Olympian Contradictions
The NHS represents the contradiction between the idealized history and the creaking present of the UK.
George Hoare
Nationalization Took Time
It took a few decades for a truly national approach to health services to emerge after the creation of the National Health Service in Britain. The NHS produced a bevy of medical infrastructure just as the political forces to dismantle it were gaining strength.
Pseudo-Leviathans
John Gray believes the modern state is a new totalitarian entity promising not freedom but the much lesser good of “meaning” through security and a progressive identity. But the “new Leviathans” are much weaker than he lets on.
After the Death of the Subject, Hatred of the Human
The death of the subject was about the loss of human agency. Today we are witnessing the undermining of something recognizably human as such.
Deepening the Void
The ruling class has found that “externalizing” their decision making to transnational organizations of various sorts can be a way to evade accountability. It is also a contradictory and self-undermining mode of governance.
Idiocracy, but Sadder
We are more educated and informed than any previous generation, but we’re still becoming more idiotic.
The Hangover and Life as a Commodity
We have a common and stark expression of what it might feel like to be a commodity, and to have our past dominate our present: a really, really bad hangover.
