With an emphasis on charity for the day, runners gather at the start line and are spurred on by a rendition of Jerusalem

The event cause major disruption on Portsmouth's roads, but it is a perfect autumn morning for the runners

The Crowds start to gather to witness over 20,000 runners of all ages and abilities at the 20th annual Great south run

How Nietzsche’s work influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick once said, in an article in the New York Times, “Man is the missing link between primitive apes and civilised human beings. Man is really in a very unstable condition”. This gives the inclination that Kubrick’s film, 2001: A space Odyssey, takes its foundations from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. As mentioned in a previous post Nietzsche hypothesised that “Ubermensch” (overman) will eventually evolve beyond mankind. Nietzsche had the idea that the evolution of man would go through three stages: primitive man, modern man, and eventually overman. Thus suggesting modern man is just a bridge between ape and overman but a necessary stage in the evolutionary chain. Nietzsche is also famous for declaring “God is dead” in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and in 2001: A Space Odyssey we see Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of this idea. Between man and becoming ‘Ubermensch’ there is God, and it is stopping man from evolving any further, and in Kubrick’s film man ‘kills’ God by ceasing to believe, enabling man to progress on to overman.

As well as Nietzsche’s Thus spoke Zarathustra, Kubrick’s film also builds upon Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. In this work Nietzsche developed the idea of conflict between the Apollonian and Dionysian concepts. The Apollonian referring to the rational and scientific side of mankind and Dionysian refers to the primitive and natural side. Using these two opposing concepts we can interpret Kubrick’s film through Nietzsche tinted glasses. Primitive man is Dionysian, controlled by instinct lacking intellect; Kubrick shows this in the opening scene, ‘the dawn of man’ when they first gain the instinct to kill, as shown by Moon-watcher. Primitive man then evolves into modern man who is shown to be Apollonian, ruled by; science, democracy and religion, peaceful and calm in comparison to primitive man. Kubrick shows this change through Moon-watcher throwing the bone he used as a weapon into the air; this represents the gradual evolution into modern man. The animal instincts that were shown in this opening scene have been extinguished.  The overman will regain these Dionysian traits and combine them with Apollonian to create the overman.

 The evolution from modern man into overman is depicted through the character of Dr Dave Bowman as well as the monolith which appears throughout 2001: A Space odyssey. This evolution from primitive man to modern man to overman is represented by its appearance. It symbolises Nietzsche’s idea of the journey from primitive man to overman. Its first appearance comes in ‘The dawn of man’, and it is after this appearance that primitive man learns to use a bone as a tool and then a weapon. Its next meaningful appearance comes on the moon. The monolith appears on the moon with the sun overhead and produces a loud noise which shows the first morning of the overman.

The road to serfdom

The Road to Serfdom written By Friedrich Von Hayek, mentioned below, was a study into social and economic conditions that lead to 'serfdom'. Contradictory to what i have previously said about Keynes and Hayek disagreeing here is a quote from Keynes praising Hayek's work - "In my opinion it is a grand book...Morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it: and not only in agreement with it, but in deeply moved agreement.".

Hayek's idea that attempting to set up an economic future for ourselves will only end in ruin, hits home in current affairs. This is prettty much the key policy to the major parties in the 21st century, and they're all pretty much failling in securing a sound financial future. Hayek argues that the failure of economies will lead to the rise of a few industrialists effectively turning the 'common man' into serfs. A person lower than that of the working class. A slave basically. Many great minds approved of the book includin Keynes, Winston Churchill and George Orwell.

Keynesian economics

The macroeconomic theory based upon the ideas of, as the name suggest, John Maynard Keynes. In the most basic of explanations, he states that one persons spendings are another persons earnings and it goes round in circlular flow of money, this cirlce being the economy. The Keynesian approach to the great depression would have been to keep pumping money into the economy to regenerate spending amongst the public, but as seen in Germany after WW1 this could lead to hyperinflation. The keynesian theory also requires for the public sector to step in and increase their spending. Although this was not a popular approach due to it coming after a popular laissez fair capitalist approach, which believed that the economy if left alone would eventually recover itself which was the view of Friedrich Von Hayek. The two had a very publiv feud about approach to economics. The Keynesian approach also has a marxist tint to it where it requires the distribution of wealth when needed. The idea behind this is that giving Poorer people money will mean they spend rather than save causing cash flow into the economy. Like I say this is a very basic understanding of the Keynesian theory and a full insight into all his ideas goes straight over my head.

Going Gonzo

the phrase 'Gonzo journalism' was first used to describe an article by Hunter s. Thompson in 1970. Rather than the retelling of facts, gonzo journalism favours style over accuracy, it uses experiencs and emotion to give context for the story. The style helps journalism to be truthful whilst striving for the objectivity that was seen before the 1960s and 70s. The style was popularized by Tom Wolfe, a reporter for The Washington Post, he favoured a more humorous and fictional-writing techniques in feature length stories. An example of Wolfe's work is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Its written in narrative with eccentric usage of punctuation and metaphors. This book was just the start of a new wave which was first coined as 'New Journalism' later to be called 'Gonzo journalism'. Wolfe actualy edited a journal named The New Journalism which conatianed works by the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. these articles as a collective were considered as literature. They moved away from the conventional fact orientated works to a more 'story' like structure to them, hence the phrase writing a story for a newspaper.