Counting is the religion of this generation. It is its hope and its salvation. Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography Industrial civilisation is in love with numbers. We have numbers on pretty much everything that can be quantified, and some things that arguably can’t. When someone wishes to assert incontrovertibly that X is the case, the magicContinue reading “On quantification”
Author Archives: thesoundoffallingleaves
On value, continued
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wilde (attributed) In last week’s post we distinguished value from price, but having determined what it isn’t we haven’t said what it actually is. In this essay I want to have a crack at doing that. The word value is prominent inContinue reading “On value, continued”
On value
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray Following on from last week’s discussion of wealth, I want to investigate the related notion of value. As Oscar Wilde pointed out, we often tend to conflate value and price, but these things are distinct in importantContinue reading “On value”
On wealth
There is no wealth but life. John Ruskin, Unto This Last I’m going to start an occasional series of essays enquiring into economics by examining the notion of wealth. Adam Smith himself defined economics as “the science of wealth” and his most famous book is entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theContinue reading “On wealth”
On slogans
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four The word slogan comes to us from Scottish Gaelic, and its original meaning was battle-cry. As such, its basic function is a declaration of group identity. The meaning of what is being yelled is less important than the fact that all ofContinue reading “On slogans”
On hope
Hope is being able to see the light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu The turn of the year is a season when people naturally turn their thoughts to the future, as well as looking back on the year just passed. (Hence the appropriateness of naming January for Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries.)Continue reading “On hope”
Predictions for 2021
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Yogi Berra It is the season for pundits everywhere to make predictions about the coming year, most of which will turn out to be complete bobbins. I hereby present to you five suggestions for things I think are likely to happen in 2021. It will beContinue reading “Predictions for 2021”
On festivity
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind” The day before this post was published, up here in the northern hemisphere we had the 2020 Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. At these latitudes, the day doesn’t get noticeably longer until December 25th, which notContinue reading “On festivity”
On food
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Before we start, I want to make one thing clear: this is not a post recommending that you should become vegan. I have no problem with people being vegan if that’s how they want to eat and they canContinue reading “On food”
On putting people into boxes
Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. President George W. Bush There is much talk nowadays about polarisation, in politics and in society more generally. This is often blamed on social media, and the algorithms that tend to show you more of the same rather than anything likely to challenge yourContinue reading “On putting people into boxes”
The sound of falling leaves 