Siegel, F. 1980. The Agony of Christopher Lasch. Reviews in American History, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 285-295. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2701369 Christopher Lasch wrote one of the books that made me convinced Everything Was Bad - "The Culture of Narcissism". I haven't read it in 30 years, but keep meaning to get around to a re-read. Join... Continue Reading →
Letter in Private Eye about CCS…
They edited it down very lightly, just missing the final line "I would get out more, but the weather is so unpredictable at the moment, for reasons that elude me."
Of the Horizon scandal, #climate doom and the Professional Managerial Class… (and what is to be done).
We're doomed. It’s partly the fault of the staggeringly successful campaigns of doubt and denial over the last thirty five years, that are still happening - the fossil fuel propaganda campaigns like the one just starting up (Noor, 2024). Those campaigns stopped us taking action that would have delayed the onset of the ferocious warming... Continue Reading →
“Civil society” is not synonym for unicorns and rainbows – [Looting the Ivory Tower 01/100]
Berman, S. 1997. Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic. World Politics , Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 401-429. The key point in this brilliant article is that loose talk about "civil society" as a Good Thing that will Help Democracy Thrive is simply not good enough. Put down that hypodermic full of de... Continue Reading →
Oh god, what a waste of time and energy
I am not going to say what it was, but this is the message I left in the chat. "This is all framed so individually and individualistically. In the absence of effective and resilient social movement organisations, there will be this endless boom-and-bust, guilt-spasms followed by burn out. But we are all so thoroughly neoliberalised... Continue Reading →
Of cyborgs, brake pedals and the much-missed Machiavelli the allotment cat #climate #LearnedHelplessness
I have, shall we say "expansive" tastes in reading matter. That's not a euphemism for pr0n habits (yawnsville). It means I will read almost anything. And one of the books I read, maybe forty-ish years ago, was Cyborg by Martin Caidin. It was the source novel for the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man. It follows... Continue Reading →
Of David Roberts @drvolts, collective cognition and botshit
So David Roberts, who writes so well on climate and economics and so forth has a thread that has gone viral, even by his standards. Inspired by (or despaired by, perhaps) the weeks long Confected Moral Outrage over Harvard University and its now-ex-President, Roberts bemoans how the "left" keeps falling into the same very old trap-... Continue Reading →
I did not buy these books. You can’t prove I did.
Defo didn't buy this one, by Elleston Trevor (also wrote as Adam Hall - the Quiller books etc) Or this. Nom Nom Nom. You can't prove it, and Doctor Wifey trusts me not to buy books on the sly.
Barbel or Babel – clever pun by Douglas Adams?
So, am reading and enjoying "Cast in Order of Disappearance," a 1975 book by Simon Brett. It's a comic murder mystery, the one that introduces semi-alcoholic actor Charles Parris (played by Bill Nighy in the radio adaptations). At one point Charles goes fishing with his son-in-law, and the word barbel leapt off the page. So, I added it... Continue Reading →
Cesspit or money-spinner? Depends on your pov
Siggie Freud would have a field day with this Those benefitting from the status quo will act to resist socio-technical change, obvs. One of the "derailing risks" we don't talk about enough... Barles, S. (2014). History of waste management and the social and cultural representations of waste. In The basic environmental history (pp. 199-226). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
marchudson.net 