Category Archives: Philosophy & Ethics

THE REAL UNDESIRABLES ARE NOT ON THE STREETS

August 12, 2019 by Kenan Malik

As I am away for a couple of weeks, and posting little new material on Pandaemonium, I am taking the opportunity to publish some of those shorter pieces from my Observer column that I don’t normally post on Pandaemonium. This is a a short piece on homelessness and official attitudes and policies, first published on 7 July 2019. None are so blind as those who would blind others. Mark Field, the Foreign Office minister suspended for grabbing a protester by the throat, has, according to leaked […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: austerity, british politics, homelessness, london, mark field, rough sleeping

THE NECESSITY OF POETRY

August 10, 2019 by Kenan Malik

As I am away for a couple of weeks, and posting little new material on Pandaemonium, I am taking the opportunity to publish some of those shorter pieces from my Observer column that I don’t normally post on Pandaemonium. This is a a short piece on the need for poetry, first published on 12 May 2019, after the announcement of Simon Armitage as the new Poet Laureate. Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle That while you watched turned to pieces of snow Riding […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: george szirtes, howard nemerov, mean alexander, poetry, simon armitage

A TRIBUTE TO BRYAN MAGEE

August 5, 2019 by Kenan Malik

I am away for a couple of weeks, so am posting little new material on Pandaemonium. I am taking the opportunity to publish some of those shorter pieces from my Observer column that I don’t normally post on Pandaemonium. This is a. short tribute to Bryan Magee, published on 28 July 2019 under the headline ‘Bryan Magee, the man who loved to put big ideas on the small screen’. You can still watch them on YouTube. Two middle-aged white men (and the occasional woman) spending […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: bryan magee

THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF RACE AND CLASS

July 15, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on race and class in contemporary Britain, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the politics of human fossil finds.) It was published on 7 July 2019, under the headline ‘Working class versus minorities? That’s looking at it the wrong way’. Officials eyeing you with contempt. Police treating you as scum. A sense of being constantly watched and judged by professionals. Living in fear of benefit sanctions. A lack of community facilities. […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, ethnic pay gap, hostile environment, identity politics, migrants, minorities, precariat, race and class, runnymede trust, white working class, working class

SEEING WHAT WE WANT TO SEE

June 10, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on how we often interpret the news through the lens of what we want to see, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 9 June 2019, under the headline ‘Fake news will thrive as long we are happy to see only what we want to see’. If a gorilla walked right in front of your eyes, you wouldn’t miss it, would you? Actually, half the country probably would. In a classic 1999 experiment, psychologists Christopher Chabris and […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Photos, Race & Immigration • Tags: assisted dying, central park five, christopher chabris, daniel simons, ethics, euthanasia, fake news, invisible gorilla experiment, noa pothoven, racism, usa, when they see us, wilding

CAN WE ESCAPE SURVEILLANCE CULTURE?

May 20, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the rise of surveillance culture was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Brexit Party) It was published on 19 May 2019, under the headline ‘As surveillance culture grows, can we even hope to escape its reach?’ Sometimes, it is the very ordinariness of a scene that makes it terrifying. So it was with a clip from last week’s BBC documentary on facial recognition technology. It shows the Metropolitan police trialling a facial recognition […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: cctv cameras, china, facial recognition, police, privacy, smart cities, surveillance, surveillance culture

ON THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS

March 11, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the contemporary significance of Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘the right to have rights’, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the dispute at Parkfield Community School over teaching about gays.) It was published in the Observer, 10 March 2019, under the headline ‘Human rights mean nothing unless we defend real, threatened people’. ‘The right to have rights.’ It’s 70 years since the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined that luminous phrase in an essay in […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: citizenship, discrimination, hannah arendt, human agency, human rights, immigration, lida maxwell, refugees, right to have rights, rights, struggling

SHAMIMA BEGUM AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

February 18, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate over Shamima Begum, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the BBC’s attitude to abortion.) It was published in the Observer, 17 February 2019, under the headline ‘The possibility of redemption is central to a humane society’. How do you solve a problem like Shamima? In February 2015, 15-year-old east London schoolgirl Shamima Begum travelled to Syria with two friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, to join Islamic State. Last […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, War on terror • Tags: citizenship, ethics, islamic state, islamism, jihadi returnees, jihadism, moral responsibility, morality, sajid javid, shamima begum

LEONARDO’S ETHEREAL LINES

February 2, 2019 by Kenan Malik

It is in his drawings, even more than in his paintings, that you truly glimpse the greatness of Leonardo da Vinci. It’s in his drawings that you see the depth of his curiosity, the breadth of his imagination, and the heights of his technical accomplishments. His studies of human anatomy, in particular, still astound. What is particularly extraordinary is his ability to meld scientific precision with a sensuous imagination that makes you look at, and think about, the human body […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: art, leonardo da vinci

THE POLITICS OF THE SPACE RACE

January 7, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the politics of the space race from Sputnik to Chang’e-4, was the main article in my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 6 January 2019, under the headline ‘Power politics always drives space conquest. China’s coup is no different’. Nasa had rejected it as too difficult and costly an undertaking. Last week, China declared ‘mission accomplished’ after landing a spacecraft, Chang’e-4, on the far side of the moon. It was a remarkable endeavour. As the […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics, Science • Tags: chang'e-4, china, cold war, john f kennedy, moon landing, nasa, soviet union, space exploration, space race, sputnik, usa, yuri gagarin

WHO WILL GIVE SHAPE TO DISAFFECTION?

December 10, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the gilets jaunes protests, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on MSF being forced to end its rescue operations in the Mediterranean). It was published in the Observer, 9 December 2018, under the headline ‘A fear of cultural loss is fuelling anger with elites across Europe’. ‘Can we borrow him?’ Gary Lineker asked in April of the ‘charismatic, smart and ballsy’ Emmanuel Macron. The BBC presenter was far from alone in being […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: austerity, centrism, disaffection, emmanuel macron, far right, france, gilets jaunes, left, protests

A PLAYLIST FOR PETE SHELLEY

December 7, 2018 by Kenan Malik

What is it that links Big Mama Thornton’s ‘Hound dog’ to Sam Cooke’s ‘(What a) wonderful world’ to the Kinks’ ‘You really got me’ to the Supremes’ ‘You can’t hurry love’ to Toots and Maytal’s ‘Pressure drop’ to the Undertones’ ‘Teenage kicks’ to Prince’s ‘When doves cry’ to the Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn’t have)?’? It’s one of those strange questions that popped into my head this week after the death of Pete Shelley. Shelley was […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: buzzcocks, music, pete shelley, pop songs, punk

WHERE DOES THIS BULLY GET HIS IDEAS FROM?

December 3, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on an assault on a Syrian refugee schoolboy, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the CRISPR baby). It was published in the Observer, 2 December 2018, under the headline ‘I know all about being bullied by racists. That’s the Britain I grew up in’. I cannot recall ever being ‘waterboarded’. But nor can I recall many days when, as a schoolboy, I did not return home without a bruised lip […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, hostile environment, immigration, racism, racist attacks, refugees, social media, theresa may, tobias ellwood

ON THE ETHICS OF CRISPR

November 30, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Last week, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of the first CRISPR baby (actually, twins). Two beautiful little Chinese girls, Lulu and Nana, came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago’, He said in the first of five videos posted on to YouTube. He’s claim is as yet unverified, but if true, it would signal a landmark moment in human genome-editing. It has also been widely met with outrage and condemned […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science • Tags: bioethics, biotechnology, china, chinese science, crispr, ethics, gene editing, genetics, genome editing, germline editing, he jiankui

THE SCANDAL OF THE WORKING POOR

September 17, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the ‘working poor’, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on hypocrisy and the Church of England). It was published in the Observer, 16 September 2018, under the headline ‘Welfare was meant to help the poor, not subsidise exploitative employers’. It will mean fewer jobs. That was the chorus from many on the right, from Tej Parikh of the Institute of Directors to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, in response to […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: austerity, british politics, conservative party, gig economy, john mcdonnell, labour party, matthew desmoond, poverty, working poor