The Monday Mix (30/01/2023)
Hi friends,
Not much to report this week and as I’m late in sending this out I’ll get straight into what I want to share this week.
The Twilight of the British Union
Ever since the Brexit vote in 2016, I’ve felt the breakup of the United Kingdom was inevitable. Brexit was fundamentally an English nationalist project and was rejected by the Scots and Northern Irish. As someone who voted remain, Brexit has proven to be as bad as I feared. It offers little and has caused endless problems. This is an interesting article on the history of the UK, I was unaware one of the reasons it was founded was to subjugate Ireland, and I studied history at university! This shows just how little introspection there is in the education system in this country.
I think Scotland, and potentially a United Ireland, will have happened by the end of the decade. Far from leading to ‘sunlit uplands’, Brexit will lead to the disintegration of a country.
How one volcano could trigger world chaos
Soering article about how a volcano close to the Malacca Strait could cause chaos if it were to explode. I remember flying into Singapore twice on my way to Australia and then New Zealand. The sheer number of ships navigating the strait was incredible. They were everywhere! While it may not cause the global economy to ground to a halt, it would cause a lot of problems and just shows how dependent we are on nature despite how much we think we are above it.
The Forgotten Existentialist
I don’t know an awful lot about existentialism, so reading this article was eye-opening. I’m familiar with Sartre, de Bouvier and Camus, but had never heard of Karl Jaspers. Turns out he preceded all three of them. This article is heavy and I had to re-read passages a few times to understand everything. But it offers an insight into this interesting branch of philosophy and a lesser-known figure who had a big part to play in it!
Bok I’m reading - The Treeline by Ben Rawlence
One of the consequences of climate change that you think would be better for the planet is more trees. However, that’s the problem in this fascinating book. The treeline of the Boreal Forest has been moving closer and closer to the north pole over the past few decades. If it continues to do so this could have huge implications for our ability to mitigate the effects of climate change. It’s a thought-provoking book, to say the least!
Quote I’m pondering: – “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom