And his first choice, Bowie’s “My Way” — i.e. Life on Mars. Though he came to self-awareness in the ’60s he preferred the harder-edged and more poetic ’70s. His one item: a lifetime’s supply of Marmite. Sound chap. ConservatismDavid BowieHistoryIsaiah Berlinjohn grayKirsty YoungLiberalismLibertarianismmarmitePolitical philosophyprogressstoicism
John Gray very warmly reviews Francis O’Gorman’s Forgetfulness: Making the Modern Culture of Amnesia. Trying to control culture from a rationalistic perspective is bound to frustrate: the upshot is that cultural marxists have to double down, manifest as even more authoritarian. Their whole project is akin to “pissing in the wind” but we pay a grim price…
Staying with the literature theme of a few days ago and earlier today, here is another write up on Jonathan Gottschall’s new book and an article by JG himself here and a related review article of another book by John Gray here. E. O. WilsonJonathan GottschallJonathan HaidtLiteratureNew AtheismSolzhenitsynStorytelling
Check out this scathing review published in The Chronicle of Higher Education (January 18th – Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 54, Issue 19, Page B5). Beyond any interest it may have to those who follow John Gray’s output, the review is salient to the recent “controversy” about philosophers being uncivil. My favourite line from the following review…
manwithoutqualities 