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Author: Daniel D. Watkins

  • mortal thoughts

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    First published, 28th March 2020 One thing Steven Pinker succeeds in doing very well in his recent book on progressivism, Enlightenment Now is to explore and expose how effectively and efficiently human beings are so easily self-misleading and, in more recent times, willingly and wilfully ignorant of data and facts, even though these are more freely and…

  • the state we’re in

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    First published, 20th March 2020 Is there something rotten in the state of the state?  The Covid-19 ‘thing’ is possibly the biggest test of blind faith in the so-called social contract we, the present generations, have ever had to endure. It’s so significantly unsettling, to all but the most zealous doorstep applauding dupes, that a…

  • philosopher kings and collateral damage

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    First posted, 7th April 2021 Plato was probably a fool. The reason this is a fair assertion is because, unlike his mentor, he failed to understand that it is not the role of the philosopher to proselytise but to question. But that Plato was a fool is easier to accept if we are able to…

  • church of the minorities

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    First posted, 18th August 2023 There was this guy who came into my classroom at a school in Malaysia. He insisted that I should wear the house colours for the next inter-house competition. The students had to wear the purple and white harlequin polo shirts, so it was only right that the staff did too.…

  • owl and pussy

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    There were two things in Graham’s life: his guitar playing and his girlfriend’s plot. Maybe they were connected somehow.   Graham was an unusually talented guitar player. The fingers of his right hand performed their work on the strings as if they had a life of their own. The fingers of his left hand obediently…

  • krzysztof nietzsche-przybysz

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    Krzysztof Nietzsche-Przybysz sank tentatively into a chair that was a little low. Across the table sat Mr. Davis. Krysztof’s fairly new acquaintance glanced over his menu, before putting it down.  This evening, after work, Krzysztoff Nietzsche-Prybysz had come with an ardent desire to confide in Mr. Davis something that he felt was not just necessary…

  • the garden

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    Shortly after the funeral, Paul’s eldest sister, Mary, rang to say they were going down to the house, would he come? She spoke vaguely about some items in the will. Though Mary was distant and he wasn’t really listening, he answered vaguely that he would.  Their mother’s house was in Petersfield. She had moved there…

  • the worst thing

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    The worst thing in life is boredom. I had an English teacher who forbade the class from ever describing anything as being ‘boring’. The other terms forbidden by Mr Carlos were: ‘nice’ and ‘can’t’. He used the latter term a great deal, especially when telling us we couldn’t use the word ‘boring’ and even though,…

  • broken glass

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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    On a Wednesday afternoon in June 1967, my mother fell asleep on a sun lounger parked under the bone dry of a Californian cobalt heaven that domed over our back yard, vaulted over our rented house on Pasea Laredo, soared creaselessly over the neighbourhood of La Jolla, bowed over the vast Pacific, arched to Earth…

  • make believe

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    Daniel D. Watkins
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