In the D Zone View high resolution

In the D Zone

Misty forest, Otaki gorge View high resolution

Misty forest, Otaki gorge

Te Papa View high resolution

Te Papa

US Marines pose proudly by an flag showing the emblem of the Waffen SS The other day I watched Billy Connolly riding his bike along Highway 66. He came to a market at a small town in Kansas. A stallholder was proudly selling Nazi memorabilia, including a flag displaying the Swastika. “Every time I see a Swastika, it makes me very very uneasy,” Connolly said to camera. I knew what he meant. Anyone in a western democracy, anyone who fought in the Second World War or anyone who has family who fought the Nazis, will understand. Or should understand.  But there are people who don’t see things that way, people who admire Hitler, the Nazis, and their organs of violence, tyranny, and genocide - the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, and the Waffen SS. There’s something very weird, very creepy, about these people. They’re not people you want in a civilized society. And there’s something dirty about American soldiers, US Marines in this case, who model themselves on the Wehrmacht and the SS. It dishonours the many Americans who fought and defeated the Nazis in World War Two. And it makes you wonder whether these Marines, and others like them, ape the methods of their role models. 

US Marines pose proudly by an flag showing the emblem of the Waffen SS

The other day I watched Billy Connolly riding his bike along Highway 66. He came to a market at a small town in Kansas. A stallholder was proudly selling Nazi memorabilia, including a flag displaying the Swastika.

“Every time I see a Swastika, it makes me very very uneasy,” Connolly said to camera.

I knew what he meant. Anyone in a western democracy, anyone who fought in the Second World War or anyone who has family who fought the Nazis, will understand. Or should understand. 

But there are people who don’t see things that way, people who admire Hitler, the Nazis, and their organs of violence, tyranny, and genocide - the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, and the Waffen SS. There’s something very weird, very creepy, about these people. They’re not people you want in a civilized society.

And there’s something dirty about American soldiers, US Marines in this case, who model themselves on the Wehrmacht and the SS. It dishonours the many Americans who fought and defeated the Nazis in World War Two. And it makes you wonder whether these Marines, and others like them, ape the methods of their role models. 

Waterline View high resolution

Waterline

Goat, Taranaki View high resolution

Goat, Taranaki

Pump girls, Wellington Rugby Sevens parade View high resolution

Pump girls, Wellington Rugby Sevens parade

Striding out, Wellington View high resolution

Striding out, Wellington

Futuristic bullshit

I’m skeptical of so-called futurists who claim to have the inside running on the future. It’s absurd. No-one can predict what will happen in the future - aside from the most obvious phenomena, such as you and I will go to work tomorrow - because things are uncertain and subject to many variables, especially the further out you go. The more precise the prediction, the less likely it is to come about. The more obvious, or more vague, the prediction, the less value it has.

Yet still they come. In this article, Fairfax Media asks ‘futurist and writer’ Mark Pesce what technologies will soon become extinct. Pesce goes out on a limb to predict that landline telephones, cheap point and shoot cameras, radios, ‘physical’ books, and DVD players, are doomed. On the other hand, TVs and e-books are booming.

Two words - No shit.

Shake it baby… But seriously, here’s a question: Take a look around today’s streets, and try to imagine which everyday phenomena will look quaint a quarter of a century from now…? Which elements will blend together retrospectively to represent the current decade? Forecasting trends is a perilous game. Remember the demise of books, the paperless office, and lunar colonies? Whatever - some ideas… Quaint Smokers and smokingZumba, Crossfit, and other fitness crazesPlaying sport Avant-garde BicyclesWalkingHome water tanks Representative CongestionObesity and diet fadsJunk View high resolution

Shake it baby…

But seriously, here’s a question:

Take a look around today’s streets, and try to imagine which everyday phenomena will look quaint a quarter of a century from now…? Which elements will blend together retrospectively to represent the current decade?

Forecasting trends is a perilous game. Remember the demise of books, the paperless office, and lunar colonies? Whatever - some ideas…

Quaint

Smokers and smoking
Zumba, Crossfit, and other fitness crazes
Playing sport

Avant-garde

Bicycles
Walking
Home water tanks

Representative

Congestion
Obesity and diet fads
Junk

Shearing shed at Pencarrow Station, Fitzroy Bay View high resolution

Shearing shed at Pencarrow Station, Fitzroy Bay

In paperbark forest, Adelaide River floodplain, Northern Territory. View high resolution

In paperbark forest, Adelaide River floodplain, Northern Territory.