Given that the world is imperfect and can often seem drenched in suffering and disappointment it is hardly surprising that humans have invented utopias. Some of these are located on Earth at some distant place or some distant time. Others are located in the afterlife or some transcendental realm. The term ‘utopia’ was coined from the […]
A World Elsewhere by Bernard Levin Read More »
Anyone out there pretty much wedded to Enlightenment ideals? I hope so. Sadly, in recent decades these have come under attack from a whole slew of irrationalisms. Cults, quackery, gurus, hysterical panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo, pre-modernists and post-modernists, medieval theocrats and New Age mystics. They’re all here trying to drag us back
How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world by Francis Wheen Read More »
This is a hugely controversial thesis (1996) from Samuel P. Huntington. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington). His argument is that the fundamental source of conflict in the future will not primarily be ideological or economic but rather cultural. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future, he contends. Every fresh news story, particularly to do with
The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington Read More »
A nameless, burned man (the ‘English’ patient) lies in an upstairs room in an Italian villa towards the end of the Second World War. He is tended by a Canadian nurse, Hana. Through his flashback memories we learn of a passionate love affair, betrayal and tragedy in North Africa as the gigantic forces of conflict intersect with
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje Read More »
Nothing is more natural than to believe we have conscious control over our choices. Indeed most of social behaviour including the criminal justice system is predicated on that conviction. Harvard professor of psychology Daniel Wegner (d.2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Wegner and http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/) argues that our actions ‘happen to us’ rather than us being in control of them. Wegner is no
The Illusion of Conscious Will Read More »
“Try always,” says theworldly Cardinal Wolsey in Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s fictional portrait of Henry VIII’s turbulent court, “to find out what people wear under their clothes.” Katherine of Aragon, the queen who can’t produce an heir, wears a nun’s habit. Anne Boleyn, the tease eager to supplant her, won’t let the King know what
Written by a journalist Dreamland provides a fascinating cornucopia of facts and ideas about that part of our lives which occupies a third of our time – sleep. As entertaining as it is informative this is well worth devoting some of your other time. ISBN 978-0393080209
Christopher Brookmyre is frequently compared to Carl Hiasson, Florida’s merchant of the comic-crime caper. The back yard of Jack Parlabane is our own dear rain soaked West of Scotland. He’s an investigative journalist who is not averse to breaking the law for the sake of a good story, and has finally been hoisted on the
“With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill,” observed Rob Hall, the leader of a commercial expedition, on his eighth tour of Mount Everest. ”The trick is to get back down alive.” The particular descent ahead of those on the ”hill” on May 10, 1996, resulted in the greatest loss of life
