Posted in amerika, belief, christianity, cliques, enmity, establishment, friends, geography, here, location, love, metaphor, organisations, people, politics, pragmatism, race, responsibility, society, understanding on June 1st, 2010 1 Comment »
My country has no flag. Its has no national anthem, although some of its citizens are partial to folk music and Morris dancing. No seething, populous crowds cheer my country on, with loud or incoherent cries in the street. Its citizens do not rally round meaningless symbols and engineer fake outrage at nonexistent bans, nor [...]
Posted in belief, body, class_warfare, cliques, diary, election, enmity, entertainment, establishment, experience, fatigue, housing, lies, opinion, people, person, philosophy, politics, pragmatism, responsibility, society, understanding on May 10th, 2010 2 Comments »
The dust has yet to settle; yet any election blogpost is already out of date. Other more savvy political commentators than me (and probably ones with more time on their hands) like Obsolete and Anton Vowl have already digested much of the results and have largely pre-empted much of the points I might make.
When I [...]
Posted in climate, cliques, consumption, crime, education, enmity, environment, location, people, politics, pragmatism, research, responsibility, society, truth, understanding on December 31st, 2009 2 Comments »
Christmastime and Christmastide wait for no man, and there’s been plenty to prevent me from following up on my doom-laden thoughts about COP15 and what might happen if it failed: which it did. Before 2009 draws entirely to a close it’s probably worth a few brief words on the subject.
It’s important to acknowledge from the [...]
Posted in climate, education, environment, far_right, language, location, morality, opinion, person, philosophy, politics, pragmatism, rants, research, semantics, society, technology, truth, understanding on December 6th, 2009 No Comments »
I admire skepticism. Being cool-headed about empirical situations helps you make informed conclusions, and hence decisions, even as you might labour under the pressure of those situations.
Science constitutes formalized skepticism: strictly so in its theoretical, dehumanized sense; more approximately so in the way that scientists as a whole practice their craft. But science’s skepticism is [...]
Guantanemo Bay is scheduled for closure and aid is being distributed where it does most good rather than by the extent to which it conforms to an ideology. But let’s not forget that, although Obama is now president of the United States, the president of the United States remains president of the United States.
It’ll [...]
Posted in aeroplanes, climate, cliques, commerce, consumption, crime, environment, far_right, industry, lies, location, people, politics, pragmatism, responsibility, right, scams, society, transport, understanding on October 27th, 2008 2 Comments »
… otherwise I can’t understand why he would want their finances, their homes and their very way of live ruined by runaway climate change in the near future.
I’ve met a few people who, despite being reasonably aware of (and fairly comfortable with) the notion of social responsibility and responsibility towards others, still voted for Boris [...]
Posted in articles, class_warfare, cliques, columnists, commerce, cultural, journalism, media, opinion, politics, pragmatism, review, society on July 29th, 2008 4 Comments »
I’ve tried to think of ways of explaining why the LRB is such a fantastic publication, and why everyone who counts themselves a reasonable, informed human being ought to subscribe to it (much as they should also pay at least some attention to Private Eye), and promise never, ever to read such smugly Radio-4 quasi-debating [...]
Posted in belief, christianity, comparative_religion, cultural, dickheads, education, emotions, establishment, fear, lectures, lies, love, opinion, people, person, politics, pragmatism, rants, responsibility, society, truth, understanding on February 11th, 2008 1 Comment »
Current affairs abound in dichotomies, real and imagined. The past few days have taught me that right this news-second there are two people in this great nation of ours: those who are in an almighty froth over Rowan Williams’ recent speech, and those who have actually read it.
… The secular lawyer needs to know where [...]
Posted in climate, correspondence, environment, industry, journalism, location, lrb_letters, media, opinion, philosophy, politics, pragmatism, society, truth, understanding on May 6th, 2007 No Comments »
(Letter to the LRB, sent 24 April 2007, unpublished)
Dear Ms Wilmers,
Re: Letters, LRB 29/8 (26 April 2007)
In an attempt to play down the global scientific consensus on climate change, Louis Harovitz employs philosophy of science with cavalier disingenuousness. If one cannot disprove a criminal case in which one has an interest, one might refer airily [...]
Posted in climate, commerce, consumers, crime, efficiency, experience, inspiration, location, loyalty, pragmatism, responsibility, scams, society, technology on January 8th, 2007 5 Comments »
Dear Jeff Bezos,
Why what you and your company are doing has finally become unacceptable
I’m a pragmatist when it comes to economics. A purist in my politics, I nonetheless see that all commerce is to some extent tainted by people being shitheads. Besides, the markets eventually bury anyone guilty of gross stupidity or overweening hubris. With [...]
