It’s interesting on pacifism. Is pacifism just a lazy way of not having to ever make a stand for anything?

What kind of morality can there be in standing up for what you believe in if you put your own life and the lives of people you love at risk?

But what kind of world do you live in when people only consider the safety and well being of their own and refuse to stand against the (inevitable?) bad guys when they come?

I get kind of frustrated sometimes with the idea that there should never be war because of how terrible war is. Well OK, war is terrible. But if you’re not prepared ever to go to war over anything then what do you stand for?

Of course the main example of a just war is WWII and the supposed fight against fascism. But of course neither Britain nor the USA went to war with Germany to save the victims of the Nazis. Any saving of the innocent that went on was basically collateral benefit rather than the goal of involvement.

I guess I’d be a pacifist myself if it wasn’t for a nagging voice that tells me that in my case I’m just doing it for the easy life. I’m like the townsfolk who thought Will Kane was crazy. I’d rather just let the gunmen ride into town.

Coward? Probably. Pragmatist - I’d like to think so. But there’s nothing idealistic about my distaste for war or violence.

The woman in it gets to watch this huge bank of screens and follow people around on them. I am totally against this kind of thing but I would really love to have a go of one. Just sitting there watching people doing regular things would fascinate me. In some way I think that’s where my fascination for videoblogs - and by that I mean regular people’s short, personal video offerings - comes from. Little glimpses into everyday life can be so telling. On their own they can be kind of boring and mundane, but in aggregate they are a huge story. I guess that’s why the bank of cameras is so compelling - you’ve got your compendium of views right there in front of you.

Last week at work I got access to some footage from a police ride along that one of the reporters did. The cast offs had some really great stuff in them. There was some stuff from an actual real life bank of cameras in Belfast. And also a policeman on the beat showing off for the camera. He did a practise search of some young men. I find it really poignant for some reason. Why did they agree to let a policeman search them? Did they really feel they had a choice? The young lads seem incredibly sweet and they’re pretty funny. I guess it’s not the typical interaction between a policeman and some young lads as he is gently chiding them and they are ribbing him and he is fully aware of that but ignores it. Basically like a teacher and some rascally teenagers at school.

Police Ride Along Videos

Survivor always has a bit of the cultural colonialism about it - Americans going to beautiful untouched wildernesses abroad and living as “tribes”. There’s always at least one reward where they go to some kind of supposedly traditional feast and meet the natives wearing their traditional garb. In fact, in a particularly unpleasant gesture during the most recent season they actually blobbed out the bare breasts of women. So they get the tribespeople to put on this ghastly show so the “audience back home” can get see a bit of foreign culture kitsch and then deem their traditional costume too obscene to be actually shown.

But this trailer is really quite explicit: America is safe and homely. Africa is dangerous. But Africa’s nature and people offer a way back to prelapsarian innocence. Here are some direct quotes:
“one of Earth’s last sanctuaries for pure, untouched wilderness”
“rituals and dances as pure today as they were generations ago”

The tagline is “Earth’s last Eden”!

Extraordinary.

I’d love to see an urban Survivor. Or possibly better - a surburban one. Survivor Swords - see the tribes compete in the shadow of Dublin’s only international airport on the flat terrain of “Co.” Fingal.

Her husband is both right and wrong - everyone in an orchestra is making a sound, else there would be no noise. In the case of the Berlin Philharmonic, each musician is (in theory at least) playing their instrument extremely proficiently. And yet when you listen to the piece they’re playing together, the individual musician is not often distinguishable.

There’s little individual glory in playing in an orchestra, even one as highly regarded as this one. The film exposed the extent to which these musicians were motivated by being part of an institution with a history, with a tradition of excellence. One of them said that conductors (in this case Simon Rattle) come and go, but the Berlin Philharmonic endures.

This points to a tension between the individual who makes his name and the collaborators who contribute almost anonymously.

In a world world where individualism reigns, reputation is crucial. But it’s more than reputation: it’s renown. People seek to become known for what they do beyond their own circle, because that (hopefully) puts them in a position where they can make money based on their name. Getting press can be as important in many fields as performing well.

But what about where people can make their living being part of something bigger than themselves? Many of the musicians interviewed spoke of having been outsiders throughout their lives and of how important was the sense of belonging they got from being members of the orchestra. The tradition of excellence and the history of the institution itself mattered to them. They were proud of being a part of this group and held themselves to very high standards in what they did.

For people who seek to belong to something bigger than themselves and who are motivated to work hard to contribute to a group endeavour, how can you create the conditions to inspire their loyalty and provide them with the sense of belonging and pride in what they do?

Some of the practices of the Berlin Philharmonic are very interesting in this regard: potential new members get to join on probation and are ultimately voted on by their peers who decide whether or not they get to stay on a permanent basis. The voting process also applies to the conductor - even the big star has to comply with the traditions of the orchestra and submit himself to the judgement of his peers.

Journalistic ethics in Greece. Interesting.

Martin Belam again. This time he’s talking about 24-7 TV news websites. He has some very interesting things to say about the potential confusion caused by the way that BBC News is branded online.

There’s a video with this that shows some of the ideas for multiplatform radio in the UK.

The final part of Martin Belam’s review of the accessibility of online newspaper sites.