The Monday Mix (03/01/2021)
Hi friends,
I’m back after a brief hiatus during Christmas. I want to wish a happy new year to everyone as we start another rotation around the sun.
Christmas is one of the best times of the year as you can relax and unwind for a length of time that’s not possible during the remainder of the year. I’ve always wondered why there isn’t an equivalent celebration in summer when we could all do with a two-week break to enjoy the glorious weather.
Anyway, here’s what I want to share this week.
100 Ways To Improve Your Life
I enjoyed this article listing 100 small ways you can improve your life. These kinds of articles can be cliche and tired but there are some good suggestions. No one’s going to adopt all 100, but even if you take one or two onboard, that’s a good thing.
Is Qanon a game gone wrong?
Trump is no longer president but his influence lives on and it’s perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the madcap conspiracy theories of Qanon. It’s incredible that these posts on 4chan have inspired such a devout and cultlike following but that’s the world we live in today.
This video makes an interesting point. Could the whole thing be a game that’s got out of hand? It’s possible. If you’ve watched enough Adam Curtis documentaries, you’ll know that this has happened before in the pre-internet age with the Illuminati conspiracy. One which is still prominent today.
In our interconnected world, the propensity for conspiracies to go mainstream is greater than ever. If Qanon was a game, then it’s one that’s gone horribly wrong.
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or don’t watch the news, you’ll be aware of the Ghislaine Maxwell. She’s been convicted on five charges related to grooming and trafficking children. Most people know her as the girlfriend of Jeffery Epstein, but her backstory is interesting.
She’s the daughter of Robert Maxwell, who was a media baron in the UK. He died of mysterious circumstances in the early 90s and it was revealed soon after that he had embezzled £440m ($583m) from the pension pot of the Mirror Group, the company he owned, which published the British tabloid the Daily Mirror.
This profile is an enlightening look into the life of someone who had it all moneywise but lacked morals of any kind.
Book I’m reading - Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton
As someone who identifies as a social democrat, I’m not too familiar with Marx’s writings. This is something I’m trying to put right this year. Marx has many detractors but there’s no denying he’s one of the most influential writers in recent history. Whether he was right or not, as this book suggests, is debatable. But it’s an interesting counterpoint to the many criticisms of Marxism.
Quote I’m pondering: “Power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals.” – Robert Caro
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom