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Monthly Archives: December 2008
The FT, the Guardian and Deep Throat
In his obit of Mark Felt, FT 20th December, Jurek Martin concludes with this: “He escaped implication in Watergate for years but Mr Felt did encounter legal problems of his own. After leaving the agency which he joined in 1942, … Continue reading
bait and switch, feet of clay…
Here’s a blog posting that never got beyond scribbles on a (now unearthed) bit of paper. Back in August I did a workshop on “growth economics as a suicide machine” at a festival. And although it was not bad, it … Continue reading
Fiction to read in 2009. Still no women…
The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth The Man without Qualities by Robert Musil Trance by Christopher Sorrentino Sidetracked by Henning Mankell Decision before Dawn by George Howe
Non-fiction books to be read and reviewed in ’09
OK, here in no particular order are the non-fiction books I am definitely going to read and review in 2009. Crushingly white, and 28 out of 29 are by men. That’s kind of appalling… Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel GilbertElectric … Continue reading
Posted in reading list
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Nobody knows anything (much)
Way back when I was young, shortly after the invention of the printing press, a book appeared by Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, Marathon Man, Misery etc). It was called “Adventures in … Continue reading
Humans as nonviable organism? Chomsky
QUESTION: Right. Can I ask you about your position on the possibility of ecological constraints on the realisation of human needs? Do you think — even if there were the political will to achieve it — that it might be … Continue reading
It’s human nature- the FT and the Conservatives
We live- so the advertising slogan tells us- in financial times. We also live, especially since credit started crunching, in very interesting times. The FT correspondents and pundits have been puzzling out loud this last year or so about all … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Times
Tagged conservatism, Human Nature, Noam Chomsky, Tannhauser Gate
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"But people die in Nursing Homes"
My best mate, “Dr Dave” was down for a visit. Somewhere in the haze of curry, porter and Aliens (the movie that is), we got to talking about death and euthanasia and all that stuff. Inspired by the recent documentary … Continue reading
Go with the Flow
I often think of states not just as having a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, but also as being obsessed with regulating/encouraging free flows (e.g mercantilism to neoliberalism) of capital. Of course, they’re less keen on the free … Continue reading
Posted in politics
Tagged Csikszentmihalyi, flow, habitus, Norbert Elias, praktisch, traffic lights
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