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Category Archives: Politics
From the new petty bourgeoisie to the PMC: a review of Dan Evans’ ‘A Nation of Shopkeepers’
According to Dan Evans, I am a member of an emergent social class he calls the new petty bourgeoisie. Evans’s thesis is that the new petty bourgeoisie has been the driving force in left politics and populism over the past … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Personal experience, Politics, Review
Tagged aspiration, Corbynism, Dan Evans, graduates, ideology, life, Marxism, Nation of Shopkeepers, petty bourgeoisie, PMC, proletariat, Review, self-employment, socialisation, socialism, University
1 Comment
North and South: 19th-century doorstopper still bears the heft it once did
As far as Victorian novels go, I think North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell retains a degree of accessibility that many have shed in the intervening 150 years or so. The North/South divide lives on in the popular consciousness where … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Review
Tagged 19th century, bourgeoisie, Britain, capitalism, Collateral, Condition of England, Elizabeth Gaskell, liberty, Literature, Marx, money, North and South, Review, strikes, Thornton, trade, trade unionism, Victorian, wages
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Scrooge the Affective Altruist: ‘A Christmas Carol’ reviewed
I have a complicated relationship with Charles Dickens. He is the epitome of the Author. He was hugely prolific, massively popular, and has had a profound cultural impact on how Britain sees itself. How is it possible, then, to dismiss … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Review
Tagged A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Adam Smith, altruism, Britain, Charles Dickens, Christmas, effective altruism, emotion, feeling, Hard Times, Literature, Man of Feeling, Marx, philosophy, Review, Scrooge, sentimentality, social justice, The Dark Knight Rises, trade unionism, UK, Victorian
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A Loving Economy: Alasdair Gray’s ‘Poor Things’
I postponed the boat Glasgowward to two-thirds through the month and made it up a tier from three to four without arrest, though I intelligently left a Kindle on the Megabus as evidence of my transit (recovered a week later … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Review
Tagged Alasdair Gray, D.H. Lawrence, economy, freedom, Glasgow, H.G. Wells, love, optimism, politics, Poor Things, postwar settlement, professionals, socialism, technology, Victorian, welfarism
2 Comments
Law and Theology: a review of Tom Holland’s ‘Dominion’
Law is like theology. It’s about interpretation, but at more than just a textual level. Theology is greater than mere wrangling over obscure or difficult passages in the Bible – it concerns the nature of their source and determining God’s … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Politics
Tagged Christianity, Dominion, Dresden, first cause, jurisprudence, Law, Otto Dix, positivism, the Church, theology, Tom Holland
2 Comments
The Last Laugh: Scotland’s 17th Century
Once again, I have been googling things like “graduate interview questions” and how to prepare for an interview in x sector. They haven’t changed much, but a refresher always helps. Some of the wildcard ones always amuse me, like “what … Continue reading
On Arendt
This June has felt remarkably like the last. A lot of doing not very much and feeling guilty, anxious and restless about that. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to jump start the car a couple of times and … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Politics
Tagged 1984, anti-Semitism, Burke, Frankfurter Schule, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Hitler, June 2020, Origins of Totalitarianism, St Magnus Way, Stalin
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Money is a Memory
Last night we were talking about the tin mine at Warbeth. That and the problem geology posed to religion in the 19th century. I thought I ought to have included the mining operation in my Bronze Age spiel for the … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Politics
Tagged Adam Smith, Africa, humanity, Karl Marx, life, money, philosophy, religion, science, Warbeth
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General Knowledge
It’s May. At the end of the month, we could be heading into phase one of lifting lockdown. Had it not been for Coronavirus, the tourist season would be ramping up in Orkney and I’d be fulltime Skara Brae. As … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Life, Personal experience, Politics
Tagged Americas, Charles Mann, general knowledge, Greece, history, life, lockdown, Rome, Shakespeare
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