The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Americans want to believe jobs are the solution to poverty. They’re not. Matthew Desmond, New York Times, 11 September 2018 In America, if you work hard, you will succeed. So those who do not succeed have not worked hard. It’s an idea found deep in the marrow of the nation. William Byrd, an 18th-century […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Change the world, not yourself, or how Arendt called out Thoreau Katie Fitzpatrick, Aeon, 22 August 2018 It is not often that a neighbourhood squabble is remembered as a world-historical event. In the summer of 1846, Henry David Thoreau spent a single night in jail in Concord, Massachusetts after refusing to submit […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . The death of the public square Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 6 July 2018 At the time of Milton’s birth, in 1608, there wasn’t much of a public sphere in England. By the time he wrote Areopagitica, it was robust: coffee houses, newspapers, bookstores, theatres, and meeting places – the locales that allowed individuals […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . ‘It’s nothing like a broken leg’: why I’m done with the mental health conversation Hannah Jane Parkinson, Guardian, 30 June 2018 I will admit that I am not well. That writing this, right now, I am not well. This will colour the writing. But it is part of why I want to […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . No, it’s not a gig economy Doug Henwood, Jacobin, 8 June 2018 Despite the voluble testimony of pundits and bar companions, the world of work is not one of Uber drivers and temp workers. In fact, the share of US employment accounted for by contingent and ‘alternative’ arrangements is lower now than […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Centrists are the most hostile to democracy, not extremists David Adler, New York Times, 23 May 2018 The warning signs are flashing red: Democracy is under threat. Across Europe and North America, candidates are more authoritarian, party systems are more volatile, and citizens are more hostile to the norms and institutions of […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Novelist’s brilliance was to make America uncomfortable Jason Diamond, Rolling Stone, 23 May 2018 In a way, what the Marx Brothers and Mad magazine were to comedy or the Ramones were to rock music, Roth was for American literature. He was a sly smile and smartass remark aimed at the establishment, rather than a […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Why replacing politicians with experts is a reckless idea David Runciman, Guardian, 1 May 2018 Epistocracy remains the reckless idea. There are two dangers in particular. The first is that we set the bar too high in politics by insisting on looking for the best thing to do. Sometimes it is more […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . RSF Index 2018: Hatred of journalism threatens democracies Reporters Without Borders, April 2018 The climate of hatred is steadily more visible in the Index, which evaluates the level of press freedom in 180 countries each year. Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . The ISIS files Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 4 April 2018 The disheveled fighters who burst out of the desert more than three years ago founded a state that was acknowledged by no one except themselves. And yet for nearly three years, the Islamic State controlled a stretch of land that at […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . A brief history of Stephen Hawking: A legacy of paradox Stuart Clark, New Scientist, 14 March 2018 ‘I think most physicists would agree that Hawking’s greatest contribution is the prediction that black holes emit radiation,’ says Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. ‘While we still don’t have experimental […]

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The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Massacre in Myanmar Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo, Simon Lewis & Antoni Slodkowsk, Reuters, 8 February 2018 Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of Sept. 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist […]

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The latest  (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Buy banned books Bonny Brooks, Quilette, 30 January 2018 Of course, the woke among us will shrug and say that Laura Moriarity should check her (white) privilege. Alas, such people suffer from hubris and fail to realise that, in the end, this identity puritanism will come for everyone – yes, even black […]

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The latest  (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Am I a bad feminist? Margaret Atwood, Globe & Mail, 13 January 2018 It seems that I am a “Bad Feminist.” I can add that to the other things I’ve been accused of since 1972, such as climbing to fame up a pyramid of decapitated men’s heads (a leftie journal), of being […]

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As another year draws to a close, here are some of the highlights of a year of Pandaemonium in 2017. . Liberalism, populism and democracy In my first essay of the year, I wrote that ‘Democracy, on the surface at least, is in rude health. It is liberalism that is in trouble.’ I gave the keynote address at the 2017 Karlsruhe Dialogues on ‘The Pluralistic Society and its Enemies’. The subject of my talk was ‘Can Diversity Embrace Democracy? Can Democracy Acknowledge […]

Categories: Pandaemonium