Naimisha Forest
Kissinger on Trump and 'The Cunning of Reason'
The Financial Times has a diverting weekly feature - "Lunch with the FT" - in which its correspondents interview some notable person over lunch. You get the human to-and-fro of a sometimes revealing conversation between two individuals. You get appreciative comments about the attractive and vivacious maitre d', the bottle of . . .
Posted in: diplomacynation statetrumphistoricismglobalismglobalizationchinamarxhegelphilosophical history
“My folks sell me and yo folks buy me”
Kanye West, “Barracoon” and some history of African slavery
Do you recollect the uproar caused by the musician Kanye West a couple of months ago when he said the ancestors of today’s African-Americans “chose” to remain in slavery? Arguments bounced around the word “choice.” What choices did slaves have? What choices do African-Americans have today? One point . . .
Trade Wars and the "Trump Shock"
In which I praise the scientific integrity of Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman has another very good recent New York Times post on the likely outcomes of a trade war: Thinking About a Trade War (Very Wonkish). Let me qualify. The first five paragraphs are one more tiresome expression of Krugman's political animus against the Trump administration, plus speculation about U.S. and foreign politics . . .
Trade war won't cause recession says Paul Krugman
Yahoo Finance's Dion Rabouin wonders Why Trump's trade war hasn't tanked the market or the economy yet:
Business sentiment has been shaken by U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with China, the European Union and other countries, financial analysts say. But some are wondering why the impact hasn’t shown up in . . .
Searching for Tom Wolfe
Thinking about the writer Tom Wolfe, who died on May 14, I searched for his name across all my e-books. Up popped some thirty-six, leaving aside Wolfe's own novels and essays, containing a total of 151 references. An interesting fact of probably no relevance, the references were apparently distributed according to some power law. (See . . .
Posted in: evolutionary psychologyfilmcharles dickenscultureessaysfictionstylenew journalismtom wolfe
"The man has stopped being afraid"
Iranian sports fans chant anti-regime slogans at a football game on April 27, at the Aryamehr (Azadi) stadium in Tehran: "Reza Shah, Rest in Peace!"
The journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski thought he had identified the precise psychological moment when the 1979 Iranian revolution against Mohammad Reza Shah began:
"The policeman shouts . . .
Posted in: sportsiranrevolutionnationalism
Scenes from two weddings
England and India
The first wedding was in England, at an 18th-century country house, set in an estate of some hundreds of acres of parkland and farms. No, I hadn’t been invited there by that dignified nobleman the Duke of Omnium. Many such places now run from a spreadsheet, restored and rented out by the day for middle-class weddings, anniversary . . .
Posted in: ethnicitybritainimmigrationnationeuropeindiaruralurbanidentity politicsmulticulturalismmarriagecastegenetics
Cover image credit: http://Pinterest
