John Walker's Electronic House

Rum Doings Episode 212: You Want A Bit Of Racism, Don’t You?

by on May.05, 2016, under Rum Doings

In our 212th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, wouldn’t the money spent on the Rio Olympics have been better spent on the NHS and the kiddies and the old folk?

We talk London’s mayoral options, the death of Prince, and return to the topic of national price vs nationalism.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/212_rumdoings.mp3]
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6 Comments for this entry

  • thomas

    John, I’m pretty sure you have 60 Australian points. I’m not sure that’s enough to get into London though.
    (https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/189-)

  • Qivers

    I felt compelled to say, that was my favourite ‘heaven hi’ yet. So, good job.

    The rest of the podcast was also spiffy.

  • Entropy

    I think your view of national pride is a bit simplistic, John.

    I’m not a particularly patriotic person myself, but you seem to have a view that your country is simply something that acts upon you, rather than something you participate in.

    Can’t you be proud to be part of something larger than yourself? If you view your society as being ‘good’ and doing good things (leaving aside the moral minefield of actually judging the virtue of British/Western society), can’t you be proud to be part of that tradition?

  • John Walker

    Entropy – I have a near-negligible effect on my geographic society, and am certainly not in the least bit proud of the actions of a society that is increasingly self-involved, cruel and intolerant. There are traditions of British society that are morally good, as well as those that are morally bad. It would require some sort of unimaginable ignorance for me to think it rational to take notice only of the positive and then declare myself “proud”, let alone the wanton nonsense of taking pride in something I didn’t have a part in.

    And I have made no argument regarding the country as being something that acts upon me. The country *is*. It’s a geographical landmass. The actions of individuals and organisations within it are multifarious and wildly conflicting, and form no coherent whole.

    Calling my position simplistic, and then attempting to counter it by ignoring the complexity of the point I’m making, isn’t a winning start, of course.

  • Callan

    Nick’s take on the London mayoral election seemed a bit too Harry’s Place. Especially for having previously said that he could recognise something good in someone isolated from the rest of their character.

  • Nick Mailer

    Callan: forgive me for being a little picky about someone who was involved in Ahmedi-hate just so he could get elected in Tooting. Make no mistake: he was a nasty piece of work. Let’s just hope he’s seen the error of his ways and/or has seen that a more inclusive path now makes more sense.