This article provides a detailed critique of Enlightenment ideals, exploring their long-term impact on modern society. I think that the ‘enlightenment’ will ultimately be the greatest European contribution to the world. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be criticized. It seems that that no reasonable person can be against the ideals of the Enlightenment. The ...
Danny Sriskandarajah is the head of the New Economics Foundation (NEF). This was an organisation set up forty years ago to fight neoliberalism. Since that time neoliberalism has come to dominate the economic policies across the globe. The result has been to concentrate wealth in the hands of the wealthy. The challenge the Foundation faces ...
In John Berger Ways of Seeing, he explores how images shape our perception, influence advertising, and affect our personal and political views. This seminal work provides a deep dive into the power of visual culture and its impact on society. The Power of Images One of the things which we really should spend more time ...
Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party in the UK, and the next Prime Minister, likes to boast on social media that he has changed the Labour Party. This is a change which has seen him take the Labour Party further to the right than even Tony Blair, who won an equally resounding victory ...
At the start of the week the far-right in France seemed set to win the first round of the election called by Emanuel Macron after he suffered a shattering defeat in elections for the European Parliament last month. Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) have become the largest party in the Dutch parliament. ...
“Let’s be realistic. Let’s do the impossible!” The legacy of Che Guevara, a revolutionary icon, continues to resonate today. There was a time not so long ago when almost every student bedroom had a picture of Che Guevara on the wall. In death, the legacy of Che Guevara became the quintessential cultural icon with his ...
Most people have heard about the Silk Roads. This was a large network of trade routes which for hundreds of years connected the West of Europe with the East of Asia. The trade routes connected China with the Mediterranean and Africa and all the countries and regions between. For hundreds of years, the Silk Roads ...
This a book about South Africa. It follows through four decades of history as is the South Africa as seen from an Afrikaner family – albeit a dystopian Afrikaner family. Ma dies during the last days of apartheid, but before she does, she asks Pa to make a promise. The promise is that Salome, the ...
Imperial Island by Charlotte Lydia Riley sets out to be ‘a history of empire in modern Britain’, as its subtitle tells us. It follows the history of Britain from 1939 to the present day and tries to show how the British Empire is still at the core of what makes Britain tick. This is a ...
Paul Theroux is a well-travelled man. He has travelled to most places in the world and has written novels, short stories and travel writing reflecting his travels. He began his writing career as a novelist in the 1960s (Waldo) and since then has published 29 novels. Many of these successful, some of them turned into ...
