The Monday Mix (13/02/2023)
Hi friends,
I’m sending this email out early today as I’m heading out to watch football and my team Liverpool play later. I think I’ve written this before but there’s something about live sport that’s compelling. A feeling that you’re part of something bigger than yourself. In today’s increasingly secular world, it does feel like sports are becoming more like a religion. Stadiums are the new churches and your team’s colours reflect your loyalties, much like whether you were Catholic, Protestant or Muslim in the past.
Of course, this isn’t true everywhere. Sectarianism still runs deep in Northern Ireland and the recent trouble in Israel and Palestine highlights that religion still has a large say in the affairs of the world. Yet, it doesn’t have the cultural resonance it used to. Will this change in the coming years and decades? I’m not sure, but I do feel that the popularity of sports such as football will only increase and in countries that are becoming less and less religious, these sports could fill the vacuum left by religion.
Iraq War Protest
The Iraq War is without a doubt the biggest geopolitical mistake the west has made since the millennium. The US and the UK toppled the dictator Sadaam Hussein, but it was a pyrrhic victory that unleashed forces they couldn’t contain and turned the country into an anarchic state which led to the rise of ISIS. The war also damaged the public’s trust in politicians in America and the UK, and it could be argued that Brexit and Trump would not have happened had Iraq not been invaded.
This article looks at the biggest protest in British history that took place before the war and asks whether it changed the world. While it didn’t change the thoughts of Bush or Blair, who were determined to invade no matter what, it did lead to more people taking an interest in politics which is no bad thing.
The Resurrection of Donald Trump
It’s amazing to think of Trump as irrelevant as great as that would be, but before the premiere of The Apprentice in 2004, he more or less was. This was the show that resurrected him as a national figure and eventually helped pave the way for him to reach the White House. What The Apprentice did was whitewash a failed businessman as an American success story. This article was written by the brilliant Patrick Radden Keefe is a fascinating, if worrying read that says a lot about the modern era where appearances are more important than the substance of someone’s character.
Rule By The People Is Better Than Rule By The Experts
What if society was ruled by experts? Instead of democracy where every citizen over 18 gets a say in the running of the country, we just leave it to the experts. Surely, they know best, right? This article suggests not, and so do decades of communism in eastern Europe, which was effectively ruled by self-declared experts. The issue with this idea is who decides who is an expert. Which expertise do we want to listen to and which do we want to ignore? Democracy may be messy and incoherent at times, but it’s superior to any other form of government we know as it preserves the dignity of its citizens.
Book I’m reading - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Reading another of Ishiguro’s novels and this one has me intrigued after the first 50 pages. The plot isn’t too clear yet, but I get the feeling as the book progresses that will be an interesting read. It feels similar to The Remains of The Day in this regard, as it took a while for the plot to fall into place with that one too.
Quote I’m pondering: – “Those who do not know must be taught, not punished. We do not hit the blind. We lead them by the hand.” – Pope Dionysus
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom