leveson inquiry - the continuing adventures

My day is being day-like.

Leveson Inquiry

The Leveson Inquiry, link to main page and all current information. Phone Hacking, link to main page and all current information.

James Murdoch did not read the Neville email, merely, you know, answered it. This is like Billie Jean, where Billie Jean is a forwarded email with the words "nightmare scenario" and "Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared," being thrown around. I am saying, I understand. I, too, answer email without reading it, especially when it looks vaguely important and uses terminology that may or may not imply I (my company) are terribly, terribly fucked.

Here's the thing that makes me sad. If he's telling the truth, honest to God, this is the man you want running your company? He doesn't read email with alarmist adjectives. What, an email THERE IS A GIANT BEAR THAT IS GOING TO EAT YOUR ENTIRE STAFF IN FIVE MINUTES and he'll be "Cool, call me" not aware the person will be eaten in four minutes fifty-five seconds due to that not reading thing.

Yes, I find this comforting that a multibillion dollar company is being run by or run with the efforts of someone who fails either at lying or basic literacy.

Napoleon

Napolean Bonaparte in history is not like, a subject that isn't fairly well covered. I mean, I know my dates, my island, and my Wellington. But weirdly--very weirdly, come to think--it was reading a goddamn romance novel (two actually, Roberta Gellis and Georgette Heyer, but moreso with Roberta) that belatedly made me realize how utterly terrifying he was to Europe and how borderline close he came to a really early unification of Europe. I don't know if it was my perception in history classes (and I took a lot of history classes and spent a lot of my late teens/early twenties hitting the Dewey decimal history section like a really disorganized storm of curiosity) or my selections, but the emphasis on his military ability and his vision and his unification of France and his conquering and his exile didn't quite ever get beyond the genius conqueror and into the fact that he was actually goddamn terrifying in his ambitions and more importantly, was brilliant enough at what he did to fulfill those ambitions.

ETA: So that was odd in the posting.

Comments

[sorrel]

There's a reason there's that classic line in Princess Bride about land-wars in Asia. In this case, the classic blunder is known as "Russia in wintertime." (For other examples, see Hitler, and also anyone ever not from Poland or Sweden, because they used to be some seriously badass motherfuckers.) The other big mistake that they *don't* often talk about with Napoleon's invasion of Russia is that Russia was the only European country that still had serfdom, and Napoleon could have promised to free the serfs, in which case he probably would have had a lot of ground-support from Russian peasants and wouldn't have had much in the way of supply problems. But he chose otherwise, because he was afraid of the lower-class after the Revolution and everything, and thus when he ran out of supplies because his supply line was stretched too far, he was forced to start raiding, at which point the peasants politely told him to go fuck himself and ran away, burning their farms behind him. Which was more or less what the Russian army was doing at that point. And so when winter hit, he ended up losing almost his entire fighting force to cold and starvation, and retreated with the tattered remains of his army and his dignity.

Yeah. He was one of the most terrifying military commanders ever, and he might have actually succeeded if he wasn't so afraid of riling up class consciousness again by promising serf emancipation. In retrospect, he probably should have taken his chances, huh?

(So I spent two months on Napoleon last semester, why do you ask?)

[seperis]

...you are my new favorite person right now. Any book recommendations? I'm curious now how much I missed connecting Napolean with the militarization of Prussia. It makes me wonder how strong a connection there is between Napolean's near-conquest of Europe and World War I.

[sorrel]

I don't actually remember the Napoleon text off the top of my head, only that it wasn't that useful. (The class was really, really lecture-based.) I can ask my professor in a month or two, because I'm taking the grad-level version of the course with the same prof, but until then I don't really have any good book recs off the top of my head. I checked my old syllabus but apparently I don't still have the copy of the optional reading list, which had a fuckton of Napoleon texts, sorry. It was never my *particular* area of interest, my professor was just that good that it stuck. And I was mostly interested in the parallels between Napoleon's invasion and Hitler's. I'll definitely ask Dr. Munro for you, though, if you're still interested by the time the spring semester starts.

[silverflight8]

how strong a connection there is between Napolean's near-conquest of Europe and World War I.
-off the top of my head - reorganization of many states (esp the hundreds of Germanic states into larger, more central ones) and the nationalism emerging being attacked by France creates (having a 19th century Europe course at the moment WHY DO YOU ASK).

but there's a lot happening, esp re: liberalism/nationalism and the reason why Prussia won over Austria in unifying Germany and industrialization.

[raincitygirl]

I just want you to know that I friended you based solely on the contents of this reply.

[sorrel]

And with such a reason, what else could I do but friend you back? Always reassuring that I'm not the only history nerd in a (digital) room.

[raincitygirl]

We history geeks must stick together. And I hope at some point you post about the grad level repeat of the course you'll be taking in the future. It sounds like it was a fascinating course already so more depth can only be good.

[sorrel]

I will definitely try to remember to do that. The professor is one of my favorites at the entire school, and I'm really glad I managed to work in a grad-level course with him. Right now though I'm still in the last two days of final papers, so it's still the sleep deprivation Olympics for me.

[out_there]

This is like Billie Jean, where Billie Jean is a forwarded email with the words "nightmare scenario" and "Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared," being thrown around.

Hee! I may be humming that song for the next two hours, but totally worth it for that joke.

Yes, I find this comforting that a multibillion dollar company is being run by or run with the efforts of someone who fails either at lying or basic literacy.

*sniggers*

I also love that reading the comments on this post has taught me more about Napoleon than I even knew. (My knowledge is mostly gleamed for references while watching Hornblower. Actual factual knowledge is vastly overrated. *g*)

[mecurtin]

I believe James, because my experience as a contractor is that the CEO *never* reads more than one screen of an email, no matter what it says. I'll bet good money he uses a speakerphone every chance he gets, too, even though that means people can't actually understand each other.

They're all Deciders, y'see. Reading -- much less understanding -- is for underlings.

[raincitygirl]

The saddest part is that myler's email was four lines. Four flipping lines! He wouldn't even have to scroll down to start reading the chain.

[silverflight8]

how utterly terrifying he was to Europe
-> how I realized this - look at a map of Europe by approx 1812: that's pretty scary. Also about 2 million men served with him over the years - that's the levée en masse for you, I guess.

Still, I agree with the book-reading bit. I can't just dive into non-fiction to learn history, though I love history; it's just facts and dates and names. After those people are made flesh (thank youuuuu all the novelists) I have a framework to hang all the facts on, and everything can then fall into place. Nuance can be added. If there isn't that framework then it's just...conflicting opinions :p

[askmehow]

You mentioned wanting book recs for Napoleon? This is one of the best biographies I've read about him.
Frank McLynn: Napoleon, a Biography (the depositfile link works).

[raincitygirl]

THANK YOU! Bookmarking link. I have requested Amazon gift cards for Christmas, so I anticipate being able to buy it in about, oh, eleven days.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

ETA: So that was odd in the posting.
I was wondering...

I have recently been learning more about the Conquistadors and you know? I know I learned this stuff in school. But they failed to press home how 90% of the population of the Americas died within fifty years. Or how the Conquistadors just went into civilizations hundreds of years old and dismantled them. The magnitude of what happened--kind of glossed over.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had a paragraph there that I must have erased and I couldn't remember all of it, so I removed the sentence altogether.

I have recently been learning more about the Conquistadors and you know? I know I learned this stuff in school. But they failed to press home how 90% of the population of the Americas died within fifty years. Or how the Conquistadors just went into civilizations hundreds of years old and dismantled them. The magnitude of what happened--kind of glossed over.

The glossing over of that part of history, especially pre-Mayflower, is so complete it's actually a shock to realize later when reading how many people and civilizations were lost and how fast it happened.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

"1491" by James Mann is an excellent excellent book about what life was like in the Americas before Columbus and company rolled in. And how said rolling in had its effects. Cannot recommend it more highly. And it's surprisingly not very depressing.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I actually reviewed that book when it came out (back when I was doing book reviews)! A very good book, yes. And it keeps popping up lately in totally unrelated places--like my brother's Christmas wish list.

What I'm listening to now are a more general series of lectures on the conquest--some focusing on native cultures, but a lot focusing on the European side. I'm just still boggled by the fact that in school, it's like Columbus blah blah Pilgrims! As one of my friends pointed out, yes, we do learn about horrible things done to Native Americans, but they're horrible things done to Native Americans in the westward expansion of the nineteenth century. Which, let's face it, was peanuts compared to the fifty years after 1492.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

The latest twist in HackGate has basically blown my mind. So...James Murdoch is really and truly sticking to the, "I'm not corrupt, I'm just incompetent" defense? And he thinks this is going to work? Really? And it's just...this is the supposed heir to the Murdoch empire. This was supposed to be the guy! And he either can't read, or he is the shittiest liar ever.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I think at this point he's not even caring about the fact that he's a self declared illiterate. Right now it's all about staying out of prison. Here's hoping he doesn't pull off that feat.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

Napoleon, the dude who gave the entirety of Europe last names and created the civil code we still basically use today. Er, yeah, I too know more technical stuff about him than actually what it would have been like. History class, you're doing it wrong.

Haven't gotten to that bit of the Leveson Inquiry yet (am so far behind, srsly) but it sounds utterly laughable and yet not funny because this shit actually happened. (Kind of like Paul McMullan's testimony -- alternately a bad comedy or seriously cringeworthy because someone thinks that way.)

[in-stead.livejournal.com]

Ah, Napoleon. Really, at the time he loomed Hitler-like in the eyes of the European leaders fighting him. Scary as hell!