard ones! Am I gonna hate my body? Well of course I do. But not enough to starve, exercise or cut it to try and make it fit crippling minimum requirements.
Is my body a temple? Sometimes, not every day. I'm working on that.
It does seem that research would suggest that I am an anomaly.
When my daughter set up a set of experiments on taste as in the sense, rather than the aesthetic ideas. What is it? How does it work? What affects it? The 'tests' included brands, blind testing, heat, cold, eat of the taste areas, salt, sweet, bitter, astringent, omami. Her observation, before, during and after was that the single most determining factor in taste (in her peer group) was the opinions of others. Which would tie in with what the TED people say.
But I think it has more to do with a society that covertly punishes any who do not conform. With blatant disapproval and ostracism.
*http://textilefashionstudy.com/difference-between-natural-fiber-and-synthetic-fiber/
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