pages tagged thoughtsspwhittonhttps://spwhitton.name//tag/thoughts/spwhittonikiwiki2015-11-18T17:09:12ZThe working people of Britainhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/workingpeople/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2015-06-15T10:21:00Z
<p>David Cameron likes to talk a lot about the working people of Britain
and how the Conservatives are behind them in their project of being busy
working people. If we’re careful to avoid the Puritan deification of
work, we can agree that the project of holding down a job and working
one’s way through the ranks has a lot to be said for it. There is a
sense in which holding down any job at all, in the short- to
medium-term, uplifts people and gets them out of depressive
self-centeredness. But in the longer term it’s irresponsible not to look
at one’s work in the context of the national and international
economies. And when we do this we find that Cameron is inviting the
middle classes to vote him and his friends in for selfish reasons and
then assuage the guilt by indulging in a narrative about being a working
person.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/workingpeople/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Nationalism not adequately challenged and questionedhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-nationalism/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2015-01-04T15:32:00Z
<p><em>This is the the sixth and final post in a series. <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-intro.html">First
post</a>.</em></p>
<p>The Korean word for Korea is <em>Hanguk</em>, though you won’t hear this much
in the TV News. Instead you’ll hear <em>woori nara</em> which means ‘our
country.’ I asked a friend about this and she reckons that a TV news
presenter who didn’t say <em>woori nara</em> would be thought not to care
enough about his own country, and that’s not acceptable. Perhaps,
though, <em>woori nara</em> is just a turn of phrase that doesn’t carry
nationalist connotations. I don’t think that’s true. Recently a plane
crashed and the news was occupied with establishing how many Koreans
were on board. British news is just as bad in this regard but Koreans
take it a step further. The formal Korean word for a Korean person is
<em>Hangukin</em>. But the TV news presenter reporting on the plane crash was
talking about <em>woori Hangukindeul</em> (’deul’ is a suffix indicating
plurality). That is, translating non-literally, “our Korean brothers and
sisters”, must more important than the several hundred other people on
that plane.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-nationalism/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Just make it look goodhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-image/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2015-01-02T07:26:00Z
<blockquote><p>For my first six months here, I operated under the impression that
Koreans are the busiest and hardest working people on earth. At some
point during my first semester, that illusion fell apart.</p>
<p>In the west, image is important. But we’re taught that being
dependable and producing quality work are the way to cultivate a
positive image at the office. In Korea, image is everything. Quality
of work and efficiency are relatively unimportant here. Convincing
others think that you are a hard worker is far more important than
actually working hard.
(<a href="http://southernerabroad.com/2014/02/11/koreans-are-busy/">source</a>)</p></blockquote>
<p><em>This is the fifth post in a series. <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-intro.html">First
post</a>;
<a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-nationalism.html">Next
post</a></em></p>
<p>All over the world people try to make things look better than they are.
Marketing is perhaps the most systemised example. But in Korea, it feels
like half of all adult activity is making things look good for other
adults who know very well that everyone is spending a big chunk of their
time on making just-good-enough jobs look good. It’s quite strange, and
also deeply ineffective and stifling. I’ll give three examples from my
elementary school.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-image/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
A national habit of self-pityhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-selfpity/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2015-01-02T06:49:00Z
<p><em>This is the fifth post in a series. <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-intro.html">First
post</a>;
<a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-image.html">Next
post</a></em></p>
<p>Members of all cultures have a set of stereotypes about their own
culture in their heads that they’ll roll out when they’ve got nothing
else to say to a foreigner. I suspect that they’re only slightly more
likely to be correct than the stereotypes about that culture held by
foreigners. For example, British people will tell you that British
people are always talking about the weather. And Korean people will tell
you that Korean people are always very busy. It’s like “Korean food is
spicy” and “Korea has four seasons”: things that you hear over and over
again from Koreans when they’re trying to be friendly. Fair enough.
Small talk has its purpose, and especially in someone’s second language
I don’t blame them for not having anything interesting to say. However,
the busy-busy culture in Korea is actually just an expression of
self-pity in a culture that often encourages self-pity instead of
action.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-selfpity/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Switching back to Emacs text editing keybindingshttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/backtoemacs/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-12-31T03:04:00Z
<p>I’ve been using Emacs with vim-style editing bindings <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/geek/emacsevildone.html">for two
months</a>, and
this morning I’ve decided to turn them off (which’ll take some time).
The tipping point was last night, when I tried to connect to IRC briefly
in order to respond to a MemoServ memo. I tried to fire up the Emacs IRC
client rcirc, and immediately found myself in keybinding hell where I
couldn’t even type my password for NickServ. This is because any Emacs
mode which isn’t editing a text file needs special configuration to work
with my vim keybindings; when I was a pure Emacs user, firing up such
special modes immediately put me into an intuitive environment, even if
some things always need to be tweaked. (The reason is vim’s modality.)
This experience had me reconsider my priorities. Here’s why I think in
my case, hacking vim into Emacs isn’t something I should keep in place.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/backtoemacs/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Addicted to web browsinghttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/infoaddiction/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-12-11T05:59:00Z
<p>It’s fashionable to write about how the Internet is “rewiring our
brains” and sapping our ability to concentrate for long periods on
difficult things, and I don’t have anything new to say on the topic.[1]
I’ll just write concisely about my own experiences of the phenomenon.
There are two issues. The first is the ability of the Internet to fuel
procrastination that might otherwise be avoided, and the seconds is the
issue of the Internet damaging the ability to concentrate hard for long
periods of time on making something that’s hard to make or reading
something hard. I intend to talk only about the former.[2]</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/infoaddiction/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Gendered pronouns and those who care about themhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/pronouns/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-12-11T05:44:00Z
<p>I have been told by a number of LGBTQ activists that there is a growing
minority of people who publically identify as not being either a man or
a woman, and who are therefore uncomfortable with any of ‘he’, ‘she’,
‘his’ or ‘her’ etc. being used to refer to them. I don’t want to sound
dismissive or patronising by using a sentence beginning “I have been
told…”. It’s just that I’ve never met anyone who cares about this:
I’ve just had a lot of men and women tell me or write that another group
of people care about it. I was formerly quite dismissive of these
issues. I’ve changed my mind a little.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/pronouns/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
My religion of onehttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/religionofone/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-11-30T05:12:00Z
<p>Religious faith empowers people to overcome fear. Without fear, the
capacity of man is dazzlingly greater than what we find our capacities
to be in everyday life. A powerful faith is a commitment to sceptical,
quietist philosophy. In the painting <em>The Death of Socrates</em>, Socrates
is seen in a pedagogical stance. His raised finger shows that he seeks
to enlighten those around him and that he has a deep confidence in what
he is telling them. A great many groups have claimed to be Socrates’
heirs, including the bourgeoisie philosophical Academy.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/religionofone/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
Communal values boil down to a toxic in/out-group culturehttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreafter1yr-communal/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-11-27T00:47:00Z
<p><em>This is the fourth post in a series. <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-intro.html">First
post</a>;
<a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-selfpity.html">Next
post</a></em></p>
<p>It is often said that various east Asian cultures emphasise the good of
the group over the good of the individual to a greater extent than we do
in the West. In the Korean case this turns out to be an in-group,
out-group culture that means less respect and more selfishness all
round. Certain Western values, that I believe make life better for
everyone living in English-speaking cultures, get applied much more
narrowly by the average Korean.</p>
<p>If one is perceived by a Korean as being in their group, one gets
treated very well. People make big sacrifices for their families, and
make efforts to maintain ties with old friends. But if one is not in a
Korean’s group, standards are lower. In particular, the fact that
strangers too are individuals trying to lead their lives gets trampled
on. It’s also the case that in-groups are often defined by societal
expectations rather than genuine interpersonal ties and bonds.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreafter1yr-communal/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
The strictly enforced hierachy boils down to bullying and abusehttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-authority/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-11-26T21:42:00Z
<p><em>This is the third post in a series. <a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreaafter1yr-intro.html">First
post</a>;
<a href="http://spw.sdf.org/blog/writing/thoughts/koreafter1yr-communal.html">Next
post</a></em></p>
<p>I’ve written before about how age is important to Koreans, and it
affects the language one uses to speak to someone who is merely one year
older or younger than oneself. Most of this stuff is a quaint custom,
and it’s often very sweet to hear younger students refer to older
students as “older brother” and “older sister”, without thereby
according them any more respect than they might get in a British primary
school.</p>
<p>When it comes to discussing the problems that this cultural phenomenon
creates among adults, we can discuss simultaneously the attitude taken
towards a difference in age and the attitude taken towards a difference
in position in an institution’s hierarchy. In a Korean hierarchy, it is
accepted that the interests of those further up will take precedence
over the interests of those further down—and these interests can be
petty, as we will see in my examples. In our school, the same
manipulation that teachers employ to keep our pupils in line gets
applied to the teachers themselves by those higher up in the hierarchy:
respect flows upwards, but there is no respect for those lower down as
being, again, autonomous human beings trying to do their jobs and also
live their lives.</p>
<p>An elementary school is a particularly conservative environment, and I
believe the relationship between the principal and vice-principal and
the rest of the teaching staff of my school is a paradigm case of how
bad things can get. I will give several examples which are common to
schools across the country.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/koreaafter1yr-authority/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>