Category Archives: Hedonism

In a time with few literary works that are common knowledge, Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol remains widely known and often quoted. Ebenezer Scrooge is such a memorable miscreant, and he is so enjoyably villainous before his dramatic Christmas conversion.

When told that the poor would rather die than go to debtors prison, he responds callously, If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. The phrase decrease the surplus population is still widely recognized and universally ridiculed as an inhumane response to poverty.

Once abortion is on the table, however, it seems many of us sign on to decreasing the surplus population and view abortion as the means of achieving superior economic outcomes. The Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade in June has brought renewed attention to abortion. Far from the rallying cry of safe, legal, and rare, advocates for abortion claim that abortion is a social good and a necessary condition to ensure womens success.

In the upside-down world we now inhabit, proclaiming support for abortion is now seen as a sine qua non for a civilized person. The implication is that it is only those oppressive or brainwashed religious maniacs who would oppose the betterment of women. Many pro-lifers have used data and logical argument to counter this bias and to demonstrate that abortion is not the sole source of womens achievement in education and employment in the past 50 years

Yet, abortion advocates continue to trot out research purporting to show that the legalization of abortion in the 1970s led to a widespread decrease in violent crime in the 1990s, among other interesting claims. The question of how abortion affects future violent criminals is a strange one.

What actually happens in an abortion? A child in the womb is violently dismembered and extracted, lifeless, from his mothers womb. This could only be described honestly as violence. Though legal in all 50 states under Roe, and now still legal in many, abortion is a violent act that destroys a living being. Is such violence justified by some imagined future violence committed by an undesirable class of people? A just society must recognize that the individual is not determined by his circumstances and the surplus population is still worthy of life.

When it comes to economic outcomes, our culture is quick to assume that teenage mothers have ruined their lives and are now, as Planned Parenthoods favorite president put it, punished with a baby. Again, failing to see the individual, the swaths of humanity encompassed in all teen pregnancies everywhere are assumed to be disadvantaged, and abortion is offered as the solution to many unseen individuals problems. Yet, for individuals, an adverse event like out-of-wedlock pregnancy can be the catalyst for positive action. For some young parents, the reality of the child for whom they are responsible is the reason that they finish school, get married, join the military, and abandon hedonism in pursuit of the good of their family.

Thesemarriage and familyare social goods that benefit the individuals and their communities. The goods of family life, however, cannot be achieved without personal sacrifice. Pro-lifers, in their eagerness to defend the unborn child, can fall into a caricature of motherhood. Much of the marketing of motherhood can be reduced to a feel-good celebration of snuggles, and pregnant mothers are assured that they can achieve their dreams while having children. We should be wary of false advertising. Motherhood is by its nature sacrificial, and the sacrifices of mothers, by design, often go unseen. The idea that mothers, ill and drained from pregnancy and hampered by the needs of young children, will achieve everything they otherwise would in their education and professional careers is not true.

One of abortion activists favorite facts to cite is that the majority of mothers seeking an abortion already have children. In their view, this makes the situation more understandable. It certainly may seem understandable, but it is also much more disturbing. We cannot say that women seeking abortion do not know what they are doing because so many of them have already looked at an ultrasound and seen a child who was then born and displayed characteristics hinted at in utero, quirks of personality that stubbornly persist across the barrier of the womb. If women seeking abortions are already mothers, we cannot say that they choose the death of their children in ignorance. Thus, it is all the more disturbing that our culture has decided that they must choose abortion to advance.

When the pregnancy is discovered to be twins, the babies suddenly acquire relation to another person: a sibling. Once that relational quality is recognized, it can be much more difficult to end that human life. But every baby already has a direct, immediate, physical relationship with another person: his mother. When we deny this concrete reality in favor of abstractions about educational and professional achievement, criminality, and the meaning of life, we participate in the death of an innocent victim.

As unsatisfying as it may seem, the solution to abortion is for individual people to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. When we reject Scrooges impersonal dismissal of the poor as a burden and address them as individuals, the Tiny Tims in our midst, we no longer see the poor as an abstract problem to be solved but as hungry and lonely people in need of food, community, and meaning.

Abortion is a false comfort to those who wish to solve the worlds problems. But it seems the poor really will always be with us, and trying to abort them all is a terrible mistake. Sacrificing children on the altar of achievement will never be a path forward. Willingly sacrificing ourselves in the service of others is the only way for civilization to thrive.

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Scrooge and the Economics of Abortion - Crisis Magazine

Whats the best year in hip-hop history? Four years ago, we floated 1988 in hip-hop as one possibility, a year that saw landmark albums from EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B and Rakim, N.W.A. and Public Enemy. Now, a few more years down the line, we have another candidate: 1992. A prolific early year in a consequential decade for hip-hop, 1992 might have been a shade early to catch the Wu-Tang phenomenon on the rise, or a few years late to get in on the ground floor of the Native Tongues movement, but its landmark albums are seemingly endless, from the Beasties artistic transformation to Eric B and Rakims swan song, a blockbuster debut from Dr. Dre and his prankster west coast peers in The Pharcyde. Ten certainly isnt enough albums to capture the entirety of what was happening in such a prolific and influential year, but these ten albums more than make the case for the hall of fame. Read our list of the best hip-hop albums of 1992 and listen to our companion playlist (with bonus tracks).

Released three years after Pauls Boutique defied expectations by not continuing the fight for the right to party, the Beastie Boys took another hard left turn by dropping an abundance of samples and picking up their instruments again to create a more organic take on hip-hop. Check Your Head stands the test of time in a way that many of its predecessors failed to; the production, largely featuring live instruments, bypasses the stiff snare/bass drum presets drum programming was limited to in the early 90s. Lyrically their previous album might be superior, yet the instrumentationand jammy feel of these compositions gave them an edge in terms of the disappearing boundaries of their songwriting. MTV, at long last,was ready to embrace them once again and this found the Beastie Boys back on top of the game after Pauls Boutique left the fight-for-your-right-to-party crowd scratching their heads. While songs like So Whatcha Want are among the decades best singles, the rest of the album is a moving testament to the groove their live instrumentation brings. Wil Lewellyn

A member of the Diggin in the Crates crew that also included Lord Finesse, O.C., Fat Joe, Showbiz & AG, Buckwild and the late Big L, Diamond D delivered one of the collectives strongest debut albums in 1992and given the number of classic albums among the lot of them, thats saying quite a bit. Stunts, Blunts & Hip-Hop is a showcase for Diamond D as both a producer and rapper, his confidence behind the mic matched and often bested by his abilities behind the mixing board. The album is alternately breezy and brash, gritty and playful, a product of the burgeoning hardcore rap renaissance in New York in the early to mid-90s but with the jazzy, summertime feel of Native Tongues at their bestsometimes all in the same song (see: I Went For Mine). That it still seems so hard to pin down 30 years later remains one of its greatest strengths; for an album thats a The Source all-timer, it still feels underappreciated. -Jeff Terich

Theres a niche of academic and pop-culture authorship that finds sociopolitical common ground struck between largely Black performers of rap and largely white performers of punk through the 1980s. As that decade became the next, the latter side seemed to shift from rebellious guitar-based rockers to industrial musicians. Not only could their anti-establishment politics line up with those of rappers, their sampling, production, and performance technologies could as well. No mere industrial act passing off an angry chant as a novelty rap, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy constituted a great example of a rap act using the edgiest of electronics, pumping up the volume on global concerns from corporate media consolidation to environmental collapse. Adam Blyweiss

Divine Stylers Spiral Walls Containing Autumns Of Light completely upends any notions that hip-hop in 1992 was primitive or basic. Styler, a former member of Ice-Ts Rhyme Syndicate crew, followed his excellent, far more straightforward 1989 debut Word Power with this baffling work of outsider rap strangeness. Oddities like the synthscape slam poetry of Love, Lies & Lifetime Cries and the surreal industrial rock of Touch are just some of the wild turns taken, while album highlight Grey Matter feels like a direct influence on turn-of-the-millenium noise rappers Dlek and Clouddead. Its properly psychedelic, in the way that actual trips are rarely a wholly profound experience and are instead interspersed with as much awkwardness and nonsense as they are insight. However, despite its often-disarming eccentricities, Spiral Walls Containing Autumns Of Light holds up as a confrontational, singular work that undoubtedly opened the door for future hip-hop experimentalists. Tom Morgan

Ice Cubes solo break and 1991s Niggaz4Life notwithstanding, The Chronic is the true spiritual sequel to NWAs Straight Outta Compton. Crack it open and out spill endless commentaries on Black marginalization, tales of drug-and-booze-fueled hedonism and malevolence, and history lessons on funk music via seamless samples and interpolations. Even beyond its trio of classic rap singles (Fuck Wit Dre Day, Nuthin but a G Thang, Let Me Ride) Dr. Dres solo debut is a Pandoras box of an album, splintering his relations with NWA for good. It also shifted his reputation as a rhyme writer, producer, talent scout, and label executive suddenly upward, and arguably moved the center of the hip-hop universe significantly further west of New York City. Adam Blyweiss

The epochal duos last album, Technique shows why your GOATs GOAT went by Rakim Allah. Whether he was rapping about post Iraq War PTSD on Casualties Of War, weaving a stick up kids first person narrative on Know the Ledge or once again warning all the inferior MCs out there that he was to be respected instead of Xeroxed on the title track, Rakims unmatched lyricism over some slightly more aggressive grooves and scratches from his longtime DJ meant that any microphone he touched would be instantly blessed. Eric B. accented the work with some of the hardest hitting beats of his careertheres a reason Ledge fits in perfectly on the Juice soundtrack. Just like Bishop, Rakim killed so many tracks he was on that a generation later philosophers are still wondering whats next. Butch Rosser

By the time Gang Starr released Daily Operation in 1992, they were already seasoned pros two albums deep, having debuted in 1989 with No More Mr. Nice Guy followed by 1991s Step in the Arena. However, it was their third effort that would solidify Guru and DJ Premier as one of hip hops brightest MC/producer combos. Here they reach their stride, with songs like Take It Personal and Ex Girl to the Next Girl showing promise of future hit making potential. But the album also serves as a starting point, the opening chapter to a run of legendary projects that would be released by the duo throughout the rest of the decadea sonic statement of intent signifying they were indeed, in it for the long haul. -J. Smith

The cover art goes as hard as any 90s Memphis horrorcore tape, while the Godfather sample in the intro track suggests decades of gangster cliche to come, but Live and Let Die is neither supernatural terror nor MTV-ified mafioso myth. It is, however, hard as fuck. Queens, New Yorks Kool G Rap and DJ Polo had released two absolute classics prior to thistheir debut a necessary precursor to the Golden Age of 90s East Coast hip-hop. But Live and Let Die showed just how far theyd push their outlaw narratives and gritty funk boom-bap, threads of gunplay, robbery, and evading law enforcement against beats that range from the bone-chilling (Train Robbery) to the boisterous (#1 With a Bullet, featuring the same Chi-Lites sample as Beyonces Crazy in Love). Violent, profane and misanthropic, Live and Let Die makes grand entertainment of depravity. Jeff Terich

Because they zigged when the biggest names in hip hop zagged hardcore, the Pharcyde got semi dismissed as a sort of West Coast De La Soul, but any discerning listener knew that the Los Angeles quartet were entirely their own creation and their debut showed it off. Showcasing elements of horrorcore on 4 Better Or 4 Worse a track after the hilarious diss Its Jigaboo Time shouldve killed that argument, as well as their putting the wistful Otha Fish after standout Passin Me By to use the tracklist as a Before/After snapshot. They could Pack the Pipe as well as speak about law enforcements racism in the sadly timeless Officer and three decades later still pack the impact it did upon release. It may have been a bizarre one, but the ride was so glorious few even dared to imitate the edutainment one of the undisputed classics. Butch Rosser

Everyone & your mother knows the epochal T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You), but that doesnt mean you should sleep on the rest of Mecca; it features some of the most potent boom bap and soul ever committed to wax. Outside of one regrettably age-appropriate slur, its very easy to just put on Mecca and let it play, especially when theres so many disparate jams to choose from like Lots of Lovin, the Basement and Straighten It Out, which starts a five-track run ending in T.R.O.Y. that alone probably would have put Mecca close to if not on this list. Rock & Smooth operated as almost a nega version of Eric B. & Rakim where the DJ was spotlighted over the rapper, but relistens show Smooths dexteritysometimes suave, sometimes boastful, but always quietly insistent and willing to make people do what their biggest hit implored: just listen. Butch Rosser

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The 10 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 1992 | Treble - Treble

Apparently Brendon McCullum hates the term Bazball. This is, of course, exactly as it should be. One of the cardinal rules of Bazball, perhaps even its defining motif, is that no established narrative must be allowed to stand unchallenged. Anything you think you know about Bazball is wrong.

Everything ever spoken about it has been wrong. Bazball is about making up your own rationale as you go, and so any attempt to pin it down, to define it or even name it, must necessarily be doomed to failure.

Certainly in the six weeks since England first unveiled their new approach to mens Test cricket against New Zealand, Bazball has resisted all attempts to delimit it. Targets have been demolished: 277 at Lords, 299 at Trent Bridge, 296 at Headingley, 378 at Edgbaston against India. Crowds have been thrilled. Late-night kebabs have been eaten. Stuart Broad has been rechristened the Nighthawk. Countless words have been belched out and consequently re-eaten.

Is there any point in analysing any of this? Is it really worth delving into a phenomenon that seems to consist of nothing more than pure vibes? Statistics will tell you what England are doing differently attacking earlier with the bat, bowling fuller with the ball but wont remotely tell you why. Interviews have long since degenerated into a sort of passive-aggressive nonsense verse, in which various players make various claims of courage and bravado and challenge us to publish them.

Baz thinks we can change the face of cricket. Stokesy wants us to chase down 600 in a day. Leachy punched a swan at drinks. Popey threw a shoe over a pub. Its new, its nihilistic, its entertaining and its clearly working. But what is it exactly? Why this, why now and crucially why?

Perhaps the closest we have come to a clear motive for Bazball is from Jonny Bairstow. At Edgbaston first and then later again on the Tailenders podcast, he expressed the new freedom of this team not just in sporting but in physical terms. Sometimes you look back over the last couple of years, he said. Everyones been through it with Covid, some pretty dark moments. Isolation, bubbles, being away from family. I know there will be people in this room who have lost loved ones. But hopefully were through the worst: putting smiles back on faces and bums on seats.

One of the most striking elements of this England team is how serenely they deal with the certainty of failure. And for all the talk of tactical innovation or 360-degree strokeplay, it strikes me that Bazball is basically an emotional reaction to our times, an approach that for all its hedonism is ultimately inseparable from the desolation and introspection and immense sadness that generated it. On some level this is something we are all experiencing in various ways. Collectively something has changed in us since the pandemic, a restlessness and trepidation that we cant yet name or place. A sense of things changing, things that wont come back, a future that offers only more uncertainty, more entropy, more hurt.

Stokes lost his father Ged in December 2020, in between the second and third national lockdowns. Last year his mental health declined and he was forced to take a break from the game. Like many of us he has been forced to contemplate real desolation in the past couple of years, and knows that losing a game of cricket on a flat deck doesnt remotely touch the sides.

Perhaps this is why Stokes feels so personally invested in this style of play, his own way of honouring a man who when forced to choose between his rugby career and his middle finger chose to amputate the finger.

There is a generational element here, too. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, in her essay collection Trick Mirror, examines the uniquely dark and nihilistic culture of young people on the internet: a world of memes and in-jokes where everything is transient and nothing is static, where absurdism feels like the only response to the precarity and pointlessness of our world. She describes the sensation of using social media as like a rat pressing the lever, like a woman repeatedly hitting myself on the forehead with a hammer, masturbating through the nightmare, until I finally catch the gasoline whiff of a good meme.

This is basically how England bat right now and, even if the current squad are spared the economic hopelessness that drives millennial culture, that innate nihilism remains, the sense of a future that has been mortgaged and built over. Bazball is the laughing crying emoji. Bazball is Amelia Dimoldenbergs deadpan jokes on Chicken Shop Date. Bazball is a pinkhaired egirl selling you her own bath water for $30 a pot. Bazball aint reading all that, but is happy for u tho, or sorry that happened.

Bazball hears the phrases building an innings or bowling dry and hears a boomer columnist telling them they too could earn the deposit for a house by cutting out avocado on toast.

And so to describe Bazball as a philosophy or a blueprint, or speculate how it might fare against Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood or on a Kanpur turner, is really to miss its gist. Which is not to dismiss it as a fad or an empty gesture. Rather, it feels like an entirely natural response to a game drowning in decay and confusion, formats upon formats, judgments upon judgments, wailing upon wailing: a little kernel of meaning in a world where nothing seems to matter very much.

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Bazball isnt a philosophy or blueprint it is a response to a game in decay - The Guardian

Back in the day, supposedly conservatives were the ones who cracked down on fun. The common knowledge went that liberals were focused on free expression and free speech, while the right tried to shut things down.

The modern left has abandoned its old principles of free expression, however, and become infamous for scolding Americans on not being 100% politically correct.

Noah Rothman, author of the new book The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives War on Fun, says this new wave of woke censorship echoes the utopian push by the Puritans of old.

Rothman says the leftist utopia is a sort of messianic mission that views anything not directly pushing leftist ideology as not only worthless, but a threat [and] a menace.

He continues:

The ideal here, an unrealizable ideal, is the creation, insofar as it is possible, of the ideal society. This is a vision, a framework of social organization, that extirpates the maladies associated with human frailty. Its an unachievable objective.

Rothman joins the show to detail the lefts shift from free expression to wokescolding, and how the rest if us can best counter it.

We also cover these stories:

Listen to our interview or read a lightly edited transcript below.

Doug Blair: My guest today is Noah Rothman, author of the new book The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives War on Fun, available now wherever books are sold. Noah, welcome to the show.

Noah Rothman: Thank you so much for having me, its a pleasure to be here.

Blair: I love the title of this book. Its so evocative and its such an apt comparison to the modern left. But the question is, how did we get to this point where the modern left has become the New Puritans?

Rothman: Right. Well, its all rather disorienting for anybody whos probably, I guess, older than 20. I mean, for most of our adult lives, an impulse to see in innocent cultural products corrupting influences, the stuff that degrades society, not just you as an individual, is typically found on the right. The left, by contrast, emphasized self-fulfillment, self-gratification, hedonism, to a degree that was even perhaps self-destructive.

And this was the dynamic that pertained our entire lives, up until about five, 10 years ago, when things began to change rather dramatically. And we started seeing moral crusades, and weve seen many of them led by left and left-leaning institutions, in pursuit of goals that render frivolous products, frivolous diversions, happy pastimes into something with a greater social value.

Weve seen entertainment companies impose on media products themes that are designed to advance a social purpose, and render it a little bit more valuable than something as trite as entertainment. Comedians emphasizing the pain that somebody had to endure so that you could enjoy something as trite as a punchline.

When you sit down to a meal, you have to be confronted with the environmental damage that youre doing. And when you sit down to watch some sports, youre confronted with the agonizing lamentable state of racial dynamics in America. And when fans protest, and as they often do, theyre admonished explicitly for saying that they want their diversion, they want their escapism, over their duty to dwell on the worlds horrors.

There is a real moral framework at work here, and its really native to progressivism. As liberals identify lefts with liberalism and more with progressivism, theyve adopted its habits of mind.

Utopianism, a sort of messianic mission, and a hatred and a fear of idleness, that which doesnt contribute to directly advance the progressive project and the progressive ideals is seen as not only worthless, but a threat, a menace, and a desire to impose conformity on their surroundings.

A lot of these are human traits, a lot of them are not native to America in general. But when you start pulling on these threads, you find the origins of this old morality finding itself in new voices, in the 19th century, in Victorian ethos and mainline Protestantism, and the origins of progressivism, which had a moral dimension as much as a political dimension.

And you pull on that thread a little further, and it doesnt take long before you get to the late 1600s, early 1700s, and a Puritanical ethos that had all of this, that had a fear of idleness, that had a mistrust of pastimes and diversions, and that sought to impose conformity on its surroundings.

Theres a lot to be said for this moral outlook, but one thing you can definitely say is it is an explicit rejection of their parents political philosophy, which was as licentious as possible. And what we have now is a younger generation that is upholding this moral framework, but, as a result, is less chill, is less open, is less adventurous than their grandparents.

Blair: Right. I mean, its funny becauseIm going to put my cards on the table here, Im kind of a nerd. It reminds me of back in the 90s where you had this push against Dungeons & Dragons from the right, where it was like a moral panic over these types of products. But now its the left thats pushing to ban these things. I see that a lot of people who are on the left are trying to get that taken down. Where does that shift occur? And how is it that the right gives up that territory where the left takes it on?

Rothman: So, as cultural crusades, conventional cultural crusades that the right tended to wage fell out of favor, there was a vacuum there, and the left took it up.

So again, going back to the 90s where probably you and I had our primary socialization, the conventional culture wars that the right waged was against lasciviousness in popular culture, divorce, gay marriage rights, and abortion. And weve since seen a burst of moral enthusiasm around the new legal environment that were now navigating as a result of Dobbs [v. Jackson Womens Health Organization].

But a lot of this stuff fell out of favor or just had less urgency around it, with shifting attitudes, cultural attitudes, and attitudes on the right. And a lot of it changed around the ascension of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump helped the right get over and typically toward divorce, for example. Donald Trump deemphasized transgenderism as an issue. If you remember, in 2016, he came out in favor of the North Carolina bathroom law, which was contravened traditional conservatives and what they were saying about that at the time. And abortion had declined dramatically in rates for years, up to this point.

So they didnt exactly win or lose per se, there were mixed results in the culture wars, but generally, the right fled the field.

And then you had then the left, as it began to mature in this marinate, in this idea of a moral covenant, an idealized society, and a theory of social organization that placed, that emphasized a moral conduct over the pursuit of self-gratification and self-pleasure, it began to take on a moral dimension and police public morality in ways that we traditionally associated with the right.

Now, this is a departure from what we expected to see in perpetuity after the triumph of the sexual revolution, but it turns out the sexual revolution was a passing phase. The history of progressivism in this country has a moral dimension to it. And as we have the return of progressivism on the left, we have a return of a moral code.

Blair: One of the things that always strikes me about this new wave of progressivism and wokeism is theres a religious element in the secular sense. So youve got this idea of original sinwhite privilege, male privilege, all of these things. Theres a way to be redeemed, which is you get your high priest, the diversity consultants, to come in and absolve you of it. But the weird thing is, there is no permanent absolution.

When you look at Christianity or a religion like that, there is a way to get redeemed. Whereas in wokeism, it doesnt really seem like there is. Is that an accurate assessment that there is this secular religion to it?

Rothman: It is. I take some qualified exception to the idea that this is wholly and entirely a secular faith. Thats the theory thats been advanced in a variety of ways by scholars, authors, and critics over the years. And thats not entirely wrong.

I maintain that because theres no pathway to absolution, there is no deism in this theory. It transcends the conduct of religious practice, and it certainly transcends politics.

What I maintain is that it is bigger than that, it is a theory of social organization, it is a way of life, which makes it much more similar to Puritanism, which wasnt just a way of life. It was a theory of how society should organize themselves, totally, wholly, and in every aspect of personal, interpersonal, and public conduct, that would advance their shared goal, which is the creation of this social covenant.

That, to me, seems a more apt description for what were witnessing than simply a substitute religion.

Blair: The very first chapter of your book goes into the story of a Palestinian-owned grocer, who, I mean, the story is horrific, but he gets destroyed by the mob. Could you go into that story a little bit and explain why this is such a good representation of what were looking at here?

Rothman: Yeah. I mean, its just one of several examples in the introduction. This is Majdi Wadi, who is a Palestinian by birth, a grocer in Minnesota, I believe, who was very popular, both locally and nationally. He was feted on the floor of the House by then-Rep. Keith Ellison, and he was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. It was a popular place.

In fact, popularity was perhaps its downfall because it was soon discovered that his daughter, a low-level employee at this grocer, had made racially insensitive remarks on social media at the age of 14 and 18, respectively.

And he apologized profusely for his daughters conduct, he pledged money to causes, designed to give him some sort of indulgence from the mob. The mob did not relent, so he had to do the only thing he could do, which was to fire his child, divorce himself from his child.

But that itself was not enough. Eventually, the landlord canceled the lease on Holy Land Grocery. And this is a punishment that was befitting of the charge, which was the careless parentage of a willful daughter.

Likewise, throughout the first chapter, you had this midfielder with the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, Aleksandar Katai, whose wife, during the riots in 2020, made some really genuinely provocative and insensitive and racially inflammatory comments on Twitter.

She got in plenty of trouble, but he was the one who had to suffer, he had to denounce his own wife. And when that wasnt good enough, he lost his job, he lost his career because he had cavorted with a woman of ill repute.

These are some very old codes of conduct that were seeing restored and reimposed on society by the left in ways that, 20 years ago, we wouldve only seen in the right. And they wouldve been properly repulsed by what they have seen as not a justice that coordinates with and comports with the modern secular liberalism.

Its a sort of justice that is collective, that is spiritual in nature, and that requires you to find and seek redemption in quiet, contemplative penance for the sins of those around you, for the sins of your environment, because you cant distinguish between the sin, the sinner, and the environment in which the sin is committed. They are all part of the same continuum. That is a Puritanical outlook if Ive ever heard one and it is certainly being adopted again by the inheritors of that legacy.

Blair: Do we see that the end goal of this new Puritanism is the same as the old goal? I mean, do we see this utopic vision of the world pushed through this New Age faith? Or is it more just to destroy the opposition?

Rothman: Yeah, the goal of big P Puritans was the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, a new Zion. And they were the chosen people. Yes, the ideal here, an unrealizable ideal is the creation, insofar as it is possible, of the ideal society.

This is a vision, a framework of social organization that extirpates the maladies associated with human frailty. Its an unachievable objective, its enough to drive you mad. But that is the objective, and theyre going to do everything they can in its pursuit, up to and including making themselves and everyone around them miserable.

Blair: Well, thats certainly the case. And Im curious, too, obviously, in your book, you attack this issue and you look into how its affecting the country, but how does the average American respond to this? Is this causing a pushback against the left from the average American who sees this as problematic?

Rothman: Its causing a pushback against the left from the left. Most of the people I spoke with describe themselves as liberal, vote Democratic, wouldnt vote for a Republican with a gun to their heads, but they absolutely resent the conditions that are sapping them of enthusiasm for their lifes work.

They used to get up every morning, happy to do what they wanted to do in life. Now, they get up every morning miserable because they dont get to do what they want to do in life. They have to conduct politics, they have to behave in a public fashion, and be in the public eye, and behave to comport with public scrutiny in ways that are just soul-sucking, that sap them of enthusiasm, again, for their conditions and their surroundings.

So yeah, there is a backlash forming and theres a backlash forming among average Americans, too. One of the ways I say and suggest that this cult of misery might collapse, as cults of misery tend to do, is embodied in the phrase Banned in Boston.

So when we think of stereotypes of a caricatured blue-nosed Puritan, we dont think of the big P Puritans in the 1600s, 1700s. Scholars of Puritanism get very frustrated by this. Our stereotypes, they get a bad rap.

Our stereotypes of Puritanism are really derived from the 19th century, from the second Great Awakening and the Victorian period, when progressivism was just coming to the fore, and was typified very much by a moralism that was native to mainline Protestantism.

And Boston was the epicenter of this. And in Boston, Comstockery and whatnot organized itself to combat the threats posed by licentious literature, most notably the evils of Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass.

And this was very successful well into the 20th century. Plays were bowdlerized, books were banned, songs couldnt be played on the radio, etc., etc. But there was a backlash that developed around it, and it was commercial in nature because initially Banned in Boston was a warning against lude, lascivious literature. It soon became a powerful advertisement for it, for a titillating literary experience you just had to have for yourself.

Publishers actively sought to have their books banned in Boston to increase sales around the country. And the modern equivalent is banned on Amazon, banned on Facebook. When conservative books are targeted by these censorious mobs, and the ill-prepared 20-year-olds who have no idea what theyre doing, these sales of these products that are targeted explode, they do far better than the publisher and the PR campaign dedicated to them could possibly have imagined just because of the powerful advertisement for the something so taboo you just have to experience it for yourself.

So theyre sowing the seeds for their own destruction. Not only immiserating everyone around you, which is certainly not a sustainable condition in the absence of a coercive mechanism to enforce it, but also because theyre advertising the very things they seek to extirpate.

Blair: As we wrap-up, I want to emphasize that point. It sounds like what to do is basically just to continue to point out that this is not fun, its miserable and nobody wants to do it. And then also seek out the materials that the Puritanical left is pushing. Is that really the best way for us to get rid of this wokeness, is to just keep on trucking?

Rothman: Well, yes, and to lead a joyful life. And perhaps, if I have a prescription here, it is to give people a permission through this, what I hope is a very enjoyable read, a romp, I wanted this to be a quick and fun read, is to give you permission to be able to mock these people. They are mockable, they are hilarious in their conduct.

Theres a lot of fear about that on the left, but they understand the material that theyre being handed on a daily basis, and theyre just foregoing voluntarily out of fear.

And theres a bully aspect to this. There are bullies, and the prescription against bullies is just ignore them, theyll go away. If you give them attention, youre giving them what they want. Yeah. But if you give them attention and youre mocking them, you are giving them what they want, but youre giving a lot more people what they want, too, which is to see these people lampooned and pilloried, and to enjoy that, and to laugh at that.

Theres so much comedy fodder that is left on the table here. It is, first of all, an abdication of your responsibility as a comedian and as an entertainer. But second, its unnatural and unsustainable, theres only so long you can hold your tongue, and I hope that this book helps give permission to people who are inclined toward that to pursue it.

Blair: Well, I think thats a great strategy. I continue to laugh at the left every day, so hopefully this book will help people do that, too. That was Noah Rothman, author of the new book The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives War on Fun, available now wherever books are sold. Noah, thank you so much. And lets keep on laughing.

Rothman: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please emailletters@DailySignal.comand well consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular We Hear You feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.

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No Fun Allowed! How the Left Became the Fun Police. - Daily Signal

Departure City

Albany, Ny [ALB]Albuquerque, Nm [ABQ]Allentown, Pa [ABE]Amarillo, Tx [AMA]Anchorage, Ak [ANC]Appleton, Mn [AQP]Arcata, Ca [ACV]Asheville, Nc [AVL]Aspen, Co [ASE]Atlanta, Ga [ATL]Atlantic City, Nj [ACY]Austin, Tx [AUS]Baltimore, Md [BWI]Bangor, Me [BGR]Beaumont, Tx [BPT]Bethel, Ak [BET]Billings, Mt [BIL]Binghamton, Ny [BGM]Birmingham, Al [BHM]Bismarck, Nd [BIS]Bloomington, Il [BMI]Boise, Id [BOI]Boston, Ma [BOS]Brownsville, Tx [BRO]Brunswick, Ga [BQK]Buffalo, Ny [BUF]Burbank, Ca [BUR]Burlington, Vt [BTV]Calgary [YYC]Cedar Rapids, Ia [CID]Charleston, Sc [CHS]Charleston, Wv [CRW]Charlotte, Nc [CLT]Charlottesville, Va [CHO]Chicago (Midway), Il [MDW]Chicago (O'Hare), Il [ORD]Cincinnati, Oh [CVG]Cleveland, Oh [CLE]College Station, Tx [CLL]Colorado Springs, Co [COS]Columbia, Mo [COU]Columbia, Sc [CAE]Columbus, Oh [CMH]Cordova, Ak [CDV]Corpus Christi, Tx [CRP]Dallas Love Field, Tx [DAL]Dallas/Fort Worth, Tx [DFW]Dayton, Oh [DAY]Denver, Co [DEN]Des Moines, Ia [DSM]Detroit, Mi [DTW]Duluth, Mn [DLH]Durango, Co [DRO]Edmonton Intntl [YEG]Eastern Iowa, Ia [CID]El Paso, Tx [ELP]Erie, Pa [ERI]Eugene, Or [EUG]Eureka, Ca [EKA]Fairbanks, Ak [FAI]Fargo, Nd [FAR]Flint, Mi [FNT]Fresno, Ca [FAT]Ft. Lauderdale, Fl [FLL]Ft. Myers, Fl [RSW]Ft. Walton/Okaloosa [VPS]Ft. Wayne, In [FWA]Gainesville, Fl [GNV]Grand Forks, Nd [GFK]Grand Rapids, Mi [GRR]Great Falls, Mt [GTF] Green Bay, Wi [GRB]Greensboro, Nc [GSO]Greenville, Sc [GSP]Gulfport, Ms [GPT]Halifax Intntl [YHZ]Harlingen [HRL]Harrisburg, Pa [MDT]Hartford, Ct [BDL]Helena, Mt [HLN]Hilo, Hi [ITO]Hilton Head, Sc [HHH]Honolulu, Hi [HNL]Houston Hobby, Tx [HOU]Houston Busch, Tx [IAH]Huntington, Wv [HTS]Huntsville Intl, Al [HSV]Idaho Falls, Id [IDA]Indianapolis, In [IND]Islip, Ny [ISP]Ithaca, Ny [ITH]Jackson Hole, Wy [JAC]Jackson Int'L, Ms [JAN]Jacksonville, Fl [JAX]Juneau, Ak [JNU]Kahului, Hi [OGG]Kansas City, Mo [MCI]Kapalua, Hi [JHM]Kauai, Hi [LIH]Key West, Fl [EYW]Knoxville, Tn [TYS]Kona, Hi [KOA]Lanai, Hi [LNY]Lansing, Mi [LAN]Las Vegas, Nv [LAS]Lexington, Ky [LEX]Lincoln, Ne [LNK]Little Rock, Ar [LIT]Long Beach, Ca [LGB]Los Angeles, Ca [LAX] Louisville, Ky [SDF]Lubbock, Tx [LBB]Lynchburg, Va [LYH]Montreal Mirabel [YMX]Montreal Trudeau [YUL]Madison, Wi [MSN]Manchester, Nh [MHT]Maui, Hi [OGG]Mcallen, Tx [MFE]Medford, Or [MFR]Melbourne, Fl [MLB]Memphis, Tn [MEM]Miami, Fl [MIA]Midland/Odessa, Tx [MAF]Milwaukee, Wi [MKE]Minneapolis/St. Paul [MSP]Missoula, Mt [MSO]Mobile Regional, Al [MOB]Molokai, Hi [MKK]Monterey, Ca [MRY]Montgomery, Al [MGM]Myrtle Beach, Sc [MYR]Naples, Fl [APF]Nashville, Tn [BNA]New Braunfels, Tx [BAZ]New Orleans, La [MSY]New York Kennedy, Ny [JFK]New York Laguardia [LGA]Newark, Nj [EWR]Norfolk, Va [ORF]Ottawa Mcdonald [YOW]Oakland, Ca [OAK]Oklahoma City, Ok [OKC]Omaha, Ne [OMA]Ontario, Ca [ONT]Orange County, Ca [SNA]Orlando, Fl [MCO]Palm Springs, Ca [PSP]Panama City, Fl [PFN] Pensacola, Fl [PNS]Peoria, Il [PIA]Philadelphia, Pa [PHL]Phoenix, Az [PHX]Pittsburgh, Pa [PIT]Port Angeles, Wa [CLM]Portland Intl, Or [PDX]Portland, Me [PWM]Providence, Ri [PVD]Quebec Intntl [YQB]Raleigh/Durham, Nc [RDU]Rapid City, Sd [RAP]Redmond, Or [RDM]Reno, Nv [RNO]Richmond, Va [RIC]Roanoke, Va [ROA]Rochester, Ny [ROC]Rockford, Il [RFD]Sacramento, Ca [SMF]Saginaw, Mi [MBS]Salem, Or [SLE]Salt Lake City, Ut [SLC]San Antonio, Tx [SAT]San Diego, Ca [SAN]San Francisco, Ca [SFO]San Jose, Ca [SJC]Santa Barbara, Ca [SBA]Santa Rosa, Ca [STS]Sarasota/Bradenton [SRQ]Savannah, Ga [SAV]Seattle/Tacoma, Wa [SEA]Shreveport, La [SHV]Sioux City, Ia [SUX]Sioux Falls, Sd [FSD]Spokane, Wa [GEG]Springfield, Il [SPI]Springfield, Mo [SGF]St. Louis, Mo [STL]St. Petersburg, Fl [PIE]Syracuse, Ny [SYR]Toronto Pearson [YYZ]Tallahassee, Fl [TLH]Tampa, Fl [TPA]Traverse City, Mi [TVC]Tucson, Az [TUS]Tulsa, Ok [TUL]Vancouver Intntl [YVR]Victoria Intntl [YYJ]Winnipeg Intntl [YWG]Washington Natl, Dc [DCA]Washington/Dulles, Dc [IAD]Wenatchee, Wa [EAT]West Palm Beach, Fl [PBI]White Plains, Ny [HPN]Wichita, Ks [ICT]Wilkes-Barre/Scranton [AVP]

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Photo Gallery - Hedonism II

Husband-and-wife director duo Leo Gack and Zo Martin reimagine the somnambulant intimacy of experimental musician Mari Maurices album for OOH-sounds as a moment of quiet tenderness the morning after a night of violent depravity.

more eaze describes each track of oneiric, her recent album for the always excellent Florentine label OOH-sounds, as on the verge of communicating some deep truth but not quite being able to articulate it, like accidentally mumbling a secret while sleep-talking. For the beautifully dazed visual for the albums opener, a romance, directed by Zo Martin and her husband Leo Gack, were transported to the moments that follow on waking, as two young creatures of the night awake to the aftermath of a particularly debauched party. Cinematic synth swells and tactile sound design signal the first crepuscular rays of dawn light, a wave of warm distortion duplicated in the twilit haze that illuminates the site of what reveals itself to have been an orgiastic banquet charged with vampiric desire. Tracks like a romance have such an immense cinematic potential that we, as filmmakers, often face the temptation to approach such music as a means rather than an end, they explain.While we knew we wanted to make a video that would be somewhat narrative, it was very important for us to make sure the story would serve the music, and not the other way around. Translating the lovestruck melancholy that saturates more eazes sound into a evocative portraitof two characters intimately connected in an ultimately destructive circumstance, Martin and Gack explore how infatuation and lust can be, quite literally, all-consuming.

a romance is largely about the awkwardness and absurdity of falling in love and how in the midst of that discomfort an undeniable, all-encompassing mood sets in, says Maurice. I feel like Zoe and Leo did an excellent job capturing this in their video and theres this sense of beauty constantly encroaching and framing the horror of the events set in place here. As the outlines of various bodies strewn across a bedroom floor gradually resolve themselves as morning approaches, an all-too familiar morning after scene is suggested, a post-party scenario that would go unquestioned save for the tell-tale stains around our protagonists mouths. The starting point was that long, lo-fi distorted sound running through the second half of the track, which reminded us of a sunbeam piercing through a window, continue Martin and Gack. We dont know, why buta romancedefinitely felt like a morning song to us, a song to wake up to.So our goal was to encapsulate that fleeting, blissful, moment of waking up next to someone dear. The beauty and tenderness of it, right before we connect with the world, and regardless of the context. Shrouded in a blood-stained sheet, faces turned towards the morning light, before pulling focus on the grisly reality of the world, our protagonists room is filled with love.

The vampire theme helped us achieve that by visually opposing the ingenuousness of the young vampires with the horrid aftermath of their feast, Martin and Gack explain. Parting with the sexual aspect of the myth was also crucial to us: we kept the relationship between them ambiguous so kindness would prevail.We also drifted away from the usual romantic setting by adopting a more contemporary take on the vampire lair: a sort of Klimt inspired golden squalor that belongs to a place somewhere between dream and reality, in the treasured world of the half-awakes. Amidst exquisitely framed squalor, in a space that is both an amorously trashed bedroom and a macabre den of corpses, demonic appetite is collapsed as just another form of youthful transgression, simply another expression of ravenous desire. In this way, turning towards the sunlight of a new day is framed as yet another taboo to be explored, the death drive of the young vampires demonstrated in stark detail. Surrounded by the bodies of the consumed, bloody testaments to their most primal urges, their hunger is shown to be for love in all its forms: a love of flesh, a love of each other and a love of beauty, each so potent they are willing to risk destruction in hedonistic pursuit.

a romance is taken from oneiric, which is out now on OOH-sounds. You can find more eaze on Instagram and Bandcamp.

For more information about Leo Gack and Zo Martin, you can follow them on Instagram.

a romance Credits:

Directors Lo Gack &Zo Martin Cast Oliwia Lis, Tanaig Bonenfant,Antoine Lebas,Emma Ebouaney,Ellyson Gasparetto,Alex Legallet,Hadrien Legallet, Jade Martinez, Clment Mellet, Robin Cannone Director of Photography Thodore Hugonnier Casting Director Jasmin Nahar Producer Producing Love 1st Assistant Camera Lo Servant 2nd Assistant Camera Paul Godeau Gaffer Joffrey Chatellier Electrician Sarah Guillaumin Haddad Key Grip Ugo Villaume Grip Assistant Louis GascaSet Designer Jade Boyeldieu dAuvigny Set Designer Assistants Caroline Reveillaud, Pierre-Henri Leneveu Stylist Lu-Philippe Guilmette Make-up Artist Zo Derks Hair Stylist Jonathan Dadoun Film Processing and Scanning Silverway

Watch next: Torus & Mark Prendergast stare into a digitally mediated sun in 3000 Mirrors

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more eaze wakes up to the aftermath of extreme hedonism in a romance - FACT

T

he Instagram It-Girl of the summer? Kate Moss. While the supermodel is apparently very much on the wagon these days, snaps of her Nineties heyday have lately been going viral on social, with her looking equally beautiful and bleary-eyed, cigarettes and booze in one hand, either Johnny Depp or Pete Doherty in the other.

And while no one wants another round of troublesome exes, the glorification of Kates Wild Years points to one thing only: the world is finally remembering what its like to have fun. Less hot girl summer, more shot girl summer. Heres where to head to indulge that hedonistic streak.

Bottoms up

Neon lair: NQ64 on Berwick Street

Its time to raise a glass to, well, raising a glass. Of the old-school places, try Le Beaujolais (WC2H, lebeaujolais.london): it is somewhere for too much wine and pastis and a feeling like Litchfield Street might be a back alley in Paris after all. Upstairs is open to all, while its notoriously private downstairs club is rumoured to have served Brad Pitt (unlikely) and Beyonc (wildly improbable) but stranger things have happened. A more modern mantra can be found at the Arcade Food Hall (WC1, arcadefoodhall.com). It reopened a couple of months back with coasters on the central bar proudly bearing the legend bored of wellness. And honestly, by now, who isnt? Probiotic mindfulness can do one. Cocktails, all about a tenner, are listed variously as being ideal for the first drink of the day, an all-day party or late night. In other words, Arcade is set for all hours. Upstairs at Luke Farrells scorching southern Thai Plaza Khao Gaeng, the Lageritas have been the hit, while the Johnnie Walker highball at 8 is a head-spinning bargain. Restraint? Never heard of her.

While most of Londons dedicated drinking dens shakily knocked back their last vodka tonics as the millennium blearily came into view, one or two have survived. Does Gerrys Club (W1D, 020 7437 4160) in Dean Street really exist, or is it just a drunken example of the Mandela Effect? Hard to really say, but the set of regulars who go until 3am every night among them journos, fashionista types and hospitality hoi polloi swear by the place for its decent drinks at fair prices and terrific live music. Gerry never existed; you may feel you dont either the morning after, too. Similar is Greek Street stalwart Trishas (W1D, @trishas_soho). A more modern way of doing things is at newcomer Louche, which is nearly opposite (W1D, louchesoho.com). The raffish name says it all; the two-storey cocktail bar specialises in live music and late nights, and shuts at 2.30am every Wednesday to Saturday.

The fact that Bradleys Spanish Bar (W1T, bradleysspanishbar.com) in Hanway Street is actually a pub tells you everything you need to know about its muddled mind; it shuts around midnight but next door is terrific underground cocktail spot, Murder Inc (W1T, murderinclondon.com), where cocktails are strong, cheap, staff know their stuff and good times are always had. Closing is at 2am on the weekends. Around the corner on Berwick Street is NQ64, open until 3am (W1F, nq64.co.uk). Themed for old arcade games, its a dizzying trip walking into its neon lair. After a really, really late night? Canning Towns FOLD (E16, fold.london) is the only club that reliably and regularly stays open until daybreak. Clubs, though, are a whole different ballgame: check out our fresh guide to the best.

Putting on the glitz

Killer: The Lowback

Going full tilt neednt be all Charles Bukowski bars. Hedonism is about seeking pleasure, not necessarily over-indulgence. Pre-dinner Martinis have suddenly reappeared as the drink du jour. The rule about them is easy enough: one is too few, three is too many. In Canary Wharf, underneath the latest Hawksmoor, the Lowback (E14, thehawksmoor.com) is a killer new bar for them, with top food in the restaurant upstairs. Otherwise, the best are found in the American Bar at the Stafford (SW1A, thestaffordlondon.com), which has a new American-leaning menu from executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen, or in the unflappable Connaught Bar (W1K, the-connaught.co.uk), or the Amaro Bar (W8, amarobar.co.uk). Ask for Decs Martini there, named for cocktail titan Declan McGurk. Vodka reliably serves up less of a hangover than gin; drinking less does better still. Mini-martinis are the under-the-counter, off-menu thing at sort-of diner Ritas (W1F, ritasdining.com), while Tayr + Elementary (EC1V, tayer-elementary.com) is famous for its One Sip martinis. They are the ultimate shot.

Otherwise, put a note in the diary for early autumn, when a new St John opens in Marylebone Lane (W1U, stjohnrestaurant.com); it is Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gullivers first new place in seven years and as befits its owners, it is embracing a life of good living. Glasses of Fernet Branca can revive even the weariest. The breakfast special will be doughnuts with Champagne. Speaking of, just last week Mot & Chandon opened a dedicated fizz bar at Harrods (SW1X, harrods.com); the room shimmers with gold-like bubbles in a flute.

Such glitz is a must for living the high life: a dash of celebrity always helps. At present, the Twenty Two just off Grovesnor Square (W1K, the22.london) is the place to be seen: lately Jourdan Dunn, Ed Westwick and Rita Ora have all been spotted among its blue, wood-panelled dining room. The other place drawing the big names is the Pelican in All Saints Road (W11, thepelicanw11.com): its a posh pub, so indulgence is at your own pace, likewise dressing up, but look around apart from three-Michelin star chef Pierre Koffman, Ellie Goulding and Margot Robbie have been in. Finally, if youre the sort that wants to party but, er, also sleep, the art of the long lunch is a fine thing to master. Theres a full how-to guide here, but if youre wondering where to kick things off, skip the vegan Honest Burgers news came yesterday it has shut amid little demand and instead try Jackson Boxers places: both Orasay and Brunswick House have recently held feasts that have stretched through an afternoon and into the evening and its rumoured more may follow. If youre out late, Boxers Chinatown bar Below Stone Nest (W1D, belowsoho.london) is just the place for an elegant nightcap: open until 2am Wednesday to Saturday, it looks something like the basement equivalent of Sessions Arts Club, has a live jazz band killing it and serves drinks for 8.50.

Life is a cabaret

High-living: Christabels

While the cabaret sector has wobbled, steadying itself post-pandemic, the stage lights are now burning brighter than ever. At the eye-widening end of the scale, the Box in Walkers Court (W1F, privilege-entertainment.com) has found itself back en vogue after it hosted the Brits afterparty: go to watch well, look, I cant really say; find out for yourself. Speaking of common decency, theres an underground bar of that name at theNoMad (WC2E, thenomadhotel.com), where they promise unscripted surprises drag cabaret tends to be the thing. Over by Piccadilly Circus, inside Brasserie Zedels Crazy Coqs (W1F, brasseriezedel.com) next month launches Halcyon Nights, promising Fifties-style glam, with West End star Joanna Woodward hosting.

Meanwhile, just off Berkeley Square, Club Chinois (W1J, parkchinois.com) is likewise reviving its cabaret act with the aptly-named Show Reborn: 23 acts play every Wednesday-Saturday until 2am. Wilder, though, is likely to be Christabels, beneath the Windmill Theatre (W1T, christabels.uk); its promising high-living (Michelin-starred food, live bands, cigars and Champagne), but its the burlesque that should give the place its reputation. There is, too, a sense inhibitions arent especially welcome: former Primal Scream and Oasis manager Alan McGee, a regular at its old spot in Fitzrovia, says: The only difference is, in the Eighties this place would have an orgy. Perhaps be grateful its 2022 after all.

Thats not to say, moving away from cabaret, that there arent plenty of sex-positive parties. Theres quite a few operating in a queer-friendly way: the biggest kink party at present is Crossbreed (crossbreedworld.com), which proudly is as progressive as it is (consensually) pervy, but check out Oliver Keens full guide to all the fun, including Meat, Thorn, HTBX and HOWL. After all, to wreck a Rita Mae Brown line, the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

Read the original here:

Shot Girl Summer: Your guide to hedonism in London - Evening Standard

I'd like to offer distraught culture warriors some advice for the remainder of this blistering summer: sit by a pool with an icy drink and calm yourselves down.

Hardly a day goes by that we don't see another dire warning that America is headed toward a second civil war. (See: tinyurl.com/y6k7hhu6) The right hates the left and the left hates the right. Trumpers loath Bideners -- and vice versa. Every new development is the end of the world as we know it.

There are indeed serious matters at stake, as there are in every age. The U.S. Supreme Court's recent overturning of Roe v. Wade was a monumental decision, whatever your views on abortion. Congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol continue to provide one mind-bending revelation after another.

But we also find ourselves seething over lesser matters we blow out of all proportion.

Two things recently happened that brought this to mind.

In the county where I live, Kentucky's state teacher of the year, Willie Carver, announced he's leaving the teaching profession after 17 years. (See: tinyurl.com/29wwp44j.)

He found that, "as a queer person in K-12 education, I have been unable to do that work without facing discrimination, heartache, and being a part of systems that cause harm, though I am immensely proud of my brilliant, hardworking, and fierce colleagues who have and continue to change that system in defense of students."

He told the Lexington Herald-Leader that extremists had attacked him and his former students at Montgomery County school board meetings and on social media.

"The national rhetoric is turned up, and LGBTQ teachers bear the weight of a lot of hatred that catalyzes the vitriol. It's tiring," he said.

As far as I can recall I've never met Carver, but he and my wife worked together a decade ago at Montgomery County High School. Long before Carver became state teacher of the year, Liz praised him to high heaven as a wonderful man and a devoted educator -- the best of the best.

No matter these days. You know how the right-wing rhetoric goes now. Teachers generally, and LGBTQ teachers particularly, are "groomers" luring their young charges into lives of debauchery, atheism and wearing green hair.

At roughly the same time as Carver's resignation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bremerton (Wash.) High School assistant coach Joseph Kennedy's prayers. (See: tinyurl.com/4tpun89h.) Kennedy had a habit of kneeling briefly at midfield after football games to offer a personal prayer of thanks.

He did this alone for years, but gradually others joined him. The school ordered him to stop. His prayers became a culture wars thing. Eventually it became a court case.

Although I oppose mixing religion and state, I'd hoped the court would find in the coach's favor, because in this case Bremerton school officials wildly overstepped their bounds.

Kennedy had a right to publicly take a knee in prayer for multiple reasons, I believe, including the same reason former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick had a right to take a knee during the national anthem: they're U.S. citizens exercising First Amendment protections. You don't forfeit your citizenship by stepping onto a football field.

The conservative Supreme Court agreed with me, for what will likely be the only time ever.

But sheesh, did the limburger hit the sideline fan. People on the left howled their heads off. High school football players will now have religion forced down their gullets. They'll be coerced into conversions. Soon we'll all be living in a Christian theocracy.

Please. I played high school football 50 years ago. Regularly, our coach told us all to kneel in the locker room before games. We'd say the Lord's Prayer. It wasn't optional.

As far as I ever knew, not one guy was converted as a result. No one was noticeably traumatized. I think most of the players regarded the prayer as I did -- as a good-luck ritual, along the lines of not washing your lucky socks on game days.

It was the raucous 1970s. We entered the locker room as wastrels and heathens, and post-prayer we emerged with our hedonism intact.

Here's the thing. Teachers and coaches are excellent at helping kids learn math or tackling. They're lousy at altering kids' sexual orientation or their eternal destination. They don't change who we fundamentally are.

In the big matters, you're dealing with three other influences: genes, parents and peers.

Genes you can't do much about. Kids get whatever biological cocktail they get. Blue eyes or brown. Light skin or dark. Gay or straight. Introvert or extrovert.

To the extent environment plays a role, it's mainly parents and peers who set that course. No teacher has the influence on a kid her family and friends have.

Solution: be the best parent you can -- and vigilantly monitor your child's friends.

But having Willie Carver as an instructor was never going to turn your kid gay, if that's your fear. Junior was only going to get a brilliant French teacher.

Having Joseph Kennedy as Junior's football coach wasn't going to turn him into a Bible-thumping zombie, if that's your fear.

That's not how life works. Things only work that way in political fundraising emails.

Calm down. Sit by the pool with your libation of choice. Listen to Jimmy Buffett tunes.

Remember that not everyone who is different from you is out to destroy truth, justice and the American way. Sometimes, they're just different.

Paul Prather is pastor of Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling, Ky. You can email him at

pratpd@yahoo.com

Original post:

Culture will survive all the right and left drama - Arkansas Online

Kevin Norquay, a Stuff senior writer, might have done even better with a decent name.

OPINION: After decades in darkness, the despised name Kevin is making a comeback, so just watch your steps cool boys Lucas, Ryan, Matthew and Nick.

Times have changed; two Kevins have just been elected in France for Marine Le Pens National Rally, prompting newspaper columns on a cultural sea change.

In France, Kevin is (was) a redneck name. A 2015 study by Frances Discrimination Observatory found a Kvin had a 10%-30% lower chance of being hired than an Artur/Arthur.

A decade ago, German psychologists at Humboldt University in Berlin detected the curse of Kevin, by testing how often 47,000 dating site members opened messages from English-sounding suitors.

Ross Giblin

Journalist Kevin Norquay challenging the concept that Kevins show a complete lack of intelligence.

READ MORE:* Return of the Western, 2020s style* How Matthew Perry persuaded Julia Roberts to appear on Friends* Kevin Costner lists his US coastal estate for a whopping $86 million

Single people would seem to prefer to remain alone than meet up with someone called Kevin, study leader Jochen Gebauer said, adding that emails from Alexanders were clicked on 102% more.

Unless you are a Kevin, it may have escaped you that in England the name is code for lower class (think bogan), and even that is the global high point for Kevs (with the exception of Ireland).

In Germany theres a trend called Kevinism. Its a term about as attractive as other isms such as fascism, hedonism and narcissism, causing Kevin to be regarded as a sneer-appropriate name.

German university researchers found teachers considered a student called Kevin more prone to attention-seeking behaviour, as well as lower scholastic performance.

The name was also indicative of lower socioeconomic status.

Supplied

Kevin Bacon as Jackie Rohr in City On A Hill.

In the United States, a Kevin is a whining, moaning, self-entitled white moron (he wrote cautiously, attempting a non-whining, non-moaning, brainy vibe). Twitter has a hashtag #kevinsgonewild.

In the 2006 Lionel Shriver novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, the Kevin in question was a murderous psychopath.

Reddit has a StoriesAboutKevin thread with 194,000 members. A Kevin is someone who consistently or greatly shows a complete lack of intelligence through incompetence of social and societal norms, or is purposefully antagonistic in their poor decision-making, followers are told.

Eamonn McCabe

Author Lionel Shriver helped give Kevins a bad name, unless you like murderous psychopaths.

No surprises then that for four decades I have been betraying my given name, with Kevin running a distant fourth to Norks, Kev and Kevvo.

Yes, even Norks is preferred. For those not well versed in Australian high culture, here is a definition: Norks: noun. Australian slang, female breasts.

An Australian colleague once had her mother ask after me: And how is your Kiwi friend umm Boobs?

On dating app Tinder, Lucas, Ryan, Matthew, Nick, Josh, Brandon, Justin, Ben, Adam and Andrew have been found to be the 10 most right-swiped (apparently good).

Kevin? The least-attractive male name, followed by Justin, Marvin and Dennis.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF

A blackbird, confident in the knowledge it has a patron saint ... Kevin.

But now is the hour of the Comeback Kevin, a resurgence in line with the names venerable past: St Kevin of Glendalough, born in the 5th century, meant fair-begotten, or of noble birth. So take that.

Patron saint of blackbirds, he was born into the royal line of the ancient Irish kingdom of Leinster and as a young man chose to become a hermit. Maybe he, too, had dating issues.

Isnt that great, though? Self-effacing, kind to animals (birds, even), such a nice person he was made a saint. Mind you, there is also a St Lucas, St Ryan (Rhian) and St Matthew, so they are good at Tinder AND saintliness.

As for St Nick, hes a yuletide superstar.

While a few Kevins have made it big (Costner, Kline and Bacon, footballers Keegan and De Bruyne, a few NBA players), theres one name change TO Kevin that stands out.

Jesus Christ Allin, a notorious US punk rocker, changed his name to Kevin Michael GGAllin. His life didnt work out so well subsequently; after forays into coprophilia (interest in excrement) and self-mutilation onstage, he overdosed at 37.

His post-Kevin name-change fate pretty much ruins my entire theme.

Dammit, if only my name didnt consistently cause a complete lack of intelligence around societal norms, such as pithy column endings.

But lets see you do better, Lucas.

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We need to talk about Kevin's return to cultural coolness - Stuff

Shrimps founder Hannah Weiland has a side passion: fabulous party planning. Known for throwing jolly London celebrations with Dolly Parton and Cher tribute acts, chintzy decorations and the kitschiest of catering, the designer is the hostess with the mostestand then some. When it came to launching homeware, with an edit of checkered crochet-knit table pieces which she will expand upon over time, it seemed only fitting to mark the occasion with something typically merry and maximalist.

The timing couldnt have been more perfect. Wiltshire venue Kin House, a stones throw from Hannahs countryside home, was just about to open its doors for private hire. The restored Georgian manor, with interiors by Barlow & Barlow, invited Weiland and Shrimps friends to cut the ribbon to its shell enclave, woodland glades and crochet lawns, which will soon be splashed across Instagram over its summer of It-weddings. When the margaritas came out at midnight, Weiland knew it had been yet another success.

Shrimps tableware inspired by the check crochet in the spring/summer 2022 collection.

Hannahs version of homeware, featuring sleeping bags for knives and forks.

Kin House is such a beautiful place, the feel of it felt perfect for Shrimps, says the designer, who invited model Greta Bellamacina and her poet husband Robert Montgomery, gallery owners Phoebe Saatchi Yates and Arthur Yates, and the actor Anna Shaffer to join the festivities. I loved the idea of our check knitted tableware set being amongst all these beautiful textures, it definitely fit in, adds Hannah of the luxe eclectic interiors that are a match made in heaven for her brand.

The crochet-set scene at Weilands summer party for the launch of her pre-fall 2022 and homeware line.

Jellies couldnt be more Shrimps.

Weiland has been seeding homeware into her mainline offering since last winter, when she couldnt resist making hot water bottle cover versions of her best-selling cardigans. A knitted blanket featuring the same bobble embroidery and contrasting trim followed, alongside some exceptionally cute woolen baby accessories perfect for swaddling. Needless to say, theyve been enthusiastically received by anyone prescribing to Hannahs cool-girl version of twee.

Anna Shaffer in Shrimps partywear.

Lucy Williams wearing the crochet knit vest that inspired the place mats.

I think what is so nice about homeware is that you dont have to launch with one big collection, you can do it in a more organic, piecemeal way, explains Weiland of her process. Its been quite spur of the moment, similar to our new tableware. I saw the crochet knit swatch and thought, wouldnt that be a beautifulplacemat, and the set evolved from there. I particularly love the little blanket/sleeping bag for your knife and fork.

A very Shrimps time at Kin.

Hannah and Greta mid croquet match.

Outfitted in the 70s-influenced pre-fall 2022 collection, the Shrimps revelers at Kin evoked the hedonism and disco fever of the era, and proved to be the perfect ambassadors for Hannahs world. What else can we expect from the brand this year? Hopefully a lot more parties! says the consummate professional in the field. We love to have fun and bring joy, across all aspects of the brand, from the clothing and artworks we create to the parties we throw.

Originally posted here:

Shrimps Launches Crochet Homeware in the Most Shrimps Way - Vogue