I don't do enough Looting of the Ivory Tower (though see here). I really should be doing a minimum of one article looted per day. I'd be less likely to flunk Chomsky's mirror test. Hey ho. Really, enough about me. This article below is absolutely superb. If you're looking for a history of European Union... Continue Reading →
So I have a list of 42 books I am supposed to read before ("buying others" - yeah, good luck with that). And I absolutely have not read two Jack Reacher novels in the midst of this. Absolutely not. Now it is over to book 8, (there's no particular order, btw). It is a 2009... Continue Reading →
"Our Dumb Century" by the folks at The Onion is a staggering satirical achievement. Lots more to say, but this fits my current mood (see the Cher, incentive structures and our inevitable doom post etc)
(or should that be nihilogism of the decade?) There's this and this bit of an interview with the late Mark Fisher. "Now we are faced with nihiliberalism rather than neoliberalism. The phrases justifying neoliberalism are mechanistically repeated, but there’s no real conviction in it anymore." Hat-tip to @Dant_Lane for bringing this to my attention. Basically,... Continue Reading →
for the lead role in a cage. Yeah. Probably I did. Didn't you? Didn't we all? Or most of us at least. Somewhere between the Scylla of egomania/unfettered narcissism and the Charybdis of slave morality/abnegation for its own sake, lies... what exactly? Strutting and fretting our hour upon the burning platform, as we see our... Continue Reading →
Cher is on the CD in the lovely Arcadian café I am sitting in. “Do you believe?”, she is asking me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw And then she sings the magic words “I really don’t think you’re strong enough.” Too right, Ms Cher. Strength is the issue. Last night I had a zoom call with an academic who... Continue Reading →
Love this, but can see it would not be everyone's cup of tea huge slabs of exposition/back story, with only minimal dialogue every few pages. Central characters some will find irritating (various shades of privileged white men blah blah). And animals dying (usually but not exclusively of natural causes) to indicate that Things Are Wrong... Continue Reading →
I have seen it so often - a meeting that could ("should") be about "what can we DO" instead becomes a "the world is so unfair" kinda thing. Don't get me wrong, people need to be able to vent, to feel recognised, to have their anger and pain acknowledged. Trouble is, in the absence of... Continue Reading →
Oh, this is brilliant. You gotta read this. Naylor, inspired by of Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison, tells her tales with compassion, wisdom and an unflinching eye for human weakness, self-delusion and well, evil. The longest section is the first, about a woman called Mattie, who grew up in the Deep South and is... Continue Reading →
Presumably (I am not an historian of the period) when an escaped slave was recaptured they were punished publicly in horrific ways, with the intention of sending a message to anyone else who was contemplating a dash for freedom. Because, you know, you want to break their spirits, their minds... This comes to mind from... Continue Reading →
