bonhomie oder in a word

The German Sprachraum Unwort of the Year has been announced, and among many other nominees vying for top spot, and it is Gutmensch—having already been accorded second place in 2011 and in common-parlance for far longer. Politically- and journalistically-speaking, it’s sort of a catty, backhanded tactile term, coded word for a group (Gutmenschtum) that counters counter-thinking.

Someone described as such maybe touting the rhetoric of popular opinion—what’s politically-correct (Politische Korrektheit)—but in doing so betray a moralising naivety. Though the term evokes the idea of the Good German or the Good Soldier Švejk and is ultimately of Yiddish origin for an unpretentious person—ein gutt Mensch (itself having a very dicey provenance, cited in Mein Kampf as a do-gooder mentality that was a liability), opposing sides of especially divisive issues can parlay this characterisation as their antagoniser’s goon squad or deputised useful idiots. It’s strange how such loaded words can be used to cloak innocence and arrogance, but all rests in the context. What do you think? Is this selection inviting too much controversy, something as subversive as the un-word itself, especially considering on-going developments—or is political-correctness something deserving of assault?

6x6

now hist. and rare: the OED’s rather murderous beginnings and criminal contributors

memory & function (& memory): Scarfolk, the English town forever doomed to repeat the decade of the 1970s, is coming to the air-waves

stranger danger: get cyber safe

life-long learning: adult Norwegian teaches herself to play the violin and documents her amazing improvement

presto the magician: an analysis and appreciation of the Saturday morning cartoon Dungeons & Dragons

nengajo: beautiful collection of Japanese greeting cards for the Lunar New Year, via Everlasting Blort

best-of-show

Though I am not sure why the source website has nominated Borg Seven-of-Nine to represent the ideal of humanoid attractiveness, but I thought I’d repeat the gesture (maybe there is some joke that I am too dense to get or perhaps we are berthing an old meme ourselves), I found this rather detailed research (peer-reviewed apparently by the US National Institutes of Health) study that demonstrates that chickens recognise and register their appreciation of beauty pretty interesting, in so far as it suggests that it’s more than skin deep and is embedded in our nervous composition.
The study looks to date from 2002 but in an age where we readily submit our looks and esteem to computer algorithms or the hive mind (resistance is futile) for judgment, it might be a subject worth revisiting. What do you think?

black tie, white noise

Speaking surely not ex cathedra, one prominent cardinal of the nuncio (the Holy See diplomatic corps) simply wrote in the big remembrance book in the æther, “Check ignition and may God’s love be with you,” which really made me tear up.
That’s a nice little prayer of comfort to come out of trying, unbelieving loss, like LLAP—the Vulcan salute. I’ll bet scribes are already at work producing some bit of symbolic shorthand. Not that Aladdin Sane is wholly wholesome, we ought to be cautious that we don’t only celebrate what’s suitable for general audiences (South America!) at the expense of what’s dangerous and delightful because it might need to be uncomfortably deferred for parental guidance, like Diamond Dogs, Velvet Goldmine, Jean Genie.