The Naton State

The Great Scandinavian Nosedive

17 February 202029 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Every once in while, a corporation or institution makes a decision so astonishingly bad that average people wonder just how a bunch of high-powered and highly paid executives can be so monumentally stupid. These “teachable moments” used to come along once every decade or so, but now they seem to be happening every other week.

The latest catastrophe has been the instant backlash provoked by Scandinavian Air’s spectacularly ill judged marketing strategy of deriding Scandinavian culture as somehow fraudulent or not real, while at the same time encouraging customers to engage in yet more of the same cultural appropriation they’ve just been belittled for.

Now Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) are shocked to discover that the general public are not altogether happy with being told that almost every part of their cultural identity is somehow invalid, which is pretty much the same thing as denying that a huge part of them even exists in any meaningful sense. Not only is this obvious nonsense, but it’s just one more wearying example of the cultural and anthropological bigotry which has become a disturbingly acceptable part of media discourse in recent years. Boiled down, this pernicious form of psychological self-flagellation holds that pretty much everything in Western societies (and especially the Anglosphere) is somehow stolen from some other society and is therefore not real or worthy of respect.

Modern Heretics

David Berlinski – Modern Heretic

23 January 202029 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

It’s only fitting that I dedicate my 100th blog post to the great David Berlinski; mathematician, writer, polymath and probably the single most dangerous heretic alive today.

With a fiercely talented and mathematically trained mind, Berlinski has become the scourge of establishment academics as he questions the most basic assumptions upon which disciplines such as physics and evolutionary biology currently rest. The reason he is such a threat to the status quo is that he identifies and calls out the articles of scientific faith which are cunningly disguised as settled facts…plus he’s just a lot smarter than they are.

Perhaps being the child of Holocaust refugees has something to do with Berlinski’s uncanny ability to sniff out patterns of thought and systems of belief that masquerade as established scientific principles, despite their being nothing of the kind. Probably the best example of this surgical separation of what we know from what we think can be found in The Devil’s Delusion, Berlinski’s masterful deconstruction of “scientific” atheism. As a secular Jew, Berlinski doesn’t argue for or against the existence of any First Cause or Creator; instead he merely exposes the many, many questions left unanswered by astrophysics and evolutionary biology by deflating their claims to know an awful lot more than they actually do.

Brexit

The Leavers of Power

15 December 201930 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

So here it is, merry Brexmas, everybody’s having fun!

The results of this general election will be discussed and written about for decades to come, and with good reason. This is quite literally the end of an era. Future history books will compare and contrast the period that went before with the one that dawned on Friday December 13th 2019.

The abject failure of the Lib Dems’ revoke Brexit offering speaks for itself, and much has already been made of the starkly contrasting results obtained by both the major parties. By now it’s common knowledge that Labour have suffered their worst electoral defeat since 1935, but apparently that’s okay because Jeremy Corbyn claims to have won the argument. Some would say it’s unkind to deride the afflicted, but mockery is the only rational response to self-delusion of such galactic proportions. Something that’s much more interesting than the ongoing corbynista meltdown is the sheer scale of Boris Johnson’s triumph. Pretty much everybody knows that it’s the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher’s last election victory in 1987.

Politics

The Viciousness of the Good People

13 November 201929 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

I know I won’t be the only one switching off his social media feeds when the polls close on December 12th. If current election projections are borne out, I have no desire to drown in the torrent of abusive bile and wailing lamentation that’s certain to swamp the internet when the people of the UK choose the next Parliamentary intake.

The inevitable outpouring of Leftist rage on Friday 13th will also be very revealing for those with eyes to see. When confronted with their failure to convince the masses of their own best interests, the mask of many a meme sharer will slip to reveal these caring, compassionate and concerned citizens for who they really are. It won’t be pretty, but it’s always instructive to watch these enlightened souls fly into a blind fury when they realise that the people they claim to champion are not so easily moved by some clever soundbite about tolerance and compassion. They are about to discover that the average voter is actually smarter than a ten year old child. Who knew?

My Favourite Memetic Movies

Joker (2019)

14 October 20196 September 2020 - by Charles Naton - 1 Comment

It’s rare for a film to achieve full memetic status when it’s first released. It usually takes quite a while, sometimes years, for many different layers of expression and commentary to reveal themselves within a truly memetic movie.

Not so with Joker.

Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of rage, despair and insanity is both uncomfortable to endure and yet completely enthralling. Watching Arthur Fleck choke on the uncontrollable, maniacal laughter he tries to suppress is mesmerising as we witness two personalities battling for supremacy inside the same tortured mind. Trapped in a hopeless cycle of stupefying medication, vapid counselling and grinding despair, it’s only a matter of time before Arthur finally snaps and the monster within can no longer be contained. Indeed, it is Fleck’s acceptance of the Joker as his true identity which is one of the deepest and most disturbing aspects of the entire screenplay. Arthur Fleck has known nothing but unhappiness, exploitation and alienation; while the Joker is a carefree, brutal and remorseless predator.

Joker is both created by and reflected in the oily, grimy and hopeless city that Fleck and the other residents of Gotham are forced to endure day in and day out as each cycle of decay, promised renewal and abandonment is worse than the last. Arthur Fleck is ground under by the grey, garbage filled vista he cannot escape, while the Joker is perfectly adapted to his environment; finding joy in every dirty puddle and wreaking his vengeance on a world that first conceived and then shunned him. The psychotically violent clown is familiar to us all as Frankenstein’s vengeful creation, re-imagined for our modern world of medicated conformity and vicious social stratification.