britannia blues — on the legitimisation of bastards
First published, 9th May 2015Democracy is like all systems for power distribution in social groups in that it is a means that seeks to justify or, more importantly, legitimise the status of dominance in social hierarchy. Given that we are a social animal biologically hard-wired to behave always and ever like chickens, whenever two or…
nice thoughts; nasty schools
First published, 22nd February 2018It’s a common fact of human nature that what people decide is right depends almost entirely on whether they understand it. What is difficult, complex and detailed is, for the average person, wrong. Truth is simple; simplicity itself. However, the way in which people decide what is true and what to…
it’s a marlin, not a shark — on the anatomy of misreading The Old Man and the Sea
First published, 1st October 2018Hemingway’s swan song, The Old Man and the Sea, was more perfectly written than it has been read. I mean, it seems to me that those who have buzzed about it, like flies around some Faberjé egg, may have given the fable less thought than it deserves. The work is true to…
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