Tag Archives: Taki

Greek to Taki

20 Saturday Jul 2019

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Good old Taki compares his Athens, the then to the now.

ATHENS—Standing right below the Acropolis, where pure democracy began because public officials were elected by lot, I try to imagine if random political selection today would be a good thing. The answer is a resounding yes. Both Socrates and Aristotle questioned fundamental norms and values, and if they lived today they would certainly question the acceptance by us of career politicians who have never had any other profession. (Corbyn, Biden, I could go on.) Socrates was skeptical about many things, especially the arts, because he believed they led us away from the truth. Yet so-called “artists” today influence public opinion as never before. Even numbskull rappers have a say and can alter public opinion, hence election by lot should be a must.

Old Socrates was obsessed with the truth, and politics is all about the propagation of falsehoods. Aristotle believed that many people are slaves by nature, and the proof lies in the blind obedience of those hatchet-faced people who scream abuse on TV to leftist dogma. (Aristotle would not get invited to chic parties were he around today; he opposed homosexuality, believed women to be biologically inferior, and despised rule by the many.) The ancient Greeks may have invented everything useful, but they did not invent socialism, the system that makes theft legal. They were too smart to fall for its Siren-like attraction because they knew it would eventually kill all initiative. Yet politicians nowadays demand more socialism, even after the examples of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela. Go figure, as they never said in old Athens.

Who, really, knows better than a frightened and angry mob of illiterates? Damned near anyone, just ask the guys at the bowling league (if you can find them).

Taki on the Ruination of the Digital Age

27 Saturday Apr 2019

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In retrospect, the “smart” era is starting to look like an error – of catastrophic proportion. Ditching TeeVee, mooooovies, and the socials may not be enough. Some days now, I ponder if electricity was a mistake. The spy phones and screens certainly were.

The byword is “transparency,” and I totally reject it, although if I weren’t writing for the gentile folks of Takimag I’d use different phrasing. Here you had that greedy slob Zuckerberg selling the digital privacy of hundreds of millions who naively trusted the bum, and also selling children’s data and tracking people’s movements, and the guy is walking around free and unharmed. Remember when the Russians lived ten in a room with a simple sheet hanging between families in the same room for privacy? We’re heading back to those days, thanks to the tech giants run by those good-looking people out west. Think about it and weep, but before that, get rid of the smartphone and feel free again.

And, honestly, if you look closely at them, most of those social westies don’t even look that good.

Beloved Greek Interloper Hits the Skyway

08 Saturday Dec 2018

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Taki, the old rascal, prepares to seasonally vacate The Bagel. His remembrance of what may have once been.

So what does an older man do when alone in a city that once offered a lot and now, less than zero? Well, last week I went up to Provincetown for Michael Mailer’s mother’s memorial. I spoke a few words, met a lot of artistic people—she was a beautiful actress of the ’50s and ’60s, Beverly Bentley—and came back with a hangover that lasted for a good week. Provincetown is now mostly a gay town, a bit honky-tonk, but what shocked me the most was when we filmed a documentary in Norman Mailer’s last home. There was a plaque outside, but inside—it has since been sold to a private buyer—there was not a single book in sight. The bare walls brought on a sense of loss as I had been there when Norman was alive and the place was dripping with them. I guess it’s a sign of the times. Less books, more rap, more sci-fi, English no más, manners no más, girls no más, time to fly away.

And, He’s not just talking bout NYC.

Old Perrin won’t jaunt to the Alps this Christmas. Somewhere less snowy perhaps. Then again, I’m not fleeing the Apple of Decay either.

An Eagle Flies Away

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

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Hmmm. John Paul Stevens has turned to treason. Or is it merely senility? Either way I’m trying to find stuff in the paper archives. Maybe on the older PC…. I want to answer the old traitor’s Op-Ed in the Times – which, by the way, is neither protected as free speech nor press under the First Amendment. I’m sure you know why.

Anyway, whilst I hunt for whatever that was … here’s a brilliant bit from Taki Theodoracopulos on the apparent demise of a club that was probably always too good for me:

Goodbye, Eagle Club (Gstaad)

Taki on Tacky: March of the Sunday Funnies

12 Monday Jun 2017

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A brilliant take on a highly visible sign of fallen times from Theodore Dalrymple and Taki’s Mag, perhaps the highest brow on the internet:

Ariana Grande, of whom I had not heard until Salman Abedi killed 22 people at her “concert” in Manchester, has had herself tattooed with a picture of a bee, a symbol of Manchester’s industrious industrial past, as a “permanent tribute” to the city. Apparently, the other performers in her vulgar act have done likewise. Could courage, compassion, sympathy, self-sacrifice, indeed virtue itself, go further?

This could be the start of something big: a movement called Tattoos Against Terrorism, or TAT for short. If anything could convince the Islamic suicide bombers of the superiority of the Western way of life, with its fundamental freedoms, surely this could. Alternatively, it will terrify them into giving up.

Nothing says “I’m unique” like a big old tattoo – or seven. And nothing says “decline of civilization” like half the population sporting all that uniqueness – each the same as all the rest. “Decline of Civilization” might make a great tattoo! Consult Reality Winner (Real Name?) on this point:

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“Cupping,” Molock, and a side of crabgrass??? Twitter.

Yes, I’m sure your tattoos (plural aren’t they) are very unique. Special. They mean something. Just like Ariana Grande’s new bumblebee tat. Everyone associates bees with tempered diversity in Manchester, UK after all…

Some very few are actually interesting – on men. Mostly soldiers, sailors, and bikers. I’ve never seen a woman I thought benefited by copious ink. And it’s usually copious these days. If one is good, twelve are Grande. More ink than the Sunday funnies.

Lady tats aren’t just for the bad girls anymore. Look to the melodious examples of Ariana “I hope my fans f*cking die!” Grande and Reality “Who’d she meet with in Belize??) Winner. I know a grandmother sporting some shade of gaudy illustration on her ankle. All very special. Unique. Each and every decorated “lady” at the beach or the gym or the supermarket as different and special as the next dozen.

The good news is several. First, the trend must be getting overdone. A return to modest sense surely has to be in order. Second, time permitting, a fortune could be made in the tattoo removal business. Third, time expiring (20 years, maybe), the markers may serve as just that, post-collapse; a way to … differentiate.

Or it could be time once again to ramp it down a notch. Might I suggest nose bones and lip plates. How about tree swinging and poo flinging? Blue faces for the cave set?

I’d like to congratulate Ma belle Française on keeping it clean, original, and classically feminine. La tableau est l’art.

Curmudgeonly Bonus: Vox Day’s continued exposition of the bleak batty Boomer banality. “Lifestyle” is the Boomer’s tacky tattoo.

Happy Monday morning, all!