Being & Having

I am dead if I lack desire
I lack desire because
I think I possess
I think I possess because
I do not try to give
Trying to give,
You see that you have nothing
Seeing you have nothing,
You try to give of yourself
Trying to give of yourself,
You see you are nothing
Seeing you are nothing,
You desire to become
In desiring to become,
You begin...to live

 — Doug Anderson

Rights

Sadly, a lot of "normal" people who demand freedom of speech
do so to compensate for avoiding freedom of thought.
 — Doug Anderson

Strike A Poseur

The triumph of style over substance is celebrated endlessly at numerous annual awards ceremonies — from the Oscars down.

 — Doug Anderson

'A Demeaning Display Of Anodyne Music And Fantasy Costumes'

Inanity writ large with a 10-tonne DayGlo Pentel.  This utterly unnecessary event highlights the absurd efforts that aspiring pop singers will go to in order to lose a meaningless competition and avoid saddling their country with the expense of hosting the ensuing year's telecast, which costs squillions and advances bugger all.

 — Doug Anderson on the Eurovision Song Contest

Cynicism And Cringe

Millions adored Seinfeld or were addicted to the drollery of The Office and other Ricky Gervais creations while, to me, they never rose above examples of demeaning cynicism and the festering humour of cringe.

 — Doug Anderson

Fœtid World

That he is seldom seen doing the rounds of media glitz or participating in the swill of ego-stroking and narcissism that propels the fœtid world of television is perhaps the most significant indicator that his work is serious.

 — Doug Anderson

The Personal Website

… astonishing insights into contemporary
inconsequentiality and self–absorption.
— Doug Anderson

Consumerism

In 1987, the number of shopping centres in the US surpassed the number of high schools.

Dwindling education budgets have seen advertising introduced into classrooms, exposing 7 million students — a third of them teenagers — to two minutes of commercials every morning on Channel One. The advertisers pay for computers, video monitors and other electronic stuff the government can't afford. Not surprising then that consumerism is ingrained from an early age in a headspace where education should be permitted to prevail.

— Doug Anderson

Unreasonable

The reasonable man adapts to the world.
The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to him.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— Doug Anderson

Has Needs

Is a rich person one who has the most
or one that needs the least?
— Doug Anderson

Boofheadism

When do jingoism and patriotism tip over into boofheaded nationalism, elitism, or worse, racism?
— Doug Anderson

Town Planning

Rome wasn't built in a day — it just looks that way.
— Doug Anderson

Mixed Metaphor

Las Vegas … "the neon armpit of American vomit" …
It's not just the vile architecture or the seedy criminality that seem to underpin the city's raison d'être. It's the triumphalism of vulgar excess.
— Doug Anderson

Commercials Television

… a tribute to 21st century stupidity …
Speaking of stupidity and the pursuit of mediocrity …
… humiliation is the pivotal element and the ignominy of being insulted in the privacy of your own lounge room matches the public shaming of studio contestants.
— Doug Anderson

Masochistic viewers and those who derive enjoyment from staring at a box of dead fish won't want to miss this slab of demeaning televisual haddock … modelled on the humiliation–based American series …
— Doug Anderson

Wall Street

We all know that filthy behaviour and arrogant decadence are endemic in the investment/banking milieu of New York …
— Doug Anderson