Steve Jobs - The Philosophy,
Psychology & Legacy of this Extraordinary Man (philosophical)
Remember the Heineken slogan: "Reaches the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach"? Well
this article reaches parts of the mind other articles about
Steve Jobs cannot reach. It knocks people's socks off in a
nice way, waking them up out of their dull woolly sleep and wetting their
appetite for philosophy. It covers key ideas such as Forms, Idealism, Virtue,
Expertise whilst talking about simple real world examples, thus lubricating the
brain cells in a subtle background way. I
think this article is especially good for academics, it doesn't take them too far out of
their comfort zone and it gives them some facts to chew on - but at the same time
they will probably feel, for the first time in their life, as if they are
actually using their minds. That's the whole point of Ancient Greek philosophy- to
wake you up - to free you from the deathlike zombie trance you are in - to let
you experience consciousness for the first time in your life.
European Crisis - Blending
short term and long term vision at the People's Daily
European Crisis
- The fallacy of free money, Western and Eastern Socioeconomic Targets
I have written dozens of articles about the Eurozone crisis, here are a couple
of recent
ones. What I try to do is come at the problem from a philosophical point of view,
to mix a little real world dirt in with the light in order to avoid blinding
people. You don't need to be an expert in finance to read these articles, all
my stuff about the Eurozone revolves around "justice" or "psychology" rather than
science. I want
to teach people to cast off the emotive shackles that are keeping them locked
inside the box, to tighten up their minds, to move past muddle headed relativism, to think about idealism and virtue and ethics.
Letter to Samuel Brittan, help promote new economic
models!
Letter to Iannis Mourmouras,
help save the Greek economy!
Letter to the Financial Times, please help to save the UK!
Examples of my so far fruitless campaign to keep the ship from
foundering on the rocks!
Post Capitalist Economic Theory - How to build
an Expert Economy in Europe
Reforming Capitalism:
Rent Seeking, Laissez-Faire, State Capitalism
China Must Not Embrace Consumerism - There is
another way!
Examples of articles about building an elitist expertise based utopia full of
high efficiency state owned enterprise instead of our ugly mindless post-modern
nihilist populist liberal capitalistic society.
Lessons of 2011, future of 2012,
Year of The Dragon
A couple of articles about the new year.
Scientific Development Concept (Chinese Political Philosophy)
I wrote this essay a long time ago, but it's still got lots of very valuable
ideas about "technocracy" in it, and it's an excellent intelligence test to see
whether or not your mind is working properly. Mathematicians, scientists and
engineers typically love this essay, they call it an "incredibly good read", but Dionysians
struggle. I am afraid that
almost the entire world's "elite" are intellectually unfit, China and Singapore
are probably the only countries in the world ruled by people smart enough to
grasp this writing. Journalists, liberal artists and lawyers simply aren't
trained in abstract thinking, they
consequently can't let go of themselves and explore ideas, nor are they
moved by contradictions because they have spent their life playing the dark arts
where arguments are tricks and one just relies on what one feels. For example,
show a physicist a verified example of particles going faster than the speed of
light and he is blown away, but show a journalist that democracy is failing and
he starts squawking like a bird in the sky about parallel examples. They don't
lean by "what is not" falsification which is the way we scientists and
philosophers like to be taught, but rather by falling in love with someone and
absorbing their ideas. So I guess you need to teach them that the house they
love is ugly and useless, and you have to take them to your house and walk them
round and show how it touches them in all the right ways. Alas I have been on
the road for so long, I am so old and cranky, and I haven't mastered the
art of reaching Dionysians, and that makes me a philosopher not a statesman -
and because I keep trying it's killing me.
Not the End
Of History? Democracy vs Authoritarianism (philosophy)
A short introduction to the critical arguments - far from perfect but
interesting I think.
Ideological Endpoint - Power Corrupts - Individual Rights vs Collective Good
Plato's Gorgias and Modern
Journalism (philosophical)
Plato's Gorgias is one of his most exciting dialogues. It's features Socrates
tearing some Dionysian "orators" to shreds, and it describes Pericles as a
failure who turned the Athenians into "cowardly, chattering, money grubbers".
See how the decline of Athenian society relates to the loss of shame, gradually
turning the urbane liberal atheist elite into violent psychopathic zombies.
The
Credit Crisis, Socialism and Democracy (geopolitics)
An old article:
With invisible hand and efficient markets in trouble does that mean socialism is
back in fashion? No, the problems of capitalism do not bring us back to
socialism, they point in yet another direction. The socialists denounced the
capitalists as inhumane, but the capitalists proved that socialist equality is
inefficient. Now the utilitarians are proving that the individual liberties of
capitalism are inefficient.
The Greek Crisis - Silver Lining? (geopolitics)
An old article:
Written before the Greek rescue took place, this article analyses Merkel's
choices. I talk about the need to suspend democracy and impose technocracy in
Greece, years ago that was a controversial point of view, today's it's obvious
even to a child so to speak. That's the great thing about philosophy, by
focusing your mind you can escape the prison of politically correct dogma that
enslaves the rest of humanity. The article concludes: if the EU gets this right it
can save the Western world and
survive the 21st Century.
Multiculturalism Failing, The Rise of the Far
Right & The Tea Party (geopolitics)
An old article:
What is that the Far Right and the Tea Party have in common? They both sense the
pragmatic failure of liberal morality. The era beckons.
An Introduction to Eastern Philosophy
(philosophy)
A long but easy to read and humorous introduction to philosophy for the average person.