Facebook musings

 Facebooks gift/curse is it fluffs by algorhythms everyones self identity
 and makes them unauthentic
 which is a minute to minute choice for an existentialist,
 but gives a constant intermittant reward by virtue of considered commercial walled gardens as represented cynically and digitally, and falsely, as their 'friends'. As such we in some ways are straying from the enlightenment and being driven into a world more Plato's shadows in the cave.

I haven't singlehandedly done much in terms of International Relations, but I have tried.

The Ansac Attitude.

Here's a funny and true story that illustrates the laconic nature of NZ'rs as told to me by my parents last weekend.

After WW2 in 1947 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who was at that time Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces visited NZ to inspect the troops and reunite with the former Commander of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Freyberg .

He mentioned to General Freyberg that he'd noticed that NZ troops rarely saluted when passing higher ranking officers.

General Freyberg agreed that this was indeed the case but did add that in his experience if you smiled at lesser ranking NZ soldiers they would often wave at you.

Why we should all have a basic income

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income/Why we shouls all havehttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income/

Mandatory background attitude for certain stilt clowns.

He actually suffered this Lenney Bruce moment when the American media lambasted him for their own blindness to irony..

The saddest circus song ever sung

Comedy as team leading pioneer.

Some background.
NZ used to have a stable population of 3 million while I was growing up, now it's 4+, very small in the scheme of things and we knew it. We work so hard to keep up we often excel once we hit the international market.
That said however NZ Rugby is the most successful international sporting franchise on the planet. There are home grounds in some of our cities where no international visiting teams have beaten us in over 50 years We have won 426 of our 552 test matches – 77.17%, and have lost at home only 37 times in 114 years.Since our international debut in 1903, we have lost to only six of the 19 nations we have played in test matches.
We are the accepted world standard in a cheerfully violent game that celebrates respect, for officials and the opposition [afterwards].and between themselves, fans. ....[after Japan, a rugby minnow bet South Africa, a rugby titan in an upset world cup qualifier the South African fans formed lines of honour at the tube stations and let the Japanese fans in first]

I use 'we' and 'our' deliberately. I played rugby from 6 to about 13 which was bog standard in my time but that still made you part of it and rather than discovering nuclear bombs and blowing shit up our little country picked one battle and won it comprehensively over a century which is more than anyone else has done. I gather its less fashionable now but there's an ethos that"s part of NZ's profound identity. We play at war and we're inarguably the best at it. We beat Russian and American rugby teams like red headed step children who owe us money and given our collective levelheadedness it's only a matter of time before the world concedes us the right to run the planet. But that;s just the fan in me.

This is the most NZ conversation between an interviewer and the down to earth coach who's team have won the world cup an unprecedented 2 times in a row. Again for context more people watch this final than the Superbowl.

This is what a leader of men sounds like. Wry and self effacing while his team has a 92% win rate. And with a seemingly instinctive comic knowledge of the call back, Or maybe too much credit, maybe editing.