Pandaemonium

THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS ABOUT ROGER SCRUTON’S CONSERVATISM

January 20, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Roger Scruton and his social philosophy, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the conundrums of being a Liverpool supporter this season.) It was published on 19 January 2020, under the headline ‘The uncomfortable truths about Roger Scruton’s conservatism’. I first met Roger Scruton almost 20 years ago at a symposium in Sweden. I admired the eloquence with which he could talk about Kant and the elegance of his writing […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: conservatism, david goodhart, edmund burke, enoch powell, eric kaufmann, homosexuality, immigration, liberalism, prejudice, racism, roger scruton, salisbury review, social, trade unions, working class

DISASTER ALERT!

January 18, 2020 by Kenan Malik

Just a short note to say that I’ve had a meltdown on my email account. And in trying to sort it out, I’ve lost a number of recent emails. So, if you’ve emailed me over the past month or so, and not heard back, it may be that I no longer have your email. So, do try again. (It may be, of course, that I’ve just ignored you, but I’ll try not to do so the second time 😀) […]

Categories: Kenan Malik

INDIAN LESSONS FOR GLOBAL STRUGGLES

January 14, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the turmoil in India and its lessons for the rest of th world, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on conservative snowflakes.) It was published on 12 January 2020, under the headline ‘It’s tempting to see India as a place apart. But it offers lessons for us all’. It’s the ‘largest democracy in the world’. It’s also one of the most fragile, one in which dissent has often been curtailed and […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: bjp, citizenship amendment act, congress party, hindu nationalism, hinduvta, india, populism

20 BOOKS FOR 2020

January 11, 2020 by Kenan Malik

20 books due in 2020, both fiction and non-fiction, that I’m looking forward to. Not books that I have read, so not (yet, anyway) recommendations, but books I would like to read. There are a dozen more I might have included, and many more that I have missed, but this is a start. . William Gibson, Agency Viking, January From the grand-daddy of cyberpunk, a dystopian thriller set in an alternative present where Hillary Clinton is in the White House […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: 2020, books

WHITENESS, CLASS AND THE WHITE WORKING CLASS

January 6, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the controversy over the funding of scholarship for white working class boys, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece onthe happiness industry.) It was published on 5 January 2020, under the headline‘Bursaries don’t help when it’s not their colour that thwarts these boys’. There is a scene in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in which one of the central characters, Saladin, finds himself incarcerated in a detention centre for illegal immigrants. Saladin […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: british politics, education, race, racism, white identity, white privilege, white working class

IMMIGRATION AND THE LEFT – A DEBATE

January 5, 2020 by Kenan Malik

I have been involved in a long debate on Twitter with the writer and activist Thomas Fazi, which began with his critique of my article on social conservatism and the working class and ended as a debate about immigration and the left. The debate consisted of very long threads from both of us (the four threads amount to more than 5000 words!), and inevitably was Twitterish in form and tone, peevish and crabby at times, but it got to the […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: blue labour, identity politics, immigration, labour party, left, national identity, nationalism, racism, social conservatism, thomas fazi, working class

ON STORIES AND THEIR AMBIGUITIES

December 30, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on John Milton, Phillip Pullman and the ambiguities of stories, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on strikes in France.) It was published on 29 December 2019, under the headline ‘From Milton to Pullman, the quest for truth is riddled with ambiguity’. ‘A poem is not a lecture; a story is not an argument. The way poems and stories work on our minds is not by logic, but by their capacity to […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Human • Tags: areopagitica, blake, christianity, his dark materials, human nature, john milton, paradise lost, philip pullman, religion, the fall

A YEAR OF PANDAEMONIUM

December 28, 2019 by Kenan Malik

Another year of Pandaemonium, and three lists to finish off the year: the most read posts in 2019, the most read posts published in 2019 (because most of most-read posts from this year are actually from previous years) and my favourite posts of the year. My thanks to all readers of, and contributors to, Pandaemonium. And most especially to all the Patrons. And best wishes to all for 2020. . Most read posts in 2019 . 1 What’s the problem […]

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SOCIAL CONSERVATISM AND THE WORKING CLASS

December 23, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about social conservatism and the working class, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 152December 2019, under the headline ‘The idea that the British working class is socially conservative is a nonsense’. ‘It is easier for the right to move left on economics than it is for the left to move right on identity & culture.’ So tweeted politics professor and TV pundit Matthew Goodwin on the morning of the Tory election victory as […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: british politics, conservatives, grunwick strike, identity politics, immigration, labour party, left, liberalism, matthew goodwin, metropolitan liberals, social conservatism, trust, working class

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #65

December 21, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . India’s new citizenship act legalizes a Hindu nation Anil Varughese, The Conversation, 18 December 2019 India’s recently passed Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is a frontal assault on the idea of India as a secular, pluralist democracy. For the first time, legal sanction has been given to the recasting of India as a Hindu majoritarian […]

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TOO SCEPTICAL AND NOT SCEPTICAL ENOUGH

December 16, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the British election campaign and the relationship between politics, journalism and truth, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 15 December 2019, under the headline ‘The sick boy, the ‘punch’: the local can still capture the national picture’. In the maelstrom of debate about Boris Johnson’s victory, and amid the acrid ‘self-reflection’ now facing Labour, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the wider issues raised by the election campaign. One of the most important, […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: allison pearson, boris johnson, british politics, cynicism, fake news, general election 2019, jennifer williams, journalism, laura kuenssberg, leeds general infirmary, local newspapers, manchester evening news, media, robert peston, scepticism, truth, yorkshire evening post

INHUMANITY AND REDEMPTION

December 9, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about deradicalisation and redemption in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the shooting dead of rape suspects in India.) It was published on 8 December 2019, under the headline ‘Redemption defines a civilised society. We must not forsake the idea’. Can terrorists be deradicalised? Do all offenders, even those who commit the most abhorrent of crimes, deserve a second chance? […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: deradicalisation, healthy identity intervention, human nature, islamism, jack merritt, jihadism, joseph mccann, london, london bridge attack, radicalisation, redemption, saskia jones, terrorism, usman khan

A PRICE WORTH PAYING?

December 7, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This is a link to my talk on the cost of current immigration policy at the Brainwash Festival in Amsterdam. The talk was given on 26 October and broadcast on the Dutch channel NPO on 1 December.

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: amsterdam, brainwash festival, european union, fortress america, fortress europe, immigration policy, usa

AN OUTRAGE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME

December 2, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the EU’s outsourced migration controls as the new imperialism, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on easy answers in the wake of the London Bridge attack.) It was published on 1 December 2019, under the headline ‘When refugees in Libya are being starved, Europe’s plan is working’. A hospital that finds its patients so burdensome that it denies them medical care. A homeless hostel that turfs its residents out on the […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: africa, european union, immigration, immigration policy, janjaweed, khartoum process, libya, niger, refugees, sudan, unhcr

ON THE RIVER IN DHAKA

November 30, 2019 by Kenan Malik

These are photos from Sadarghat, the river port of Dhaka, which in many ways is a microcosm of the city itself – in-your-face, bursting with life, tumultuous and gritty, with people and goods and boats all on the move. There are huge multi-storeyed ferries, carrying both passengers and cargo, bound for destinations all over the country. The poorest passengers simply lay a mat on the lower deck; the upper decks have individual cabins for those who can afford it. In […]

Categories: International, Photos • Tags: bangladesh, dhaka, photography, sadarghat

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