Incremental progress meets Zeno’s Paradox

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Jack Graham

Jack Graham writes and podcasts about culture and politics from a Gothic Marxist-Humanist perspective. He co-hosts the I Don't Speak German podcast with Daniel Harper. Support Jack on Patreon.

9 Comments

  1. Lucy McGough
    July 8, 2012 @ 4:06 am

    I really enjoyed reading this, and I agreed with a lot of it, but I can't think of a clever comment to make.

    Reply

  2. spudtater
    February 19, 2013 @ 2:08 am

    Wait, I'm confused. The idea that white Europeans came from Iran/India etc. was I thought general scientific consensus (hence the term "Caucasian"), as is the concept of a Proto-Indo-European language and a cult of patriarchal sun-worship that they brought with them. Nazi ideology posited the reverse movement; that the "Aryans" were in fact "Nordics", who migrated to India from Scandinavia — or, if you were the even crazier sort of Nazi, from Atlantis. No?

    Reply

  3. Anonymous
    February 19, 2013 @ 2:09 am

    Hey, where'd my comment go?

    Reply

  4. Jack Graham
    February 19, 2013 @ 4:11 am

    Which comment, Anonymous? Maybe it got lost in the ether. I haven't deleted any comments from this post. Not that I recal anyway.

    Reply

  5. Jack Graham
    February 19, 2013 @ 5:03 am

    It'd be a mistake to look for too much consistancy in Nazi ideology, but I think the broad outline was that the Nordic peoples were supposed to be the 'purest' remaining branch of the descendants of the Aryans. This doesn't imply that the Nazi version wasn't still based on the widespread 19th century imperial conception of Aryanism, which emanated from the work of orientalist scholars. The Atlantis thing wasn't necessarily in opposition to this either. Alfred Rosenberg spoke of Atlantis metaphorically, referring to a supposed Northern Aryan wellspring in the Northern hemisphere.

    That reputable archaeologists today study an actual group of peoples loosely referred to as the Proto-Indo-Europeans – and their language family and its influences – is a separate issue. The point is that the use of the concept of the root language in 'Prometheus' harks back to the Aryan ideology of the imperialists, which had its root in the study of Proto-Indo-European. In a film which gives the progenitor language to a race of fascist giants… that looks significant.

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  6. spudtater
    February 20, 2013 @ 3:54 pm

    OK, thanks for clearing that up. I thought originally that you were implying that the very concept of a Proto-Indo-European culture and language was bound up with Nazi ideology; now I read back I see that that's not what you were saying at all.

    Reply

  7. liminalD
    September 4, 2013 @ 4:06 pm

    This is the best review of Prometheus I think I've ever read. I'm going to have to read through it again to get all the complexities but I LOVE how you tie it up at the end there.

    Fantastic ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

  8. Jack Graham
    September 4, 2013 @ 4:43 pm

    Thanks.

    Reply

  9. unnoun
    October 5, 2014 @ 6:16 pm

    I didn't really like the incompetence of the scientists in Prometheus.

    I mean. Not necessarily that it was unrealistic per se. I do have a few colleagues that I can in fact imagine getting high or randomly taking off breathing apparatus in unknown environments. It's not like science is a field full of super serious or responsible people.

    The bigger problem is probably Liz Shaw. I do know plenty of scientists with religious beliefs, but Shaw's don't seem to make any actual sense.

    It's a minor problem overall I suppose.

    Anyway. Yay! I really like your analysis! Don't have much else to add other than a few minor nitpicks though. Sorry.

    Reply

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