The Monday Mix (24/04/2023)
Hi friends,
Summer is not far away now and I can’t wait for the weather to get warmer and go and visit some new places. The problem with living in England is that the summer is short and you’re never guaranteed to get much of it. Other than that, it’s not a bad place to live, but it’s why we almost have an unhealthy obsession with the weather and going out into the sun.
Here’s what I want to share this week
On The Goop Cruise
This is a bonkers piece as a writer goes on a cruise hosted by Goop, the company founded by Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s a long read, so you’ll need at least 20 minutes to get through it all, but it’s worth it. The Goop brand is one I don’t understand and probably never will. But I didn’t realise they were offering cruises too, the further you get into the article, the crazier things get until you come to the bit, where some of the hosts on the cruise more or less out themselves as anti-vaxxers.
God In The Machine
With AI all the rage at the moment, this piece from 2017 about a lapsed Christian discovering transhumanism is fascinating. As the piece progresses, the author realises that transhumanism, a philosophy of merging ourselves with advanced technology advocated by a lot of atheists, actually has a lot of similarities with organised religion. I’m sceptical of transhumanism and feel it’s a bad idea that will entrench inequality as the rich will be able to do this first and essentially make themselves superhuman. The piece raises a lot of interesting questions and is worth reading if you want to know more about transhumanism.
Nazi Pieces of Work
A mindboggling article about the variety of people who collect Nazi memorabilia, and when I say people I mean men who lean right on the political spectrum. Being English, we studied the Nazis a lot in school, and I can’t fathom why anyone would want to buy pieces of memorabilia from such a hideous regime. One person ones Hitler’s bed and his girlfriend’s underpants, which is downright bizarre and creepy. It’s slightly worrying that there are a lot of rich people who are happy to collect this sort of stuff given the Nazis slaughtered millions of people simply because they were ideologically opposed to them.
Book I’m reading - The World For Sale by Javier Blas & Jack Farchy
Just started this interesting book about commodity traders and how they have more influence than we realise. The scale of the trading is incredible, which is well into the billions. One thought I already have from this book is how the oil, gas and coal traders are going to transition to a greener economy, or if they will thwart efforts to do so because there is so much money to be made from trading fossil fuels.
Quote I’m pondering: – “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” – Alan Watts
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom