Expanding the Legacy
Tag: Society
6 Posts
UK Riots About More Than Just Immigration
About three quarters of Britons consider far-right extremism, racism, and religious polarisation serious issues. About half also believe that the UK is currently unsafe for muslims. However, the riots that shook the country last week do not at all represent the values espoused by Britons (73%). The rioters’ ways and means may be almost universally despised and rejected, that does not necessarily mean that most people feel safe and well in their green and pleasant land. Research by More in Common has found that popular opinion cannot be conveniently divided into opposing camps. The research group tries to map and understand the forces that undermine social cohesion and find common ground.
Irish Literary Iconoclast
Novelist Edna O’Brien famously defined her native Ireland as both “a state of mind and an actual country.” The writer, who passed away last Saturday aged 93, long sustained a troubled relationship with Ireland or rather the other way around. She bared the Irish mind to her readers and suffered for it. With courage and aplomb, she dissected and shone a light on social realities and mores ignored and suppressed for generations.
Russia: In Search of Lost Time
Before the shooting starts anew, let’s mention the war. Not the war we know, but the one that lives on in the often-indecipherable psyche of Russia, laced as it is with nostalgia and wounded pride. Widely recognised in the West as the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, Operation...
Chapter 68: Tales of Shopkeepers, Trolley Cops, and Bookshops
Thursday, October 29, 2020 – Shopkeepers in Wales have reported a disconcerting increase in the number of scarcely clad patrons visiting their premises, often sporting nothing more than underpants and a facemask. The quasi-streakers roaming the aisles of Welsh grocery stores and pharmacies are on a mission to highlight the...
S&M: When Adam Met Karl
Standing on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution which promises to fuse the physical, biological, and virtual (digital) worlds, the capitalism that Karl Marx dissected and analysed seems to be running out of steam – at least in its present form. Though corporate earnings reach into the stratosphere, Adam Smith had already observed in the eighteenth century that the ‘rate of profit is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin’.
Rich Man, Poor Man: A Clash Foretold
The embarrassment of riches is mostly lost on today’s billionaires. The phrase was originally coined by British historian Simon Schama to denote public morals in the 17th century Dutch Republic. While the rich were widely admired for their accomplishments, any public display of wealth met with sharp disapproval. This Calvinistic take on the behavioural responsibilities of the well-heeled has been replaced by shameless voyeurism in which the have-nots drown their own misery gaping at the profligate haves as they play with expensive toys and dwell in palatial mansions whilst showcasing both material excess and intellectual dearth.
