Journalist Paul Mason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mason_(journalist)#Books) has become familiar to us in recent months on TV news reports about the Greek debt crisis, and the possibility of Greece crashing out of the Eurozone. His open necked engaging style is delivered with a distinctive Lancashire accent. The author of four previous books on politics and economics, he now […]
Postcapitalism by Paul Mason Read More »
After the daily, and lengthy, reading from Scripture in her home in Lewis my Grandmother was in the habit of glancing at a framed photo permanently positioned on the mantlepiece. It was of her brother who had been killed in The First World War. As often as not she would mutter ‘Wars and rumours of wars, for
Violence by Richard Bessel Read More »
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species) fell like a nuclear weapon into Victorian consciousness. The implication for many thinking people was that the whole of the living world is engaged in a brutal, pitiless competition for survival. Worse than this realisation is that if Man is co-terminus with the natural world, then we
Does Altruism Exist by David Sloan Wilson Read More »
Have you ever been mildly irritated that there is a class of people in this country who simply can’t lose? More likely you’re boiling with rage at the fact. Casino Capitalists in the City of London can’t lose. When times are good they’re trousering fortunes. When times are bad, the tax payer bails them out.
The Establishment by Owen Jones Read More »
100,000 years ago, at least six species of humanoid inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Homo Sapiens. How did our species survive and prosper up to the position we hold today? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Read More »
This is one for those of you concerned with the environment. There is no doubt we are trashing our planet and that current levels of consumption are unsustainable. Alarm over the contribution of affluent lifestyles to global warming and environmental destruction is combining with growing disquiet over the damage affluence does to consumers themselves. Consumerism
The Politics and Pleasures of Consuming Differently by Kate Soper Read More »
If inequality doesn’t bother you a bit – turn away. If you believe it’s an obscenity that the rich can stash away £13 trillion in offshore investment accounts in order to avoid tax (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-22/news/32788549_1_tax-havens-tax-justice-network-investment-bank) whilst the poor are ground into the dust, made to work harder every day and have their income reduced – this
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty Read More »
Few works of economic and political analysis are worth reading 60 years after publication. The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955), by French intellectual Raymond Aron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Aron) is one of them. The author shows how noble ideas can slide into the tyranny of secular religion and emphasizes how political thought has the profound responsibility of telling the
The Opium of the Intellectuals by Raymond Aron Read More »
Journalist and polemicist Rod Liddle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Liddle) likes to ‘mix it up’. I heard about Selfish Whining Monkeys (2014) on Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ on Monday. It sounded enjoyably provocative. Here is the trade description: ‘With a sharp eye for the magnificently absurd, Rod Liddle sets light to modern-day Britain. In the western world, on
Selfish Whining Monkeys by Rod Liddle Read More »
