What I am reading… Weber’s iron cage and prophecy of cultural demise
Two passages from Max Weber’s The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism: “The Puritan wanted…
Could the culture wars descend into civil wars?
Over at the online magazine Quilette, a Shakespeare scholar at a minor English university, Neerna Parvini,…
Poem: Gould’s humming
One of the most mesmerising artworks that I know of is Glenn Gould’s 1981 recording of the…
The Abyss and cultural rebirth
“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where…
Another project of mine
As well as reading literature and history, writing poetry, prose and this blog, I also play…
Reflections on the emergence of Jordan B Peterson
#1 – One recent Jordan B Peterson podcast is his appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival….
The tragedy of the modern university
Jordan Peterson has proposed the creation of an alternative to the modern university that offers free…
Renovating the Burning Archive
I have spent the morning renovating the Burning Archive. A new theme changes the look and…
The collapsing new buildings of government
“In truth, the problem of declining trust in political institutions, is better conceived as the collapse of authority of the…
Cultural fragmentation and the collapse of authority in Western democracies
During the week I was discussing with a young colleague at work the preparation of a…