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Category Archives: Financial Times
“The west needs a replacement for the warrior spirit”, Mark Mazower, FT Sept 7/8th 2013
Analagous to Zygmunt Bauman’s take in “Work, Consumerism and the New Poor” For a wider perspective on this, one could do worse than read Alfred de Vigny’s meditation The Warrior’s Life. First published in 1835, it is a classic … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Times
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FT on China Crisis (of the communist party)
I wonder how long it will be before some copyright lawyer from Pearson smacks me in the kisser with a “t’pau” letter. excerpts from “How long can the Communist party survive in China” Jamil Anderlini Financial Times magazine Sept 21/2 … Continue reading
Posted in economics, Financial Times, politics
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Young Turks, slut-shaming and the genie coming out of the bottle
[Update 9/6/13 – this, by a participant in the protests, is also v. useful. Hat-tip to Mrs T.] It’s kicking off everywhere, innit? Have read two fantastic articles about Istanbul/Turkey today. The first was in the Financial Times (which really … Continue reading
Posted in activism, Financial Times
Tagged I really must read Paul Mason, Istanbul, Turkey
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Boring for England…
On being boring Graham’s being boring was aggressive – it was a way of controlling, and excluding, others; a way of being seen, but not seeing. It also served another purpose. Especially in the context of his psychoanalysis, it protected … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, Financial Times
Tagged boredom, boring, psychoanalysisi
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Of Gods and monstrous supermarkets #Barthes #FT #HarryEyres #Fetishes
“I’ve always thought, and argued from time to time, that the appeal of supermarkets was largely mystical, or, in the sense used by Roland Barthes, mythological. The mystique or mythology is a combination of unlimited material abundance and modernity: these … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, death, economics, fear, Financial Times
Tagged Fetishism, Financial Times, Harry Eyres, supermarkets
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Epidemic of epidemiology required, or “Engel’s Condition of the protection of the Working Class in England 2013”
Matthew Engel writes (very well) for the Financial Times. In the edition of March 16/7th he has a piece on the idiotic vandalism that is the destruction of the Central Office of Information by this determined-to-destroy-the-idea-and-practice-of-collective-solutions-to-collective-problems “govern”ment of ours*. COI … Continue reading
Never let people who want power/think they deserve it actually HAVE power.
From the FT Can we have too much self-esteem? At worst, high self-esteem can turn into narcissism. Jean Twenge, one of the main researchers in the field, goes as far as talking of an epidemic of narcissism, in which people … Continue reading
Posted in activism, Financial Times, politics
Tagged Jean Twenge, narcissism, self-esteem
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“We’ll always have Paris…” – well, you can keep it…
When I moved [to Paris] in 2002, I rejected that view [that it was the world’s most unfriendly city]. I was determined to learn Parisian codes. I knew this city has a complex etiquette. I thought that once I’d learnt … Continue reading
From the Anals of Internal Medicine
On my first job, I met a surgical registrar whose mobile was full of photographs of items he’d extracted from patients. At the end of each operation he’d have himself photographed, posing like a proud father with whatever he’d retrieved: … Continue reading
Chomsky, the FT and new frugal Dwight
It had been going so well. I’d walked down the aisles of the supermarket with my new belt-tightening brain in gear. Past the empty calories of sugar. Past the booze (never – thank gaia – a need of mine). And … Continue reading
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