mvuent

Void Dweller
i don't understand why some people feel the need to gatekeep what counts as art so that it only includes things they like.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
Yes, it is.


"umm actually that's not music, that's...........Sound Art" [SUP]1[/SUP]

1. Scruton, Roger. The Meaning of Conservatism. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1980. Print.
 

version

Well-known member
Tobacco company funding

Scruton was criticized in 2002 for having written articles about smoking without disclosing that he was receiving a regular fee from Japan Tobacco International (JTI, formerly R. J. Reynolds).[67] In 1999 he and his wife—as part of their consultancy work for Horshells Farm Enterprises[60][68]—began producing a quarterly briefing paper, The Risk of Freedom Briefing (1999–2007), about the state's control of risk.[69] Distributed to journalists, the paper included discussions about drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and was sponsored by JTI.[68][70][71] Scruton wrote several articles in defence of smoking around this time, including one in 1998 for The Times,[72] three for the Wall Street Journal (two in 1998 and one in 2000),[73] one for City Journal in 2001,[74] and a 65-page pamphlet for the Institute of Economic Affairs, WHO, What, and Why: Trans-national Government, Legitimacy and the World Health Organisation (2000). The latter criticized the World Health Organization's campaign against smoking, arguing that transnational bodies should not seek to influence domestic legislation because they are not answerable to the electorate.[75]

The Guardian reported in 2002 that Scruton had been writing about these issues while failing to disclose that he was receiving £54,000 a year from JTI.[67] The payments came to light when a September 2001 email from the Scrutons to JTI was leaked to The Guardian. Signed by Scruton's wife, the email asked the company to increase their £4,500 monthly fee to £5,500, in exchange for which Scruton would "aim to place an article every two months" in the Wall Street Journal, Times, Telegraph, Spectator, Financial Times, Economist, Independent, or New Statesman.[76][77][67] Scruton, who said the email had been stolen, replied that he had never concealed his connection with JTI.[68] In response to The Guardian article, the Financial Times ended his contract as a columnist,[78] The Wall Street Journal suspended his contributions,[79][80] and the Institute for Economic Affairs said it would introduce an author-declaration policy.[81] Chatto & Windus withdrew from negotiations for a book, and Birkbeck removed his visiting-professor privileges.[70]

 
Last edited:

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I seem to remember reading something by him during my philosophy degree way back when, and I seem to remember it being terrible.

Interestingly, here on wikipedia it says he embraced conservation following Paris 1968, when he would have been in his early 20s. His dad hated the upper classes apparently, and stopped speaking to him when he got a scholarship to Cambridge. Maybe the latter is more important in his subsequent direction than wikipedia allows.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Is there a good article summarising his ideas? I want to know what I'm knee-jerk reacting to before I knee-jerk react to it.
 

version

Well-known member
Interestingly, here on wikipedia it says he embraced conservation following Paris 1968, when he would have been in his early 20s. His dad hated the upper classes apparently, and stopped speaking to him when he got a scholarship to Cambridge. Maybe the latter is more important in his subsequent direction than wikipedia allows.
He talks about 1968 a little here.

 
Last edited:

IdleRich

IdleRich
I've seen this on fb, don't know much about this aspect (by which I mean I know less than nothing) to be honest.

Gave practical help to Czech and Polish students and scholars during the Cold War, at considerable personal risk. He did this while the British far left fetishised the tyranny against which he ACTED. His Intelligent Person's Guide is the one of the best concise introductions to aesthetics and general philosophy available.
Horrible fucking bigot and snob but you can’t argue with his support for dissidents in the 80s. There are worse people who have done less.
 

version

Well-known member
Yeah, as I understand it, he did good work in Eastern Europe helping people living under communist regimes, but then he was also into fox hunting, worked for big tobacco and compared gay couples to "incestuous liaisons".
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Certainly everything I heard from him or about him in the last twenty years or so made him sound like an absolute stroker.
 
Top