Category: Morality

Compassion and politics: a dangerous mix

Once, driving in a foreign land many years ago, I passed a person walking alone on a dark, unlit country road. As random, irrational violent thoughts cross all our minds from time to time, I had an unbidden image of attacking them. Instead of just dismissing the impulse through fear, anger or humour, as those… Continue reading Compassion and politics: a dangerous mix

An Extended Lexicon for the Moral Maze

In my previously published Lexicon for the Moral Maze, I set out a number of phrases commonly employed in what passes for contemporary moral debate and offered some assistance on how anyone starting to find themselves bewildered can unpack the jargon and glean an understanding of the protagonists’ real agenda. The debate has moved on… Continue reading An Extended Lexicon for the Moral Maze

What actually is ‘Community’?

Almost no pundit, politician or purveyor of good causes can today make their case without extolling its benefits for ‘the community’ or miscellaneous ‘communities’. The importance of community has become a touchstone of contemporary thinking, on both the political left and the right. It might be thought that what socialists and conservatives mean by community… Continue reading What actually is ‘Community’?

Individualism and Absolute Values: the Fundamentals of a Free Society

Since antiquity, and particularly after Plato, philosophers have pondered on the question of the absolute values, of truth, beauty and goodness. Now, just as then, there have been advocates of their status as real, as well as sceptics. The twentieth century was mostly a sceptical period, although I predict a revival of interest presently, given… Continue reading Individualism and Absolute Values: the Fundamentals of a Free Society

In a Global Village, Who Is My Neighbour?

Thus Spake Zarathustra https://www.deviantart.com/jacktrick/

One day an expert in critical theory and postmodern thought stood up to test Zarathustra’s credentials. “Teacher,” he asked, “how should I best demonstrate my virtue to the world?” “What is written about such matters?” came back the reply. “That I should publicly avow the truth of postmodern ideology that there is no such thing… Continue reading In a Global Village, Who Is My Neighbour?

The Tarantulas

http://drawingandcrafts.com/how-to-draw-a-tarantula-spider.html

Thus do I speak unto you in parable, ye who make the soul giddy, ye preachers of EQUALITY! Tarantulas are ye unto me, and secretly revengeful ones! But I will soon bring your hiding-places to the light: therefore do I laugh in your face my laughter of the height. Therefore do I tear at your… Continue reading The Tarantulas

Playing the game: sport and virtue

As I write this, England will or will not be on the way to the finals of the World Cup, and that matter, like the fate of Schrödinger’s cat, will have been settled by the time this article is posted. Although I played (badly) as a boy, I have assiduously avoided following football as it… Continue reading Playing the game: sport and virtue

Three views on privacy in the digital age, part 1: the value of the self

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. (Ayn Rand) In this essay I want to consider three interconnected ways in which we can view privacy: its meaning in organic society;… Continue reading Three views on privacy in the digital age, part 1: the value of the self

Has the postmodern revolution gone full circle?

Happily, the inconsistency and incoherence of the postmodernist perspective is increasingly being challenged by a new generation of thinkers from across the political spectrum. For example Ken Wilber in his Trump and a Post-Truth World notes how postmodernism has played itself out and in attempting to create a new basis for determining truth has ultimately undermined it.