Crack open for a hard boiled think
When economists seek to explain Brexit, Donald Trump and the rise of populism/nationalism, the concept they most often reach for is ‘globalisation’. Goods and services, it seems, can be produced almost anywhere on the planet and consumed anywhere else, rapidly. This has had profoundly dislocating effects on patterns of employment, income and population movement over […]
The Great Convergence by Richard Baldwin Read More »
Psychology professors Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski offer this look at how the knowledge of mortality drives human culture. The authors’ contention is that fear of death has been a primary driving force of human creativity. They began working together on the elaboration of what they now call ‘Terror Management Theory’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory) in
The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon et al Read More »
Midnight tonight (31 December 2016) will be one moment in the continuing flow of time, no different essentially from any other. Only because human societies are organised by collective effort, and require punctuation marks in their narratives, midnight will be made significant. The calendar will change to a new year. There will be fireworks, sentimentality,
Timekeepers by Simon Garfield Read More »
It has sometimes been noted that Lanark is a resolutely conservative place. Conservative with a small ‘c’, that is. There are few actual Tories, of course. Instead it is a small town working class conservatism whose rallying cry glories in the phrase ‘it’s aye been!!’. Well, it may have ‘aye been’, but originality is the lifeblood of
Originals by Adam Grant Read More »
Have you ever wondered why the rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer? Why is Lanark, like thousands of other towns, a shabby, forlorn place with rapidly deteriorating public services? The answers lie both far away and close at hand. Ultimately, it is due to the rapacious greed of the powerful, their lust for
Dark Money by Jane Mayer Read More »
A recent discussion on Radio 4’s “All in the Mind” programme concerned wisdom. Is wisdom a state of mind or a trait? The podcast is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083p88h. A central topic in philosophy and religion, obviously, there always seem to be new ‘takes’ on what actually constitutes wisdom. It reminded me what a rich vein of reading
Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett Read More »
For my money, June is the finest month. The promise of summer flames out, like shining from shook foil (thank you Gerard Manley Hopkins, (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44395) . Before 9.00 am, heat can stack up into a lazy stillness so that one can happily take morning coffee in the back garden. What mostly makes the month such a ravishing
Six Facets of Light by Ann Wroe Read More »
Artists, writers and musicians have often spoken about being inspired by a ‘muse’. Sometimes this is another human being who brings out something special in their creativity. Sometimes it feels like an invisible force which takes over them and creates through them. In Greek mythology, The Muses were goddesses of poetry, song, music and dance: what
The Naked Muse by Kelley Swain Read More »
An infant gurgling in its cot imagines that its nursery constitutes the whole world. The warm breast of its mother exists solely for its nurture. It takes a long series of painful adjustments to comprehend the immense scale of the world and diversity of other human beings, all with their individual motivations and interests which probably
The Age of Genius by Anthony Grayling Read More »
