Thomas Mann's phrase that 'everything is politics' seems undeniably true in our society in the second decade of the twenty first century. Online platforms, initially created for socialising with (and snooping on) friends old and new have become charged spaces where affinities and antagonisms feed the insatiable beast of constant controversy. The era of having…
When postmodernism was at the height of its powers many of us feared that a loss of meaning would lead to a loss of morality. We were wrong. Instead of morality entering terminal decline, the loss of absolutes has led to its simultaneous intensification and misdirection. Morality or, more properly, moralism, is enjoying a major…
Over the past two weeks I have been devoting time to thinking through some of the unexpected sources of stress in modern life, and resolving to put them in their place. Among the most surprising of these factors for me has been the influence of news media on my peace of mind and levels of…
The whole Brexit debacle is like living inside someone else’s bad dream, or being caught up in a friend’s domestic dispute with no power to influence the outcome or offer any mediation. Twitter is pulsating tonight with ire and fire, panic and platitudes, MPs grabbing the parliamentary mace and some momentary fame, with vitriol and…
