The self-mutilation/disfiguration remains a mystery. Were I of the medical or spiritual persuasion, then I'm sure I'd find a meritorious thesis therein.
Changing times:
The self-mutilation/disfiguration remains a mystery. Were I of the medical or spiritual persuasion, then I'm sure I'd find a meritorious thesis therein.
Reading the comments I expected to see a picture of a crippled girl. Instead I see a picture of a back with a nice tattoo.
I have less issues with a disfigured body than with a disfigured mind.
That brings mind an article written in The Spectator many (>30, I think) years ago by Theodore Dalrymple, the pseudonym of a world-weary psychiatrist and prison doctor. He observed that nearly everyone in prison was tattooed and that many had acquired their tattoos while very young and perhaps less than entirely sober and now regretted it. Encouragingly, he wrote, there had been founded a Guild of Tattooists, which had a Code of Conduct that would (might, perhaps) prevent such mistakes.
He concluded with a maxim that I have employed many times since: "if a job isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing well".
Jeremy
In the case of the body, it's usually a willing act of spoiling and responsibility lies with the body's owner.
In the case of a spoiled mind, then that may well have litttle to do with the owner of that mind having made any conscious decision on the matter.
Seems unfair to blame someone for something outwith his/her control.
Following the same path, and with Dalrymple in mind, men can say it is the left intellectual class to blame. Blame for creating the social underclass that carries the mindset of peoples willing to put tattoos in there neck.
It is far more complex than this. Tattoos are not anymore the sole property of sailors, underclass, gangs or gothic girls.
In some cases of pregnancy, there can be no doubt about it whatsoever.
:-)
Of course not; it's a general dumbing down that's happening in front of our eyes. I don't think I'd blame any specific political bias, but I would blame the digital world for the simple reason that it has stopped the need to learn anything, if only because just as long as one can read, then the good Doc Google has all the answers, the relevant ones or otherwise... You see it in the lack of real communication: every day, as I sit having lunch, tables beside me have people sitting together ignoring one another in favour of their little screens. I wonder if the same people go to bed and screw the imaginary person on their device? In some cases of pregnancy, there can be no doubt about it whatsoever. Unless, of course, we are dealing with one of the "disfigured minds" we were discussing earlier.
Of course, there is always the fashion magazine world to blame: all those pretty ladies wearing blemishes. But then, who said models have to come with a university background, even if some have that level of brightness? I really think they own a collection of adhesive transfers. Otherwise, the poor old retouchers must have a helluva tough day where clients don't want a mess...
:-)
Is it the urge to be on of a kind?
When I was in my 20’s we spend time in smoky bars, dressed in jeans and suede jackets, discussing Shopenhauer and Nietzsche and God holy lord: Sartre, we didn’t understand one single f*ck of it, but it was our way to be individuals and one of a kind, not realizing we only wanted to belong to a tribe.
Intellectuel tribalisme doesn’t work on volatile visual media, so getting a tattoo, that catching duck face look and poking boobs are the Instagram tools to differentiate and belong to that tribe, in the illusion it is individualism.
Nothing is changed, drivers are the same. And to be honest, I find the social skills of nowadays teens much more pleasant than it was in my time.
At the end, hopefully, we all end up with some grand children on our lap.
In my time as a youth, we spent our collective moments talking about New Orleans jazz, and whether or not the Dutch Swing College Band could really be called a "Jass" band or not. Pop music occupied a quite different slot in our collective psyche: light entertainment and a kind of lesser music... not serious stuff at all. Today, jazz hardly features for me, and the pop has been replaced by another niche genre: swamp pop rock. Go figure.
Jeans were very hard to find in Scotland during the 50s; once I found a source, I wore nothing else unless for business meetings later in life. Today, they are all I own that I'd wear; the rest of the stuff hangs there, out of fashion, gathering dust. Oh, I have a suit - one - reserved for funerals.
Regarding grandchildren on the lap: be very sure they are your grandchildren, and only then let them anywhere near your lap. In all cases, ensure you have a plastic sheet between self and baby. You can't trust them: they sometimes smile as they wet.
I'd be interested to know where you find youth today with better social skills; strikes me they have none at all and some appear to celebrate the fact. Perhaps it's because they can't really stand one another that they bow their heads to the little screen when forced to be together?
:-)