Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know. By Mark Lilla Reviewed by John Banville This is at once a wise and wonderfully enjoyable book. Mark Lilla treats weighty matters with a light touch, in an elegant prose style that crackles with dry wit. Almost every one of the short sections into which the narrative is divided… Read More The enduring power of stupidity
Unintelligible as it is, new book is part of a ‘manifesting’ trend offering the young and spiritually lost an illusion of control Martha Gill What links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice, based on the magical belief that mental rituals can move the… Read More Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense
By Alfred McCoy / TomDispatch Some 15 years ago, on December 5, 2010, a historian writing for TomDispatch made a prediction that may yet prove prescient. Rejecting the consensus of that moment that U.S. global hegemony would persist to 2040 or 2050, he argued that “the demise of the United States as the global superpower could come… in 2025, just… Read More Requiem for an Empire
At a recent trip to Uzbekistan, I was expecting to be treated as a visitor from the country that we have been regularly informed during last 10 years, is the “vishwaguru”. Sanjiv Krishan Sood (Retired Additional Director General, BSF) Caveat: I risk confirming the status of an ‘anti-national’, given to me by many of my friends… Read More In the Land of the Vishwaguru, We Are Frogs in a Well
NB: The phrase above is the title of a paper by Professor Julia Annas, published in 2005. Reference details are available here: Wickedness as Psychological Breakdown; those interested may obtain the full text via institutional channels. I post it as the title for a few reflections on the tidal wave of revengeful mania sweeping through… Read More Wickedness as Psychological Breakdown
Trump’s lewdly playful face now fills our screens as Biden’s frail visage recedes. Not forever; there will always be a Jekyll impersonator in America’s political repertory Mukul Kesavan Donald Trump’s triumph doesn’t show us a ‘polarised’ America. This lazy metaphor for division obscures America’s shapeshifting oneness. When pundits pointed out that Trump’s success in 2016… Read More Exit Jekyll, enter Hyde: America isn’t polarised; Trump victory shows US is bipolar
Platforms come and go, but this feels different: the final death of the idea that social media could ever be the internet’s town square, a global meeting place for ideas that would broaden all our horizons. Now, the future of social media looks increasingly segregated for users’ safety, like rival fans at football. X for… Read More The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over
His self-defence on civil liberties was: ‘I gave so many people bail, from A to Z’, rather than the ‘law and process was applied consistently and fairly. Umar Khalid got the same consideration as Arnab Goswami’ Supreme Court justices demitting office are often subject to a legal scorecard. Assessments go through their rulings and catalogue… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: D. Y. Chandrachud, a Chief Justice of his time
NB: Simply stated, the rulers of the ‘civilized’ Western powers and their Israeli proxy are genocidal butchers. For the victims of their slaughter, there’s no difference between various political factions. The funny thing is, they don’t even realize how racist they are. The Biden Administration has presided over the cold blooded murder of over fifty… Read More Israeli Forces Kill 78 More Palestinians in Gaza Over 48 Hours / The Great American Delusion
The answer lies in Germany’s history – but it is not, as many assume tied to efforts to atone for the Nazi Holocaust and ensure that it never happens again… Germany was never fully de-Nazified. It never attempted to come to terms with the politics that had led to the rise of Hitler. Tony Greenstein… Read More Why is Germany supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
