Most research done by the public these days is a matter of reading one or two articles or watching one or two videos they find. They don’t do much more research on those writing or talking than reading the cv on the site. They don’t then write to a leading academic in the field to…
Month: September 2024
Sadness
I have been thinking these past few minutes about the deaths of the beings I loved. It began with the pain my last dog was in when she died but then I thought of how lonely one of my dogs must have been who died in a cage in the vet waiting to be seen…
Changing Times
When I had my interview for university I was asked in my recent reading what surprised me most. When I answered I was asked what I thought about the fact that other writers took a contrary view of what had surprised me and I said I thought there might be and if I were to…
Weather
The Hurricane presently hitting the USA leaving people without power, killing at least 3 in Atlanta and surprisingly responders being killed, and leaving a huge amount of debris across its path makes one wonder. If this most advanced country is so adversely affected for 6 million people at one time, what is going to happen…
Beyond Paradise
Had a boring if fun day yesterday filing in Charlestown for Beyond Paradise. Watching at the London execs who write these scrips had people putting racing boats out to see stern first. Reminded me of the story I was told when they asked the casting agencies for [people to be the crowd at a fisherman’s…
Caricatures
There is a growing tradition fostered by Facebook and Instagram and other image-rich media outlets, to sum up complex an difficult situations with simplistic images that, if they were in words, would be a falsehood. The one I saw today was of a soldier, presumably Israeli, point his gun directly at a child’s head. In…
Balancing Power
It is a truism that in democracy no one wields power without a vote (leaving aside election fraud for a moment) and in the capitalist system no international conglomerate gets to be such without us all buying their goods. The theorist tell us that we all give a little of our power away to be…
TGhe Horns of War
On April 16th 1939 one of the preserved battle horns of Tutankhamun was broadcast being blown on BBC radio. The story goes there were three such horns, made of wood, silver and gold and when they opened the tomb Carter was so thrilled to see everything he just picked up the wooden one and blew…
Political Kickbacks
The last person we know of to leave political power no richer than when he came into his office was, as far as I know, Thomas More. The man who gave back gifts when he realised they were not gifts but bribes. Famously written about by Robert Bolt in a Man for All Seasons Henry…
Spinoza
I was browsing Blackwell’s bookshop when I was student (one of many times) and found a small paperback volume An Introduction to Spinoza by Stuart Hampshire. I had been wondering why Spinoza was not on the history of philosophy syllabus so I bought it and read it in one sitting. I certainly had my answer…