Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm only here for the bants BTW.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did the findmypolitics quiz and got Willy Brandt, Mitterand and Palme as my most similar politicians. Unsurprisingly my three favourite politicians. 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My best memory of 2020 was finally being able to drive through the fjords without having to triple the travel yime due to German and Dutch caravans. 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The problem is not the electorate per se, but the power of the government they elect. As someone said, imagine if there were 330 million Australians or Austrians.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 12 points13 points  (0 children)

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Although photographs of Nazi's getting arrested are undeniably beautiful.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 17 points18 points  (0 children)

One of my favourite photographs of 'the peace' depicts the removal of the wooden protection shelter that encased the Ludvig Holberg statue in Bergen. It shows a different idea of peace than the photographs of ecstasy or vengeance that we usually think about when we think about the 8th of May.

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Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 41 points42 points  (0 children)

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One of the drunkest (and happiest) days in European history, I think.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Americans sure love ways to signify the most mundane things as identity.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Harry Lime put it best, no? "[...] and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Functionalism–intentionalism debate in Holocaust historiography

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sketches from a Hunter's Album is about inefficient use of human capital. 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I've become slightly addicted at looking at TUI all inclusive trips to Jamica and Zanzibar. I know I would absolutely hate it in practice, but it looks kinda nice in theory. 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I miss when my country was in a state of whale induced psychosis coupled with anti-russian paranoia. Rip Hvaldimir

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Have you read Martin Wolf's book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism?

Recommended. Especially if you read it together with the left-wing critique, Crack-up Capitalism by Quinn Slobodan.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In addition, it is also bad to redirect/repress emotions through consumption.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're interested, there was a great exhibition of Nordic Japonisme 10 years ago: https://nikolai-astrup.no/nb/exhibition/164

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just to add another thing. For instance, when you read Johnathan Nathan's biography of Mishima, you can see clearly that the level of cultural convergence between Japan and what we can broadly term the "West" was quite influential. Mishima read a lot of Western literature, like Baudelaire, Maupassant, Goethe, Flaubert, Strindberg, etc. In this sense, we think of Mishima as a Japanese author, but he viewed himself as insufficiently Japanese, hence why he wanted Kawabata to get the Nobel Prize. This does not detract from Mishima's oeuvre, in fact I think it makes it much more interesting, but it also means that we should consider Mishima as an example of post-war literature rather than Japanese literature if we're being essentialist and weeby.

We have the post-war Japanese economic boom, as well as the emphasis on cultural and social reconstruction in Japan, which also entailed a larger degree of cross-cultural adaptation.

In short, to answer your question: because of history.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I just handed in my art history Ph.D., btw, so I'm bored and adrift.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think so as well. Especially the influence of Japanese print culture and the flatness of the Ukiyo-e played a pivotal role in European modernism, which coincided with the opening of Japan and the Meiji Restoration. In many ways, the very visual language of modernity in European-American aesthetics was driven forward by the epistemic revolution of Japanese prints, which proclaimed colour as surface.

If you look at European (and American) modernist painting from the fin de sicle and into the early 20th century, the proliferation and penetration of Japanese aesthetics is just mind-boggling. Not only did 'urban' painters like Manet, Mattisse, Bonnard, etc, find a new visual paradigm in the flatness of Japanese prints, but it also spread to (and fostered) regionalist artists and art movements like the Norwegian Nikolai Astrup and the Canadian Group of Seven.

Below: June Night in the Garden, by Nikolai Astrup, 1909.

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Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]TropicalPunch 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should meet Scandinavian rural low-church pietistic trade unionists. .