I will see you in far off places

[imomus]

It's absolutely part of Morrissey's value that he provokes debate like the one now raging (well, re-raging, actually, but with the threat of litigation this time) over his comments to the NME on immigration. Thinking with feeling means upsetting people from time to time. In this case, the old paradox about tolerance accepting everything except actual difference has quickly been reached. "Tolerant" people -- people who don't share but are willing to countenance Morrissey's homosexuality, for instance -- are unwilling to countenance what they see as his racism.



It isn't racism, of course -- to talk about a national culture being diluted by immigration is not automatically to be racist, especially when, as in Britain, the most significant recent influx has been a Caucasian one from Eastern Europe. But neither is tolerance tolerance if it can't tolerate either difference or intolerance. So what we're left with is a bunch of not-tolerant people shouting at a not-racist.

What has Morrissey actually said? He's said that Britain has changed, and not for the better. He's said that something has been lost: Britain's cultural particularity is being diminished, and more quickly than in countries like Germany and Sweden. For this he blames excessive rates of immigration. As a consequence, he says -- and the irony is delicious -- he has left Britain and settled in Italy, making Rome just that tiny bit more British in the process. There's a further irony in that Morrissey himself is the son of immigrants, Irish who came to England. And there's another in the fact that the Britain he seems to see as the Golden Age -- the Britain of the Ealing Comedies and the films of The Archers -- was a confection largely constructed by Jewish immigrants like Emeric Pressburger and Michael Balcon.



My views on this are almost the polar opposite to Morrissey's in every particular. I'm not sure if this makes me a better person, though. In fact, it probably makes me a worse person. You see, I dislike countries like England, Germany and Sweden. I even dislike my own home nation of Scotland. My basic feeling is that, left to their own devices, these nations become smug and provincial and poisonous. When I'm in nations like these I desperately seek out enclaves of foreignness. The Pakistani or Chinese shops on Edinburgh's south side have a kind of ambition and dynamism I don't find in the Scottish-run shops. They provide a vitality which is lacking in the indigenous mass. My people, white people, are lazy and in decline. We don't even replace ourselves at the necessary rate. We're content to ebb away. We let our languages die out, we let our jobs migrate to China, we don't have enough kids, and those we do have leave, as I left, if they have any ambition at all. That's the basic picture I see, and immigration is a very welcome antidote. There isn't enough immigration.



During my four years in Berlin I've desperately missed the cultural mix found in cities like New York, London and Paris. Only since moving to Neukolln, a working class district dominated by Turks, North Africans, Indians and Vietnamese, have I found something approaching it. My feeling is that the Turkish market on the Maybachufer is the closest thing to a medieval European market you'll ever find, in terms of its density and vitality. My feeling is that this is very much about markets, that what I know as cosmopolitanism is very much a question of markets. I'm very much in favour of the free flow of people and money, which is the basic principle of the European Union. Certainly something is lost when new people flow into a city -- usually something stolid and smug and lumpen, something best lost.



The inherent contradiction in Morrissey's position is that he's objecting, essentially, to globalisation (because this is a debate about the merits or demerits of globalisation, not racial mixing) while participating fully in it by traveling endlessly and living as a foreigner in Rome. But contradictions are okay, I don't think we should persecute people for having mixed or contradictory feelings. If we did, we'd never allow shifts in opinion at all. In fact, we'd have to outlaw feelings altogether.



My own feelings on this matter contain their own fair share of contradictions. For instance, I only love immigration because I hate the indigenous, "pure" nations of the West and want them to be changed utterly by people I see as more vital, passionate, ambitious and interesting. People like the British Bangladeshi community I married into in 1994. When I love an indigenous culture -- like the Japanese one -- my feelings get much more complicated. I actually see how, in Japan, the sense that the nation is like a big extended family brings with it a lot of liberties. The safety, the strong sense of harmony and common purpose, the superlegitimacy, the almost total absence of Christianity, all these are strongly related to Japan's resistance to immigration. But, left to its own devices, Japan will decline and fade, its vibrant culture will grow tepid. It needs Asian immigration. So I'm not even sure I want Japan to be pure. My "Japanese" girlfriend is half Korean. My favourite parts of Tokyo and Yokohama are the immigrant bits, the Chinatowns.



If purity doesn't matter, though, the exact nature of the inevitable impurity does. I think what annoys me most -- whether in Asia or Europe -- is seeing excessive American cultural influence, or English-language ("Anglosphere") influence. Seeing US sitcoms on Swedish TV, for instance, worried me and made me think how good it is that Japanese TV isn't like that. Seeing Britain's most famous film critic, Mark Kermode, basically steeped up to his eyeballs in American film and the American values they convey worries me too. Culture flows through English channels -- but not for long, I wrote in Wired, predicting (and welcoming) a decline in Anglosphere dominance later this century. (Anglosphere dominance is already pretty limited -- do we all have American furniture or drive American cars? No, but we watch American films and help America fight its wars. For now.)

If I want to understand how Morrissey feels, I just have to think of how Britain has been flooded by American culture since the 1940s. But wait -- I don't care enough about Britain's indigenous culture to give much of a damn about that! So I have to do one more piece of mental gymnastics to see his point of view. I have to imagine I felt about Britain the way I feel about Japan -- a country I don't live in, just like Morrissey doesn't live in Britain, but somehow want (selfishly, emotionally) to embody something wonderful, unique, pure.

What is a "culture", after all, but national habitus raised to the status of a principle? A principle (Britishness, Japaneseness) you could sum up in a few words, a sort of global brand, a thing you could export (by peaceful or even non-peaceful means)? Another irony in all this is that it's precisely when national habitus becomes a principle that it becomes an exportable commodity. Cultural "purity" (for instance, Jamaica being a place where black people record reggae records) is a useful fiction, the condition of an individual culture's entry into the very international flow thought to undermine it.

Here's the big paradox behind all these little paradoxes: that which undermines national character also creates it. Morrissey's laments on disappearing Britishness actually produce Britishness; they make it appear. The Japanese are almost Japanese, and made more so by the self-consciousness produced by globalisation. Shiva the creator is also Shiva the destroyer. I will see you in far off places, Morrissey. Thanks for making me think.

Comments

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you wrote about this. I wondered if you would, actually. Thanks for presenting a balanced view.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The other thing to say about this is that it's totally part of the sadly Retro Necro nature of today's music industry -- an industry so terrified of being unable to live up to the glories of the past that it tries desperately to repeat them, thus making its own insecurities a self-fulfilling prophecy.



Hence today's records are yesterday's records slightly smaller and more one-dimensional, and today's controversial NME articles are NME articles from 15 years ago... slightly smaller, duller and more one-dimensional.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Morrissey is a professional troll and I don´t know why anyone takes him seriously about anything ever.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Isn't "professional troll" more or less synonymous with "artist"? We don't take artists seriously, but we take them. They're good for us.

I´m not a racist I just play one on TV

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

PS: I want NME RACIST as a job title now.

[thegooseking.livejournal.com]

Gaelic makes an interesting distinction between duthchas (roughly "the sense of belonging to a place") and dualchas (roughly "the sense of belonging to a people"). The two words are often used together, but the fact that two different words exist within the very language is telling. The idea that the two may be related but are not in fact the same raises some interesting questions about immigration and I think may even go some way towards resolving the contradiction.

I also think cultural heritage might well be a more subjective thing than we realise. I'm not entirely certain my native Scotland is the same as your native Scotland and I'm pretty certain it's not the same as the exported idea of Scotland, which seems to be the only 'unified' view of Scotland we have.

As for Mark Kermode, the only thing he's ever said that I actually remembered was on late-night Radio 1 years ago: "The word for 'intelligent American' is 'Canadian'." Being part-Canadian myself, and being a quite naive 17-year-old at the time, the comment pleased me, but more recently I have come to see it as rather symptomatic of the idea that Canada is nothing more than pseudo-America. The sad thing is, I'm not even sure how untrue that idea is.

Final thought: Robert Burns wrote "O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!" but Aldous Huxley took it one step further by writing "To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves." I'm sure that fits in somewhere, but I'm not quite sure how.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting point about the distinction between duthchas and dualchas, and one only a Gaelic speaker could raise, perhaps. I seemed to be contradicting myself when I said that I disliked the Anglosphere's linguistic imperialism, but also that we were lazy, and seemed content to see our languages dying out; what, after all, could ensure the survival of your language and values than spreading it all over the world? But I had in mind languages like Swedish and Gaelic. My family spoke Gaelic as its first language until my mother's grandparents' generation. We no longer do, and as a result I can't make the distinctions you can, using the Gaelic words.

That distinction essentially blasts apart Hitler's "blood and soil" connection. It probably reflects our history; Gaelic-speaking Celts have traveled a lot, and had to live in inhospitable environments they were quite happy to leave at the first opportunity. I often say there's nothing more typically Scottish you could do than leave Scotland! But when you leave a language behind you really lose a whole way of seeing, thinking and feeling. The medium is the message. It's a much more important loss.

That's why the threatened disappearance, this century, of up to 90% of all currently-existing languages is much more disastrous, culturally, than globalisation and its attendant economic migrations. It doesn't matter if we all change countries, as in a great global game of musical chairs. It does, though, matter a great deal if we all end up speaking the same language, whether that's English or Mandarin Chinese (currently the world's most-spoken language (http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html)).

[(Anonymous)]

I think what makes Morrisey seem racist is that similar arguments are often made to disguise racist sentiments. Since preservation is never really an issue with culture anyway it does seem odd that his predictable nostalgia would renounce immigration in particular. Also I think there's something inherently chauvinist in wishing to preserve a pure version of your own culture.
Immigrants have always been a great source of vitality, even in very isolated countries like my native Finland. My impression is that anti-immigrant people actually want to keep their immigrants in the gutter rather than actually keep them out.

Purity?

[jimineuropa.livejournal.com]

Purity, I've often felt, is a concept which belongs either in the chemistry laboratory or the mathematics room. In terms of anything remotely human, it's a non-starter. The immense complexity of our world precludes any idea of virgin, unsullied, Ur- anything.

Nationality is a good place to start. What is an 'Englishman' (kicking off with a definition which automatically excludes the other three current nations inhabiting the British Isles)? He'll be a mixture of genes from Romans, Celts (of at least two linguistic sub-divisions), Normans, Vikings, the pre-literate peoples of the islands, and who knows how many others - there are recorded influences of Africans, Asians and native Americans having been brought to Britain for the amusement and exploitation of the White master race, and who's to say they didn't leave genetic traces behind them? And what about the idea that there were plenty of incursions by non-European races which were not recorded by history? (Two different explorations of that idea in '1421' by Gavin Menzies and 'American gods' by Neil Gaiman.)

There is no purity, we are all mongrels. When races are bred for purity, such as pedigree dogs & cats, inbreeding takes over and weakens the strain; mongrels are healthier, stronger and participate more fully in the lottery of evolution.

Re: Purity?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think we have to finesse that "we are all mongrels" line a bit, though, for two reasons. First of all, recent research into UK genetic origins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_settlement_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland#Genetic_research) shows that we're much less diverse than previously thought (and mostly, it seems, Spanish!). Secondly, because "we're all mongrels" implies that a mongrel doesn't mind what kind of mix produced it -- that that doesn't matter. But the particular mix of ingredients does matter, as any dedicated cocktail-maker knows.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

They discussed this very subject on the BBC's Question Time (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/default.stm) last week, prompted by Morrisey's comments. There was the usual liberal concensus that Britain is multicultural; this is our fate and it's what we're about... apart The odd old, white person here and there putting their hand up to agree with Morrisey, but of course they treaded very, very carefully.

There's a couple of points you've raised I'd like to tackle.

I've made it very clear numerous time I'm an advocate of free speech... but doesnt everyone say that? What I mean by that is I advocate free speech with less strings attached than most people. For example (also discussed on Question Time this week) there was the issue of the BNP speaking at the the Oxford Union (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7110758.stm) which sparked a lot of controversy because the BNP are pretty much just a pro-white group with a raging boner for Britian's white christian pre-1940s past... mainly because those idealisms come suger-coated with a large dose of miscontrued, merry old English Hallmark cark-esque idealism. Cup of Earl Grey, anyone?

The problem with not allowing the BNP to speak about their views is although you might find them abhorant (I find them laughable mostly) if you dont let them speak, you become the monster you're fighting. You become the liberal fascist. Some people have tried to argue that actually, the protests aren't about disallowing free speech but about the Oxford Union giving legitimacy to the BNP by inviting them. This clearly isnt the case because not once has the Union ever expressed that they're inviting the BNP because they agree with them, and they clearly stated the debate was about 'A Night of Discussion on the Limits of Free Speech' (http://www.oxford-union.org/press/free_speech_forum_-_presidents_message_to_members)

Should the BNP be allowed to say they prefered Britain when It was predominantly white and christian? Absolutely. Should Morrisey be allowed to say immigration is diluting Britain's identity? Absolutely. The real argument starts when you try to draw a distinction between "inciting hatred" and free speech, which is very complicated. As a general rule I favor punishing actions as opposed to just ideas expressed, but there's grey area that requires a case by case basis to be taken.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Next point: Britain's Identity. "Britian culture" is an average of every individual's choices, and by that I mean Britian's culture is what you see right now. Anything other than that is short-sighted sentimentality stuck in the past. Cultures evolve, thats the only absolute aspect of any culture.

A hell of a lot of people in Britian love Indian cuisine (I love Indian cuisine), and that's why the Chicken Tikka Musala (Britians favourite take-away meal) has a very distinctly British identity.
The BNP tries to argue that being white and christian is what Britain is all about. "We're a white, Christian nation and we're proud of it!" the BNP proclaims.

Actually... Paganism is more British than Christianity. Christianity was brought over to Britainn by those dirty foreigners. Druidism/paganism is the native religion of Britain. We Britons used to worship nature, much like Japanese Shinto. And the English language, a bit of an imposter really... English isnt actually that English. again, The invaders' Germanic language (which has now evolved into English) displaced the indigenous Brythonic languages of what became England. The Celtic languages remained in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. Infact, Cymraeg (Welsh) is supposedly the oldest language in Europe, it doesnt get anymore British than that... if British means "How it used to be".

So basically, for thousands of years, "Britian's culture" has only come to be because of "foreigners" invading us and displacing the culture that was there before. Exactly what's happening now! What a surprise! And guess what I'm having for dinner tonight? Curry!

Last point I'd like to raise: hating "British culture".

I can't stand football. Binge drinking and pub culture? yawn. The average food items of the British makes me sad when I see the mainland Europians having so much fun with so many ingedients. British TV? The majority of it is shit. Everywhere you look you see terracotta roofs and semi-detached housing. Without exhausting cliches, I grew up surrounded by all the mediocrity Britain has to offer. Everything novel about Britain isnt novel to me because it's what I grew up with. It's the proverbial back of my British hand.

To a certain extent I idealise Japan in my head. I dont live there, I never grew up there, so almost everything I come across that's Japanese has some kind of freshness about it. but its not just about novelty and freshness, its about finding something that matches your sensibilities.

The popularity of Japanese culture has grown hugely over the past 10 years (what with the huge rise in Japanese pop-culture imports) although it hasnt reached the ubiquity of American culture. Japan has Sumo, which I find really exciting (the salt ritual, the costumes...) but really, it's just "football" to the Japanese. And the Japanese have the Izukaya; traditionally an establishment of sturdy wood and paper screens creating a gentle, fresh, open-air atmosphere... but again, its still just a "pub". Japanese cuisine is such a delight to behold visually but I'm sure after years of consuming it it loses some of its sparkle. It's all about novelty really. American culture doesnt particularly excite me, but I dont think a lot of Americans realise how americanised the rest of the English speaking world is becoming. It used to be that the Americans were considered our American cousins, now they're more like our American brothers.

I use Mixi, the Japanese social site quite a lot. I come across a lot of Japanese people who are really into "British culture"... some of them have a love of idealism that borders on fantasy; the blond haired blue eyed English girl in a pretty frock, drinking from a bone china tea set (youd be surprised how much this appears in Anime). Some have a more complex love of British culture and find a beauty in its mediocrity I dont.

the bottom line is, Nobody idealises the familiar.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

BTW who the hell even reads the NME???!!!! Except Russel Brand???!!

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

I DON'T!

UNLESS THEY PUT BRETT ANDERSON, BERNARD BUTLER, NICKY WIRE, AND JARVIS COCKER ON THE COVER

ACTUALLY I JUST WANT THE NME TO WARP BACK TO THE 90'S

Emeric the space jew.

[(Anonymous)]

Good blog.
Perhaps Morrisey deserves more approbation for his recent dreary musical output, he has become a retro-necro dead man walking.
Have to admit something of a soft spot for those old Archers 'confections', they are in fact so fantastically removed from any real defining past or present Britishness.
Powell and Pressburger's films post 1943 were well out of step with what mainstream audiences wanted or what the nation's appointed custodians desired for those audiences.
Churchill famously hated Blimp and sought for it to be banned for it's depiction of a German as something other than a sub-human.
The Archers films are about as far removed from tub-thumping nationalism or flag-draped patriotism as you get.
you get.
Thomas Scott.

[(Anonymous)]

(1) National cultures are happy accidents. We ought to decide that people have the right to live wherever they want, without political borders and people slamming shut the door behind them. If that means national cultures are diluted, so be it. The alternative-- restricting freedom of movement-- would be worse, at least in my value system.

(2) America is hardly just a big hodgepodge of Europeans, as a commentator below suggests. America is becoming more and more Hispanic, for one: There are more already Hispanics than blacks. And *all* population groups in the US are growing. America is the world's third most populous country, and it still feels empty.

(3) As an American, I idealize and find very interesting a British culture I know to be imaginary. While most of my actual experiences with Britain and the British have been more "Saxondale" than "Jeeves and Wooster," I to an extent wish I could take part in the imaginary Britain that now only exists in Billy Childish's imagination.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

"We ought to decide that people have the right to live wherever they want, without political borders"

That would cause absolute chaos. Health care services would be crippled. Housing wouldnt meet demand in certain areas. Civilisation would crumble without borders. Society as it is couldnt cope with your "Let anyone move wherever they want" solution.

"America is hardly just a big hodgepodge of Europeans, as a commentator below suggests. America is becoming more and more Hispanic"

The hispanics are of spanish/portuguese heritage. Those countries are part of Europe.


"As an American, I idealize and find very interesting a British culture I know to be imaginary."

I just typed in "Traditional British Culture" and this is the first image that came up on google images:



If that's not a reason to actively encourage multiculturalism in Britain I don't know what is...

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

As for the Swedish language I hate the use of English words within it. I am gladly welcoming arabic words to be used though. Some have even made their way into the Swedish dictionary! Hooray!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Swedish is the most-spoken language in Sweden, but out in the world it's way off the list of most-spoken languages (http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html). It's a minority language, out there in the world, as frail as Arabic is in Sweden. Meanwhile, out in the world, Arabic is the fifth most-spoken language. Which of these languages will disappear first? Swedish, for sure. Isn't there a Swedish Morrissey singing:

We may seem cold
Or we may even be
The most depressing people you've ever known
At heart, what's left, we sadly know
That we are the last truly Swedish people you'll ever know

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

This is a wonderful thoughtful post, especially your definition of culture as "national habitus raised to the status of a principle" near the end.

for the impurity that always already was!

[olamina.livejournal.com]

I adore Moz as an artist but I also recognize his shortcomings being from such an unfortunate place as Manchester. It's annoying to hear him say something like this considering he took refuge for at least a decade in the sprawling Latin American immigrant community in Los Angeles, a community that bares a lot of the same criticism in the states that Morrissey is hurling against the Eastern European (and other) immigrants he says have been given/taken Britain (which is incidentally the same despicable Britain he sings about with anger in Irish Blood, English Heart, no?). I guess his beloved diehard pompadoured Mexican kids get a pass because as he said:

"I really like Mexican people. I find them so terribly nice. And they have fantastic hair and fantastic skin and usually really good teeth...great combination."

I commend the writer of the NME article for standing by his work. (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/11/jonze_nme_morrissey.html)

There isn't enough immigration.
I agree with you 150% This is the one thing everyone and no one is saying here in the EU. Europe needs immigrants..desperately, but for some foolish reason the policy makers are fading into the wallpaper like shy wallflower schoolgirls and then lashing out like ferocious animals when immigrants finally come. For what? There is nothing that they wish to preserve that will be preserved if their countries fade. It is like an old sick miserly woman who would rather be buried with her money than spend some of it to live. Foolishness. Not to mention the utterly deluded sense of entitlement after centuries of imperialism..don't...get...me...started.

I think what annoys me most -- whether in Asia or Europe -- is seeing excessive American cultural influence, or English-language ("Anglosphere") influence.

While I am an avid critic of American and British domestic and foreign policy, I've long since refused to take part in any anti-Western chauvinism; it just takes on a (decidedly uninteresting)life of its own. Here in Slovenia I take pleasure in English language programming not just because I dont yet have full grasp on Slovene language (or because all the damned German channels we get do dubover, as you well know) but because Slovene television shows SUCK. This is a small country with not a ton of money to produce quality home grown programs and after the whole big multi-culti party that was Tito's Yuogslavia, I think they are kinda sick of it and want to focus outward (and thank God!). Nonetheless, I will say there there are far more Latin American/ Spanish language television programs (especially telenovelas) shown here than American programs and when people do watch English language fare I find them to be more enamored with nature and travel programs than any inane sitcoms.

Re: for the impurity that always already was!

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

why not just not watch TV?

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that you say you like the Chinese areas of Edinburgh and Tokyo. Have you ever been to China?

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Has Morrissey's homosexuality been confirmed, or is it still a matter of conjecture?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

No, its been confirmed that Morrissey is a fucking faggot. By me.

[zacchriah.livejournal.com]

Britain's supposed Golden Age was largely created by Jewish immigrants? Eh? A few Ealing comedies and the Pressburger half of Powell and Pressburger are hardly the vital ingredients of Englishness. Much as I love Jewish culture, in Britain it's been nowhere near as significant as in other countries - American songwriting, literature or comedy, for example, all of which are dominated by Jewish genius. You could take the Jewish influence out of British cultural history and it wouldn't make a huge difference.

[(Anonymous)]

"My people, white people, are lazy and in decline. We don't even replace ourselves at the necessary rate. We're content to ebb away. We let our languages die out, we let our jobs migrate to China, we don't have enough kids, and those we do have leave, as I left, if they have any ambition at all."

Dear lord, it's a Mark Steyn editorial.

[mazette.livejournal.com]

m. must have been traumatized by his sojourn in los angeles (identity vacuum capital of the universe).

lovely insights re. laziness of white people allowing themselves to die off... we're all the end of the family line.

speaking of nationalism + cultural hysteria, after watching 'the damned' by visconti last night this post of yours is too timely!

http://mazette.livejournal.com/192400.html?mode=reply

[(Anonymous)]

Keeping company with Nancy Sinatra cannot be good for the muse either.
Thomas S.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

What people who don't understand Morrissey refer to as his "miserablism" is actually the great strength of his artistic posture -- the way that his work sets value on those prosaic emotions - embarrassment, spite, petty jealousy, aesthetic revulsion - that pass far beneath the radar of most art.

And what emotions are more prosaic than nostalgia and the fear of change?

I don't agree with Morrissey about immigration. For one thing (anti-West chauvinism or not) it's clear that the influence of the US is far more like to dilute other "Western" cultures than non-white immigration.

But I also don't agree with those who can't see Morrissey for what he is ... a man who had already become a cipher for his artistic goals even before he became famous. When Morrissey talks about immigration, or making tea, or working with Ennio Morricone, or dragging metaphors across his dead partnership with Marr in interviews he's living an extrapolated camp. It's almost necessary for him to make questionable remarks about race just to preserve his artistic integrity.

[(Anonymous)]

Possibly Tom, the cynic in me wonders are these questionable remarks also an attempt to preserve himself from fading into mainstream obscurity.
There is with Morrisey this constant trading on past glories, when he performed in Dublin of the back of 'You are the Quarry' he performed 'There Is A Light' twice.
Hardly a mortal sin but enough to spotlight that albatross.
Thomas S.

[lupoleboucher.livejournal.com]

"My people, white people, are lazy and in decline. We don't even replace ourselves at the necessary rate. We're content to ebb away. We let our languages die out, we let our jobs migrate to China, we don't have enough kids, and those we do have leave, as I left, if they have any ambition at all."

Mostly because their elites say things like, "I even dislike my own home nation of Scotland." I'll give you credit for realizing this makes you a bad person at least.

You do realize that, in all of human history, the only culture which actively exercised the virtues of cosmopolitanism and attempting to get along with the other fellow, rather than tribally oppressing the other fellow is the Anglo-American one, right? Britain is the model for internationalism, brought about by the end to the endless wars between Saxon, Norman and Celt. Americans; we are an unoriginal people: we just took your model and perfected it. Everything you believe in; all your pan-racial global harmony dreams; your pop music; even your "I am a self hating white person" ideas; all these are as American as Baseball. How does it feel to be colonized?

[(Anonymous)]

I actually see how, in Japan, the sense that the nation is like a big extended family brings with it a lot of liberties.

Is it accepted fact now that we are supposed to think that Japanese society operates in the pre-war ideological concept of the kokutai (國體) - as a national "family" with the emperor as the father? I think this view has essentially been abandoned by everyone and would raise some eyebrows if even a conservative Japanese politician said such a thing. Actually, if you said "kokutai" in contemporary Japan, no one would understand what you mean (or would think it's the National Athletic Meet.)

Marxy

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think perhaps you've been living in Japan too long if you can't see how, relative to other societies, it feels pretty family-like.

Ethnic Groups: Japanese 98.5%, Koreans 0.5%, Chinese 0.4%, other 0.7%
Religions: 84% observe both Shinto and Buddhist, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)
Politics: One party in power since 1955.

You don't need to invoke pre-war concepts or imperialistic conservatism to see Japanese society as massively -- and unusually -- monolithic, and to see there being certain benefits resulting from this (as well, of course, as the drawbacks which we all know about, and which is why I stated that I like the ethnically diverse parts of Tokyo and Yokohama).

Life is hard enough when..........

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't Morrissey everything you aspired to be as a "POOP Star" are you jealous he plans these controversies with naff mags and gets the worlds tongue wagging. I thought it was coming with a free 7 inch single I guess he changed his mind. As if he really gives a shit about England; it's rise or demise. Come to think of it has anyone asked the immigrants how great England is or where they'd rather be. Not a lot would be here by choice. Slave trade anyone? You admitted yourself you can't afford to live here and fled. Imagine how it is for them. Immigration is a con, wake up. Fight the power.

[saint-claws.livejournal.com]

Morrissey's comments show him as someone who's very frightened of change, and also someone who is very paranoid. If the streets of Knightsbridge are swarming with too much multiculturalism for his taste, I suggest he goes and hides under a rock.

But I'm more annoyed by the reaction of his fans. Everyone seems to thoughtlessly agree with him. I get the feeling that most of them would reverse their views if Morrissey called for a wider cultural appreciation.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

A lot of Morrissey fans are huge apologists for his behavior, because they love his music so much, and his lyrics apply to them in so many ways. Personally, I love Morrissey's music, but at the moment I can't stand him as a person. He is extremely stubborn, and if he feels that he is right (even while so very wrong), he won't back down. Morrissey has such a rabid cult following, and no matter what he says, the rabid fans will support him 100%.

Lately, it's been hard identifying myself as a Morrissey fan because of the things he says and does outside of his music. Some people refuse to see the opposite side until the things being attacked are the things that they are, and identify with. They may rally in support of the banning of his Canada tour because of the baby seals, but what if they had blonde hair and he said "blondes are the scum of the Earth and should be executed by the masses"?

Morrissey / Black Narcissus

[(Anonymous)]

Momus,
It's interesting that you've used images of Black Narcissus to illustrate your latest article. David Farrar (the Englishman sent to the remote nun's convent) was my great-uncle. He starred in a lot of great British films (many by Powell & Pressburger) of the 40's and 50's, before leaving to go to Hollywood (like Morrissey), where he then made a series of turkeys (like Morrissey?) (including The Sea Chase - a 2nd World War film, where John Wayne plays a German battleship commander!), before retiring to South Africa. I've recently rediscovered a lot of his films, as they've been released on DVD and have wondered if his legacy would be more well known if he'd stayed in England, but I guess the British film industry was on it's last legs and felt he had no other options (like Morrissey and the British music industry now?).

Duncan

Re: Morrissey / Black Narcissus

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Your great uncle was one of favourites.
I particularly like his role in the The Small Back Room.
One of the sexiest British movies ever!

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Has anyone gone out and actually bought or even read this issue of the NME?
I am all for pushing the envelope but returning to that magazine is going too far even for me.