Modernity

A term bandied about willy nilly.

What does it mean?

Apart from the purely factual - pertaining to chronologically recent times, events, practices etc.

It seem frequently to convey no more than a set of arrangements or changes of which the writer approves.

Politicians are forever wanting to modernise by which they seem to mean no more than to make changes they prefer.

When you hear of someone wishing to modernise something take a good look and be sure they are not just seeking to further their own advantage. So there!

It is not about the fox!

Again the UK is in paroxysms over the issue of fox hunting. The government, to please some of their support (perhaps not a majority it seems) wishes in effect to overturn the ban and legalise this bizarre spectacle. Those wishing to keep the ban and even see it strengthened go on about the cruelty just as the hunters go on about the need to control fox numbers.
For the record - fox hunting has no significant effect on controlling fox numbers and yes the fox's last minutes are appalling - but worse things happen to people on a regular basis and we seem unwilling enough to address those.
The main argument against fox hunting is not what it does to the fox but what it does to the hunters. Seemingly normal sensible people take to fox hunting and become irrational braying deranged savages. In the interests of mental health let us ban it completely and let the hunters find alternative amusements.

Sociology and Science.

Sociology and Science. 

There never was a credible sociological history of science and  this is its story. A long time  ago a group of  sociologists were employed in a cold northern city to do some journeyman work  tidying up around a team of unruly scientists.  They tired of their labour and took to some intellectual gardening, digging up facts and planting some ideas.  They soon tired  of that and badged themselves as historians.  The rest is history.  They are still at it,  peddling their weary notions as history and continuing to disdain the scientists they were originally employed to assist.  

What went wrong?   In their innocence they that thought history should be a record of "what happened".   When they observed that the  scientists were less than concerned with such detail  they had found their true metier. They would correct the scientists' perceptions, set the record right and save us all from error.  Wrong!  They failed utterly  to note that which is the essence of science and which the  scientists knew full well.  The  central issue of history is not "what happened"  but "what was happening".  There are at least  three reasons for this.  Discovering "what happened"  is all but impossible, it is but a single and thus unrepresentative sample  of what "might have happened"  and it consequently lacks predictive power.  The scientists correctly identified "what was happening" and separated the signal from the noise.  The sociologists failed to notice the important difference in approach and thus all these years later they are still repeating their dreary notions and disdaining the scientists at any given opportunity. What became of the scientists? They changed the world and they gave the sociologist (and the rest of us) most of what they hold dear. But no gratitude in evidence!

Women's Football

The womens World Cup is about to begin. It ought to be an enthralling event. It sadly won't be. Why? The reasons are simple. To understand why it will not entrance we need to understand what aspects of a modern professional game make it so successful. Broadly speaking most modern games are designed around the capabilities of full grown adult males. The game matches their physical capabilities. The simplest example is baseball. Once there was a child's game which morphed (by highly disputed routes) into the game we now enjoy. The  nature of the ball, the bat and the precise size of the pitch fit ideally the capabilities of adult males and create the opportunities for spectacle. Any other group playing the game with the same equipment would fail to enthrall.

And so with football. The ball, the pitch and the goalposts are the ideal size to create just enough opportunities for adult males to give us the spectacle we so much enjoy.

For women playing soccer the pitch, the goalposts and the ball are all too large. The players cannot run fast enough on the full sized pitch, the goalkeepers are not tall enough to defend their goal adequately and the ball is proportionately too large and heavy.

Reduce the sizes of the ball, the goal posts and the pitch and we would have a true rival to the male version of the game.

When it happens remember you read it first here!

Sportswear

Sportswear is a monstrosity. It is made by the poorest people who are exploited for their labour. It is bought and worn largely by people who do not participate in sport. It is sold by uncrupulous people in thrall to mega rich sporting organisations intent on exploiting their supporters. 

Altogether an enterprise we would be better off without.

Cargo Cult

My country is engulfed by un-reason. Many of my countrymen will vote soon on becoming independent from the United Kingdom. They may even prevail. Words can hardly describe this folly. The nearest I can get is the phenomenon of the cargo cult which exists in parts of the Pacific.There people have a memory going back to WWII when aircraft brought goods and supplies for the war effort and which at the margin benefited local people. After the war the belief developed that these deliveries could be induced to continue and to this day various religious practices are followed which seek to restore these deliveries bringing material prosperity. This religion is sometimes described as a cargo cult. The followers of the Scottish National Party show some similarities. In defiance of all reasonable independent assessments they cling to the notion that independence from the United Kingdom will bring prosperity beyond the dreams of avarice. If we step over this line we shall find out!

Three Paradoxes

Over the last few decades a number of trends amusingly point to a gap between aspiration and actions.

In clothing and footwear we have seen the huge growth of sportswear parallel increasing inactivity and a decline in participant sport. Fortunes have been made on the trend. We do less but are more inclined to dress as if we did more.

In household design we see a massive growth in the importance of kitchens, their design, equipment and all round desirability precisely in time with a collapse in home cooking and the growth of fast food and restaurants.

Lastly we have seen an explosion of attention to dentistry both conventional and cosmetic. We have never for many centuries had better teeth precisely as we have adopted a diet that renders highly efficient dentition less and less necessary.

With better sportswear, cooking facilities and better teeth just think how much healthier we could be. Sadly we take less exercise, cook less and consume a worse diet all leading to the current epidemic of obesity. Do we spend more on sportswear, kitchens and dentistry to ease  a sense of guilt at our own behaviour?