Blog
That Death Star Scene
Three fugitives, one Wookiee and two droids run for their lives, Imperial stormtroopers in hot pursuit. Our heroes burst through a side door, blasters firing, but just as it seals,...
Ways of seeing
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. ~ John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1843...
We are all Smithians now
The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or at least to neglect, persons of poor and mean condition... is the great...
Time to face the music
David Frum, once the White House speechwriter who coined the phrase “axis of evil” in President Bush's 2022 State of the Union address, now warns of a different kind of...
Dress to protest
Historian Timothy Snyder tells us to get out in public—to show up, stand together, and reclaim our civic space. He’s right. Authoritarians thrive on isolation and silence; they want us...
Cometh torches & pitchforks
“To move forward, we debate, not demonize. We discuss, not destroy. But in this moment—this moment, this morning—our sacred rule of law is under attack.” — Scott Pelley, Wake Forest University...
"If you can survive, you can thrive"
Guest post by Laura Brink, Cape Town, South Africa As a student of poetry and literature, analysing symbols is native territory for me. In a world awash with symbols—many of...
Sumptuary Laws (Revisited)
Once upon a time, rulers passed sumptuary laws—laws of consumption—to keep society neatly stratified. Nobles wore ermine and cloth of gold; commoners wore wool in dull colours of toil. You...
Peak Kakistocracy
Kakistocracy — from the Greek kakistos (worst) + kratos (rule) — means government by the least qualified, least principled, and least fit to govern. The term first appeared in the...
Twinkle Twinkle Little Tsar
Vladimir Putin has made his ambition plain: to reconstitute Imperial Russia at any cost. On the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great’s birth, Putin compared himself to the tsar who...
Best Dressed Ponzi Scheme
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the €85 billion LVMH behemoth, has been called many things—“the wolf in cashmere,” “the tastemaker’s king,” “a genius of global luxury.” His rise to the top...
On Comeuppance
“He had it coming.” Writers across centuries have danced around a single, delicious idea: that the wicked—so certain of their invincibility—will one day get what they deserve. Their comeuppance. The word...
