Digital: The perfect undying art
Great paintings deteriorate, great statues erode, fall and break, great literature is forgotten and it's subtleties lost as languages for ever evolve and disappear. But now we have a new kind of art. A type of art that in theory cannot die, it transcends space and time and can remain pristine for ever and ever. That is digital art.
Digital art is pure information. Therefore it can be copied for ever and ever, exactly reproduced for later generations. Digital art cannot erode, cannot break, it is immortal. Thus is the power of bits, so simple zeros and ones and yet so awesome. Through modern AI and Large Language Models we can now store the subtleties of languages in an abstract vectorial space, also pure information, that can be copied ad infinitum without loss of information. Let's think about the future, a future so deep that we can barely see it's horizon. In that future, with that technology we can resurrect languages. However the languages resurrected will be the ones we speak today.
We have a technology that allows us to store reliably and copy indefinitely that technology is called the *Blockchain*. The most reliable and resilient ledger we have today. We have almost everything we need to preserve what we cherish.
Let's think of a deep future.
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Digital: The perfect undying art
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A CROOKED TALE
This is a story about barbarians who destroyed an unusual and much loved pub in the west midlands of England.
I wrote this tale some months ago for my website, www.globerunner.blog. Recent news suggest that the barbarians, as my article suggests are going to be forced to rebuild The Crooked House!
Locals of a demolished pub near where I was born can take heart from the story of a demolished pub near where I live now - one which was ordered to be rebuilt ‘brick-by-brick’. Judging by calls and emails I’ve had from folks who know that I’m a Black Country boy, the news of the recent burning and demolition of the Glynne Arms, aka the Crooked House near Dudley in the English west midlands must have gone around the world. I was born a mile or so away from what we locals knew as the Siden (side-on?) House, and as our local gang of kids grew up in the 1950s and 60s, the pub was a regular curiosity for us to view as we roamed the countryside around the disused pit workings that had contributed to the Crooked House’s subsidence. Later on, I'd often run past it on one of my training stints on the disused railway track which overlooked it. My father had been born even nearer to the pub, and as I grew into drinking age, it would be on our itinerary for an occasional pint, and the traditional rolling of a ball-bearing seemingly ‘uphill’ on the bar or the window sills. It was also a must-see for anyone visiting the area. Now living in north-west London, the last time I was there was four years years ago, showing the place off to some French visitors who’d come to the family home to celebrate my mother’s 100th birthday.
The story of the pub’s demise last weekend has been across the national news for days. Originally built as a farmhouse in the late 18th century, it had been a pub since the 1830s. Despite a campaign to preserve it as such, it was sold two weeks ago, apparently to be repurposed. The building then burned down last weekend in circumstances that the neighbourhood websites have universally described as SUSPICIOUS. The fire service arrived to find its way blocked by mounds of earth on the access road. The delays in getting high pressure fire hoses close enough to the blaze meant that the building had already been gutted by the time that fire was extinguished. Then, to pile anguish onto injury for the locals, bull-dozers were brought in the next day, to reduce the place to rubble. Drinkers, devotees and dignitaries across the West Midlands are up in arms, demanding explanation and restoration.
They might take heart from the tale of the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale, a couple of miles from where I live now. In 2015, the Carlton, which had been rebuilt as a pub in 1921, was bought by a company who turned out to be developers. An immediate application from them to build flats was turned down by Westminster Council; and alert locals sought a Grade II listing from Historic England, to prevent further threat to the pub. But two days before the listing was to be awarded, the new bosses gave staff a day off, allegedly for stock-taking, and avoiding the inconvenience of a fire in a residential area, the bulldozers were drafted in and reduced the pub to a shell within a few hours. Cue mayhem! But, as the Guardian reported two years ago on its reopening, ‘… the Carlton’s story did not follow the usual plot, where the developer presents the fait accompli to the local authority and pays a fine before pressing ahead with the redevelopment and counting their profits.’
Over 5000 locals, including councillors had mobilised to set up a campaign entitled Rebuild The Carlton Tavern. They pressured Westminster Council, not noted for its public spirit, and not only did the council turn down the developers’ further application for flats, they ordered the company to rebuild the Carlton ‘brick by brick’. That was a pleasant surprise for James Watson, the pub protection adviser for the Campaign for Pubs, who advised the Carlton group. “I never imagined that I would see a planning inspector order a developer to put back what he’d just knocked down, to look exactly as it was. I thought the developer would get a slap on the wrist, a £6,000 fine. But I was flabbergasted – and it has set an incredibly useful precedent. Other planning inspectors will remember it, and so will developers”.
With hundreds of locals descending on the site of the former Crooked House in the last two days to bemoan and complain of its passing (and to take away a souvenir brick), pressure is only going to grow around the Black Country and West Midlands for something to be done about the wanton destruction of such an unusual historic landmark. Roger Lees, the leader of South Staffordshire council has already confirmed it is investigating planning breaches, and the over-zealous destruction of the property, which his body had not authorised. Council and aggrieved locals could do worse than study the case of the resurrected Carlton Tavern. Could the Crooked House yet rise from the ashes?
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A CROOKED TALE
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A new version with minor updates.
Hello everyone!
Last week we released a new version of Bluwr. The website looks almost the same, but we have:
- Simplified the login page by removing the photo (it caused some display errors on some phone)
- Made the **Follow buttons** clearer, to make it easier to know if you are following someone
- Fixed an error that caused the number of Bluws to not appear in the analytics table
- Fixed some typos on the french website
Everyday we strive to make Bluwr better.
Thank you for being here!
The Bluwr Team
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A new version with minor updates.
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The Death of Liberalism: Nature and the Steppe
Liberalism has failed. The liberal paradigm, which began during the Enlightenment, is collapsing. We are at the end of a great civilizational cycle. Another dark age is upon us. But out of this dark age will emerge afresh the doctrine of nature, and new barbarians to revitalize the West and direct it towards a new destiny.
The fundamental failure of liberalism is that it does not address the problem of nature, and it moreover conceals it with the idea of natural rights, when no such thing exists. Failing to recognize the fundamental laws of nature and concealing them with idealistic human laws of convention is one of the most fatal errors a civilization can make, and may in fact be why all civilizations fall.
The Greeks devoted much of their philosophy to the relationship between Physis, nature, and Nomos, law. Yet the idea of nature, the discovery of nature, is quite rare throughout human history.
In Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy, Costin Alamariu argues that the idea of nature emerges out of a “refinement, abstraction, or radicalization of the aristocratic way of life and of the principle that underlies aristocratic life and the aristocratic worldview.”
He writes, “When the idea of nature merged, it did so in opposition to convention or ‘custom.’ Cows graze, wolves hunt by nature; but different tribes of people deal differently with the dead—cremation, burial, etc.—by custom or convention. It is a notion distinctly similar to our ‘nature versus nurture’ or ‘nature versus culture’ or ‘nature versus social construct.’ The question of what was ‘by nature’ or ‘by convention’ animated much of Greek intellectual life, and had important political meaning, for example, with the aristocratic party generally favoring the side of nature and the democratic party generally favoring the side of convention. In the first chapter I try to explain how a rudimentary idea of nature could have emerged out of the ‘primitive’ or ‘prehistoric’ mind, out of the mind as ruled exclusively by ancestral convention or custom.”
He later continues, “The answer is that it could not. The moment us discovery of nature—which is the precondition of both philosophy and science—is the preserve of one very unusual people, the ancient Greeks, and, long thereafter, those parts of Europe where Hellenistic civilization was promoted, first by Rome, and later in a considerably modified form in Christianity and various Christian states that had inherited some of the roman institutions.”
The idea of nature emerged in the late stages of Athenian aristocracy, as a response to the aristocracies many critics; as a solidification and abstraction of the aristocratic worldview. But we then must ask the origins of the aristocratic worldview.
As we have talked about at length on this channel, the first aristocracies were formed out of nomadic, pastoralist peoples conquering sedentary farmer populations and imposing their hierarchies and worldview upon them. This means that the aristocratic worldview, and the first seeds of the idea of nature, was born among pastoralists peoples.
The sedentary, tribal life of the farmer is ruled by convention and custom, and he is therefore unable to separate what behaviors he has inherited through custom or religion and which through biology and nature. However, a nomadic people would have been able to observe a great many peoples and their differing way of life, allowing them to see the behaviors which remain consistent across the species and formulate a rudimentary idea of ‘human nature.’
Further, the harsh conditions of the nomadic way of life, which relied on the breeding of strong herds, and later, the domestication and breeding of horses, would have made ideas of heredity and breeding, of nature and biology, especially important. Darwin’s natural selection would have been self-evident: only the strong—the fittest specimens—survive the harsh life on the steppe. And sexual selection would have been just as evident: if the fittest specimens are bred, they will improve the quality of the herd over time and even lead to behavior alterations, like the domestication of horses.
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The Death of Liberalism: Nature and the Steppe
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Man, people and humanity
People have always aspired to freedom and prosperity. They always wanted to live from their work. Their pleasure is to see their offspring play, learn and prosper. People have always wanted peace as a way of life. Living in peace…a whole concept, a chimera.
Alas It has never been completely like this. Except for brief, precious and rare moments that history could not remember. These moments remain exceptional, they were brief, even ephemeral.
People have always sought to not be exploited by anyone, all the while they tend to exploit others. Sometimes, unfortunately, by dehumanizing with immeasurable cruelty. A history of exploitation while giving yourself a clear conscience.
In fact, peoples are groups of humans with common traits. People are formed over time and coalesce around common interests. To defend himself and his interests, man can only live in community among a people.
Man aspires to freedom and peace; humans say they have values but humanity does not care. The course of history unfortunately demonstrates this.
Humanity imagined a way to aspire to this freedom to live in harmony: Involve everyone in the decision and give man the impression that he is part of his destiny. Nothing better than a word with Greek etymology to make it serious and credible: Democracy.
This sounds very good.
Yes, Democracy is there in principle to free us and make our voices heard. To realize our desires and respond to our need to live in peace. To live together. To respect others in their human dimension. To limit ourselves to our rights without encroaching on those of others.
Democracy is a sort of safeguard for each and every one. At least that is how it was perhaps imagined and designed.
It allows us, in theory, to express ourselves, defend and assert our rights from the most basic to the most sophisticated.
Democracy is sold to us as the one and only model for the prosperity of people and their moral and material well-being.
Now democracy is playing a dirty trick on us: handing over with tied hands the most mediocre among us, the most ferocious, the hungriest, the most bloodthirsty; to those who rejoice when graves are dug, when blood flows, when a child cries or a woman cries.
Downside...
I was born in a moment of peace, one of the few, just a few years after a cruel war started by Europeans. At the beginning they killed each other. They will then involve poor Africans as cannon fodder.
Absolute cruelty for years.
Millions of innocent people thrown underground.
The break will be short. Without wasting time, humanity will experience the Korean War, that of Vietnam, that of Iraq, that of the Falklands, lots of squabbles in Africa and so on...The instigators and authors are always the same.
Each time it's good versus evil...Each time democracy is involved, rightly or wrongly. The democratic world against the other...A democratic world which defines itself in absolute, total, integral contentment, with double standards as the only alternative of "reasoning" and "judgment" too; eliminating all others from the good square at will.
Each time, genocide, each time cruelty, each time dehumanization.
Each time faced with the helplessness of the man who only wants to live in peace.
As for whether humanity ever existed. Will it exist one day...
You understand, I don't want to talk about Palestine, the wound is still fresh and the criminals are still alive.
Aziz Daouda
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Man, people and humanity
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Style is the man
The particular imprint of exceptional humans has marked history, if not made history. Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, French naturalist and mathematician and member of the Académie Française, undoubtedly marked by the rigor of the exact sciences, stated in his reception speech: ‘Style is the man himself’. Even if Buffon only spoke of literature and science, style thus becomes an objective constant of each of those who mark history with a particular legacy.
Foreshadowing what the Crown Prince would grow to be when King, the late His Majesty Hassan II of Morocco will take up the notion of style, precisely quoting Buffon. He said in a notorious interview : ‘Style is the man’. No one wanted to announce that the reign of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco was going to be different from his own, although in the logical continuity of history.
Today the trend is to confuse style with a more modern notion of ephemerality: the look.
If the look, which will summarize an outfit, a haircut, colors, is circumstantial and therefore contingent on the moment, style is a constant of the person and accompanies him throughout his life.
Style will experience an evolution but in a logical continuum. If style ends up being validated and confirmed by history’s objective appreciation, the look is not necessarily in symbiosis with style. The look is tainted by subjectivity. It depends on each person’s perception, image and imagination. It is marked by the appreciation we have of the person we meet in a particular circumstance, a particular environment. The look is a subjective composition which can be modeled simply through a photograph which falls into your hands, a video viewed on a train or on a plane, so many images that forcefully invite themselves into the intimacy of the onlooker by forcing the screen from a phone or a tablet, through advertisements and social media.
The look can go so far as to contrast with the style. It is the subjective assessment that we make of the person being scrutinized; and will be even more biased if it is accompanied by a comment even if it is the antipode of objectivity. A film actor can thus be stuck by his look and his acting, the personality traits of a character, when all he has done is succeed in restoring them to us for the duration of a film.
The look is appreciated as long as it coincides with the image we have of the person at the very moment of meeting. It depends on the success of the approach and the reaction of the person encountered. It is conditioned by the circumstances of this encounter, the degree of surprise and the emotional level it arouses. The first glance will be decisive here.
The look generates admiration: everyone will form an idea of the person they meet based on their own appreciation, their emotions and their state of mind at the moment. The degree of sympathy expressed or shared can thus lead to idolatry.
The style commands respect and generates love and appreciation. It is a constant that evolves slowly, surely, and becomes significant. It is assessed on rather objective and verified criteria. Style is indelible and is linked to action through art and manner. Style leaves a mark forever. It is this imprint that allows us to judge and define its contours. History is judge of style.
Aziz Daouda
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Style is the man
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But what is Gamal Abdel Nacer still doing in Conakry...
What was my surprise when I was told that for my stay of only 3 nights in Conakry, I was going to stay at the « Hôtel de L'Université » which is in fact called Gamal Abdel Nacer University.
We must return to both the recent and distant history of Guinea Conakry to understand what Gamal Abdel Nacer is doing, or rather was doing, in this region of Africa.
The University is now some 60 years old. It has no less than 35,000 students and some 620 teachers. The students represent nearly twenty countries.
It is a university that aims to be innovative and competitive in the service of socio-economic development and environmental balance in Guinea, in the region and in the world.
Built with the support of the Soviet Union in 1962, it was known until 1984 as the Polytechnic Institute of Conakry. The University was then named in honor of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It served for a long time to provide the country with its elites.
Here Gamal is honored, elsewhere he was named Paper Tiger or even Tiger of Falouga, so much so that he puffed out his chest and suffered a series of defeats and disasters that his country continues to pay till today. An excess of "philosophical" vision undoubtedly misguided, meaningless slogans, based on an ideology without anchor, neither social nor even less cultural or historical, if not just a dream.
The Officer who called himself free had, with a group of friends, overthrown the very young egyptian Monarchy as a Kingdom. Previously, Egypt had Sultans. Fouad II overthrown by Gamal and his barracks friends, acceded to the throne in July 1952, aged only 7 months and 10 days, after the abdication of his father Farouk.
Farouk thought that by abdicating, leaving the throne to his baby with a regent who seemed to be accepted, he would calm the ardor of the officers and thus save his young monarchy. It didn't work. Farouk ended up leaving the country with honors, thus avoiding a bloodbath and confrontation between the military and pro-monarchist forces. The free officers will then name Mohammed Naguib president of the Arab Republic of Egypt in June 1953.
An Arab Republic in Africa, heir to the greatest civilization that the African continent and the world had given birth to.
Gamal was appointed prime minister in April 1954 but not for long...A few months later, on November 14, 1954, poor Naguib was kindly thanked and Gamal succeeded him quite naturally. Naguib born in Sudan will then go and write books...At the time it should be remembered, Sudan was part of Egypt but under shared sovereignty with the United Kingdom. Sudan will be declared an independent state in January 1956.
The free officers of Egypt in fact, carried a project of national independence, believing that Egypt was not in fact free and that the English still had an ascendancy over the monarchy. There was also there, and above all an air of revenge of the common people, who were the young army officers, on a Cairo bourgeoisie or even nobility, speaking mostly in French, moreover, of Turkish or very close.
The officers naively promised and no doubt dreamed of rapid economic development for the benefit of all...A somewhat special vision of communism and a socialism which was sought for a long time without ever succeeding, based on the doctrine of the Baathist Michel Aflak, a Syrian which skillfully combines socialism and pan-Arabism.
Michel Aflak is a fan of secularism and freedom from Western interests. The Baath subtly opposed socialism to Marxism, a way of satisfying the deeply religious populations, predominantly Muslim and not only, and for whom Marxism was synonymous with atheism. We are here in the Middle East, the cradle and heart of all monotheistic religions...
The Baath found in Gamal the ideal tribune. His inflammatory speeches met with an immense echo in Egypt and the Arab world: the army then appeared as the savior of an enlarged nation. The Arab Nation…
Nacer's speeches mobilized and inflamed crowds at home and beyond. Its Cairo Radio, then received on short wave throughout the so-called Arab world, would play a capital role in propaganda that would restore pride to populations who had not yet emerged from the yoke of colonization in the region.
Mohamed Abdelwahab will add a nice layer with the song Douae Echark (Call of the Orient) to the words of the great poet Mahmoud Hassan Ismail. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful pieces of music by the Egyptian virtuoso. Oum Kaltoum will do his part in 1964 with Ala Bab Masr (At the Gates of Egypt); words by Kamal Echanaoui and a composition once again by Mohamed Abdelwahab. She will also sing among others Ya Gamal ya Mital Alwatania (Gamal Example of nationalism or patriotism...). But the one who sang the most on the occasion of the July 23 celebrations was the young singer of that time, Abdel Halim Hafez, notably with his famous song Ihna Chaab (We the people).
In fact, we are here faced with an extremely well-oiled system serving a cause that wanted to be pan-Arabist in the service of a military regime that wanted to be exportable to all countries with the Arabic language as the common denominator.
The revolution was intended to be Egyptian but was to extend to the entire Arab world. It will succeed in overthrowing regimes almost everywhere, in Iraq, Libya, Syria... it will settle in Algeria and fail to make Hassan II of Morocco bend for example... The war of sands (Guerre des sables) was imposed to him but his solidity and his political sense will surprise them...
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But what is Gamal Abdel Nacer still doing in Conakry...
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French Expedition of Larache 1765 , Tale of a Moroccan Victory
The Seven Years' war has just ended in 1763, considered to be the real 1st world war. It was a deadly and costly war that left all belligerents heavily in debt. For instance this was the main reason that lead to the American War of Independence.
During this war, Moroccan pirates harassed French ships, not hesitating to attack merchant ships and lonely warships.
The King of France Louis XV tried to buy peace from the Moroccan sultan Mohammed III but faced with failure in negotiations, he decided to launch a punitive expedition against the sultan.
He charged the chef d'escadre du Chaffault with this expedition. Du Chaffault set sail in 1765 for the Moroccan coasts at the head of a squadron composed of 16 ships. Count De Grasse, another famous figure, was also in the party.
During their journey, they surprised Moroccan pirates hiding at the mouth of the Loukkous river, they managed to destroy a brigantine and 2 other ships that the corsairs had captured the day before using a xebec. The latter managed to take refuge in Larache.
The squadron arrived at Salé and began to bombard it. The Moroccans responded with heavy fire using 9 batteries, 4 in Salé-le-Vieux and 5 in Salé-le-Neuf(Rabat). The French had the technological edge, but the Moroccan steady fire prevented the french guns from being accurate.
The French abandoned the idea of entering the river alerted, by a nearby Swedish ship, that the Moors are in numbers and on the lookout. The King of Morocco, and his guard was also present in Rabat. Furthermore, the mouth of Bouregreg is narrow and presents an ambush risk.
Du Chaffault then decides to find a Moroccan port that is easier to punish. They left for Mamora (Mehdia) but the bad weather and the presence of only one small ship in the river was not enough for the French. They decided afterwards to leave for Larache.
During their misty journey, they came face to face with a Senau (img) of Swedish origin, previously captured by the privateers, which was on his way to resupply Salé with ammunition. After his capture Du chaffault sent it to Brest under good escort.
In front of Larache, they saw La Sirene, a large French merchant ship taken by the Moors at Cadiz in 1764. The temptation to burn this prize was irresistible. Using a diversionary tactic, they tried to go straight to burn La Sirene but the swell prevented them from doing so.
In the meantime, French ships' artillery was able to silence the batteries of Larache citadel. The citadel was built by the Portuguese in order to resist land attacks and not sea ones.
Using their longboat, the French launched a 2nd and a 3rd expedition to burn Moroccan ships but with no success. They decided to launch a 4th attack, deeper this time. But the Moroccans had prepared a ruse. They left few ships near the port as baits.
They deployed their skirmishers in well hidden positions on both sides of the shore. As the French longboats progressed, they were taken in enfilade by Moroccan fire. More than 4000 Moors surrounded the French and began to approach them. It was a massacre.
Between 200 and 450 KIA on the French side. Many of those who tried to flee were drowned, very few managed to escape to their ships. The wounded one were finished with axes and their heads were cut off. The survivors were enslaved and sent to build Mogador(Essaouira).
One of the survivors Bidé de Maurville would later write a book: "Relation de l'affaire de Larache". France will later pay a heavy price for the release of the captives. The French navy was humiliated a second time after the Seven Years' War.
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French Expedition of Larache 1765 , Tale of a Moroccan Victory
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Welcome to Bluwr.
We are glad to see you here, we promised that Bluwr would be released on the 13th of November 2023 and we delivered. Bluwr is unique, we took inspiration from times far before the internet. Bluwr is a bridge between the past and the future, a conduit for thoughtfulness and inspiration.
We built it with maturity and foresight, striving for beauty and perfection.
A text-based platform for times to come, the past and the future seamlessly merging into something greater.
""
Think Forward.
"" - Bluwr.
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Welcome to Bluwr.
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