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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day Responding to his cancellation, Gilliam said it was “very sad that a great cultural institution like the Old Vic allowed itself to be intimidated into cancelling our production”. Likening the younger members of staff who lobbied Old Vic bosses to scrap his show to “Neo-Calvinists”, he added: “They are totally closed-minded. [To them] there is only one truth and one way of looking at the world. Well, ‘fuck you!’ is my answer to them.”
– as quoted by the Free Speech Union – “Three cheers for Terry Gilliam!” – rave reviews for a musical the Old Vic tried to cancel
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This is a replay of the 1960s when my generation of stupid young people had too much influence, and it will go just as badly
Another example that continue to fail to understand . They are not sensitive they weaponize apparent sensitiveness to get power.
It’s a kinder, gentler Cultural Revolution. At least the Struggle Sessions are only in Social Media and don’t involve public beatings.
It is nice to see a few stalwart voices refusing to play along.
The irony being that the so-called Monty Python outfit were almost entirely utterly unfunny and were in effect ‘anti-comedy’. They were obviously rubbish from the start. They were themselves part of the 1960s counter-culture; be careful what you wish for.
And to refer to oneself as ‘cancelled‘ is to bow to the Left, and dispute only their decisions, not their right to determine anything.
Mr Ed, you are the first person I have ever met who didn’t think Monty Python was funny!
What I don’t entirely understand is that some of the younger employees being uncomfortable about their trans rights being sufficient to justify the cancelation, why are not Gillam’s discomfort with their anti free speech rights enough to get those same employees cancelled?
If someone being “uncomfortable” with something is enough to have it cancelled, then nothing will ever get done. Personally, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the fact that people disagree with me here on samizdata. I really think Perry should cancel anyone who disagrees with me immediately. I’m also uncomfortable paying income tax, so I think that should be cancelled too. I’m also uncomfortable with the horrendous speech Joe Biden just gave. I’d like him cancelled too please.
I despair…
It is theater. They want to censor others but for now have to have an appearance of a justification. it is irrelevant if it is valid or logic.
They have the police and who decides to whom to prosecute on their side so they can do political violence and threats to make the theater work.
This in case the management do not agree with them. Often they do.
I’m also uncomfortable paying income tax
Do not mock. Various blm grifters, led by Patricia “4 Mansions” Cullors, are refusing to submit IRS returns which might shed light on the whereabouts of millions in donations, because they find it triggering.
If someone comes into a political group or party and does not share its principles, indeed wants to destroy them, then it is perfectly reasonable to remove them – for example on Facebook I have noticed that leftists (people who regard conservatives as “Nazis” and even launch disgusting attacks on the long time moderate Rudy Giuliani) are joining the “Libertarian Republican” group – they are obviously just there to “troll” and should be removed. But a theatre is not, or should not be, a political party or group.
This used to be obvious – one joined a political party (as I did 43 years ago – yes, I am old as well as fat and bald) for politics, but one does not join (say) the Kettering Lahnstein Twinning Group, or the friends of the Art Gallery and Museum for politics – people of all political beliefs (and none) should be welcome.
To exclude someone from a theatre because one does not like the politics of their production is a despicable thing to do.
This is even getting into jobs now – a couple of years ago (after I was made redundant from the local amusement park – due to Mr Johnson’s “lockdown” absurdity) I considered becoming a security guard again – an absurd thought I know (I am too old and unhealthy) but it was a thought and I looked into it – now (unlike “my day”) one needs a “license” to be a security guard (this supposedly removes people of bad character – of course it does nothing of the kind), and the very first section in the work one had to do to get a license was POLITICAL – it was all about the Frankfurt School Marxist “Woke” “Diversity and Inclusion” agenda.
In short one cannot even be a security guard in this country unless one believes in, or convincingly pretends to believe in, Frankfurt School Marxism.
Even lawyers, we are now told by the Law Society, will be forgiven Common Law crimes if those crimes were committed to further the environmental and social (“anti racism” and all the rest of it) agenda of the left – but if a lawyer commits “Hate Speech” (whatever that is supposed to be – there is no such Common Law crime) they are OUT.
Every nation in the E.U. now has “Hate Speech” “laws” (Estonia was the last hold-out), and Britain, de facto, has them to – and a couple of appointments to the United States Supreme Court will end the 1st Amendment in the United States (and the 2nd, and the 4th and 5th and the 10th – indeed it will end the Bill of Rights).
The “Woke” “ESG” (Environmental and Social Governance) Corporations act as if the 1st Amendment (“it does not apply to private companies Paul” oh bugger off, these massive enterprises are the creation of the state and its Credit Money) was already gone – the commitment of the Corporations to Frankfurt School Marxism is partly due to their false belief (shared by such people as Mr Peter Hitchens) that Frankfurt School “Woke” Marxism does not have an economic commitment to take over the means of production – it does have such a commitment (Mr Hitchens is mistaken), as the Corporations will find out at some point (although I find it difficult to care about them – due to their disgusting behaviour, or rather the disgusting behaviour of “educated” Corporate managers).
No wonder that, in their despair, some people turn to that bloody handed dictator Vladimir Putin – as I have said before, non-leftists (indeed non-Frankfurt School people) in the West are drowning (it is clear that the establishment want to remove us from this world – they want to utterly destroy us, by any means necessary) – and a drowning man will sometimes even clutch at a poisonous snake.
Conservatives do not want much, we just want honest work where we do not have to strike political attitudes – and where we can earn money (real money – as my father understand that word, not some fiat or credit invention of governments and bankers) to look after ourselves and our families – and help others, and a land where we can say what we like (even if the next morning we have a different opinion), without fear of being PUNISHED.
The trouble is that this no longer applies to any nation in the modern West – and (Paul Joseph Watson and others please note) it does NOT apply to Russia either.
Paul,
I think there is almost a more fundamental point. In order to go to a theatre one must buy a ticket. You don’t have to. It is a choice. Personally I like Shakespeare and don’t like musicals so I don’t buy tickets for musicals. It is that simple. It is the same as choosing to go to a certain restaurant – or not.
I am closer to Mr Ed than to Mr de H on the merits of Monty Pythin, but the real disaster was the ‘alternative comedy’ of the 1980s onwards, the seriously un-funny ranting of juveniles (give me Round the Horne and Max Miller, even Wilson, Keppel and Betty).
Paul, the Law Society is a dreadful dunghill of rent-seekers, far from representative of the soliciting folk, except that it seeks to remould that profession in its likeness – the younger solicitors are inured to box-ticking garbage; older ones, engaged in private conversation, admit it is time-wasting bollocks and still have some conception of client confidentiality as a real thing (not as defined largely out of existence but tons of regulation, much of it gold-plated by the panjandrums of, er, the Law Society).
James Hargrave – the Frankfurt School types control the Law Society, and they control the universities where future lawyers and judges are being “educated”. The long-term consequences of this are clear – conservatives will be unable to get a fair trial – indeed the laws themselves (thanks, in part, to the “Law Commission” set up by Harold Wilson) are increasingly a mockery of the Common Law. Look, for example, at the “Equality Act” of 2010 (Gordon Brown’s curse upon the United Kingdom) – it takes the basic principles of the Common Law and defecates on them.
NickM.
I agree with what you say. And the same is true for a political speech – one does not have to go to listen to it, it is a choice.
“That racist politician made a racist speech” – well YES, someone advocating racialism will make a racialist speech. That is their right – it is not something I would choose to go to listen to.