The Righteous Imagination of Kevin Myers

Mr. Greasy Till

I was just reading a piece by Kevin Myers in the Belfast Telegraph where he was saying that African babies should be let die because of feminism or something and in it he spoke of Ethiopian “shanty-brothels, to which drinkers would casually repair, to briefly relieve themselves in the scarred orifice of some wretched prostitute.”

He really likes to let the old imagination rip when considering “sexually hyperactive indigents” and the “sexual incontinence and fecklessness of Ethiopian men” doesn’t he? Wow, I wonder is the whole problem genetic or cultural when it comes to Ethiopian men, it’s certainly not Kevin’s problem, sure he’s just letting the old mind wander …in search of a solution.

If it isn’t enough that some eejit reported Kevin to the law for his remarks he also has to live with the fact that “dear old Ireland can often enough resemble Lynch Mob Central on PC issues.” He says he braced himself for the worst and “sure enough, in poured the emails.” Lynch mobs are sending emails now? Good God! As if chasing you around with lit torches and stringing you from a tree wasn’t bad enough. You really have to feel Kevin’s anguish, his fear, his distrust of all those around him. Kevin is Rosa Parks and Ireland is “the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority,” that is making him sit at the back of the bus.

“Why do so many of those who purport to love mankind actually hate people so?” wonders Kevin. Yep, I hear ya fruitcake.

brianthebard

Doubt he'd like the rosa parks comparision,since she's black.And female.God he's annoying,he belongs in a museum to antiquated victorianism that hasn't died but really should,and soon.

flogen

Myers is just adept at straw-men arguments and shít-stirring. He's nothing more than a troll.

Dudess

To be fair, having read the Indo article (I know, I feel so dirty) and the Belfast Telegraph one, Myers does raise some good points. But how can he advocate leaving those little kids to rot in the most agonising way? It's not self-righteous etc to be critical of such callousness.

The_Minister

Firstly, OP, I was talking to someone who goes over to Ethiopia for several months each year, and he said that the description was fair enough (in that randomly wandering into a brothel after a few, and not using a condom is like beer and curry in England.), and that while Myers said it in a really, really offensive way, he could not disagree with the base truth of his descriptions (men lie about while women work etc.). This is a guy who wants to abolish the CAP, and spends most of his spare time in Africa helping people.

Secondly, as well as reading the first article, people should read the second and third articles, since they are a bit more measured.

Thirdly, Dudess, what he is saying is basically Maltheusian (sp?) philosophy. Basically, pop keeps growing, our capacity to produce food doesn't (it's actually falling), keeping feeding people now means that more will die in the future, then if you let some die now. A fairly good article is Living on a Lifeboat by Garrett Hardin. Its fairly accessable.
I disagree with Myers, but its not as indefensible as you may think.


EDIT: People need to realise that this is how Myers works.
He writes something outrageous, everyone goes nuts, then e writes a follow-up article that is alot more rational.

flogen

The_Minister wrote: »

EDIT: People need to realise that this is how Myers works.
He writes something outrageous, everyone goes nuts, then e writes a follow-up article that is alot more rational.

He also tends to be more rational in the radio interviews he does after a controversial argument, probably because he knows he can't defend the extremities of what he says and just said it to get noticed.

Dudess

Yep, he's paid to be an attention-seeking sh1t-stirrer.

Mr. Greasy Till

The_Minister wrote: »

Firstly, OP, I was talking to someone who goes over to Ethiopia for several months each year, and he said that the description was fair enough (in that randomly wandering into a brothel after a few, and not using a condom is like beer and curry in England.), and that while Myers said it in a really, really offensive way, he could not disagree with the base truth of his descriptions (men lie about while women work etc.). This is a guy who wants to abolish the CAP, and spends most of his spare time in Africa helping people.

Secondly, as well as reading the first article, people should read the second and third articles, since they are a bit more measured.

Thirdly, Dudess, what he is saying is basically Maltheusian (sp?) philosophy. Basically, pop keeps growing, our capacity to produce food doesn't (it's actually falling), keeping feeding people now means that more will die in the future, then if you let some die now. A fairly good article is Living on a Lifeboat by Garrett Hardin. Its fairly accessable.
I disagree with Myers, but its not as indefensible as you may think.


EDIT: People need to realise that this is how Myers works.
He writes something outrageous, everyone goes nuts, then e writes a follow-up article that is alot more rational.

Myers can express any opinion he likes. I was commenting on the venomous relish with which he expresses himself. I think it is telling of Myers' deep-seated misanthropy. I also think that Myers' need to provoke is based on a bizarre pathological need to attention seek, validate his persecution complex, and therefore validate himself. I don't think he's cunningly trying to get everyone to look at the issues via stirring a controversy, I just think he's got problems. Also, he’s never come close to a lynching as far as I can see. He’d love it (or at least the idea of it) but it’s never happened. He reckons the IRA tried to kill him once but, well, the whole scenario didn’t sound very credible, more like a hoax if I remember correctly. Ultimately, people sending abusive emails to you or just disagreeing with you do not a lynch mob make.

No doubt, when it comes to Africa there are cultural issues and trade issues and arms trade issues and trade related intellectual property rights issues and dodgy aid issues and debt issues and all the rest. People have been saying this for years without being so disrespectful and, yep, racist in the way they express themselves. It's interesting that your friend concurs with Myers, although in a far more genteel fashion, but I actually wouldn't mind hearing some thoughts from some Africans themselves instead of having the reality of the place mediated to me by the mouths and laptops of westerners. Still, I'd guess for that to happen we'd need Africa to be blogging and for them to blog they'd need a decent telecommunications infrastructure and they'd be too busy boozing and raping to get around to that wouldn’t they?

A few final things on the actual issues though: Myers says that Africa gave us nothing but AIDS but didn't ten year old Africans mine the copper that makes up the internal wiring of the very laptop he pours his troubled psyche into? Also, if he hates the amount these countries spend on arms why doesn't he also hate the people who sell them those arms? It's a bit like hating the junkie but admiring the dealer’s business acumen. Also, these over-population arguments confuse me. Is the argument, and I’m by no means sure so please tell me, that we should let the poor die because there are too many people in the world for too few resources? Isn’t that a bit rich coming from an occidental world made obese (often morbidly) on raw materials shipped from Africa?

…you know, I once saw an ornate Ethiopian bible, an ancient thing, not unlike the Book of Kells. I wonder how such a bunch of innate ne’er do wells ever got around to making such a thing.

Dudess

Fabulous post Mr Greasy Till. Please, PLEASE email it to him! Actually, send it to the Indo or Belfast Telegraph for their letters page. Probably won't get published in the Indo, but still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Mr. Greasy Till

Dudess wrote: »

Fabulous post Mr Greasy Till. Please, PLEASE email it to him! Actually, send it to the Indo or Belfast Telegraph for their letters page. Probably won't get published in the Indo, but still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Aw shucks, maybe I will, thanks.