on unRest( )-ing

for unRest( ) a digital artwork is a mix of the systematic organization of material medium and time (with some random items taken from stores of collected material - abutting light or foolish notation against at times sour contextual matter) in the belief that to quote from the concluding recommendations of the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (The 9/11 Commission Report) it is crucial to find a way of routinizing even bureaucratizing the exercise of the imagination : the quotation taken - as it should be - out of context - of course
2007

these [contextual] multipleNarratives are held within the metaNarrative which is the conStructure and runDefinition of the whole in partnership with addedContent : the itemization and reporting of ‘—’
2004

on assassination lite

working text for Mac OS AppleScript Cocoa application

menu item extirpation
pull-down menu item 1 - serving suggestion 1

window a assassinatioN lite
asphyxiate - today
a [bucolic] Countryside Alliance supporter
button indeterminate

assassination lite

panel a
serving suggestion
button terminate
any wearer of the Barbour waxed cotton jacket

pull-down menu item 2 - serving suggestion 2

window b assassinatiO lite
decapitate - today
a [sub-human] knobhead twatboy
button indeterminat
assassination lite

panel b
serving suggestion
button terminat
any ear-ringed clip-headed body-painted girly-man

pull-down menu item 3 serving suggestion 3

window c assassinatI lite
eviscerate - today
a supporter of [net-curtain] Nazism
button indetermina
assassination lite

panel c
serving suggestion
button termina
any reader of Daily Mail & General Trust News Publications

pull-down menu item 4 - serving suggestion 4

window d assassinaT lite
immolate - today
a [handy][mobile][portable] phone owner
button indetermin
assassination lite

panel d
serving suggestion
button termin
any Motorola V980 3G [clamshell camera] phone user

pull-down menu item 5 - serving suggestion 5

window e assassinA lite
impale - today
a print [broadsheet] journalist
button indetermi
assassination lite

panel e
serving suggestion
button termi
any reporter under contract to Press Holdings International

pull-down menu item 6 - serving suggestion 6

window f assassiN lite
garrotte - today
a private [owner-driver] motorist
button indeterm
assassination lite

panel f
serving suggestion
button term
any owner of a Freelander XEi 3 door hardback with roof rails

pull-down menu item 7 - serving suggestion 7

window g assassI lite
extirpate - today
a [putative] parliamentary politician
button indeter
assassination lite

panel g
serving suggestion
button ter
any Conservative Party first time candidate elected May 2005

pull-down menu item 8 - serving suggestion 8

window h assasS lite
garrotte - today
a zealous [business] entrepreneur
button indete
assassination lite

panel h
serving suggestion
button te
any individual praised by the Confederation of British Industry

pull-down menu item 9 - serving suggestion 9

window i assaS lite
impale - today
a [further or higher education] lecturer
button indet
assassination lite

panel i
serving suggestion
button t
any sophistic tutor of imaginative critical practice

pull-down menu item 10 - serving suggestion 10

window j assA lite
immolate - today
a [sanctimonious] evangelical
button inde
assassination lite

panel j
serving suggestion
button et
any proselytizer for the bigotry of hyperorthodoxy

pull-down menu item 11 - serving suggestion 11

window k asS lite
eviscerate - today
a fine art [new media] practitioner
button ind
assassination lite

panel k
serving suggestion
button ret
any artist referring to human-centred interactive design

pull-down menu item 12 - serving suggestion 12

window l aS lite
decapitate - today
a [self styled] executive producer
button in
assassination lite

panel l
serving suggestion
button mret
Mario Eugenio Tavares - more about him later

pull-down menu item 13 - serving suggestion 13

window m A lite
asphyxiate - today
a [porcine] suburbanite
button i
assassination lite

panel m
serving suggestion
button imret
any corpulent jobbernowl from Laburnum Grove

end of working text

Jeff Instone - from In the Imperfect Present : In the Future Perfect - a serial of Mac OS applications constructed 2004-2006 with the support of pva LabCulture and Arts Council England South-East

on intelligent building

INTELLIGENT BUILDING
MULTI-SCREEN INSTALLATION
SEARCH-engine

„On (not) flagging a dead cause“

. [multi-] screen TEXT (with 3 components)

part00

intelligent building (X)> multi screen installation (Y)> enquiry agency (Z)> multi screen installation (Y)> intelligent building (X)>

XYZYX

Q should X Y or Z ACT as focal point - providing entry or should all 3 act interdependently while providing ENTRY each to other?
A none at time of writing

part00 concludes

part01

intelligent building project X working title

by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi

multi-screen installation project Y working title

we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here

search-engine and navigation project Z working title

(a) « quoi de neuf - pussycat? »
(b) la femme Nikita

XYZ - XZY - ZYX - YZX

XYZ ((by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi) (we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here) (la femme Nikita))

XZY ((by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi) (la femme Nikita)(we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here))

ZYX ((la femme Nikita) (we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here) (by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi))

YZX ((we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here) (la femme Nikita) (by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi))

Q if the skeletal or bare-bones or outline structure provided by X = FORM and
(FORM = the CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE of major and minor elements within an organization - clearly defined so that the structure operates in full [or limited full] comprehension of itself)

* full in terms of the artificial language used - * limited in terms of natural language

and if the contextually loaded Y = CONTENT
(CONTENT = the major NARRATIVE containing lesser NARRATION composed independently of the structure of the work to provide a social and political CONTEXTUALITY)

and if Z

possesses neither FORM nor CONTENT (other than in the most minimal sense) it may be an irrelevant or dysfunctional element
Q what is the value of Z?
A none at time of writing
and if also Z = a VACANCY for the insertion of user procedures and as such represents an ACT or an opportunity to act then Z represents the human interface and as such need have no ID)

part01 concludes

part02

1 project X
building management system(s) and sensors - (working title)

by-m-by haus bilong yu bilong mi

research
core aims and objectives of the intelligent building - available commercial mission statements and so on

component X AS shaping structure - umbrella - ignition and running procedures
component X NOT AS - not known at time of writing
Q should the database of the intelligent building be read as or seen to be in addition to its functionality as possessing content which may or may not be meaningful?
CONCLUDE - the intelligent building supplies a [conceptual] structure and meaningful content is in the minds eye of the user - unless a basic or simplified or pidgin language is inserted to come between X and Y
Q what purpose would the insertion of a natural language serve at this point?
A none at time of writing

2 projectY
multi-screen installation - (working title)

we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here

research
conceptual structures - J F Sowa - AI mental modelling
component Y AS - ignition & running in response to [aspects of] X
component Y NOT AS - standalone available for direct user response
Q should installation run independently?
A none
CONCLUDE - PLAY independent of X and Z demotes the notion of COMMUNALITY but promotes the idea of INDIVIDUATION

3 project Z
guardian - tracing agent - assassin - (working titles)

« quoi de neuf - pussycat? » la femme Nikita

part SEARCH (quoi…) part CLEAN (Ni-ki-ta) (cleaning agent)
research
component Z AS
either TXT ENT
or KYBD CMDS
or MS ACT

(onMouseOver onMouseOut onMouseEnter onMouse Within onMouseLeave)

or ALL
component Z NOT AS - to be determined
Q should enquiry be only remotely or tangentially related to other [2] components?
as it is - it is more routemaster than searching enquirer
A none at time of writing
CONCLUDE - Z should be [re]assigned to the status of SWITCHing device or ALTternatively Z should provide ENTRY to
(a) a discourse on X and Y
(b) a parallel text contextual to X or Y or X+Y
(c) a tracing agency
(d)an interrupt (or an assassin)

part02 concludes

part03

BUILDING X - conceptual structure - by-m-by…
intelligence of which is unknown at this stage but will include -
sensors alarms swipes fire sprinkler light network cctv air conditioning filtration units timing and temperature control heating solar activation power storage ventilation lift stair (fold unfold up down) and floor emergency notification devices robotics

X

↓
implementation - diversification of individual components
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
unspecified manifestation at this point - speech or text messages - natural language interface
↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
inward outreach from
Y
↓
regulation of topic selection and running of installation results from unwitting consultation with the intelligent building x
MULTISCREEN INSTALLATION - Y - we’re here because…
assets of which are - free running topics prepared earlier of a socio-political nature plus concurrent screen instruction in scripting language with samples
↑
Z

feeding into Y is Z
switch off change direction alter selection
↑ENQUIRY AGENT 00 - Z - « quoi de neuf - pussycat? »
ENQUIRY AGENT 01 - Z - la femme Nikita↑
to direct interrupt and redirect or empowered to clean
or to provide an online or networked commentary or summary or footnotes
part03 concludes

part04

UNWITTING in HYPERPOLIS*
in this hyperpolis (*from the city of electronic signage of JMG le Clézio’s - The Giants) there are 3 (or 4) significant areas (although each (subroutines) may (areas) have within
.component X - the building = formerly by-m-by… is now ex nihilo nihil fit (out of nothing nothing comes)
Q does this structure support or not support sequential non-sequential(ism)?
A none at time of writing

.component Y - the site specific screens and projections installation - (site(s) as yet unspecified - formerly we’re here because we’re here… now obscurum per obscurius (the obscure explained by the even more obscure) supports [previously prepared] non-sequential writing
NB the regulation of topic selection and the running of installation obscurum per obscurius is a product of its unwitting or witless consultation with intelligent building x nihilo…
texts to include for example
(a) the index of evil - opportunities for financial investment in international terrorism - make a killing!
(b) concierge capitalism and the decline of socialism - a call for the resurrection of anarcho-syndicalism and a call for cost - the limit of price
(c) edge-breaking-ground-cutting - odd terminology in the service of empire building (academic - commercial and military) and other means to repression
(d) on not looking into [the] Chapmans’ œuvre - the Emin-ic trivialization of the visual arts - its conceptual innit?
NB screen and projection work obscurum per… also to provide a concurrently running instruction in scripting language
Q does this structure support or not support sequential non-sequential(ism)?
A none at time of writing
and as an adjunct to obscurum per… the

.component Z or ZZ factor supports orderly enquiry (search or navigation) from « quoi…» + clean (or kill ) from Ni-ki-ta

part04 concludes

Jeff Instone - Georges Perec (d.) and Lorelei Undefin (imag.)
.unRest(un R est un M qui se P le L de la R)

(a proposal re-formed at TEXTLAB - trAce Online Writing Centre Nottingham Trent University - Nov 2003)

on Fine Art

from a question put to the institute of international visual arts : question time - Feb 2002

a comforting - because it seems so traditionally positioned - polemic of year 2000 - Demolish Serious Culture!!! asks

was ist radikal-demokratische Kultur - und wem dient sie?

and states that it is better to get along without contemporary art on the grounds that

...the economic and ideological control of institutions turns contemporary art into a feeble reptile bloated with gas - a depoliticized greedy lying half-educated but horribly power-hungry ambitious elitism dealing with neo-liberal politicians and financial bigwigs - dealing in images objects see-through underwear plastic puppets and...tolerance projects for a multicultural communications market

might the panel - consisting as it must do of representatives of that appetitive and self-regarding caste rightly deplored by authors of polemics everywhere - consider the following points of view - and do they think that these points have any value within the context of the discussion?

culture - particularly as represented by that component of the visual arts traditionally and probably redundantly referred to as fine art is now so trivialized as to be no more engaging of mind or heart than a supermarket clubcard voucher - becoming either

(a) a visual joke of the kind that is somehow representative of an adolescent rebellion of the suburban third bedroom kind carried on into middle age and beyond - often rather well produced - a fact which tends to emphasise its triviality

or

(b) has been subjected to a contextualization process - monitored by essentially middle class arts organizations holding community values dear - to become public art - the provision of which has so missed its way as to become a fortunately not everyday saga of pitiful errors of judgement - just as the horse designed by a committee became something other than a horse - redolent of awful sentiment - of northern angels - or concrete inside out books - like some Lewis Carroll conceit - mawkishly memorializing the Holocaust

or even

(c) annexed by entitled specialists - something of a moveable snack - for who in this country now remembers our once politically engaged Atkinsons? I am referring really to those who parlay an apparent entitlement bestowed by - say - race or class - so that a European of Asian ethnicity can propose that she comments first as an Asian woman or an artist who lives an otherwise blameless bourgeois life teaching in higher education can claim to work from the perspective of the working classes on the grounds that her great grandmother was a striking match girl

might the panel also consider that cultural and media education - which appears to have now subsumed a once very flawed - more or less craft-based - art and design education - has formalized and modularized every innovative move made in the arts into an academic process which celebrates the accretion of modification within a matrix of shared assumption - and may no longer be education within any known sense of the term? consider the proliferation of new media courses which adopt the products of a poorly informed software industry - all special FX and simulation McNarratives - to offer a form of intensive farming - a foot in mouth exercise if ever there was one

finally might the panel also consider the notion that what cultural significance may be taking place occurs elsewhere - all too easily missed by the purblind? that rather as the game of cricket is known by some to be one whose intricacy and subtlety is comprehensible only to the Indian mind - and only accidentally invented by the British - so the Victorian civil service - and its Borges-ian descendents - boards and councils and working parties...both hierarchical and rhizomatic - may be the only cultural artefact to survive into an age of Monsanto modified consumerism and a state of semi-permanent childishness set in a shiny sea of wishy-washy contextuality

for myself I remain convinced that despite ex nihilo nihil fit the work of art that refers to its articulation first - to the commonality of the art of work - is to the eructative expression of the self as is the flower to the weed

Jeff Instone
Artist without Portfolio Office of Special Plans unRest( )

on law-n order

working text for Mac OS AppleScript Cocoa application

window a

Nu Labor and neo-conservatism
net-curtain Nazism in middle England :
the deleterious effect of this unseemly
institutional apotheosis upon the
unremitting societal infantilism of the
English class system

panel a
on behalf of which pusillanimous
area community safety partnerships
negligently administer concierge capitalism
and lawn order to
an appetitive middle class
floundering in a state of prolonged childishness.

window b

area strategic partnerships
OVERVIEW
the term community safety now
relates to crime and disorder -
strategy managers are to explain
set-backs as temporary interruptions
within a Low Crime Environment

panel b
while a subhuman semi-crazed underclass
infests the decaying urban terraces -
council sink estates - social housing association developments
and home-owner settlements of urban
suburban and rural middle England

window c

area community safety partnerships
VISION
working at a strategic level
to provide co-ordination and direction
in consultation with the respective
link persons appointed to
community partnership themes

panel c
as a shirking class of crapulent
skin-pierced clip-headed body-painted girly-men
blowzy obese hominoids
and their porcine
educationally sub-normal offspring
exist in almost paralytic ineptitude

window d

area strategic partnerships
AIM
we will work to achieve
healthier communities - this will include
tackling health inequalities and
promoting healthy lifestyles - including
culture and leisure for all

panel d
notably for a socially irresponsible
easily credited deeply indebted
multi-mortgaged suburban or boorjoy
class loafing in mentally undemanding
Bluetooth-ed multi-tasking
tick-a-box make-work

window e

area community safety partnerships
INDICATORS OF SUCCESS
public disorder - anti-social behaviour
fear of crime - youth offending
and illegal drugs
all play a part in affecting
local quality of life

panel e
its mood set by advertizing
and similar means of social manipulation to
managing the lifestyle conceits of an
immodest culture - a gallimaufry
of meretricious services crudely tailored
to the consumer's gullibility

window f

area strategic partnerships
ACTIONS
a diagram of the fully defined structure appears at appendix C :
plans have been approved by
the strategic steering group
and appear in full at appendices E to P

panel f
net-curtain nazism in middle England
concierge capitalism and lawn order -
downloading systems of social manipulation to
meet targets and deliver branded goods and services
in an age of genetically modified consumerism

end of working text

adapted by Nina Zammit-Zorn 2007
collaborating artist unRest( )

on Tate Modern

working text for Mac OS AppleScript Cocoa application

window a

Mission Statements In Middle England

ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 1
Tate Modern Britain and
the Security Intelligence Service :
the Establishment at play and
the Establishment at work
AC ACLMA ACMC AO AP CA CBA

panel a
assistant curator maternity cover
cataloguer
centre for the protection of nationalism infrastructuralist
counter proliferation strategist
curator contemporary art performance
CC CCAP CCBA CED CF CHABAP

window b

Mission Statements In Middle England
ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 2
Tate Modern Britain and SIS
do you have material which you think
could be of use within the four wings of
our disused power station?
CMBA CMC CMCBA CNI CPNI CPS

panel b

customer intelligence reporter
defence intelligence staffer
deputy director general
digital programme curator
director operations
director tate media
government communication headquartermaster
CX DDT DFR DG DDG DIS DO

window c

Mission Statements In Middle England
ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 3
Tate Modern Britain and SIS
covertly organized threats to national
security provide an unrivalled picture of
the development of modern art
DPC DS DT DTB DTF DTL DTM

panel c
human rights actor
human intellectual
‘inspire’ fellow
interpretative education curator
joint intelligence communard
joint terrorism analyst
major areas worker
museums galleries actor
national intelligence agent
EDTL GCHQ HCIA HDCBA HDCMA

window d

Mission Statements In Middle England
ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 4
Tate Modern Britain and SIS
perspectives for approaching and
replacing governments that are
regarded as being insufficiently pious
HRA HS HUMINT IA ICA ICT IEC IF

panel d
national intelligence machinist
permanent security intelligence service worker
prime minister
project director tate modern2
regulation of investigatory powers actor
security servant
IPT ISA ISC ISR IT JIC JTAC MAW MGA

window e

Mission Statements In Middle England
ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 5
Tate Modern Britain and SIS
do you have information of value to
our extreme interpretations arranged
in a broad chronological sweep?
MI5 MI6 NIA NIM PDTM2 PM PSCIS

panel e
single intelligence accountant
single intelligence co-ordinator
security service actor
tate courtauld fellow
united kingdom intelligence committee onliner
weapons mass deconstructivist
PSIS RIPA SS SIA SIC SIGINT SIS SOS

window f

Mission Statements In Middle England
ABSURD EVENT HORIZON 6
Tate Modern Britain and
the Security Intelligence Service :
an event horizon is a boundary in
space-time beyond which events
cannot affect the watcher
SSA TB TCF TE TL TM TO UKICO

panel f
the entire Tate Collection is arranged
in a state of heightened readiness
to explore those particular themes with
a threat level assessed as SEVERE -
it is funded from the Single Intelligence Account
for which Bill St Bonaventure is Intelligence Co-ordinator

end of working text

adapted by Nina Zammit-Zorn 2007
collaborating artist unRest( )

on debt sting

debt - where is thy sting?

Arturo Dalí Senior Research Fellow in Anarcho-Structuralism Orifice of Specious Proposals The Laboratory Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art

successful entry New Statesman competition October 2006 (altho £5 for every entry published remains unsurprizeingly unpaid by NS competitions manager Ms de Meaner)

on the cat

the condition of this cat is that it sits and the location of this cat is that it sits on the mat

like all cats this cat is an animal - a natural type

it is a mobile entity and it is an animate physical object unlike an angel - which though also a mobile entity and which even when fallen or looking homeward has the possibility of animation is neither an animal nor a physical object

unlike too a robot - which is a mobile entity and physical object of the machine kind

this cat could be a kitten - in which case while its status and location remain the same and its type remains unchanged it possesses a further qualification - that of age - a characteristic of an entity at a point in time

neither kitten nor cat is a dog though all three have in common the fact that they are animal mammalian and carnivorous

cat kitten or dog are likely - especially if seated on a mat - to enjoy the common status of domestic pet - which is a rôle played by an animal that depends on an accidental relationship to another entity - a person

of angel cat kitten (or dog) two (or three) are physical entities and one alone is an abstract entity enjoying no lesser or greater a status on that account than the others

cat kitten or dog are seen as external images or sensory icons (while an angel may be seen as an internal image) which are in the mind’s eye matched to whatever cat kitten dog or angel perceptions are in stock and then assembled to describe the status and relationships at play when a cat kitten or dog sits on a mat - or angels dance on the head of a pin

Jeff Instone Artist without Portfolio Office of Special Plans unRest( )

This adaptation by NZ-Z
from notes for The Word beyond Speech 1994
Part 4 Conceptual Structures - Cat Sits On Mat

on a-newsletter

the UK’s leading information and advocacy organization for artists and their collaborators - a-n - a news-letter and artists information company has become so grossly overladen with the argot of management consultancy - the language of the mission statement - the specious bundling of eyes-right nomenclature - that the would-be reader need consult a Barthes on how best to devise an appropriate hypothetical model for making the correctly deductive way to a formal means for the analysis of the complexities of narrative as proposed by a-n - the artists information co. - when in informative mode

of mission statements consider the following excerpts
(a) a facilitated workshop identifying communications objectives to underpin newly defined vision and values - analysing key stakeholder audiences and outlining desired messages (b) easily accessible data and knowledge of key facts and research through an extensive dissemination network underpinning policy for future practices and resources in terms of professional development and financial sustainability (c) proactive and determined in estimating the proportion claimed in a stimulating atmosphere of mutual support while able to adapt to handling change working in partnership with the private sector

(a) is a commercial consultancy advising Railtrack on their probably inadequate safety systems (b) is a-n in its most missionary position - introducing Indexing Intelligence - and (c) is Dame Eliza Bullying-Manner of MI5 advertizing for graduate staff in her brochure Assuming a degree of intelligence

a-n’s mission statements give us a textual version of the fearsome Negative Poisson Ratio - a state during which against all reasonable expectation a subject bulges on being stretched rather than contracting - a-n’s unintendedly comedic introduction to Indexing Intelligence - in concordat partnership with the Skills Sector Council for the Creative Industries - prefaces an equally preposterous pull-out - a free-with-this-issue list of papers both hard and web on perception - policy and practice - on approaches and patterns - career trajectories and markets - cultural forecasting evaluation and strategies for measuring impact - and more - reminding the perhaps oddly informed reader of the lists produced by Intellect Books : Publishers of Original Thinking - publishers of near insane and very under-employed academics whose works arise from the confluence of art science technology and consciousness research

the Artists Information Company’s vari-skilled multi-tasking staff raids its ever so slightly dated buzz-word-box to labour bullet point after bullet point in a fashionably past-the-post postmodern variation of obscurum per obscurius - not to explain the obscure obscurely but to state the obvious obscurely - staff are flagged as being positively abecedarian in their string of tick-a-box qualifications and art contextual engagements - an arts consultancy here - an associate post there - here an exhibition coordinator - there a networker - here a rôle player - there a research advocate - heroically they pull together their complex portfolio of knowledge - to adapt metaphorical significance while remaining concerned with notions - while all the time wholly focused around issues identified by future forecast research

elsewhere a-n’s development toolkits provide self-reflective material for artists at all career stages - toolkits to develop the self and the practice - toolkits to develop a studio complex - contract and fees toolkits for employment and artists’ charges - perhaps soon a toolkit on outsourcing the production of art to inexpensive 3rd world studios - so clearing the way for the really important activity - the promotion of the individual entrepreneur-flâneur’s self-image

when Keats wrote On [not] looking into the Chapmans’ œuvre he was referring to the Eminic-Chapmaniac trivialization of the visual arts for the amusement of a middle class contentedly embedded within the insidious social order of concierge capitalism - a condition reducing visual art to gewgaw and gimcrack - as though tricked out in some Liberty’s bijouterie of ersatz freedom - a-n represents this corner of the social field - it is the revenge of Thatcher’s children - embracing the well-cushioned fashionista’s hands-free blue-toothed free-but-fair-trade philosophy - boasting that 81% of artists look to a-n for key facts - of £340,000 pa from subscribers augmented by an ACE revenue and unspecified project funding from other sources - but for all that this artists information company may have travell’d in the realms of gold - their magazine seems little more than a gallimaufry of keywords sprinkled onto a tale of genetically modified consumerism - set in a shiny sea of wishy-washy contextuality

Condolençia de Riz Reader in Feminist Methodology and Judicial Terrorism Orifice of Specious Proposals United States Department of Defense

published a-n November 2006

on being British

on qualities authentically and emblematically British

sixteen at the time of Suez (1956) - and at school on a small island colony serving as a staging point for that event - I heard and read much grandiloquence about British character and the gift of independence to an Empire then undergoing reformation as a nascent Commonwealth for a New Elizabethan Age while successive Home Governments carried out a savage repression of independence movements - most fiercely where that savagery could the more easily be swept undercover

and at home in Britain itself? The ongoing fabrication of a mythic tribalism : for the English component a hilarity and a perplexity of inheritance - of wandering lanes fashioned by wandering drunks who however befuddled knew their place within John Barleycorn's scheme of things - and who now all these years later must embrace yet more hypocrisy - that of Nu Labor out of neo-conservative back to basics - tinted with an all-things-green eye-wash for an only apparently meritocratic society - topped with the egregious conceit of monarchy : in truth a Ruritania of foolish aristo-titles for hire-purchase - titivating the unedifying net-curtain Nazism that is the norm in middle England - plus ça change etc

when on formal occasions Americans salute the flag by placing their right hands on their hearts they may also be securing their wallets - acknowledging a truth...self-evident that the business of America is business : that Capital - the gratification of appetitive taste - and lawn order - are all that matter to most - most anywhere - most anytime

here too - on high days and holidays - one old Briton expects to go on raising a small - even - number of fingers to any manifestation of civic or ethnic nationalism