Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person’s property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV (tr. Michael Simpson) [For World Water Day, 22nd March 2021] Without water, there would be no life. It’s true that certain creatures – the rotifers spring to mind – canContinue reading “On water”
Category Archives: Essay
On quantification
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”
On jobs
In an advanced industrial society it becomes almost impossible to seek, even to imagine, unemployment as a condition for autonomous, useful work. The infrastructure of society is arranged so that only the job gives access to the tools of production. Ivan Illich Once upon a time, nobody in the world had a job. Of course,Continue reading “On jobs”
On human exceptionalism
Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it. He even talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side. E F Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if PeopleContinue reading “On human exceptionalism”
On virtue
Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so. Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Amicitia To those of us of a certain age, it is surprising how popular the notion of virtue has become in recent years. Virtue used to be more or less synonymous with sexual continence, especially inContinue reading “On virtue”
On hatred
Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure; Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto xiii Hatred gets a very bad press, and on the whole deservedly so. It is often opposed to love, and given how depressing it would be to suppose love other thanContinue reading “On hatred”
On history
I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written. George Orwell, “England YourContinue reading “On history”
On quantification
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”
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”
The sound of falling leaves 