Patologie de ţară

Britain: narcissist nation By Joris Luyendijk

Rarely have Europeans, including this London-based Dutchman, been granted such deep insight into the darkest corners of the English psyche (I am going to leave out the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish). The charitable view is that many English people have a superiority complex that prevents them from being realistic about their country’s place in the world. As the Brexit saga drags on, one wonders if parts of the UK’s political and media establishment, if not the whole country, are not in fact in the grips of collective clinical narcissism.

Diverging slightly from its usage in popular culture, psychotherapists employ the concept of narcissism to describe people with an unstable sense of identity. Feelings of vulnerability, dependency and helplessness can overwhelm them and for this reason narcissists cling to notions of grandiosity. They cannot consider others except as instruments to be manipulated or enemies to be fought. Marked by a mixture of bravado and contempt for those perceived as weaker, narcissists cannot accept criticism and feel no interest in others—let alone empathy.

So let us map this on to the Brexit debate. Grandiosity came in two forms. For “Leave,” Britain is a great country and if things don’t feel that way it must be because of the European Union. Being special, other nations will rush to strike deals with the UK post-Brexit. The UK, being a very special country, needs the EU far less than vice versa so Europeans will give Britain a great deal, too.

“Remain” grandiosity was more implicit, but still there. The most revealing example was probably David Cameron’s threat in Brussels to back “Leave” in the referendum unless he got “a better deal for Britain.” This was reported not as blackmail but as a demand for “concessions.” The implication: its very membership is a favour granted by the UK to the EU.

 

Accident la muzeu

Hapless caterer knocks thumb off Roman statue in British Museum accident By Hannah Furness

When catering a prestigious event, any waiter may fear clumsily dropping a plate or spilling a drink on an eminent guest. 

Few will suffer the indignity of accidentally knocking a thumb off a priceless Roman statue with their head.

The British Museum has admitted to an “unfortunate incident” which saw the thumb of the famous Townley Venus knocked clean off by a member of catering staff.

The caterer, who worked for an external company not regularly used by the Museum, had bent down underneath it and bumped into the marble as they got up again.

A spokesman for the museum said it had taken the incident “seriously”, with the sculpture “fully restored” quietly by conservators.

Cărţi

Bookish fools By Frank Furedi

It is Saturday, 1 November 2014. I am book-browsing at Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City when my attention is caught by a collection of beautifully produced volumes. I look closer and realise that these books are part of what’s called the Leatherbound Classic series. An assistant informs me that these fine specimens help to ‘embellish your book collection’. Since this exchange, I am reminded time and again that, as symbols of cultural refinement, books really matter. And, though we are meant to be living in a digital age, the symbolic significance of the book continues to enjoy cultural valuation. That is why, often when I do a television interview at home or in my university office, I am asked to stand in front of my bookshelf and pretend to be reading one of the texts.

Since the invention of the cuneiform system of writing in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE and of hieroglyphics in Egypt around 3150 BCE, the serious reader of texts has enjoyed cultural acclamation. The clay tablets on which marks and signs were inscribed were regarded as precious and sometimes sacred artefacts. The ability to decipher and interpret the symbols and signs was seen as an extraordinary accomplishment. Egyptian hieroglyphics were thought to possess magical powers and, to this day, many readers regard books as a medium for gaining a spiritual experience. Since text possesses so much symbolic significance, how people read and what they read is widely perceived as an important feature of their identity. Reading has always been a marker of character, which is why people throughout history have invested considerable cultural and emotional resources in cultivating identities as lovers of books.

Cu PNL la trepanaţie

Acum am înţeles de ce are nevoie PNL de un neurochirurg, recte, Leon Dănăilă. Ceva nu merge bine la mansardă.

Dragnea, despre intenţia PNL de a contesta la CCR legea taxelor via Mediafax

„Ultimul sfat pentru colegii de la PNL care ar fi anunţat că vor să atace la CCR această lege, dincolo de faptul că le va fi greu să explice că atacă un proiect pe care l-au votat deja, au un instrument care nu mai are nici un fel de personalitate şi anume Guvernul condus de Cioloş care atacă la CCR. Au atacat legea dării în plată, iniţiată de un parlamentar PNL, susţinută de noi, aprobată în parlament, au atacat legea conversiei, susţinută împreună şi aprobată de noi, lăsaţi-i să atace şi această lege a taxelor ca să nu mai fie nici un dubiu în ceea ce priveşte această ipocrizie”, a declarat Dragnea, în plenul Camerei.