In the crude Manichean world view that has come to characterise political discourse today, you are either a skiver or a striver, someone who contributes to society or is parasitic on it. All parties claim to speak for “hard-working families”, the only people whose interests need defending.
ReadSomething has changed and that appears to be an increased desire to choose what is best for ourselves with scant regard for what is best for the wider community as a whole. And this seems equally true of too many left-leaning middle class parents who join the chorus decrying selfish individualism and advocating collective solidarity, even while taking off on their mid-term holiday.
ReadSimply accepting that there are no ultimate grounds for anything looks like a cop-out. Surely, we must have some good reason to trust the firmness of the ground on which we stand, intellectually?
ReadVIDEO – THE LAUGHING PHILOSOPHER. Does comedy hold the key to truth and morality? Julian Baggini, Katy Brand, John Ó Maoilearca.[…]
ReadWhen asking whether inequality is unfair, we have perhaps too often made the mistake of asking whether it is unfair in and of itself. A better question is to ask whether the inequality we see is the inevitable result of a fair economic and political system. The answer to that appears to be no. But even if it were, we have more good reasons than ever to see rising inequality as representing a grave threat to our health and to the legitimacy of capitalist democracies.
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