Saturday, 1 May 2021

mayday (horsemouth returns to sunny panglossian optimism)

hot on the heels of lee walker's (the mellowtrons) first release in a while comes marc cattini's new EP. luxuriate in the sweeps and kraftwerk style melodies.

horse mouth's pessimistic mood has popped. he is returned to his usual sunny panglossian optimism.

how about a quote from the origins of totalitarianism to restore it. 

'never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest - forces that look like sheer insanity if judged by by the standards of other centuries. 

it is as though mankind had divided itself between those who believe in human omnipotence... and those for whom powerlessness has become the major experience of their lives...

this book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair.' 

hannah arendt is writing this in 1951 under the threat of mutually assured nuclear destruction following on from two world wars and a 'chain of local wars and revolutions'. for her one totalitarianism has fallen but another still stands strong. 

horsemouth has the penguin modern classics 'attack of the killer seagulls' edition essentially repackaged for modern times.

'how could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? 

the short answer is that we, too, live in dark times.' 

says the washington post on the back cover. for arendt humanity is beset by the mob and its irrational hatreds and this subterranean stream of western history has finally come to the surface. 

and yet both totalitarianisms have now fallen, the threat of mutually assured destruction has faded (as the treat of ecological collapse has become more real). and yet the origins of totalitarianism  is on hand as our guide to MAGAland, to brexit, to the political movements that threaten to disrupt politics as usual. 

and yet it is strange unwieldy reading. complicating our understanding of anti-semitism and totalitarianism. 

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last night was goat of mendes night (may eve) from 20:21. where was horsemouth? was he out at the sabbat? 

no he was off babysitting. (thus he returned in the early hours feeling virtuous). 

it is mayday - the day of rebirth and the international workers' movement. 

horsemouth sits here with his bowl of museli. wait he'll just adjust the calendar. 

this month - the birth of marx, bandcamp friday, a few more paydays, horsemouth's last day of work (for the season), the first meeting of the new management committee for the collective endeavour. 

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