Viruses and vaccines are very much on our mind at the moment, and they stand in also as ready metaphors for social dangers and prophylactics. There may well be more to the analogy than convenient literary devices though. The similarities between biological entities and societies seen from a systemic perspective has intellectual respectability. In fact,… Continue reading On the Virtue of Conflict
Category: Philosophy
Personal Authority and the Social Contract in the ‘Crisis of Freedom’
The concept of freedom, which has held sway in the West for at least the past 250 years and been a feature, particularly in the English-speaking world, for much longer, is now under attack on multiple fronts.
The Quest for Social Justice?
The notion of “social justice” has been transformed and weaponised in recent years by proponents of applied postmodernism making use of a category mismatch between the political and moral realms. An understanding of their tactics and methods is needed to counteract the sleight-of-hand that is thus being deployed.
Understanding How Institutions Become Radicalised and What Can be Done
When societal peace is considered as the management of the precursors and preconditions of conflict – a more realistic proposition than being the absence of conflict – the vital role that social institutions play in its establishment and maintenance is obvious. From that perspective institutional stability and how conflict is managed within social institutions is… Continue reading Understanding How Institutions Become Radicalised and What Can be Done
The Culture Wars and the “Right to Offend”
We live in the era of the Culture Wars and identity politics, fuelled by the absence of objective standards of truth and evaluation. What can be done to address the problem and rebuild the foundations on which civilised debate can be conducted?
Do you have the right to be wrong? A defence of free inquiry
“If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.” (John Stuart Mill, ‘On Liberty’, 1859) “If you offered to let me off this time on condition I am not any longer to speak my mind… I should… Continue reading Do you have the right to be wrong? A defence of free inquiry
The spectre haunting the West: Marxism and the contagion of resentment
The spirit of resentment forms the dark heart of Marxism, its viral load, to pursue the analogy, and the dialectic its protective mechanism of transport. For Marxism to affect and infect its host, though, it must exploit its weaknesses. One vulnerability is clearly the existence of actual injustices in society, of which there is an endless supply. The other is the susceptibility of a proportion of the population with above average narcissistic tendencies. Though most people are narcissists to some degree, people with several traits associated with narcissistic personality disorder5 are highly susceptible to radical ideologies, not only leftist, but also far-right, Islamist, and animal rights and environmentalist extremism, for example.
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
Marriage in the Twenty First Century
In 2008 I authored a piece for an international organisation entitled ‘A Charter for Marriage: Reconsidering the Foundations of Marriage for Twenty First Century Secular and Multifaith Britain’. I saw it doing two things: first, finding a centre ground between the patriarchal cultures of Britain’s immigrant communities, who valued marriage as the centre of extended… Continue reading Marriage in the Twenty First Century
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