Vladimir Putin may be a paranoid autocrat and a failing military strategist but when he talks about people in the West who want to "destroy [its]traditional values and impose their pseudo-values...
Close down all the faculties and departments of Education. Return to an internship/apprenticeship system for teacher training. You learn to teach by watching good teachers.
Mainstream conservativism has had a presumption that institutions should be allowed to run themselves. In the case of universities and now public schooling, that has been a catastrophic failure.
Yes absolutely....but how, without either the political or deep state power or the will? That... as some famous playwright said (can't bring the name to mind just now)....is the question.
Right! A step of some dimension would be to require a degree in what you are going to teach. For instance math teachers are required to have a degree in math. Half of good teaching (only half?) is having developed excitement about the subject!
In the next century, I strongly believe that social scientists will look back in amazement that folks in our time didn't realize that these pathological ideas and urges were more biochemical than from any other cause. Read the excellent book, PATHOLOGICAL ALTRUISM by Barbara Oakley, Ph.d. That along with what I'll call "capacious compassion," has taken over the hive mind and individual constituents thereof. We know that testosterone in populations has waned over time. I'd love to see (if it's possible) a similar inspection of whether Oxytocin and Dopamine have also changed over historical time. Politics is downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from brain functioning. Brain functioning is downstream from its biology and chemistry.
Interesting stuff....I've never thought about it in those terms but I will check out Oakley. The psychology of Progressive virtue-signalling - whatever its cause - is a recurrent theme of Slouching Towards Bethlehem Substack.
Great little mini thread. And relevant to research showing biochemistry being changed by device behavior. I use ChatGPT 4 every day, even to create new GPTs, and it's changing my biochemistry, I can feel it. This is all tricky stuff on a macro scale, my bet. We best tread more carefully than we are right now, me also thinks.
But one does have to look at this, I completely agree. If you look at all the kids diagnosed with adhd alone, which has a shortage of dopamine in addition to other biochemical differences it wouldn’t be surprising. Add to that the epidemic of porn addiction, which will see much more publicity in the next 5-10 years, since kids as young as five have access to unlimited material on their phones and parents don’t care to place any monitoring or controls on the devices. Repeated exposure to more and more violent porn and is also affecting sperm count and biochemistry. For more info on that you can visit #fightthenewdrug on IG and on their website.
The idea is to get the jokes moving in the populace at large. Not sure just how. Like you said, if it’s on a conservative site it won’t go far. Some really good jokes might spread. Repurposed blonde jokes for instance that make the woke look simple minded. I think they are one level thinkers, so it might not be to hard.
There is something in this. Imply a lack of sophistication, as it is this need for external validation (of one's ability to see beyond the herd) where they are weakest.
True, I've made a couple on Chris Bray's Substack. But you'd have to go on a wokey one to have an effect - assuming there is a sense of humour out there.
Q: How many college administrators does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Good Question. First, send me $250,000 in small, unmarked bills and don’t ask how I’m spending it, and come back to me in four years for a piece of sheepskin suitable for framing.
Q: How many college students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: SHUT UP, YOU RACIST PIG!!!
Q: How many college professors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: They don’t screw in light bulbs, silly - they screw in their students’ dorm rooms!
I am retired after fourteen years as a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines, and twenty-six years as a teacher/curriculum specialist/literacy coach for the State of Florida.
Critical race theory is taught by many teachers. Colleagues against this practice, are considered snitches. No one in administration will open their mouths.
The curriculum is packed with DEI. It is imbedded in every article from remedial to AP courses. The students are sick of it. I can't tell you how many students complain about "sob" stories. My hands were tied as I had to use the mandated material provided on a computer/laptop. No pencil or paper allowed. My teaching tool was limited to a laptop cart, period.
Thank you Mary. I left teaching in the late '80s because of the 'political correctness' groupthink at that time. I dread to think what it must be like now.
While I do agree with much of what's written here--and the monumental task laid out--the first paragraph of the essay describing Putin as "a paranoid autocrat and a failing military strategist" but then asks if he has a point regarding the West's "culture war" as a bit odd, considering your original description of him (autocrat / failed military strategist), and actually due to the fact that these two descriptions fit him so well, I think the real question is whether or not his criticisms of the West are valid at all.
For me "his criticisms of the West are valid" and the negative facts about him make no difference to that validity. Bad people can make valid observations just as good people can sometimes be philosophically muddled. But really my opening sentence was inspired by what one might call the 'writerly arts'. In other words I was using irony to spark interest.
Since you agree with much of this essay, I hope you will take a look at others on Slouching Towards Bethlehem and, if you like them too, take a free subscription?
sometimes I need a bit of irony to be spelled out to me ;)
definitely will check out some of your own articles, I saw your articles pop up from time. This one was something I agreed with and man it is a monumental task as you spelled out.
An autocrat? Maybe. A failing military strategist? Compared to whom?
One needs to be cautious about somebody who has never been fairly evaluated in the West and whose military failings, if any, resulted from believing the genuineness of lying global leaders. He has learned his lessons.
He remembers those who defended the tractor factory….
I suggest that the first step be abolishing the federal department of education.
The second would be to end federal student loan guarantees.
The third would be to abolish either the federal civil service protections or the public sector unions, on the grounds that no private sector workers have both. Have federal employees vote on which. Set a quorum of 75% participation or both will be abolished.
"‘Schools in Crisis!’ has become something of a hot media button in much of the Western media - and not just in fringe conservative publications. According to a 2021 piece in the Washington Post, schools are “facing a crisis of epic proportions... test scores are down, and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying on the couches of social workers. Anger is rising. Patience is falling.”
Schools in crisis?…..are they not part of the very furniture of modern society; as much a part as its factories and offices? That vast infrastructure of buildings full of classrooms children and teachers. Kids spending their weekdays being taught by teachers – how could things possibly be otherwise? In this essay I try, firstly, to sketch an impressionistic snapshot of this ‘Schools in Crisis’ media flurry and then to dip a toe into the hazy waters of what could possibly replace them as the means by which society teaches its children....."
The problem with this approach is that both parties have gone insane, just on different issues. Neither appears willing to analyze issues on a case by case basis.
Democrats believe in open borders that destroy cities (says the mayor of NYC) and working class wages, that people can change their biological sex that destroys the rights of women to privacy and fair sports competition and encourage the sterilization of children as "gender affirming care". They encourage homelessness, crime, and endless deficits. They discriminate against men, Asians and poor whites to cure past discrimination against others. Their leadership consists of an addled old man and a vacuous, word salad spouting, DEI selected idiot.
Republicans deny the climate change that threatens humanity, denounce the vaccines that reduce deaths from disease, believe that this ( . ) is a 👶 which destroys women's futures, and most stupidly support a sociopath for president.
Against overwhelming odds a moderate centrist party must be formed to deal with the excesses of both existing ones.
"- an end to public sector security-of-tenure unrelated to performance."
I contemplated the idea of a right-wing thinker presenting this possibility earlier today and came to the conclusion that this would only work with total institutional control.
Imagine eliminating tenure with our modern administrations in universities: established conservative professors and individuals with political views outside of the accepted norm uprooted and replaced with opportunistic, but ultimately vacuous, Marxist ideologues considered more "competent".
What you're saying is that this could potentially be subverted by the very forces it was intended to confront. And of course you are right in principle; policy makers should always give thought to the law of unintended consequences. But this was a short, sharp polemic, not a policy paper and - to be fair - did preface these 'policies' with " would need to be an unashamedly sledgehammer legislative approach and pursued with Machiavellian sleight of hand".
It’s proper Invasion of the Body Snatchers stuff. I’m thinking there’s just got to be an ‘origin’ or ‘mother’ somewhere. Its got a heart beat but its hidden and kept under armed guard. But there’s got to be a way of infiltrating and destroying it. Only then can we return to life as normal. Honestly though, this is what it feels like to me. It feels like a twilight world where nothing feels real any more. A world where people’s lips are moving, they are obviously talking but they are not words I recognise. Their eyes are milky. It does feel like you have to put your armour on before you venture out. Or is it just me???
I can’t help but wonder how much influence The Powell Memorandum has had in all this. Ostensibly anti-leftist, anti-communist, the memo identifies the major threats to American business (higher education and the media, among others), and offers a blueprint for countering these forces. Major resources were mobilized in these efforts, such as The Business Roundtable. How did they fail so miserably, so ironically?
From The Powell Memo, 1971: “Sources of the Attack
The sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern.
The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.
Moreover, much of the media — for varying motives and in varying degrees — either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people.
One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.
The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.
Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive.”
Absolutely, this is a serious business after all. I would suggest thought that conservatives can’t deny that there social injustices in the world, and cede the moral high ground. The left have no interest in the real poor, so long as they serve their purpose.
Well, done that’s a difficult argument to make and you did it very well.
I think it might be an older phenomenon than we realize: “the Universities have been to the nation as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.” Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679
okay, Graham, over here I commented we were not going back far enough (https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/is-2024-the-year-of-reckoning-for/comment/46531427?r=b4o5c) but here you nailed it. I saw all of this begin to become entrenched when I was there during the 80s. The virtual signaling part is just a knock-on, a pole to hang from, a veil to hide behind, a fear of an impending idiocracy (of their own making through incompetence and malfeasance) that would affect paychecks, that's what I think happened, along with everything that you say here!
Thanks for that. Ironically Reuter's-Fact-Check also purveys some misinformation....specifically in its link to an I-News article by Benedict Cooper: "In fact, the quote first appeared during the US presidential election of 2016." He then goes on to dismiss as mere social media trolling (by 'Russia' among others). Well No! I myself have been trotting out this quote/misattribution for over 30 years - before social media of even the internet - but I have no way now of checking where I got it from all those years ago. The Dorian Lynskey link is much more convincing (and he acknowledges that this 'quote' has been around for decades).
I shall stop using it. But I would add that I-News is a cheap-shot Leftist partisan rag and not to be taken seriously. Also it was obvious to me that this Benedict Cooper character is a guy with an agenda - and not just some disinterested seeker after Orwell-quote provenance.
Close down all the faculties and departments of Education. Return to an internship/apprenticeship system for teacher training. You learn to teach by watching good teachers.
Mainstream conservativism has had a presumption that institutions should be allowed to run themselves. In the case of universities and now public schooling, that has been a catastrophic failure.
Yes absolutely....but how, without either the political or deep state power or the will? That... as some famous playwright said (can't bring the name to mind just now)....is the question.
More seriously: https://substack.com/@librarianofcelaeno has some good recent stuff on this...do you know of it?
Yes, that is the question. And was not was not aware of that writer, thanks for the tip.
Right! A step of some dimension would be to require a degree in what you are going to teach. For instance math teachers are required to have a degree in math. Half of good teaching (only half?) is having developed excitement about the subject!
Since this essay I have written another on the issue of our disastrously wokeified education systems: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
In the next century, I strongly believe that social scientists will look back in amazement that folks in our time didn't realize that these pathological ideas and urges were more biochemical than from any other cause. Read the excellent book, PATHOLOGICAL ALTRUISM by Barbara Oakley, Ph.d. That along with what I'll call "capacious compassion," has taken over the hive mind and individual constituents thereof. We know that testosterone in populations has waned over time. I'd love to see (if it's possible) a similar inspection of whether Oxytocin and Dopamine have also changed over historical time. Politics is downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from brain functioning. Brain functioning is downstream from its biology and chemistry.
Interesting stuff....I've never thought about it in those terms but I will check out Oakley. The psychology of Progressive virtue-signalling - whatever its cause - is a recurrent theme of Slouching Towards Bethlehem Substack.
Great little mini thread. And relevant to research showing biochemistry being changed by device behavior. I use ChatGPT 4 every day, even to create new GPTs, and it's changing my biochemistry, I can feel it. This is all tricky stuff on a macro scale, my bet. We best tread more carefully than we are right now, me also thinks.
I wouldn’t say it’s the only causal relationship
But one does have to look at this, I completely agree. If you look at all the kids diagnosed with adhd alone, which has a shortage of dopamine in addition to other biochemical differences it wouldn’t be surprising. Add to that the epidemic of porn addiction, which will see much more publicity in the next 5-10 years, since kids as young as five have access to unlimited material on their phones and parents don’t care to place any monitoring or controls on the devices. Repeated exposure to more and more violent porn and is also affecting sperm count and biochemistry. For more info on that you can visit #fightthenewdrug on IG and on their website.
I do agree that biochemistry could be a factor!
The idea is to get the jokes moving in the populace at large. Not sure just how. Like you said, if it’s on a conservative site it won’t go far. Some really good jokes might spread. Repurposed blonde jokes for instance that make the woke look simple minded. I think they are one level thinkers, so it might not be to hard.
There is something in this. Imply a lack of sophistication, as it is this need for external validation (of one's ability to see beyond the herd) where they are weakest.
I like it.
Politics is downstream from culture.
Be sure to make woke jokes. That might slowly undermine the narcissism. When it’s cool to be on the other side.
True, I've made a couple on Chris Bray's Substack. But you'd have to go on a wokey one to have an effect - assuming there is a sense of humour out there.
Q: How many college administrators does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Good Question. First, send me $250,000 in small, unmarked bills and don’t ask how I’m spending it, and come back to me in four years for a piece of sheepskin suitable for framing.
Q: How many college students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: SHUT UP, YOU RACIST PIG!!!
Q: How many college professors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: They don’t screw in light bulbs, silly - they screw in their students’ dorm rooms!
Wow!
Another great read!
I am retired after fourteen years as a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines, and twenty-six years as a teacher/curriculum specialist/literacy coach for the State of Florida.
Critical race theory is taught by many teachers. Colleagues against this practice, are considered snitches. No one in administration will open their mouths.
The curriculum is packed with DEI. It is imbedded in every article from remedial to AP courses. The students are sick of it. I can't tell you how many students complain about "sob" stories. My hands were tied as I had to use the mandated material provided on a computer/laptop. No pencil or paper allowed. My teaching tool was limited to a laptop cart, period.
I retired in 2020 - frustrated and disgusted.
Thank you Mary. I left teaching in the late '80s because of the 'political correctness' groupthink at that time. I dread to think what it must be like now.
While I do agree with much of what's written here--and the monumental task laid out--the first paragraph of the essay describing Putin as "a paranoid autocrat and a failing military strategist" but then asks if he has a point regarding the West's "culture war" as a bit odd, considering your original description of him (autocrat / failed military strategist), and actually due to the fact that these two descriptions fit him so well, I think the real question is whether or not his criticisms of the West are valid at all.
For me "his criticisms of the West are valid" and the negative facts about him make no difference to that validity. Bad people can make valid observations just as good people can sometimes be philosophically muddled. But really my opening sentence was inspired by what one might call the 'writerly arts'. In other words I was using irony to spark interest.
Since you agree with much of this essay, I hope you will take a look at others on Slouching Towards Bethlehem and, if you like them too, take a free subscription?
sometimes I need a bit of irony to be spelled out to me ;)
definitely will check out some of your own articles, I saw your articles pop up from time. This one was something I agreed with and man it is a monumental task as you spelled out.
You can assess his criticisms' validity without regarding his failures at all. His critiques are either right, or they arent.
A busted clock is right -- twice a day. (Unless it's digital.)
Busted clock often quoted, but being right by accident is a poor prognosticator of rightness. Set your watch by a busted clock, go ahead.
I believe that is precisely the point of the expression.
An autocrat? Maybe. A failing military strategist? Compared to whom?
One needs to be cautious about somebody who has never been fairly evaluated in the West and whose military failings, if any, resulted from believing the genuineness of lying global leaders. He has learned his lessons.
He remembers those who defended the tractor factory….
I suggest that the first step be abolishing the federal department of education.
The second would be to end federal student loan guarantees.
The third would be to abolish either the federal civil service protections or the public sector unions, on the grounds that no private sector workers have both. Have federal employees vote on which. Set a quorum of 75% participation or both will be abolished.
I have written about this (and other aspects of how we might rethink the education of our children) in this essay: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well. which opens with this:
"‘Schools in Crisis!’ has become something of a hot media button in much of the Western media - and not just in fringe conservative publications. According to a 2021 piece in the Washington Post, schools are “facing a crisis of epic proportions... test scores are down, and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying on the couches of social workers. Anger is rising. Patience is falling.”
Schools in crisis?…..are they not part of the very furniture of modern society; as much a part as its factories and offices? That vast infrastructure of buildings full of classrooms children and teachers. Kids spending their weekdays being taught by teachers – how could things possibly be otherwise? In this essay I try, firstly, to sketch an impressionistic snapshot of this ‘Schools in Crisis’ media flurry and then to dip a toe into the hazy waters of what could possibly replace them as the means by which society teaches its children....."
The problem with this approach is that both parties have gone insane, just on different issues. Neither appears willing to analyze issues on a case by case basis.
Democrats believe in open borders that destroy cities (says the mayor of NYC) and working class wages, that people can change their biological sex that destroys the rights of women to privacy and fair sports competition and encourage the sterilization of children as "gender affirming care". They encourage homelessness, crime, and endless deficits. They discriminate against men, Asians and poor whites to cure past discrimination against others. Their leadership consists of an addled old man and a vacuous, word salad spouting, DEI selected idiot.
Republicans deny the climate change that threatens humanity, denounce the vaccines that reduce deaths from disease, believe that this ( . ) is a 👶 which destroys women's futures, and most stupidly support a sociopath for president.
Against overwhelming odds a moderate centrist party must be formed to deal with the excesses of both existing ones.
Go ahead, change the climate, I'm waiting. BS
I’m currently drinking from the substack firehouse but have truly appreciated your writings.
Thank you.....Drinking from the Substack firehouse is an arresting image. They might want to adopt the phrase themselves!
is it supposed to read fire hose??
I guess it probably is...now you mention it! I just liked the sound of it.
"- an end to public sector security-of-tenure unrelated to performance."
I contemplated the idea of a right-wing thinker presenting this possibility earlier today and came to the conclusion that this would only work with total institutional control.
Imagine eliminating tenure with our modern administrations in universities: established conservative professors and individuals with political views outside of the accepted norm uprooted and replaced with opportunistic, but ultimately vacuous, Marxist ideologues considered more "competent".
Otherwise, excellent.
What you're saying is that this could potentially be subverted by the very forces it was intended to confront. And of course you are right in principle; policy makers should always give thought to the law of unintended consequences. But this was a short, sharp polemic, not a policy paper and - to be fair - did preface these 'policies' with " would need to be an unashamedly sledgehammer legislative approach and pursued with Machiavellian sleight of hand".
"Otherwise excellent." So would you add STB to your other 9 Substack reads?... it's free
Point taken...
Thank you.
It’s proper Invasion of the Body Snatchers stuff. I’m thinking there’s just got to be an ‘origin’ or ‘mother’ somewhere. Its got a heart beat but its hidden and kept under armed guard. But there’s got to be a way of infiltrating and destroying it. Only then can we return to life as normal. Honestly though, this is what it feels like to me. It feels like a twilight world where nothing feels real any more. A world where people’s lips are moving, they are obviously talking but they are not words I recognise. Their eyes are milky. It does feel like you have to put your armour on before you venture out. Or is it just me???
Pure poetry this Donna. So subscribe to this Substack.... you'll be safe here I promise... here everything is real!
Okey dokes 👍
I can’t help but wonder how much influence The Powell Memorandum has had in all this. Ostensibly anti-leftist, anti-communist, the memo identifies the major threats to American business (higher education and the media, among others), and offers a blueprint for countering these forces. Major resources were mobilized in these efforts, such as The Business Roundtable. How did they fail so miserably, so ironically?
From The Powell Memo, 1971: “Sources of the Attack
The sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern.
The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.
Moreover, much of the media — for varying motives and in varying degrees — either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people.
One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.
The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.
Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive.”
Welcome to STB. On the theme of corruptions of our Westen education systems you might find these essays of interest too:
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/how-diversity-narrows-the-mind
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
Absolutely, this is a serious business after all. I would suggest thought that conservatives can’t deny that there social injustices in the world, and cede the moral high ground. The left have no interest in the real poor, so long as they serve their purpose.
Well, done that’s a difficult argument to make and you did it very well.
I think it might be an older phenomenon than we realize: “the Universities have been to the nation as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.” Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679
Now that's a great quotation.... Thank you! I'm bound to use that one sometime.
okay, Graham, over here I commented we were not going back far enough (https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/is-2024-the-year-of-reckoning-for/comment/46531427?r=b4o5c) but here you nailed it. I saw all of this begin to become entrenched when I was there during the 80s. The virtual signaling part is just a knock-on, a pole to hang from, a veil to hide behind, a fear of an impending idiocracy (of their own making through incompetence and malfeasance) that would affect paychecks, that's what I think happened, along with everything that you say here!
Thank you.
"As Orwell said it “the public will believe what the media tell them they believe”."
Just a nitpick but Orwell didn't said that https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2N2VZ236/
Thanks for that. Ironically Reuter's-Fact-Check also purveys some misinformation....specifically in its link to an I-News article by Benedict Cooper: "In fact, the quote first appeared during the US presidential election of 2016." He then goes on to dismiss as mere social media trolling (by 'Russia' among others). Well No! I myself have been trotting out this quote/misattribution for over 30 years - before social media of even the internet - but I have no way now of checking where I got it from all those years ago. The Dorian Lynskey link is much more convincing (and he acknowledges that this 'quote' has been around for decades).
I shall stop using it. But I would add that I-News is a cheap-shot Leftist partisan rag and not to be taken seriously. Also it was obvious to me that this Benedict Cooper character is a guy with an agenda - and not just some disinterested seeker after Orwell-quote provenance.
oh god, more word quibbles! Isn't the Harvard scandal enough? I have one book in my office, u guessed it:https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2a520c4a-1329-40ca-aec4-96459b2d234e_805x1024.png Sealed for a reason in this shot. But go ahead Graham, make up a damn quote from Orwell or Shakespeare even, if it gets your point across; it's the point, not the words that matter for fing sake.