A notes file for reading “The Madness of Crowds” by Douglas Murray

1. Words

  dementing  
  nicked the tripwire  
  notched up to the odd  
  put yourself beyond the pale  
  shift mores  
  to strew  
  fraught  
  avowals  
  volubly  
  demeaning  
  unfurl  
  punters  
  unflustered  
  whacky-backy  
  Jewess  
  tribulations  
  snigger  
  twitchy  
  wracking  
  scorn  
  confrères  
  forbearance  
  take on  
  kick up  
  opprobrium  
  whiplash  
  hitherto  
  tedium  
  mores of the age  
  left in the wake  
  quibbles  
  dowdy  
  pulpit  
  tout  
  knock-on  
  emblazoned  
  asinine  
  equanimity  
  imbibe  
  assail  
  gobbledygook  
  smattering  
  rife with  
  Slink  
  midriff  
  segue  
  witter  
  racked with confusion  
  umpteenth  
  imbibed  
  lip-service  
  tut-tut  
  mangy-looking  
  let-off  
  risible.  
  ineluctably  
  leg-up  
  heave-some  
  tenuous  
  discern  
  compunction  
  on the cusp  
  pivoted on a dime  
  surreptitiously  
  anti-miscegenation  
  leeway  
  imbroglio  
  peroration  
  regurgitate  
  foment  
  atone  
  lampoon  
  imbibe  
  umpire  
  condescension  
  fad  
  encroaching  
  castigated  
  dalliances  
  ire  
  surmised  
  amped off  
  mushing  
  plaudits  
  indignant  
  porcine  
  ordure  
  slurry  
  to tar  
  crop up  
  abasement  
  schadenfreude  
  quagmire  
  recourse  
  frailty  
  rumbustious  
  sidles  
  qualms  
  transpire  
  aggravation  
  flay  
  opprobrium  
  pugilist  
  flicking  
  pouting  
  childhood haunts  
  stand-in  
  flaunt  
  adumbrate  
  unsnap a onesie  
  doozy  
  cowed by  
  out of line  
  vying  
  derange  
  animosity  
  cuttlefish  
  prelapsarian  
  coy  
  nixed  
  frailties  
     

2. Notes

2.3. The Royal College of Psychiatrists considers that sexual orientation is determined by a combination of biological and postnatal environment factors.’

‘There is no evidence to go beyond this and impute any kind of choice into the origins of sexual orientation.’

It is not the case that sexual orientation is immutable or might not vary to some extent in a person’s life. Nevertheless, sexual orientation for most people seems to be set around a point that is largely heterosexual or homosexual. Bisexual people may have a degree of choice in terms of sexual expression in which they can focus on their heterosexual or homosexual side. It is also the case that for people who are unhappy about their sexual orientation – whether heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual – there may be grounds for exploring therapeutic options to help them live more comfortably with it, reduce their distress and reach a greater degree of acceptance of their sexual orientation.

2.4. American Psychiatrist Association: kinda same thought: homosexuality is something totally obscure.

There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.

2.5. Douglas is speaking about the “Hardware vs. Software” issue.

This debate is very close to myself. My life in Edinburgh was incredibly miserable. Why? I am an “industrious man”. I love what I do. I love learning. I love research. I love trying new things and I like trying foreign cultures.

Why did I feel so horrible, miserable and inefficient in Edinburgh? Why is it that I only managed to switch to the production mode in Russia, and even more in China?

Is it hardware or software?

It seems to me that “nurture” and “environment” cannot be classified as purely “hardware” or software. “Firmware” perhaps? I am not sure though.

2.8. All women have something that heterosexual men want. They are

holders, and wielders, of a kind of magic. But here is the thing: gays appear in some way to be in on the secret. That may be liberating for some people. Some women will always enjoy talking with gay men about the problems – including the sexual problems – of men. Just as some straight men will always enjoy having this vaguely bilingual friend who might help them learn the other language. But there are other people for whom it will always be unnerving. Because for them gays will always be the people – especially the men – who know too much.

2.9. The utility of such groups is obvious: their ‘highly diverse struggles:

urban, ecological, anti-authoritarian, anti-institutional, feminist, anti- racist, ethnic, regional or that of sexual minorities’ give purpose and drive to a socialist movement that needs new energy. What is more, unless they cohere together these groups might just pursue their own agendas and their own needs. What is needed is to bring all these movements under one umbrella: the umbrella of the socialist struggle.

2.10. Laclau and Mouffe write of ‘what interests us about these new social

movements’ and explain how it ‘leads us to conceive these movements as an extension of the democratic revolution to a whole new series of social relations. As for their novelty, that is conferred upon them by the fact that they call into question new forms of subordination.’

2.11. An example of a shitty sentence.

The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural tonalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

2.13. an example of people deliberately and lazily adopting simplified misrepresentations of

what other people are saying in order to avoid the difficult discussion that would otherwise have to take place

2.14. The confusion that Nicki Minaj acts out here is representative of a

whole host of other things in our culture. It contains an unresolvable challenge and an impossible demand. The demand is that a woman must be able to lap-dance before, drape herself around and wiggle her ass in the face of any man she likes. She can make him drool. But if that man puts even one hand on the woman then she can change the game completely. She can go from stripper to mother superior in a heartbeat. She can go from ‘Look at my butt, waving in front of your face’ to ‘How dare you think you can touch the butt I’ve been waving in front of your face all this time.’ And it is he who must learn that he is in the wrong.

2.16. The survey found that only 9

per cent of British women used the word ‘feminist’ to describe themselves. Only 4 per cent of men did. The vast majority of people surveyed supported gender equality. In fact a larger number of men than women supported equality between the sexes (86 per cent versus 74 per cent). But the vast majority also resisted the ‘feminist’ label.

2.19. Why cannot we still buy some robot that would grow us food at the window?

Like, I do not eat that much stuff. Could I just buy a robot shelf, stock it with fertilisers, connect to a wire, and be done with it? It may even be outside of the city, and would send me food with a drone.

3. Summary

3.1. So far I have found several things that Murray constantly ignores.

  • The unimaginable hardness to fit your own standards in the world where everyone sees everyone. Part of this madness is due to the fact that in the past everyone could carve for himself a place where he could be a “king”. That was a family and a circle of friends. Now you have the whole world to compete with.
  • The hardly imaginable hardness to reach any decent level of proficiency in anything. Too many academics know nothing, but are still academics. And the whole life is not enough to learn what is required for an academic to be an academic. And the competition for the positions in fields that are less complicated is billions per place.
  • The thing with discussing the “trans” issue is that many people don’t care about it. One of the things with “public discussions” is that they do not represent anyone.

<2020-09-13 Sun 22:00> I have finished the book. It left me thinking. I do now really understand whether this book leaves the feeling of optimism or pessimism. It does leave the feeling that learning social sciences, and more importantly, learning how to … be an adult. Learn things that adults do and how real adults make decision by books and by choosing a referential group.

Learning Chinese in a proper way is becoming more and more urgent. Reading Derrida, Foucault, Chomsky and other people who contributed to confusion a lot is also important. And perhaps the opponents deserve more attention than friends. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Gays are dangerous beasts. A couple of gays defeats a heterosexual couple at almost anything easily. (As the swan example indicates vividly.)

I do have a female-ish component that needs to be addressed somehow. Is there a cheap cheaty way out of it? Without much effort? Perhaps just some male beauty services?

I guess, I will not publish a review of this book.

Twitter culture is very, very specific. Be careful about it.