The Monday Mix (08/11/2021)
Hey friends,
I’m sending this out a bit late tonight, so I’ll get straight into what I want to share below,
Jürgen Klopp
Ok, so I’m biased regarding this as I’m a Liverpool fan, but Jürgen Klopp is not only a great manager but a great human being. I finished a book about him, which I’ll share below, and I feel compelled to share some of his best moments, so people who aren’t familiar with football can get a measure of the man.
In a time when leadership and figures we can look up to are in short supply, Klopp represents someone who has leadership by the bucketload and is a figure we can look up to. He’s funny, leads by example and has morals. I thought I’d share a video of some of his funniest moments from press conferences and interviews so you can see what I mean.
Football isn’t for everyone, I appreciate that. But as the author states in the final lines: ‘Jürgen Klopp isn’t just for Liverpool. He isn’t just for his adoring fans and the quote-hungry sports media either. He is for all of us.’
Is Violence declining?
I’ve mentioned before that I’m sceptical of Steven Pinker’s declaration that violence is on the decline. His book, Better Angels of Our Nature is one long tome to this belief. While it certainly looks that way, just because something has declined doesn’t mean it will continue to do so.
As the article makes clear, the same thing was said before the onset of the First World War in 1914, and then we had not one, but the two most destructive wars in human history within the space of thirty years. While history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme. Declaring violence is on the decline and could be gone is a fortuitous gamble that could end up backfiring on Pinker. Especially in todays’ tinderbox of geopolitics.
The Devastation of Whaling
This is an incredible article about a practice that doesn’t get as much press as it should. Whaling is a barbaric activity that butchers these majestic creatures and destroys ecosystems in the process.
Some of the statistics are shocking:
“In just six decades, roughly the life span of a blue whale, humans took the blue-whale population down from 360,000 to just 1,000. In one century, whalers killed at least 2 million baleen whales, which together weighed twice as much as all the wild mammals on Earth today.”
These numbers are ridiculous and bear testimony to how destructive a species we can be. What the article shows is that upsetting one link in the food chain can have devastating consequences for all those in the chain. It should make us pause and think of the damage that’s being inflicted on the planet.
We just contemplate that practices such as whaling make the extinction of marvellous species such as the Blue Whale more likely. Unfortunately, once they’re gone, they’re gone. And in an irony that’s typically human, it’s likely only then would we appreciate how incredible these animals truly are.
Book I’m reading - Klopp: My Liverpool Romance
This is the book I referred to above. It’s a short read, I read it in a day, but it’s a fun book. if you’re a football fan, and, even better, Liverpool fan, this book will be worth reading. Even if you’re not, you’re still likely to enjoy the book, as Klopp is a fantastic figure and one we need more of in public life.
Quote I’m pondering: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Søren Kierkegaard
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom