Author: KB
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Does Anyone Believe in #Predestination Anymore? | Open/Closed Humans
I’ve been reading Richard Sennett’s excellent book The Craftsman – which I highly recommend to anyone interested in ideas of technology, creativity (a word he hates, for good reason) and work. It is not a book about woodwork or William Morris. Rather, he takes a broad look at what it means to work in an engaged…
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#Outrospection | The Art of Living | Radical Social Change
One of the nice things I’m involved in is helping put together the Greenbelt talks programme, which means I’m always on the look out for good thinkers with good things to say. Last year I came across an organisation called The School of Life, which aims to help people engage in practical philosophy and playful…
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Nick Griffin and the #BNP | The Dangerous Fraction of Truth
Despite Nick Griffin making an ass of himself on television last week, fascist and extremist parties never talk complete nonsense. There is always a dangerous fraction of truth within their rhetoric – a miniscule grain upon which they then build racist and mindless policies. Unless serious politicians are willing to admit these small fractions of…
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Laws and Packaging | A Stranger Reflects on American Life 3
[ Laws and Packaging 1 ] [ Laws and Packaging 2 ] I the previous two posts I’ve been trying to set out something of what it feels like being a stranger in the US. The stranger is at the boundary – neither fully in nor fully out – and can thus help those who…
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Laws and Packaging | A Stranger Reflects on American Life 2
[ Laws and Packaging 1 ] I am a stranger in the US. But, as Georg Simmell says, perhaps strangers can offer insights that natives can’t see. Not that these things aren’t also problems in the UK. But that’s for some other stranger to point out. The first thing that’s hit me each time I’ve…
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Laws and Packaging | A Stranger Reflects on American Life 1
I’ve been in New York a few days now, and part of me feels it’s too short a time to make any sense of what I’m seeing, too soon to have any valid critique. But then I read Georg Simmell, who notes that the stranger in our midst is important because they ‘hold up a…