dom.blog

“…it is not unusual in theology to debate questions whose answer is certain (de re certa). After all, we admit debates on the Incarnation of Our Lord and other articles of faith. The reason is that not all theological disputations are of the deliberative kind. Frequently they are demonstrative – that is, undertaken not to argue about the truth, but to explain it.”

– Francisco de Vitoria, 1539.

(I mentally giggled at this today. No, I don’t think anybody else in the world is likely to, but I did all the same…)

Only two more essays (read: weeks) before the end of term! Not that I’m counting the days – it’ll be good to have a holiday and a rest, but I’m still enjoying the paper. In fact, something tells me that I am now going to find it very hard to resist doing the History of Political Thought 1700-1890 paper next year as a sequel. It would be an excuse to read Marx, after all But I shall wait and see whether the term ends with a supervision report along the lines of “please stop fighting with the sources!” or not.

An anecdotal snippet to tell you what you already know: I was walking back home today when a cyclist on the road just ahead suddenly stopped, turned slightly and fell to the ground. As a small crowd gathered to help, it was obvious that she was having some sort of fit, and so someone immediately phoned for an ambulance. It arrived within the space of a minute or two, and the paramedics acted with all the authority and care that you could hope for. Although I can’t know for sure, I’m fairly certain that the girl was going to be OK, and she did come around before I left.

I had three (pretty conventional) thoughts on all of this. Firstly, isn’t it comforting that people will come to someone in need? Secondly, and particularly in light of the very sad news about David Cameron’s son yesterday, isn’t the NHS wonderful? And thirdly, perhaps slightly less conventionally, we shouldn’t take what we all have for granted. I don’t mean in terms of health, happiness and public services – although those too! – but more in terms of knowledge and understanding. It seems so natural, for a concerned crowd to recognise an epileptic seizure, and to go to people who talk the language of symptoms, tests and blood sugar levels for help. But don’t you dare assume that it was. It took an awful lot of hard work, from many people across many centuries, to get here. It took huge shifts in how we think, and an awful lot of people ‘possessed by devils’ or with ‘unbalanced humours’, before fraud and quackery retreated to the less life-threatening world of expensive placebos. And it took a lot of arguing about what was thought oh-so de re certa.

This post is very late; but very late is better than never, right? And I’m in a good mood, feeling ahead of work for once (Locke: you may be a godsend to future moronic libertarians, but at least you were concise) and having had a moment of ‘awwness!’ earlier today in the sun, standing on a bridge over the Cam, looking at the punts go by and thinking how lovely and beautiful it all was. That and I was sipping a chocolate milkshake at the time. So without further ado, my answers to the shuffle music quiz, since I last did one almost two years ago. I’ll skip the ‘rules’, since I think you all know them by now…

If someone says ‘are you okay’ you say?
Losing Team – Dru Masters

How would you describe yourself?
Stillness in Time (Jamiroquai) – Calvin Harris

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Oedipus – Regina Spektor

How do you feel today?
Cartoon Heroes – Aqua [Ahem!]

What is your life’s purpose?
Give Da Jew Girl Toys – A plus D

What’s your motto?
The Return of the King – James Galway

What do your friends think of you?
Hanging on the Tablaphone – The BBC National Orchestra of Wales

What do your parents think of you?
Future Pleasure – Keff McCullock / Ron Grainer / Dominic Glynn

What do you think about very often?
I’m Telling You Now – Freddie and the Dreamers

What is 2 + 2?
Far Out / Where’s Your Head At / Engine Trouble – The Cut Up Boys

What do you think of your best friend?
Tied Up Too Tight – Hard Fi

What is your life story?
Our House – Madness

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Friday Night, Saturday Morning – The Specials

What do you think when you see the person you like?
[I’m actually going to cheat and skip the first thing that came up ] Madame de Pompadour – Murray Gold

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Blue Rondo a La Turk – Dave Brubeck [would be rather challenging]

What will they play at your funeral?
Perfect Day – Mixed Feelings

What is your hobby/interest?
Tomorrow Tomorrow – Elliot Smith

What is your biggest fear?
From God Above – Hillsong United [now this I’m not cheating at!]

What is your biggest secret?
Gypsy Woman 2006 – Sami Dee & Freddy Jones Vs. Crystal Waters

What do you want right now?
Fans – Kings of Leon

What do you think of your friends?
39.1 Degrees Celsius – Joel Goldsmith

What will you post this as?
International Jet Set – The Specials

Somebody reassure me, please, that I’m not the only one to have to-do lists with ‘blog!’ on them? I know I’m not the only one addicted to to-do lists in general, but they really are scattered everywhere: in text files on my desktop, on my phone, through Outlook flags, in notepads and even scrawled on the backs of receipts. The big problem is that they encourage you to mingle the short- and long-term, so ‘do washing’ will appear alongside ‘visit Manchester?’, the latter being impossible to cross off without lots of planning, effort and numerous new sub-to-do lists. Oh dear: pop psychology conclusions in neat bullet points on the back of the postcard, please.

A quick run down of the past week (because these summaries are ever so fascinating to read): Thursday saw lots of panic about whether anyone would brave the snow to come and see Richard Rex talk to the Caius History Society (they did!). Friday had the annual, wonderful history dinner which included me saying ‘Twilight..?’ hesitantly before the shouts of ‘misogyny!’ rang out loud and clear. From Saturday (Valentine’s Day! ) Lucy visited and stayed until Monday morning, where I realised that she was much, much better at working in my own library than I was. And finally, yesterday I wrote a bit of a rubbish essay on Hobbes – if you ask me it was nasty, brutish and short – before my mum came to wipe away the memory by taking me out to dinner

Oh, and I had a whole rant that’s been developing over the week but is now fading down in intensity. So I will only say this – directed at no-one in particular – the ’13 year old’ dad story? What does it say about modern society, modern parenting, modern values? The answer is nothing There’s nothing ‘to be learnt’ from one, single, brilliantly executed story of a relatively atypical but hardly unusual event. As I say, it is a great story, and it ticks boxes for tabloid journalism like you wouldn’t believe, with the perfect blend of unity (“god, how awful”) and division (“I blame the…”) along with gripping visuals and loving manipulation of children. But it tells us nothing. Our teenage pregnancy rate, the one that’s the highest in Europe? That also doesn’t ‘tell’ us anything in particular but does at least hint at many disturbing things. Not such a good story, though. Did I mention he was 13?

“Good afternoon! You’re listening to Drivetime LIVE on SpoutRadio with me, Angry McNab, on the show that hands over control to YOU and lets YOU say whatever’s really on YOUR mind. So let’s go straight to the phones, where our first caller is waiting: a Nick Michael from Florence. What’s on your mind, Nick?”

“Afternoon, Angry, afternoon. I just wanted to phone in to tell you how SICK I am with politics in Italy at the moment…”

“Oh it’s disgraceful, isn’t it?”

“It really is, Angry, it really is. But you don’t know the half of it, Angry, y’know cause I live in Florence, see, so I see it all close-up…”

“A ring-side view, would you say Nick?”

“That’s it, exactly, a ring-side view Angry, a ring-side view. And y’know, it really makes me mad because all we get is weak governments, Angry, weak governments and weak states…”

“Bit of trouble with the Spanish, I hear?”

“Oh yeah, I mean, trouble like you won’t believe, Angry..”

“And why do you think all this is happening, Nick?”

“Well if you ask me, Angry, if you do ask me I’d say it was because we have just LOST CONTROL of our military matters, y’know, just totally lost control and the situation’s terrible because of it. I remember, back when I was lad, like, when he had strong republics with a bit of fire in ’em, y’know? A bit of fighting spirit is what we need, Angry, if you ask me because we’ve just LOST it at the moment.”

“I’m glad you’ve brought this up, Nick, I really am, because we get a LOT of calls on this topic at the moment, Nick, an awful lot. In fact, I think the phonelines are going as we speak, y’know, because this is something that really gets you going and what I hear, over and over again, is that what really gets your goat is the use of mercenaries in all of this.”

“That’s it, Angry, that’s totally it, because y’see these mercenaries are just USELESS, y’know? Untrustworthy, just out to make a profit, y’know, out to look out for themselves and their business and no one cares about us in all of it, Angry, no-one seems to give a damn about us…”

“They say, Nick, the princes say that they need mercenaries because it’s just not gentlemanly to raise an army anymore. That’s what they say. What do you think about that?”

“Oh but doesn’t that just SHOW you, Angry, does that just show you how USELESS these people are? I tell you, I pay my taxes, I pay a lot of taxes, Angry, all us hardworking people do and we don’t even get a proper army to show for it. I tell you, it just makes me so mad sometimes, as I said, it really does.”

“And I think our listeners are with you on that one, Nick, they really are, so thank you very much for your call there, really sparking a debate on that one here. Right, time for our next caller, and it’s a Mr. Lipsius…”