#how e-e-ed-gy can he be

[gizmosbasement-blog]

congratulations, you’re invited,  tattoomean highweed

[dreamings-free]

How Harry Styles Became A Modern Style Icon

by Phoe­be Luck­hurst - Evening Standard 15/11/19

A man wrought in the fires of teenage boy­band hy­per-stardom is not afraid of a lit­tle commotion. Still when Harry Styles — the One Di­rec­tion mat­inée idol turned lan­guid Gen Z icon — tweeted, at 1.01 pm GMT on Wed­nes­day af­ter­noon, that he would be tak­ing his up­com­ing album Fine Line on tour, you could, if at­tuned to the cor­rect de­mo­graphic fre­quency, hear the howl echo around the in­ter­net: gut­tural, hun­gry, ul­u­lat­ing. This was a pseudo-re­li­gious experience: one vi­ral meme de­picted the Pope hold­ing a copy of his al­bum aloft. The announce­ment has been retweeted al­most 70,000 times.

The 25-year old is a tour vet­eran — he spent five years and five al­bums strapped to the thunder­ing 1D jug­ger­naut — but this new tour is his first as a bona fide solo brand. The al­bum, his first in two years, is synth-soaked and soul­ful, the al­bum’s aes­thetic fever­-dreamy. Granted, he’s not the first per­son to go to So­Cal, try a few magic mush­rooms and de­clare him­self radically trans­formed, but the re­sults are be­guil­ing — and cer­tainly a world away from his years as a Simon Cow­ell Ken doll. Since his last record, he has co- hosted t he Met Gala and been reborn as an Alessan­dro Michele muse. This is your Styles crib sheet.

Melody maker

Styles’s new al­bum — writ­ten un­der a tie-dye mist af­ter tak­ing the afore­men­tioned psychedelics, which also re­sulted in a mishap in which he bit off the tip of his tongue — is “all about hav­ing sex and feel­ing sad”, which, granted, as a topline, does not wildly dif­fer­en­ti­ate the record from the genre of “al l other mu­sic ever”. Still, the early signs for Fine Line are encouraging. Its first sin­gle, Lights Up—which has been streamed al­most 100 mil­lion times on Spo­tify —is­ synth-y, soul­ful, un­der­stat­edly an­themic, very dif­fer­ent to, and bet­ter than, the lead sin­gle on his last solo record, the Seven­ties, soft-rock Sign of the Times( it still, of course, hit No 1), and very, very dif­fer­ent from any­thing he did with 1D. Many thou­sands of words have been writ­ten about whether there is a bi­sex­ual sub­text to Lights Up. It has been noted that the song was re­leased on Na­tional Com­ing Out Day, that Styles’s sex­u­al­ity has been sub­ject to fren­zied specu­la­tion be­fore, the video fea­tures an oiled-up, top­less Styles gy­rat­ing around men and women, and that the lyrics (“Shine, I’m not ever go­ing back/ Shine, step into the light”) could be in­ter­preted as a mean­ing­ful rev­e­la­tion of sorts. Cer­tainly, he has be­come a queer icon — especially with Gen Z — who are thrilled by his se­lec­tion of gen­derqueer singer-song­writer King Princess as his sup­port act for the Euro­pean part of his tour. Speak­ing of col­lab­o­ra­tors, Styles worked on the al­bum with pro­duc­ers Tyler John­son, who has worked with Tay­lor Swift, Mi­ley Cyrus and Ed Sheeran, and Jeff Bhasker, who has collabo­rated wit h Mark Ron­son and Kanye West, and his friend, Tom Hull, aka Kid Har­poon, who co-wrote Shake It Out for Florence + The Ma­chine. He has also been granted a fairy god­mother: Ste­vie Nicks, who called him her “lit­tle muse” at Fleetwood Mac’s hyped Wembley head­line gig i n J une. “S he’s a l ways there for you,” Styles has said in the past. “She knows what you need: ad­vice, a lit­tle wis­dom, a blouse, a shawl.” Sure.

Got Styles

Any young man raised in the white heat of a boy­band spot­light must be granted the space to find his fash­ion path; Styles has done so with no mis­steps and ex­u­ber­ant plea­sure. Once upon a time, he would sem­a­phore his in­di­vid­u­al­ity with a ban­dana; now, he turns up to a cover interview with Rolling Stone in a white floppy hat, blue denim bell-bot­toms and Gucci shades, his nails coloured pink and green. His favourite trousers, un­til he lost them on the beach, were a pair of mus­tard cor­duroy flares; this week, he wore a Lan­vin sweater vest with a sheep de­sign that sent a co­terie of Lon­don menswear stylists into throes of ec­stasy. He wears flo­ral suits and Cuban heels, ruf­fled, New Ro­man­tic shirts, Charles Jef­frey jump­suits and pussy- bow blouses. It is flam­boy­ant, self-con­sciously Bowie/Jag­ger, and in Gen Z par­lance, “very ex­tra”. His stylist Harry Lam­bert is par­tial to an ex­trav­a­gant col­lar, dra­matic neck­line and a vo­lu­mi­nous trouser.

Be­sides Lam­bert, an­other part of this evo­lu­tion has been his re­la­tion­ship with Gucci’s cre­ative di­rec­tor Michele, who has turned the Ital­ian her­itage brand into the ul­ti­mate post-gen­der lux­ury fash­ion la­bel, the first to merge their menswear and wom­enswear, and dis­patch male mod­els down the cat­walk in dresses and women in suits. A good look for a Gen Z idol.

With the brand

Notably, the brand­ing on this al­bum and its tour art­work is con­sis­tent with this new look Styles. The al­bum cover fea­tures Styles i n white cus­tom- made Gucci bell bot­toms and a Pep­to Bismol-pink shirt, open al­most to the waist, shot by mod-goth Tim Walker with a fish­eye lens (it is Walker’s hand in that S&M glove you can see in the left-hand cor­ner). In the dreamy video for Lights Up he wears a glit­tery suit and sus­penders, in a sort of hal­lu­ci­na­tory ver­sion of Satur­day Night Fever. Into it.

Stand up

Then there’s his voice — not the mu­sic, but the ac­tivism. Even as one-fifth of a boy­band manufac­tured by Cow­ell’s al­go­rithm, he was quick, quippy and itch­ing to go off-mes­sage; but now that he con­trols his own, he is am­pli­fy­ing causes such as Black Lives Mat­ter and End Gun Violence. He wore stick­ers for both on his gui­tar on his last tour, which might sound small, except that photographs of Styles gal­lop around the dig­i­tal world at hy­per­speed. At con­certs, he has waved pride, bi and trans flags, and a Black Lives Mat­ter flag. He once bor­rowed a flag from an au­di­ence mem­ber at a show in Philadel­phia that read, “Make Amer­ica Gay Again”. At a show on his last tour, he de­clared: “If you are black, if you are white, if you are gay, if you are straight, if you are trans­gen­der — who­ever you are, who­ever you want to be, I sup­port you.”

A vo­cal, en­gaged fan­dom of teenage girls minted his mul­ti­mil­lion-pound for­tune; he is loyal and ad­mir­ing of their zeal. “They’re the most hon­est — es­pe­cially if you’re talk­ing about teenage girls, but older as well,” he told Rolling Stone this sum­mer. “They have that bull­shit de­tec­tor. We’re so past that dumb out­dated nar­ra­tive of ‘Oh, these peo­ple are girls, so they don’t know what they’re talk­ing about.’ They’re the ones who know what they’re talk­ing about. They’re the peo­ple who lis­ten ob­ses­sively. They f***ing own this shit. They’re run­ning it.” Ob­vi­ously, he’s a fem­i­nist. “Of course men and women should be equal. I don’t want credit for be­ing a fem­i­nist. I think the ideals of fem­i­nism are pretty straight­for­ward.” An icon is born.

[mindthebulletso]

What?! No I'm not !! the only side I am in is that of my way of seeing the world, my conscience, my cynical character and experience. Because I am very selective and I have chosen people to follow. I don’t follow you because you are a Louie but because I consider you a smart girl, so seeing how easily many have fallen into this, imo, manipulation hurts me. For Louis above all else. Because I remember being one of the first in 2018 to speak openly about Sony Sabotage in HS2 favor and I perfectly remember what and how it was answered to me!!

Because I remember Why I looked for the Rads ....and how the world has turned upside down 🤣 Having moved away from Styles for other reasons, having taken a different approach before this perhaps affects my thoughts and reasonings but how can you not understand that you are doing exactly what Sony wants (regardless which Label we will discover has louis now) years of Larries VS Anties hasn't really opened your eyes? How is it possible? Have you ever noticed how many Louies (not larries) always write "team" and never "Sony" Have you ever noticed how full their accounts are with everything Harry does / doesn't do in real time? Twenty-five years of Kardashian (Hello Uncle Irving) did not help to understand StarSistem is based on chatter and not only on good things? They often update before Larries! if you want to know what happens in Harry Styles life follow a Louie. nice no? If you watch MV to "see how shabby it is" and then talk about it on social, however, you contribute to creating curiosity, chatter, comments, quarrels. If you always complain using Harry as a yardstick, you keep Louis in this funnel that L is crushed in one way or another. If you look back and you don't see how much 2015!Louis was tired and only blame Xander for that , thinking that he was happy for singing a bit more because Zayn was gone or for the water fights with Liam it is you who considers him half of a ship!! If you confuse his nostalgia and humility for lack of ambition or trust , you consider him half of a ship. If you love Louis and have decided that Harry is an active part of his sabotage why don't you get to completely ignore him, always, in the most absolute way after having clarified your position? And if you have decided this, how can you accept Niall and Liam, whom you consider his brothers do not take sides with him but rather, as soon as they can, they raise Star!Styles? Have you ever thought about how he can feel seeing that his fandom, while insulting Styles' new life, spends days asking for OneDirection!Louis? And the braces, and the hair, and the beanie, the headband, and the tank top .. he had to admit this is frustrating but nevertheless Louies continue and if you point it out the answer is "Old!Louis receives more likes " 😒

anyway let's go.. “Because I loved Styles anyway and I have a past with him” Ok. Let's start from here then. Azoff and Sony in 2013 begin to seriously plan H solo career. Azoff has a story, a very clear story, but you voluntarily ignored it at that time, only to blame Styles for choosing them (being chosen) now!! Like three silly kids Louis Niall and Liam until 2016 believe in an 18-month hiatus 😂 . Do you really think they are so naive? Seriously? Louis William Tomlinson who at 20 sees a hole in the writing process of the band and turns everything upside down does not understand what is the destiny designated? Among other things, the same for all boyband before 1D and info easily accessible on google But “he was in love "ok. But then you have to admit you start from the starting point that you now strongly reproach Larries. You have to admit you are living in Young & Beautiful Spin Off because instead I see a strong, smart, brilliant man, who for 10 years has been fighting tirelessly for his individuality. I think this passive Louis is the result of the FF you read because you are the first who make everything go around Styles, even before Sony. Someone stuffing your head saying Harry doesn't need Larries anymore. Are you Sure? Because business is brutal and Labels don't exist for your enjoy. They don't invest in you leaving you power. It is quite the opposite. The more you make money, the more you are a puppet. Just check the difference in numbers between H and Justin, Ariana, Selena, Ed, DuaLipa to understand what I mean!

the Direction taken is the right one, it is having a good success - well deserved - but, believe me, not enough to justify the investment made. And do you really think Azoff, manager since the barter still existed, evaluates the point of view of a 25-year-old who even made almost deny the first album? Who no longer took his mommy on holiday when Harries started complaining about her presence? Do you really think these guys signed contracts to their advantage (I'm not talking about money of course)? Do you really think Styles can say in Sony -I don't do this-? Based on what? Do you blame Harry for his ambition but do you really think he has alternatives? Especially in Sony that has no other icons of this generation? Someone make you believe Harry is loved by everyone but have you ever come out of the fandom bubble to read what so many locals write about him? don't you read how much hate he receives? Azoff arrives in 2013, from that moment on did you see his life change for the better? Less work, more attention to his health or did you see him arrive at the end of 2015 without voice? or do you think "better life" is going out with Taylor Swift and Kaya Gerber Because in that case you love the life Louis says he hates 😟 And considering the type of music he produced, do you think his 2021worldtour is to safeguard his voice and health? Really!? And how is it possible if Azoff loves Harry person and not Harry MoneyMachine? Do you really think Harry is so naive that he doesn't know this? Do you often notice how bad it is aging, How dull are his eyes.. Isn't this already an answer? And if you want to say "that's what he deserves" wow do you remember that you don't really know them and that they are only singers / strangers you love? They are not really your son? that you've never been to their room and their songs aren't a gossip magazine?

Same talk about Louis Fam. Louis Tomlinson openly lashes out against Euphoria chatting with his HetStalkerNumberOne creating more promo or against Zayn when he drops GY but is unable to tell his stepfather / sisters to stop using his life like that? Really? Or do you think he did this but Mark ignored that ? Everyone uses him but he, passively again, cannot do anything. Do you really think Louis is this? Why? Look Louies focused on commenting What Harry is doing in istagram? Look how much power they are giving this stupid thing? They put Harry at the center of Louis' life, they considered him Mrs L. Styles weak and closed in the suitcase with the only ambition to jump on his cock. why this daily need to highlight how disappointed you are with the person who has become? Are you more concerned that Harry cheated on Louis or that Harry cheated on you? Because if you think Louis has a new life why you don't go on too? The position is clear, why keep playing the Sony game? How do you think Louis feels when he sees his fandom has absorbed that his pubblic life has been closely linked to his girlfriend for years now? When you read that H's lunch with stringer was cruel and nobody mentions anymore three days later he was paps with El and the dogs? Just because The Sun canceled? What does it matter he had to undergo this, he had to get out of bed, go out and go to the pap (in 2020 only if you are 12 you can think that the paps are not scheduled) You can also think that there is a friendly relationship with E but why you accept that she is also present when a month later they go to GoKart? Why can't only Louis spend The first Christmas without Fizzy and Jay with his sisters? Why can't Louis alone participate in the B.L.M. march? We told ourselves that the cause was more important than the company and it is true. But important for whom? For us or for him that of B.L.M. did speak before everyone when it wasn't “trendy” ? Why doesn't even his fandom fight for his freedom? from everyone?! Why Do you think this imposition is healthy for him? Or do you think he chose this, because if you think this then all JLYMV was a joke for you and it's okay but I ask you, do you really believe that it is no longer hard for him suffer the presence of Eleanor than a Harry Styles SmileyNails ? Are we talking about what's harder for him or for you? Does Louis individual really care about anyone? Because my heart breaks to see how, even if it were reality, his pubblic life is linked to this girl as if she were the star! Everyone has a girlfriend but not even Kilye Jenner was so present in Travis Scott's career, private life. Why don't you rebel against this? Why "thank you Eleonor" ? Why is your selfishness more important than he has to live this actively? Why do you think it is easy for him after 10 years? Whatever your opinion about , Louis has not interacted publicly with Freddy since 2018. Why don't you get angry with Louies who do not care about this and clog social with his pics not respecting Louis' will? Why do you only get angry with a certain part of fandom and not with those who help a small group of people to spread this child's face wildly despite Louis not doing it? Why don't you ask yourself "louis does not do this, it is the case that I do it"? Who is your Louis landmark or the baby's family? Why is Louis never enough? Why don't you see Louis' individual freedom is not seized by Harry Styles but by Sony which is who should protect him from Azoff / Styles? If your answer is "Sony does not believe in him enough" I'm sorry I have news for you, you believe Louis tomlinson is not worth enough .. and while you continue this useless fight between Louies Larries Labels will continue to use Harry, Louis for their bank accounts and only for that laughing at us whatever the real personal situation between the two of which I honestly care zero but, as you can see, in one way or another it is still at the center of our attention and if Larries have the justification "I believe in them" what excuse do you have?

[shiningstellar]

I really like the new members but everyone seems hate them and say Stellar should just disband. It makes me sad. No one wants end up like Rania but if they still want Stellar then why are people angry. (Sorry for my English)

(Your English is fine, don’t worry~)

I don’t think TEP has what it takes to take care of Stellar. There’s an obvious lack of communication between them with Stellar and fans. I want all members of Stellar to be successful (former and existing) and I don’t think that TEP can do that for them. It doesn’t seem like Minhee and Hyoeun want to stay. I want to see more of Soyoung and Youngheun and I feel so bad because I don’t know what’s going to happen to them. They’re going to be left behind.

When we say we want them to disband, it’s not out of hate (especially for the new members). We just want things to be better. We don’t think things will get better with TEP. -J

(Admin E is emo, so reply is under read more T–T)

I completely understand what you mean anon. I love Stellar and wish they could go on forever, but this year Stellar (or more accurately, TEP) has been going in a direction that upsets me and makes me want to give up the group. It’s definitely not because of the new members themselves, rather how TEP handled Stellar and the members’ futures (both original and new members).

TEP never seemed to care or respect Stellar as HUMAN beings, instead they use Stellar as if they’re a brand that can be modified anytime. Stellar has been GY, MH, JY, and HE for the longest time in Stellar’s history (two original-original members left in the very beginning, but I don’t know them). I’d say that this version of Stellar is the one that attracted the current fanbase the most, and fans are attached to the members. At least for me, I’m very attached to this line up because they are the ones who formed Stellar. TEP ofc put them together, arranged their comebacks and all, but GY, MH, JY, and HE are the ones who made it possible for Stellar to continue and be the Stellar that fans know of. They’re the talent, the performers, the idols, the chemistry.

My point is, TEP messed up with Stellar by changing the whole essence of who and what Stellar is by adding new members. Now don’t get me wrong, SY and YH are lovely. They’re talented and I see lots of potential in them to become great idols.

But TEP misplaced them. They should’ve debuted either solo or even better as a duo. TEP ruined Stellar’s chemistry between the original members, and that’s the thing I loved and valued the most about Stellar above any other group I stan. The orginal members are bffs, like sisters, they love each other a lot, they do so much together. They broke their backs to make Stellar. TEP obviously didn’t value this, and it’s just really upsetting. HY and MH don’t seem to even be friends with SY and YH (this is just an observation from what they show us on stage and online), which well sucks. Stellar isn’t the group I used to stan anymore, the chemistry is gone. They can be great performers, but I mean… it even seems like HY and MH don’t want to be in Stellar anymore.

So basically, the reason why I want Stellar to disband as soon as possible is because I want this nonesense to end. I hate TEP and I don’t want to support their shitty management.

What I want to do is support the members themselves because they are the reason why I support(ed) Stellar in the first place. Really, if they had disbanded before Sephiroth Tree, I would’ve been upset. But if I knew about how TEP would handle the comeback Sephiroth Tree (i.e. TEP not informing the members about ANYTHING they “planned”, Stellar knew stuff at the same time as fans, wth), and how they would just replace the members who left as if they never existed, I would’ve wished they’d disband in early 2017. Stellar deserves a good ending, for all the hard work they put into this group to make it as successful as it could be. TEP stripped away this opportunity, they didn’t even attempt to make the ex-members leave the group / the company on good terms.

Just a final thing, I’m more happy to be able to support the members doing their own thing now. TEP took away any opportunities for them to explore acting and other things. I mean, GY said it herself that she’s gaining more money now that she’s on her own. And it’s only been like, three months she left lol it’s amazing. So more than Stellar the group, I want to support the people who made us love Stellar. I’m here for GY, JY, HE, MH, and also SY and YH. (: -E

[jfastereft]

"JOHN WICK! ANOTHER CHAPTER!  THIS TIME, IN THE GROCERY STORE!"     a poem, for Sunday, June 16, 2019

  It-wouldn't-be-much-FUN(?)-IF-he-had-more-than-10-minutes-to-get-to-the-store-

BEFORE CLOSING!

With-2-miles-to-go - and-not-much-gas, you-know: His-car's-battered-&-smashed-and

IMPOSING!

 With his dog with NO NAME - and-no list in his pocket,

He's focused and ready! Come-on, friends! Let's-"clock-it:"

He-gets-THERE, screeching-tires, [with] 7 minutes to go,

And-RACES-TO-THE-OUTSIDE-DOOR!  "No dogs, John!  You know,"

Says-"the-bouncer," so-John's-WITHOUT!  The-Dog-with-No-Name,

But, I mean, IT'S JOHN WICK, so-it's-just-more-of-The-Same:

 "HAPPY-HUNTING-and-thanks-for-shopping!   with-us, Mr. Wick, "

Says The Grocer! (with the dog at the door), and the clock goes: Tick!-Tick!

And, in-no-time-at-all: "Please-make-selections!  (pause) FINAL!  NOW!"

And-there-is-John-Wick, who-believe-it-or-not     some how,

Has a push cart, filled-up! with a variety of food;

I'm telling you, Sport Fans, NO ONE ELSE - REALLY COU(o)LD,

Get-THAT-MUCH-FOOD - so clever-ly   and so FAST,

And he's got-enough-there - for-a-week-at-least       TO LAST!

 He-got-it-ALL, this-FOCUSED-guy,          with seconds to spare!

And WE are SO HAPPY!             He's-got REAL GOOD HAIR, *

But SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED! For, his dog is now lost,

So, his "volcano" erupts!  and-all-his-groceries-he's-tossed,

And he starts to subdue - The Grocers!  Checkers! and-    "ALL -

Of the last minute shoppers!"  Yes, they all take "a fal1"

Some get    shot!   knifed!   and- many!   Terribly-a-bused,

And, of-course, JOHN WICK IS BLOODY!  and   He's NOT amused!

 "That dog's ALL I HAVE - to remember my dead wife;

She was the pride and the joy of my life!

And NOW!   YOU PEOPLE  - have negligently lost my dog,

Which I'M SURE I'LL NEVER SEE AGAIN!"      John! Please-remove-"the-log -

From-your-eye," 'fore complaining-about-"the-splinter" - in-your-precious-doggie's-paw!

 Anyway!  Everyone's DOWN!   or DEAD!  and - a slow-walking grampa,

Brings the dog back, with this a-po-lo-gy:

 "I'm-sorry! I-borrowed-him!  for my poor, dear Grand-Son-ny,

Who loves dogs! and-HE'S-CRIPPLED!  So, I took your dog to the car for a pet,

From my precious, dying grandson 'Neo!'      Is the grocery store clos-ED yet?"

 "The store's OPEN FOR YOU!"  says John Wick, his eyes filled with glee,

And - it's now VERY PEACEFUL, and the groceries are free!"

"NO! THEY'RE-NOT!"   says Grampa, who-suddenly-turns-out-to-be-a-"superior"-agent-double:

 "THERE ARE RULES that-must-be-kept!  like: 'fair payment,' so you're in trouble,

Which means [that] you have to - go on ANOTHER MISSION, just down the street;

Get to The Sonic Drive-in (BEFORE closing)!  We all need - dead corn dogs to eat!

AND (also)  CLEAN UP THIS MESS!  for your contract has a clause,

You-CAN'T-leave-a-bunch-of-people-all-over-the-floor;

Leave it THE WAY IT WAS!"

 So, [yeah!] a moral! of this story:

DON'T MESS! (AND THIS-AIN'T-NO-LIE!)  

WITH AN OVERSENSITIVE DOG-LOVING GUY,  

WHO CAN BEAT YOU ALL UP! & NEVER ASKS WHY!  

AND WILL  N E V E R , EVER -   LEARN TO CRY!  

AND HAS A LOG, THE SIZE OF NEW YORK CITY, JAMMED IN HIS EYE!  

AND JUST WANTS "TO QUIT!"  BUT, NO-MATTER-HOW HARD HE'LL TRY,  

HE CAN'T QUITE SUCCEED - TO JUST SAY: "BYE!  BYE,"

TO THE ASSASSINATION BUSINESS!  PROFITABLE SEQUELS NEVER DIE!**

 fin   <3

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RoUV9Ho8qI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eQQKVKjifQ

 * - or: "as he stares OVER THERE!"

** - We are looking at CHAPTER 4!   Release date?  May 21, 2021!  :) - Yay!

[criticalotterstudies]

"Peter­son has just released a new book, 12 Rules for Life: An Anti­dote to Chaos. It is his first since 1999’s Maps of Mean­ing, a study of myth in mod­ern thought. In that book, Peter­son based his think­ing on the mys­ti­cism of Carl Jung, fol­low­ing a pat­tern ini­ti­at­ed by Joseph Camp­bell, whose influ­ence is now pri­mar­i­ly seen in Star Wars rather than schol­ar­ship on myth. Peter­son neglect­ed to engage with unan­i­mous­ly rec­og­nized pre­de­ces­sors in the field of study, like anthro­pol­o­gist Claude Lévi-Strauss, who had pos­tu­lat­ed as ear­ly as the 1950’s that myths are based on a recur­ring struc­ture across cul­tures and eras. ... Der­ri­da and Fou­cault are indeed asso­ci­at­ed with trends vary­ing­ly described as “post­struc­tural­ism” or “post­mod­ernism,” not just by reac­tionar­ies, but by lib­er­als like Mark Lil­la and left­ists like Noam Chom­sky as well. The for­mer term may have some cor­re­spon­dence to real­i­ty. It shows how Der­ri­da and Fou­cault fol­lowed and respond­ed to a trend in French intel­lec­tu­al life known as “struc­tural­ism,” based on the lin­guis­tic the­o­ries of Fer­di­nand de Saus­sure and epit­o­mized by Lévi-Strauss’s stud­ies of myth, and depart­ed from its basic ori­en­ta­tions. But nei­ther thinker ever advanced a the­o­ry of “post­mod­ernism” or claimed it as a the­o­ret­i­cal prac­tice — in fact, they hard­ly ever used the word. In a 1983 inter­view in the philo­soph­i­cal jour­nal Telos, Fou­cault was asked to iden­ti­fy the place of his thought in the post­mod­ern era. “What are we call­ing post­moder­ni­ty?” he respond­ed. “I’m not up to date.” ... In 1966, Der­ri­da pre­sent­ed a paper called “Struc­ture, Sign, and Play in the Dis­course of Human Sci­ences” at a con­fer­ence on “The Lan­guage of Crit­i­cism and the Sci­ences of Man” held at Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty. This event can be con­sid­ered the inau­gu­ra­tion of a fusion between Amer­i­can lit­er­ary stud­ies and French phi­los­o­phy, with then-arche­typ­al struc­tural­ists like Roland Barthes and Jacques Lacan in atten­dance. But Der­ri­da was already propos­ing a pow­er­ful cri­tique of struc­tural­ism, through a close read­ing of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Der­ri­da opened his paper by read­ing the event itself. He pro­posed that the remod­el­ing of the human sci­ences around the for­mal log­ic of lin­guis­tics con­sti­tut­ed an “event” in the sense of think­ing the “struc­tural­i­ty of struc­ture.” The con­cept of struc­ture, Der­ri­da point­ed out, was not the inven­tion of struc­tural­ism – it was “as old as west­ern sci­ence and west­ern phi­los­o­phy.” But what he called the struc­tural­i­ty was not always easy to grasp. The fact that a struc­ture is com­posed by a par­tic­u­lar orga­ni­za­tion of ele­ments means that it is not some tan­gi­ble thing, but a set of rela­tions, between ele­ments which are con­sti­tut­ed by their dif­fer­ences from one anoth­er. But in the his­to­ry of West­ern thought, this struc­tural­i­ty had “always been neu­tral­ized or reduced, and this by a process of giv­ing it a cen­ter or refer­ring it to a point of pres­ence, a fixed ori­gin.” Con­trary to com­mon belief, said Der­ri­da, the cen­ter has held all too fast; attempts to dis­lodge it tend­ed to sim­ply install a sub­sti­tute. He gives the exam­ple of eth­nol­o­gy: in an attempt to over­come Euro­pean eth­no­cen­trism through an engage­ment with the larg­er world, it employs Euro­pean modes of sci­en­tif­ic obser­va­tion and inter­pre­ta­tion. This brought him to Lévi-Strauss, and an engage­ment with Peterson’s pur­port­ed spe­cial­i­ty, myth. In his read­ing of myths, Lévi-Strauss had to con­tend with a prob­lem that lit­er­ary crit­i­cism had pre­vi­ous­ly been able to avoid. Unlike a nov­el, a myth has no author; it is a prod­uct of the struc­ture of mythol­o­gy itself. “The absence of a cen­ter is here the absence of a sub­ject and the absence of an author,” says Der­ri­da. Lévi-Strauss replaces this with a per­ma­nent struc­ture that defines the form. ... In depart­ing with the seem­ing­ly dras­ti­cal­ly dif­fer­ent approach­es of struc­tural­ism and phe­nom­e­nol­o­gy, Der­ri­da and Fou­cault left behind a total­iz­ing ide­al­ism shared by both schools of thought, which had left their adher­ents unable to explain the dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed and uneven real­i­ties of both phi­los­o­phy and his­to­ry. It is not Der­ri­da and Fou­cault who repro­duce this total­iz­ing ide­al­ism, but Peter­son. Con­trary to his self-pro­fessed rep­u­ta­tion for straight talk and hard truths, Peterson’s con­cep­tion of all the var­i­ous phe­nom­e­na of social life as expres­sions of a curi­ous­ly inter­pret­ed intel­lec­tu­al episode hap­pens to be con­sis­tent with the most spec­u­la­tive of philoso­phies: an ide­al­ism that claims ideas descend from heav­en to earth. Draw­ing on his read­ing of west­ern phi­los­o­phy, Der­ri­da showed that through­out its his­to­ry there were vary­ing yearn­ings of a “meta­physics of pres­ence”: the notion that some pure, unadul­ter­at­ed truth exists inde­pen­dent of the deriv­a­tive and dis­tort­ed forms in which it is expressed. Begin­ning with Pla­to, this was dra­ma­tized in the oppo­si­tion between speech and writ­ing. In speech, said Pla­to, one was faced with the pres­ence of the speak­er and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of direct­ly access­ing the truth of his utter­ance. But in writ­ing the speak­er was absent, and his words could be mis­in­ter­pret­ed. This is all Der­ri­da means by “logo­cen­trism” — the pre­sup­po­si­tion that speech was pri­ma­ry to writ­ing, that it was a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of ideas that pre­ced­ed its utter­ance. The logo­cen­tric way of think­ing, long cus­tom­ary to the point of being a tru­ism, is an eva­sion of the fact that phi­los­o­phy, and there­fore any quest for truth or knowl­edge, can only take place with­in the impure, in-between field of lan­guage. Derrida’s med­i­ta­tions on these ques­tions are both more com­plex and more pre­cise than some dorm­room solil­o­quy punc­tu­at­ed by the bub­bling of bong water. The ques­tion Peter­son accus­es him of answer­ing with dan­ger­ous equiv­o­ca­tion — whether there is such a thing as objec­tive truth — is not one he pos­es. That ques­tion is so vague­ly and poor­ly framed as to be irre­solv­able. The point is that we have no direct access to truth, that it can­not sim­ply be made present. Instead, we have to pay atten­tion to the var­i­ous forms of sec­on­dari­ness, impu­ri­ty, dif­fer­ence, and dis­tor­tion which actu­al­ly con­sti­tute our thought. ... In 12 Rules, Peter­son takes Der­ri­da to task for a famous and eas­i­ly decon­tex­tu­al­ized quote: “there is noth­ing out­side the text.” Peter­son reads this as the “nihilis­tic and destruc­tive” claim that “every­thing is inter­pre­ta­tion.” To call this an over­state­ment would be an under­state­ment. Der­ri­da was not claim­ing that there are no side­walks, birds, and build­ings beyond the edges of a page. He was ques­tion­ing the idea that there is a mean­ing to a text that is dis­tinct from what is actu­al­ly there in the text. There is no pure trans­mis­sion, uncor­rupt­ed by a sec­ondary medi­um, that makes us one with our lis­ten­ers or read­ers. To engage in decon­struc­tion is to show, through close read­ing, how even the advo­cates of a meta­physics of pres­ence end up acknowl­edg­ing the inescapa­bil­i­ty of writ­ing and all that it rep­re­sents. And decon­struc­tion, too, inevitably falls prey to its own work. There is not a trace of this kind of humil­i­ty in Peterson’s writ­ing. His mega­lo­ma­nia is so extreme that he once pro­posed a kind of machinic McCarthy­ism, announc­ing his intent to cre­ate an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence pro­gram called a “post­mod­ern lex­i­con detec­tor.” This algo­rithm would sort out course descrip­tions at uni­ver­si­ties that includ­ed any unsa­vory con­tent, list­ing them on a direc­to­ry for free-think­ing stu­dents to avoid. Among its oth­er remark­able qual­i­ties, this is a strange way to advo­cate for the free­dom of speech. Peterson’s col­leagues talked him out of it.

[energitix]

This is the most exciting time ever to be in IT!… But are we up to it? I’m not sure, but I think it was Brian Johnson who first coined the phrase “IT is too important to be left to IT.” However, I’d also add “…but the business isn’t grown up enough to be put in charge of IT”!  Herein lies one of the greatest, endemic issues we currently face in IT… Business and IT-alignment. Even the term itself causes heated debate. In this blog, I want to show some worrying facts and figures that underpin this issue. I’ll also touch upon Business Relationship Management (BRM) as a critical missing capability, exploring how BRM can help us take an important step in solving the “Business and IT-alignment” issue. Providing we do it properly of course.   The business and IT relationship The ABC (attitude, behavior, culture) card below sums up the “Business and IT relationship.” This has been a top scoring card in global improvement workshops with more than 4000 organizations, and has been for the last 15 years.  …I’ll repeat that, only louder “FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS!” Who is to play this “marriage guidance counsellor” role? Drum roll… enter BRM. But first… Why is it so exciting to be in IT right now?  Digital transformation is the latest industry buzzword. Nobody knows what it really means, but everybody wants it. Suddenly all the vendor products and services in the market have “digital transformation” added as a byline in the description, and existing training catalogs describe how current courses support and enable this need for “digital transformation”… Phew, so we’ve solved that then! Regardless of what it really means, one thing is clear – IT is becoming increasingly important for all organizations and it’s not going to go away. To quote Michael Ganser from Cisco: “Digital transformation represents the beginning of the most significant transformation in our lifetimes.” This means that IT and IT service management (ITSM) are becoming strategic assets and strategic capabilities. YOU are now a strategic asset. How cool is that to put on your CV? However, this new role brings with it great responsibilities and demands new skills and new ways of behaving. The question is will we take ownership for this new position we’ve been given? Will we develop the right skills and capabilities? Will we start behaving like strategic assets? Either we do, or we face the alternative “tragic” consequences as shown in the t-shirt above.  What do you mean “but are we up to it”?  “Business and IT alignment” has once again been named the number one CIO challenge in a recent industry study on Trends in Business, IT & IoT. It’s been in the top three CIO challenges for the last 15 years. And, as IT becomes increasingly important with each passing year, the business and IT “gap” seems to be getting bigger and bigger. If you don’t believe me, then please check out some of these articles: CIO leaders struggle to sway business leaders Communication between IT and non-IT workers in a state of crisis The IT-Business gap remains. The fact that “Business and IT-alignment” has been a top issue for the last 15 years clearly shows that current approaches to closing the gap aren’t working. A reason perhaps for the growing popularity of BRM?  Not only are the current approaches not working, but we’re also not developing the right knowledge and skills.  IT has no understanding of business impact and priority This has been the top scoring ABC card for the last 15 years. Confirming that the findings of this article from 2013 – “The IT talent problem” – is still relevant. In this article executives were asked “If you had a magic wand, what one talent problem would you solve?” More than 70% said “Give business skills to their technologists… they do not understand the business context of their technology work, nor can they have a meaningful discussion with the leaders of the business areas their technology supports.”  “Yes, but that was 2013!”  “We’ve learned and now we do continual service improvement (CSI)!” If only this were true. In a recent mini study my company undertook, less than 20% said they had formal CSI in place. This talent problem was also raised in the 2017 Gartner CIO Agenda report. CIOs reported their top barriers to successfully showing the value of IT – with talent being number one, citing “Business knowledge and acumen.” Worryingly, the same issues that CIOs cited four years earlier in the exact same study. As I said, current approaches don’t seem to be working… And? Now I know I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, but all this clearly shows we need to develop more business understanding and more business-focused skills and capabilities. With “Business IQ” being one of the key competence areas within the BRM Institute body of knowledge.  BRM is an ideal approach to help IT people gain a better business understanding, and to work together with ITSM to develop an appropriate priority and decision–making mechanism. However… The business isn’t grown up enough to be put in charge of IT either! This is another top-three ABC card chosen in our global workshops. We cannot implement effective priority mechanisms without the business.  It’s easy to blame IT. However, it isn’t all IT’s fault. There needs to be, from the business, better governance of enterprise IT. Says who? An ISACA study (Benchmarking and Business Value Assessment of COBIT 5) revealed “More business involvement in the governance of enterprise IT  is required,” highlighting a low maturity score on benefits realization and risk optimization. Perhaps a reason why “70% of everything spent on IT doesn’t meet the functional goals of projects or deliver the expected return on investment” according to a 2015 NetworkWorld article.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t digital transformation about realizing business benefits from emerging technologies? And, managing the inherent risks of doing it and of not doing it? Sounds like governance to me. So, we need some sort of executive-level commitment and governance if we want to realize the benefits of digital transformation. However, in a recent “hands-up” poll I did with event delegates representing more than 500 organizations, sadly only about 25% said they had “Formal IT governance” in place (such as COBIT). But this business issue isn’t just at the executive level. A CIO.com article The key to successful digital transformation stated:  “The biggest innovation happens when the transformation is user [driven], not IT driven”… going on to add “The process requires an understanding of cultural and knowledge gaps for business users, a monumental and often politically charged challenge typically far outside IT’s purview.” The business users also have an important role to play. Two top-scoring ABC cards (again for the last 15 years) are “Everything has the highest priority according to the users” and “Too little business involvement in requirements specification and testing.” Perhaps there’s another role here for BRM to become the “trusted advisor” to business users? Why is governing IT so hard?  In a recent article on CIO.com entitled “What is GRC and why do you need it?” Kim Lindros (CIO) declared: “The decision-making, portfolio management, risk management, and regulatory compliance functions included in a ‘Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)’ framework will not be effective unless the organization’s executive leadership really supports cultural change.” In another article from CIOInsight.com entitled “Cultural issues derail digital transformations” it was revealed that 62% of CIOs said the biggest hurdle to digital transformation was “cultural issues.” So, it seems it isn’t just IT-facing “Attitude, Behavior and Culture” issues. However, the business doesn’t attend IT conferences or read IT blogs and often doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. Unconsciously incompetent (“the individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the defict” – Wikipedia.) The challenge here is “Who has to point this out to the business?” IT currently has an issue with trust and credibility and we now want to say to the business “Don’t worry – we’re now your strategic partner”!  One thing is clear. The business won’t change by itself. It’s up to IT to stop playing the victim and to step up to the plate if its wants to change this before it’s too late. Two more of the core competences in the BRM body of knowledge being “Business transformation management” and “Communication.”  BRM from marriage counsellor to superhero in one tall leap! Is BRM the missing link to the endemic business and IT alignment problem? In a McKinsey report entitled “Partnering to shape the future – IT’s new imperative” it was revealed that 76% of executives found that IT should play a partner role to the business. Only 27% thought that IT already fulfilled that role.  It would appear that BRM not only has to improve the relationship between business and IT but also enable them to transform and to solve something they haven’t been able to solve in the last 15 years. Oh, is that all?! So how do we do this? Send staff on a two–day BRM Professional training course to get the certificate? Now where have I seen that approach before? Let’s not make the same mistake we made with ITIL –focusing too much on the certificate rather than developing the competency, not to mention the fact that the business partner won’t be attending the training. So how do we engage the business in this capability–development initiative? We already do BRM, we don’t need BRM training! The majority of organizations who engage us to run business simulations as part of an education or organizational improvement initiative recognize these business and IT issues. When I suggest we focus on BRM in a simulation an answer is often “No, we already do BRM!” More often than not they either have some kind of account management function or a BRM role that serves as a tactical or operational fire-fighter, solving issues that ITSM should have solved. However, all too often BRM roles have no “authority” and are not seen as an added-value partner to both the business and to the IT provider organization.How do we solve this then?Excellent question. That is the topic of my presentation at the upcoming itSMF UK annual conference this November. In my presentation, I’ll be exploring the topic and presenting a case study on how one organization tackled this issue. Engaging with both the business and IT to gain commitment for strategic BRM, and BOTH parties committing to change behavior.  And, if you want one tip to take away now. Make Monday “Go and meet a user day.” Do this regularly, ideally every Monday. Send everybody from IT into the business for one day to observe how IT services are used. To understand how IT services add value, the impact when services are down, and the priority moments – the critical business cycles. Have people come back and present their findings or invite a line-of-business IT user to come present at IT team meetings. Remember: The top scoring ABC card for 15 years in a row is “IT has no understanding of business impact and priority”!  So, are YOU a strategic asset or a tragic…?  The post “IT Is Too Important to Be Left to IT” So What Next?  appeared first on ITSM.tools.

https://itsm.tools/2017/09/14/it-is-too-important-to-be-left-to-it-so-what-next/