Conservatism and The Theater

Even in liberal-soaked Britain, the right fails to make any decent plays or films:

We can argue long and hard about the political hue of New Labour’s economics, but only those on the very fringes of the debate could deny that the establishment is now both liberal and left of centre. Even the Tories have been drawn towards the consensus, with an increasingly touchy-feely social policy which makes the old Conservative grandees look like bigots (which is what too many of them were). Yet where is the theatre that challenges that liberal consensus, which makes those of us who consider ourselves a part of it think a little? Where is the theatre of the right?

I’ll make do with Stoppard. My kind of right, I guess. You know: the kind that once opposed torture.

(Hat tip: Arts Journal.)

Subjectivity and Wine

For all of you somewhat insecure around oenophiles, here’s some ammo:

In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn’t stop the experts from describing the "red" wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its "jamminess," while another enjoyed its "crushed red fruit." Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine.

The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was "agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded," while the vin du table was "weak, short, light, flat and faulty". Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was.

Hat tip: Tom Christensen.

Art Online

Lastsupper

What exactly is the difference between a painting that is real and a painting that is so perfect a copy that no one but experts can tell? Kinsley has long argued that the fetishization of real art is silly. But now the web ups the ante: a depiction of "The Last Supper" that allows you to look at it from much closer quarters than anybody in real life. The image is here. One word: wow.

Polarization And Wealth

The one feeds the other. Do you have any good friends you disagree with politically? Money quote:

Real political debate is mostly done by poor uneducated moderate non-voters with little political knowledge and few social contacts, talking with people they hardly know and rarely talk to.  I suspect causation goes both ways here – not only are rich, educated, social, political folks more likely adopt the political opinions of their close associates (over distant others), but such folks also tend to avoid close association with those who disagree politically. 

Brian and the “Nazi Jews”

Some potentially controversial news about a scene cut from Monty Python’ "Life Of Brian":

A new DVD edition of the film includes the deleted "Otto" scene, which features a radical, first-century Jewish revolutionary who has the same dreams as the young Adolf Hitler. Otto sports a toothbrush moustache, and, in case we still haven’t got the message, his disciples all wear a symbol that combines the Star of David with a swastika. These are "Nazi Jews"…

"I think what it addressed is extremely relevant today," [Terry Jones] says, "with what’s going on in Israel. Eric [Idle, who wrote the scene] put his finger on something; it was quite prophetic."