'to all the people who have made the exodus from society and its politics' (mary celeste)

fred inglis takes hoggart to be an egalitarian authority, he enjoins would be investigators to be 'one of the people on whom nothing is lost' in the words of henry james. this seems to horsemouth something of a curse - but then he is, according to myers briggs as an introvert someone not that interested in observing and responding to the social process but more with the structure of of ideas and still more with actual outcomes.

like ranciere hoggart is resistant to theories that explain away, for instance the following quote seems perfectly reasonable to horsemouth and yet at the same time deeply wrong (hoggart takes against it too);

 'all state education is a sort of dynamo machine for polarising the popular mind; for turning and holding its lines of force in the direction supposed to be most effective for state purposes.' - the education of henry adams, 1918. 

of course education policy in this country is not education policy but an animal husbandry policy (seeing as the ruling class do not use the schools for which they decide policy - ok the millibland twins were state educated (god bless you ralph) but otherwise not). so in theory education policy should be framed by what is best for the state - but no the picture is incredibly more complex (and even more random). like housing, education is one of the ministries where nebbishes are warehoused, portfolios for oblivion, and out of which they attempt to clamber by making a lot of noise. some even survive to make it back to the back benches.

december the fourth was the anniversary of the discovery by sailors on the dei gratia of the empty mary celeste floating unmanned. the bbc news briefing calls her the marie celeste - her fictional name in the story by sir arthur conan doyle. among the crew of the mary celeste who were lost were the captain benjamin briggs, his wife sarah, and their daughter sophia. a son arthur was left with the paternal grandmother in marion massachusetts. a lineal descendent of arthur is the physicist lyman briggs, husband to katherine cook briggs and father to isabel briggs myers - the promulgators of the myers-briggs personality test. the mary celeste was eventually (1885) wrecked off the coast of haiti in a bogus insurance claim attempt.

 this blog contains at least one lie.