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johnny9fingersCame across this:
www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/15/elif-shafak-books-writers-academics-women-hostility-erdogan-turkey
Which is an article on the clamp-down on Turkey's publishing industry. I'm not in favour of this, though I can see some very limited reasons to censor or delay the release of some information according to a strictly-defined set of requirements; q.v. due process, national interest, etc.
Anyway, in the article I came across this:
Authoritarian populism likes to divide society into two camps: the pure people versus the corrupt elite. Writers, poets, journalists and scholars are often associated with the latter group. In the populist imagination, being elite has nothing to do with economic power or social status. It is about values. In this way, a university assistant who cannot afford a house in the city and has to commute for hours every day but happens to have progressive ideas can be labelled “elite”, while a hedge fund manager will be called “a man of the people” if he sponsors populist nationalistic movements.
And for some reason or other I can't think that particular political dichotomy is confined to Erdogan's Turkey. But back to the idea of the anti-permissive brigade being able to turn the clock back on all the changes of the C20th and C21st. Erdogan seems to have identified it will take a lot of oppression and intimidation to achieve his goals, and has set about it with a steely determination. In some ways Turkey is now pivotal. Erdogan has become a natural bridge between the US, in the form of NATO, and Russia. This despite recent small hostilities with Russia and a long-term membership of NATO. The delivery of the Russian missile system looks to have made Turkey's situation interesting. I suppose it is a good job that at the moment Russia, the US, and Turkey are all led by er, um, populist strongmen who seem to be able to get along well with each other when required.
I suppose Turkey will see a flight of the poets if Erdogan gets his way; I wonder if they will qualify for refugee status in the EU or UK? Oh well. I'd tend to want to help folk like me from other cultures in difficulty. I suppose we might become overpopulated with folk who can think and write if we were to open our borders to these intellectual folk fleeing persecution.
I can really see the Farage-istas getting behind that. Or not.
www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/15/elif-shafak-books-writers-academics-women-hostility-erdogan-turkey
Which is an article on the clamp-down on Turkey's publishing industry. I'm not in favour of this, though I can see some very limited reasons to censor or delay the release of some information according to a strictly-defined set of requirements; q.v. due process, national interest, etc.
Anyway, in the article I came across this:
Authoritarian populism likes to divide society into two camps: the pure people versus the corrupt elite. Writers, poets, journalists and scholars are often associated with the latter group. In the populist imagination, being elite has nothing to do with economic power or social status. It is about values. In this way, a university assistant who cannot afford a house in the city and has to commute for hours every day but happens to have progressive ideas can be labelled “elite”, while a hedge fund manager will be called “a man of the people” if he sponsors populist nationalistic movements.
And for some reason or other I can't think that particular political dichotomy is confined to Erdogan's Turkey. But back to the idea of the anti-permissive brigade being able to turn the clock back on all the changes of the C20th and C21st. Erdogan seems to have identified it will take a lot of oppression and intimidation to achieve his goals, and has set about it with a steely determination. In some ways Turkey is now pivotal. Erdogan has become a natural bridge between the US, in the form of NATO, and Russia. This despite recent small hostilities with Russia and a long-term membership of NATO. The delivery of the Russian missile system looks to have made Turkey's situation interesting. I suppose it is a good job that at the moment Russia, the US, and Turkey are all led by er, um, populist strongmen who seem to be able to get along well with each other when required.
I suppose Turkey will see a flight of the poets if Erdogan gets his way; I wonder if they will qualify for refugee status in the EU or UK? Oh well. I'd tend to want to help folk like me from other cultures in difficulty. I suppose we might become overpopulated with folk who can think and write if we were to open our borders to these intellectual folk fleeing persecution.
I can really see the Farage-istas getting behind that. Or not.
