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National populism involves hostility to external influences, blaming immigrants, the EU and multinational firms for the problems of the common person. The worldview appeals to citizens with low income and education, yet its potential to damage these groups is well-known. The Brexit vote was a classic case; even though a British exit from the EU was considered likely to harm low-income voters, such groups tended to support Leave. It is tempting to conclude that some engage in self-harm, yet this can be linked to the non-material interests of such citizens. These groups have less capacity to adjust to a globalized world, related to their low skill profile, meaning that they favour worldviews which stress collective identity and preservation of local conditions.
National populism suffers from serious externalities. Because the worldview stigmatizes others, reflecting energy generated in defence of local conditions, it causes internal and external disorder. The former involves victimization of minorities and is disagreeable, yet the latter is particularly serious; scapegoating of other states heightens international tension, increasing the probability of conflict.
by some organisations. As the representative explained, they selected those employees ‘that speak English, are media-savvy and don’t say stupid [expletive]; don’t say something about the revolution or talk too much about Iran or Shi’a’. Some health workers who met these requirements became well-known figures, who regularly featured in advocacy efforts. This, of course, also reinforced notions of a ‘deserving’ victim and a ‘good’ humanitarian, one
Humour can be theorised as integral to the genre even if there are some films that do not provoke laughter. Romantic comedy has been described as a narrative of the heterosexual couple with a happy ending in which humour does not necessarily play an important part. The comic, protective, erotically-charged space is the space of romantic comedy. This book proposes a revised theory of romantic comedy and then tests its validity through the analysis of texts, but these films must not be expected to fully embody the theory. It proposes a change of approach in two different but closely linked directions. On the one hand, a comic perspective is a fundamental ingredient of what we understand by romantic comedy; on the other, the genre does not have a specific ideology but, more broadly, it deals with the themes of love and romance, intimacy and friendship, sexual choice and orientation. The book discusses two films directed by two of the most prestigious figures in the history of Hollywood comedy: Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder. Lubitsch's
relationship with her husband which is based on a series of well-rehearsed but flexible performances, and an understanding that her desire must not be impaired. II. Romantic comedy in no man’s land: Kiss Me, Stupid To Be or Not to Be is important from the perspective of romantic comedy because of the liminal position it occupies between two moments of the genre’s Hollywood history. Kiss
conclude the chapter by examining how, on the shop floor, the management’s deification of the ‘transcendent client’ becomes the target of mockery. Operators and team leaders, in particular, engage in various ways in making the client look stupid. Through gossip, humour and rumours the figure of the ‘transcendent client’, to whom deference and subservience must be shown at all times, is contested. Such temporary subversion has one important unintended consequence, however, which is to reinforce an ‘operational consensus’ (Goffman 1969 [ 1959 ]: 9) vis-à-vis the role of
7 The third runway at Heathrow 185 million people to die in Africa this century alone because of climate change and people are still hopping over to Barcelona for the weekend and saying ‘Sorry, it’s part of our way of life’. (Joss Garman, Plane Stupid, on Newsnight, BBC television, 17 October 2006) First, some of the large proportion of aviation growth represented by short-haul fights can feasibly be transferred to rail. Second, unconstrained growth in short-haul aviation is creating air-dependent lifestyles and increasing the UK’s tourism deficit. Third
parapolitical movements can make so much money from crowdfunding and merchandise. It also rehumanises many of those attracted to the personalities and the campaigns, rather than the ideologies. Dismissing huge swathes of people as stupid racists and deluded fascists does not make the problem go away, and keeping the grifters famous makes it worse. Parapolitical movements that are not explicitly linked in the UK to the far right (or Islamist extremism, outside the scope of this chapter) do not have such obvious populist and right-wing touch points, but nevertheless are as
pen some words in his autobiography under the heading ‘I Dedicate My Whole Life’, which have left a vivid sense of that life and experience: … This was to be my life’s work. Yes!, my whole existence will be concentrated on knowledge. I will be a dedicated revolutionary renouncing all stupid, transitory pleasures for the noble ideal of fighting for the emancipation of my class; the working class, and thereby leading humanity to socialism, the new world. Such are the vistas and anticipations of life when we are young. Looking back on it all today, after a long and
/or, rational or irrational, clever or stupid. The differentiation of levels of intelligence was even ascribed to demons. In the later twelfth century William of Newburgh, in Historia Rerum Anglicarum , mentioned a holy man named Ketell who classified demons on a scale ranging from the relatively harmless, considered ‘small, contemptible, impotent in strength and dull in understanding’ ( parvos ac despicabiles, impotentes viribus et sensu hebetes ), to the ‘large, robust and crafty’ ( daemones magnos, robustos, et callidos ). 4 Note the opposing