Able Archer 83 and the virtue of human decision making
Over the weekend I read Taylor Downing, 1983: the world at the brink. It gave me…
Borderlands of madness
Demi-fous. Mazeland. Dazeland. Driftland. Incipient lunatics. Hysterics. Neurotics. Carriers of latent brain disease. Neurasthenia. Sufferers of…
On the history and meaning of the eight hour day
The story I told in this article still has resonance for me. It was a story about how, even in the apparently material conditions that defined work and industrial conflict, the meaning of events were inseparable from the striving for recognition and the webs of significance that we, culture-making beings, weave through the time of our lives.
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…
culture / history / literature
Cultural collapse: Delhi 1857
“This whole city has become a desert.” Ghalib 1861 William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal: the Fall…
The reenchantment of the world
This morning I feel stuck for words. A heat wave has exhausted me, and the end…
Return of a King
Image credit: Elizabeth Butler, Remnants of an Army (1879) Tate Gallery I have finished reading William…
Sailing to Byzantium
Since I am on holidays from work, and not consumed with duties and obligations, I have…
Reflections on 2017: cultural decay and political institutions
In reviewing my notes for the year – diligently if effortlessly recorded in Evernote – I…
Reflections on 2017
The year is drawing to a close, and while it is yet weeks from New Year,…