Mischief Night

When Ike was in the White House, and my brother and I were in short-pants, the night of misbehavior before Hallowe’en was known as Cabbage Night.   It later turned out that this designation is extremely restricted geographically -- our own New Jersey town and surrounding boroughs.   More widely it is known as Mischief Night; in some places, Beggars Night or Bakers Night;  and in Detroit, appropriately and depressingly, Devil’s Night.

In France, in recent years, it is New Year’s Eve, or what the French call Saint-Sylvestre, that witnesses such mischief  -- and alas, more along the lines of Detroit’s signature arson, than the toilet-paper-and-shaving-cream festivities that annoyed the homeowners and delighted their offspring, back in our day.   There, the burnt-sacrifice of choice is:  automobiles.

In the past couple of years, the toll has apparently declined;  though it is difficult to know, since the French press has long been squirrelly about releasing accurate figures.   The matter is especially sensitive because of a certain ethnic dimension, unique to France.   And this year, there is some anxiety that the practice might spread to the Tea-Party-like Breton “Redcaps”, who have been obstreperous of late.

Menace sur les radars à la Saint-Sylvestre

Le feu couve toujours chez les «bonnets rouges». Les préfets veulent éviter un pic de vandalisme pour les fêtes.

Manuel Valls appelle à la mobilisation générale des forces de l'ordre pour une Saint-Sylvestre à haut risque.

We devoutly hope that the revelers this year will restrict themselves to getting smashed themselves, and not indulge in smashing other things.


For the whole suite of our musings upon festal days, try these:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/search/label/holiday

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Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

[Update, New Year’s Day 2014]  Le bilan:

Manuel Valls a annoncé ce soir que 1067 véhicules ont été brûlés la nuit dernière en France, à partir des données des préfectures. Le bilan porte sur les faits commis entre le 31 décembre à 18h et le 1er janvier à 06h.
Manuel Valls a précisé que ce chiffre était en baisse de 10,6% par rapport au Nouvel An de 2013

Well,  good.  Now that that’s over, the Ministre de l’Intérieur can get back to focusing on the real problem now facing France:  how to suppress the quenelle.

Update to “Theologia Mathematica”

Again we commend to your attention, our series of essays regarding Realism in mathematics, the outline of whose program  begins here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2010/12/theologia-mathematica.html

We have just updated that statement as follows:

It is not our goal, as José Ferrerós remarked anent Hilbert’s program, “to employ Kroneckerian means for a justification of modern, anti-Kroneckerian methodology” (in Timothy Gowers, ed., The Princeton Companion to Mathematics (2008), p. 151)  First, we could scarcely hope to succeed where the Hilbertians failed.  More to the point, our argument is essentially epistemological, rather than deductive, constructive, or even properly mathematical.  We contend, and hope to make plausible, along a meandering path of insights and fables, that our knowledge of the (eternal) truths behind the (contingent) practices of mathematicians, is not discontinuous in kind from the way in which we come to know anything which we know not directly or experientially but only inferentially:  the reality of atoms -- of quarks -- of Mars -- of Novosibirsk -- of the Pelopponesian War -- of Other Minds -- or … coffee cups.

Enjoy.

Gesture of the Day: “la quenelle”

[Einführung in die politische Semiotik]

It is not only words that may be coined:  less often, it is also gestures.   A new one is causing much blood to boil, and ink to spill, in France.

Outsiders are unlikely to get it.  Thus, consider this:

Looks like a referee calling an off-sides or something. You wouldn’t give it a second thought.

[Footnote:  Well, okay, you might, if you are familiar with the semiotics of European kinesiology, and figured that that still-shot was the initialization of the gesture, known as the bras d'honneur,  whereby the forearm rises… Which, if directed against the umpire, would call for a red card.  But the gesture is static;  and that is not at all what is going on.]

But now this:

Hmm…

And finally, this -- pages blanked out by the media, as the photo is too shocking:

In line with our recent Trappist vow of silence regarding any and all commentary upon sensitive social issues, we shall have nothing to say about this;  you can read all about it in Wikipedia, or more recently here:

http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/La-quenelle-un-geste-transgressif-d-une-betise-insondable-645892

Amusez-vous bien.

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

[Footnote, 14 June 2014]  An explanation for the young folks, who probably have no idea what is going on.

The reason the “quenelle” has stirred up so much commotion, is that it reminds some people of the old Nazi “Heil Hitler” gesture.  But that has been taboo for so long, that unless you watch old movies, you millennials have probably never even seen what it looks like.   Here, to refresh your memories, is an apparent example, of more recent vintage:

Greetings, my faithful minions !

Semiotic footnote:  The above version is not quite the one you'll see in old photographs of underlings -- rigid, Roman -- but more like that of the Fuehrer himself, who used a floppier version, lest he get "dictator's elbow" from all the saluting.

[Update, 1845Z]  This just in!

The comedian who invented the gesture is now to be pursued by the full might of the French legal system.

François Hollande soutient la démarche du ministre de l'Intérieur Manuel Valls, qui étudie les moyens d'interdire les spectacles de l'humoriste Dieudonné, plusieurs fois condamné pour antisémitisme.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/12/29/97001-20131229FILWWW00105-dieudonne-hollande-soutient-la-demarche-de-valls.php#xtor=EPR-31-[hollande-soutient-la-demarche-de-valls-contre-dieudonne]-20131229-[titre]

Presumably our own blogsite will now be banned in France (if it isn’t already), for displaying the images.

In the meantime, before we are obliged to go dark, savor these other reports of French political-correctness:

 

    France finally honors a world-historical stateswoman

    The Frog in the Crock-Pot

Gratuit !

Lisez le conte entier

“Le détective et la fillette”

~

[Mise à jour, 30 December 2013]   This story is not dying down:

Ce n'est plus du fait divers ou de l'anecdote, mais presque une affaire d'État. Manuel Valls, le ministre de l'Intérieur, est sorti de la prudente réserve à laquelle s'astreint depuis toujours la Place Beauvau en matière de censure. Dans une interview au Parisien doublée d'un communiqué vendredi dernier, Manuel Valls a annoncé vouloir étudier «toutes les voies juridiques» pour interdire les «réunions publiques» de l'humoriste Dieudonné, qui «n'appartiennent plus à la dimension créative mais contribuent (…) à accroître les risques de troubles à l'ordre public». «De déclaration en déclaration, il s'at­taque de façon évidente et insupportable à la mémoire des victimes de la Shoah.»

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2013/12/29/01016-20131229ARTFIG00127-dieudonne-le-casse-tete-de-l-interdiction.php

[Update 31 December 2013]  Ha!  Too funny. 

Here is the French Interior Minister (a.k.a. “le premier flic de France”), jauntily posing with some young people making the forbidden gesture, despite the hideously obvious judenfeindlich-Sturmabteilung tenor of their sinister grins.

Do as I say, not as I do

Political-correctness appendix:  For some reason, the identity of the young woman is masked in this news photo, but not that of the young men.

~

The gesture has been described, in terms as contorted as the physical gesture itself, as a “reverse Nazi salute”.  Meaning what -- anti-Nazi?   Is it like the swastika which (so we once read -- no doubt bogus) means ‘war’ when clockwise, but ‘peace’ when counterclockwise?

M. Valls no doubt worries about looking foolish, in attempting to suppress or prosecute a gesture which, as it spreads through the population, is coming to mean no more than an objection to the heavy-handedness of the state:  of which suppression of the gesture will be a perfect illustration.

Be that as it may, his campaign is doomed in advance:  for any gesture whatever, if performed in unison, acquires semiotic moment.   Indeed, so simple a posture as that of holding an umbrella -- and this, not in unison, but precisely as being in unison with no-one -- can take on a dark significance, and cause the world to quake;  we remember such an incident here:

The Umbrella Man

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Everybody’s doin’ it !  U can 2 !!

[Update 1 January 2014]  A thoughtful and well-informed article here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/01/the-bete-noire-of-the-french-establishment/

[Update 5 January 2014]

Calls for suppressing the comedian who invented the unspeakable gesture, are spreading on the French left:

Candidate socialiste à la mairie de Paris, Anne Hidalgo est favorable à l'interdiction du spectacle de Dieudonné et la fermeture de la Main d'Or.

http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Hidalgo-Il-faut-fermer-le-theatre-de-Dieudonne-646807#new-reactions

A reader replies, nicely in rhyme:

Le démocratie c'est cause toujours, le totalitarisme c'est ferme ta gueule, nous sommes bien parti pour, les staliniens sont de retour....

To which Pierre Pingouin replies:

C’est chouette!  Vous êtes poète.

[7 January 2014]   This thing is starting to look like a Peter Sellers film ...

La tournée de Dieudonné menacée d'interdiction

Le gouvernement et certains maires veulent faire annuler ses spectacles. À Nantes, où il doit se produire jeudi, plus de 5000 places ont été vendues.

[8 Jan 2014]  The latest development in the unfolding drama/farce/grand-guignol:

Deux lycéens brièvement placés en garde à vue pour une «quenelle»

L'un des jeunes posait sur une photo devant un ananas, référence à la chanson «Shoah nanas» chantée par Dieudonné, parodie polémique du titre de «Chaud cacao» d'Annie Cordy.

[10 janvier 2014]  True to his modus operandi of trying to silence the ludic truth, with the police power of the State, F. Hollande now threatens to go after the newspaper that revealed his trysts:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-apologies-to-m-le-president_10.html

[10 I 14 -- This Just In]

Le conseil d'État valide l'interdiction du spectacle de Dieudonné à Tours

[21 I 14]  Weiteres:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/01/appendix-to-la-quenelle-rabiah.html

6 II 14]    Another political gesture, popular in France, but unlike the quenelle, rewarded rather than censured, is returning, in church, to that sartorial state which prevailed before the Fall, though with morals very much post-lapsarian:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/religion/2014/02/04/31004-20140204ARTFIG00393-monsieur-le-president-de-la-republique-supprimez-ce-timbre-a-l-effigie-d-une-femen.php

A reader comments:

Encore un beau message... les quenelliers coupables de "bras d'honneur" sont devenus des ennemis de la république quand des profanateurs d'églises en deviennent eux l'un des symboles.

[Update 9 avril 2014]  And now, this outrageous development.  Members of le Barça caught in this shameless display of what has been called the "double upraised quenelle":

Eine Schande !!

Taubira has demanded an immediate investigation.

[Note:  Some of the above is satire, some is straight news.
The point is, it's difficult to tell them apart.
And now that The Onion has purchased the struggling New York Times,  it'll be even harder.]


[Update 13 June 2014]  From Le Figaro:

Affaire de la «quenelle» : nouvelle provocation d'Anelka

Actuellement sans club, Nicolas Anelka continue de faire parler de lui. Jeudi, quelques heures avant le coup d'envoi de la Coupe du Monde, l'ancien attaquant aujourd'hui à la recherche d'un club depuis son départ de West Bromwich Albion a publié via son compte Twitter une photo qui risque de provoquer la polémique. L'ancien international venu à Kinshasa (RD Congo) afin de soutenir l'action de la fondation caritative d'aide à l'enfance de Youssouf Mulumbu, ami footballeur et ancien coéquipier, apparait avec un t-shirt «Superman» stylisé.

[Update 5 September 2014]  Banned in Belgium:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/09/04/01016-20140904ARTFIG00316-la-parodie-politique-pas-du-gout-de-la-justice-europeenne.php

Fie! Je bent politiek incorrect!

[Update 13 Sept 2014] And now, in Germany, another symbol is banned:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/09/flagge-verbot.html

[Update 1 December 2014]  And now -- from the Left -- a sort of “counter-quenelle”:

Police group wants Rams players disciplined for 'Hands Up' gesture; NFL declines

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Consilience and Cognitive Science

In a recent essay, the polymath philosopher Ian Hacking, as the first and most fundamental of his list of “applications” of mathematics, puts “App 0:  Math Applied to Math”.

Why should there be so much ultimate connectedness …?  If we follow the cognitive scientists who think that there are distinct mental modules for arithmetical reasoning and for spacial reasoning, Descartes’ Geometry of 1637 is all the more astonishing.  This question needs a lot of philosophical work, right now.

-- Ian Hacking, “Why is there Philosophy of Mathematics at All?”, repr. in Mircea Pitici, ed., The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012, p. 248

Well, here’s a tidbit towards that.

Hacking is right, that the Idols of the Neuroscientists make the success of Descartes’ breakthrough the more astonishing, as indeed they do any of the insights of mathematicians.  But that simply redounds to the discredit of the Neuroscientists.

Hacking happens to have chosen an instance of Consilience that neatly matches two pre-posited “modules” of the CogSci crowd.  (Such “modules” can be had for the asking, according to fancy;  there is no net, in that tennis-game.  -- Table-tennis, rather.  -- Right now, my “Stuff and Nonsense!” module is blinking red.)   But they would be rather more hard-pressed to come up with a separate “point-set topology module”, “abelian group theory module”, “number-theory module”, “operator theory modules”, “ring theory module”,  ET cetera ET cetera, to attempt to account all the sundry other intersubdisciplinary interilluminations which keep arising within mathematical practice -- deep connections among concepts that never fell within human ken, back when our geometry module, in collaboration with the arithmetical module, was calculating the angle and distance to the rampaging mastodon, yet which now yield such fruits as the beans Jack received in barter for a cow.

Perhaps the explanation lies well apart from the contingent biochemicalisms of the grey-matter blancmange in our brainpan, modular or otherwise.   Mayhap there is an actual unity -- a unity in variety, which we do but discover --

in bits and glimpses,

in pieces and snatches,

by dint of much study,

and by grace of Grace.

~

We are making a New Year’s Resolution, not to be so darned snarky.  (Having successfully shed nearly twenty pounds this past calendar year, we are ready to take on even greater challenges.)

Accordingly, so as to redeem our good standing among our Cognitive Scientist brethren (with whom we used to rub elbow-patches daily, back at UC Berkeley, in the permanent “temporary building” T-2), we herewith offer an extra-virgin olive branch:   preliminary results from a massive structural-neuro-longitudinal study undertaking by the Pataphysical Department of the World of Dr Justice (headquarters:  Geneva), abundantly funded by the grateful taxpayer.  With this we obtain direct insights into the child’s developing mind.   As our investigations prove, this comes pre-compartmented into the following empirically buttressed cubby-holes:

(1)  The “Everything is What it is and Not  Another Thing” foodstuff module.

The vegetables are bad enough, but when they touch the mashed potatoes -- Eeewwww.

(2)  The “Mine and Thine” module.

Though discernable in outline already in the early embryo, this module does not become activated until much later in development;  and in some specimens (B. Madoff, D. Trump) never.

Prior to activation -- much like the notocord that serves the embryo until the spinal column takes its place -- behavior is governed by the following, non-modular (“opportunist”) pragmatic maxim:

     “My bear.  My toy.  Mine.”

(3)  The “Girls Have Cooties” module.

For reasons not yet well understood, this module is activated only in immature males;  some genetic link to the Y chromosome is suspeced.  In any event, it is normally de-activated at puberty.

Inexplicable Nursery-Rhyme

            Quine, Quine,  Wittgenstein

            stole a pig  and away they ran.

Update to “A spoonful of spin”

[For the full essay, with background, click here.]

[Update 25 Dec 2013]  Reports concerning the behavior of the African Union troops in Centrafrique, saviors of the situation according to Samantha Powers and NPR, and trickling in, and are … concerning.

http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5708548

The Chadian forces, which blatantly favor the Muslim side, have already antagonized the Christian majority in Bangui, further inflaming tensions rather than calming them;  but more, they have engaged in gun battles with their brother Burundians in MISCA.   So they are basically being sh*t-canned -- er, redeployed, far away into to jungle where it is hoped they can do no harm.  However, as the specialist interviewed by Medi1 points out, they will then have a free hand in the still-unpacified Séléka northern stronghold, so this actually doesn’t bode well either.

Un ressentiment croissant des Banguissois envers les soldats tchadiens

Cette annonce intervient deux jours après des tirs fratricides au sein même de la force africaine entre militaires tchadiens et burundais. Mardi, le chef du contingent burundais a révélé que ses hommes avaient été la veille la cible d'une attaque de soldats tchadiens, avec tirs d'armes automatiques et jet de grenade. L'attaque avait été repoussée et trois soldats tchadiens blessés, selon cet officier.

Le matin même, une patrouille tchadienne avait brièvement ouvert le feu - sous l'oeil des journalistes - sur des manifestants anti-Seleka devant l'aéroport, faisant un mort.

Ces incidents à répétition ont suscité un ressentiment croissant chez de nombreux Banguissois, et entamé la crédibilité des militaires de N'Djamena, pourtant aguerris et combatifs, et surtout partenaires incontournables des Français pour espérer rétablir un semblant de stabilité dans le pays.

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/centrafrique/20131225.OBS0677/centrafrique-tirs-et-panique-pres-de-l-aeroport-de-bangui.html

Bienvenus dans le bourbier, les gars …

[Update, 25 Dec 2013]   These, then, are the African Union forces which NPR approvingly reported were about to be showered with $100 million from the US.  Note that we are not picking a nit here -- the Chadian contingent is the main one in MISCA, both in terms of manpower and field experience.  And it is not training or equipment that they lack:

Des pick-up de l'armée tchadienne, qui forme la plus grosse part de la force africaine, filent sur le goudron. … Bien formée et bien équipée, l'armée tchadienne était l'un des éléments clés sur lequel Paris comptait pour soutenir sa mission en Centrafrique.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/12/25/01003-20131225ARTFIG00106--bangui-les-soldats-francais-entre-deux-feux.php

What they lack is something essential, and which no amount of money can wish into existence.

«Si les Français ne font rien, ils sont accusés d'impuissance, voire pire. S'ils interviennent, ils sont montrés du doigt et accusés de partialité par l'un des camps.»

According to the NPR translation department, the signs read:  “Heartfelt thanks to the great French nation for coming here out of the goodness of their hearts, risking their troops and spending their treasure, for no possible gain to themselves, simply to save us from our own murderous impulses.”  (Some might dispute a few nuances of this translation.)

[Update, 28 Dec 2013]   Meanwhile, other French activity in Africa:

Une nappe phréatique géante découverte dans l'aride Kenya

Grâce à un outil de son invention, un ingénieur français a découvert une réserve d'eau souterraine qui pourra alimenter cette région déshéritée.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/2013/12/27/01008-20131227ARTFIG00385-une-nappe-phreatique-geante-decouverte-dans-l-aride-kenya.php

To which we may expect the eventual response, “Colons go home!”

~

[Update 29 December 2013]

In an important interview published this morning in the Journal du dimanche, a French general and academic, Vincent Desportes,  who  despite everything  supports armed French intervention in RCA, begins by stating the obvious -- that Hollande was, as usual, lying when he said that the intervention need only be brief -- and then goes on to pop the bubble of the goodthink peddled by Samantha Power and NPR, to the effect that the noble warriors of the African Union will save the day, allowing France  gracefully to retire:  “L’effondrement de la Misca nous place dans une nouvelle situation.”

But the reality goes well beyond that:  basically, “effondrement” is about the best thing the MISCA forces could do at this point:

La force africaine fait-elle partie des problèmes ou de la solution?
Il faut être franc. La force africaine crée par elle-même des problèmes et concourt à l’aggravation des tensions au sein de la population entre chrétiens et musulmans. Les Etats qui ont fourni des troupes ont des intérêts propres à défendre dans cette crise, à commencer par le Tchad qui fournit 850 des 4.000 hommes. La première mission de l’armée française était de sécuriser et de prévenir les massacres, la deuxième de restructurer la Misca pour en faire une force opérationnelle sur laquelle s’appuyer. On voit que cela n’est pas possible pour l’instant. Après trois semaines, on aurait dû avoir une force de 4.000 Africains et 1.600 Français aptes à remplir la mission. Ça n’est pas du tout le cas.

~

We have focussed on France in Africa, because that is currently at the top of the news, and because much of what is going on there goes unreported in the American press.   But there are lessons for America as well.

In this morning’s report of an extensive study, the New York Times refutes the Republican fantasy-narrative about Benghazi (which was never more than an attempt to cloud voters’ minds for a while: Mission accomplished, boys!);  but in the course of it, highlights a factor that has been insufficiently appreciated:

Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who had direct knowledge of the attack there and its context, turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault. The attack was led, instead, by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.

A fuller accounting of the attacks suggests lessons for the United States that go well beyond Libya. It shows the risks of expecting American aid in a time of desperation to buy durable loyalty, and the difficulty of discerning friends from allies of convenience in a culture shaped by decades of anti-Western sentiment. Both are challenges now hanging over the American involvement in Syria’s civil conflict.

In short, for America as well as France:  Expect no lasting gratitude in Africa.

[Update 30 December 2013]  In Bangui, the French soldier on:

Le dispositif militaire français mis en place pour tenter de rétablir le calme dans la capitale centrafricaine a atteint ses limites.

Le véhicule blindé fonce et part se planter au beau milieu de l'avenue. Tout autour, de petites jeeps manœuvrent pour prendre possession des bas-côtés. Sous les auvents branlants, les échoppes alentour, la foule vocifère, brandit le poing vers les soldats français et plus encore vers «l'ennemi», les musulmans qui, au bout de la route, hurlent tout autant. Des tirs de semonce claquent pour tuer dans l'œuf les velléités évidentes de caillassage. Lentement, dans le matin de dimanche, les soldats français s'interposent entre les deux camps, prenant le contrôle du carrefour de Réconciliation [!], qui marque la frontière entre les zones chrétiennes et musulmanes du secteur.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/12/29/01003-20131229ARTFIG00115--bangui-dans-la-fievre-des-reglements-de-comptes.php

Expect your reward in heaven, lads;  for it sure won’t be on Earth.

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