mass culture: how it works

Okay, let me start off by saying that I absolutely loved the book - it had me hooked more than Harry Potter....

This one, which is the opening line of an IMDb review of the movie Da Vinci Code, gives away everything you need to know about this socio-cultural phenomenon.

Cultural difference: the flag debate in Russia

Most Europeans find Americans’ predilection to display the national flag wherever possible quite odd. Unlike the US (or Canada for that matter) in Europe national flags can only be seen on state buildings and during international events, in other words they are for outward consumption, so to speak.
What I’ve heard from Russia recently smacks of another kind of extremes. According to several news reports (examples are here and here). It’s illegal in Russia to have the national tricolor displayed permanently unless it’s a government institution. Apparently, one can do it freely only during national holidays. Or, translated from the bureaucratic lingo, the national flag belongs to the state, period. One can’t find a better metaphor to describe in what direction Russia is headed.

On courage

If you have been following the news just a little bit, you must be aware of this new variation of the Goliath vs. David story: George Bush getting roasted by Stephen Colbert at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.
Predictably, people's reaction to this depends greatly on their political persuasion: as Sheldon Alberts wrote in the National Post

While conservatives reacted with can't-take-a-joke outrage, liberal bloggers have spent the week hailing Mr. Colbert as the second coming of Mark Twain. In their eyes, he proved his mettle as a fearless truth teller who refused to tone down his act to please Mr. Bush or the media lapdogs who hired him for the gig.

Furthermore, the latter hailed Colbert as a national hero, for his great feat of valour:

"How refreshing to hear the truth and hear it straight. Colbert deserves a medal for distinguished service and bravery in the face of the 'enemy,' "Carolyn Jacobson wrote in a letter to the online edition of Editor & Publisher.

I don't want to get into an argument whether Colbert did break the rules or whether his act was funny - rules are meant to be skirted and everyone's entitled to his/her tastes. What caught my attention and sparked a protracted thread at the Bloviator was
the idea that what Colbert did was somehow 'brave' and 'corageous'.
No one would deny that it requires a certain type of personality, more outspoken I'd say, and yes, some guts to do what Cobert did. But to me, in order to call one corageous the bar is set much higher than that. Yes, Colbert might've been heckled by some Republicans in the audience but really what else was at stake? He knew perfectly well that nothing would happen to him and to his family. He wouldn't languish in jail or get executed and if anything his speech has only made him more famous and therefore solidified his position in the show-biz.
I, on the other hand, am familiar with examples when people paid dearly for speaking out. In 1968, a handful of young people staged a protest on the Red Square against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. One of them, Larissa Bogoraz "was arrested, tried and sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia, which she spent in a woodworking plant." - that's what I call COURAGE.
The Soviet Union is gone but there are still parts of the world where 'speaking out' can result in similar consequences. Liberals are all committed internationalists but their thinking is often ethnocentric, which is highly ironic, I think.

Russian language: pun trifles

Just coz it's funny:
"Хомячок поначалу очень боялся пылесоса. Но потом постепенно ВТЯНУЛСЯ".

В этом есть что-то отталкивающее, как сказал окунь, подпрыгивая на сковородке.

Chernobyl: 20 years on

This article in the Guardian is excellent.

on peer pressure

This would be hilarious if it weren't so sad:

MEDICINE HAT/630 CHED - The mother of a 23-year-old man accused of killing his 12-year-old girlfriend's parents and brother has spoken out.

Forty-three-year-old Jacqueline May says her son, Jeremy Allan Steinke, is a kind, loving person but says he is prone to peer pressure.[emphasis added]

Steinke and the girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, are charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

They are accused of killing a 42-year-old man, his 48-year-old wife and their eight-year-old son in the family's Medicine Hat home.

I understand though why she is saying this. What I don't understand is why the media feel obligated to report such nonsense. Isn't that patently obvious that a relative, especially the mother, would rarely say anything bad about the accused, regardless of the gravity of the crime.

Movie review: the Crash

Surpisingly, I don't have much to say about this one. The movie consisted of a bunch of amusing and sometimes 'touchy' stories and not much else. Although those stories were good and didn't form a single narrative and seemed only loosely related to each other. Nor did I find that much of 'complexity'; the Crash wasn't terribly profound, whatever the slavish media might tell you to the contrary. But again, I found it 'amusing' and therefore not that bad.
Score: 3/5