Why are measures of stress and anxiety on the rise, when economists and politicians tell us we have never had it so good? While statistics tell us that the vast majority of people are getting steadily richer the world most of us experience day-in and day-out feels increasingly uncertain, unfair, and ever more expensive. In this video podcast Professor Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan speak … Continue reading Angrynomics: Why The World is So Angry
Since the lockdown, many of us have been spending more time than ever on our screens devouring the news. How is this changing the way we think and feel? And how exactly is the business model of social media influencing events in the real world? More than half of people in Britain and America now get their news from social media. And the reaction to … Continue reading Understanding Human Behaviour in the Time of Corona
Video and audio are the most visceral mediums of human communication. From the movies that reduce us to tears to the music that lift our spirits, what we see and hear has huge power to shape our beliefs and guide our behaviour. We all know when we watch Star Trek or immerse ourselves in EDM that we are suspending reality in order to feel a … Continue reading Fakebook: Why Deep Fakes Mean Deep Trouble
(Image: Patrick Record) From the Trans Rights Movement to the rise of the ‘White Right’, identity has become a powerful force in modern politics. The shift away from broad based party politics to a more tribal system divided along lines of race, gender and sexual orientation is generally described as the rise of Identity Politics. Peter Franklin has also labeled the phenomenon as “Cultural Marxism” – a … Continue reading Identity Politics: Commonality or Common Enemy?
(Image: Sky News) Have we forgotten what fascism means? Today calling someone a “fascist” is more an insulting slur than a description of one’s political ideology. In a recent speech historian and author Yuval Noah Harari argued that too often is fascism confused with nationalism. Harari argues that nationalism has been one of the most benevolent ideologies in human history. Nations are communities built up … Continue reading Why Fascism Is So Tempting
(Image: Steve Cutts) The way in which we consume information determines how we interpret it. In his seminal work “Thinking, Fast and Slow” Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize winning behavioural psychologist describes how two basic systems govern the way we think. We have a primal ‘system one’ way of thinking which is fast, impulsive and emotional. We also have a ‘system two’ form of thinking which is slow, deliberative … Continue reading Why News And The Internet Don’t Mix
We live in strange times. A generation of selfies and self harm. We create edited online personas of people seemingly living perfect lives. Yet behind the screens insecurity, vanity and depression are the defining characteristics of our culture. People absorb culture like sponges. Every time we open our phones we internalize the competitive game of likes, retweets and follows as we strive to reach the … Continue reading Selfie: How We Became So Self Obsessed
“If you believe you are a citizen of the world you are a citizen of nowhere” Theresa May condescendingly cackled as a rapturous applause erupted in the hall of the 2017 Conservative Party conference. No longer was the Prime Minister going to tolerate the smug, cosmopolitan elite who spend their summers in San Francisco and winters in the Andorran alpine sneering down with disgust … Continue reading There is No Anti-Elite
A Career Fair is a microcosm. A dizzying snapshot into the absurd world of work. Fake smiles, branded ‘gifts’ and the unnaturally perky trainee enlightening you how his internship last summer really gave him an insight into “the culture of the firm” and explaining how he is now “making a global impact” working with multinationals seeking to “restructure their taxes more efficiently.” The hollow atmosphere and … Continue reading Why Universities Are Just A Corporate Conveyor Belt
It’s often promulgated that satire is the great weapon of the powerless against the powerful. Nothing can send the unhinged megalomaniac or deranged despot faster into a toddler tantrum than simply being laughed at. Yet there is growing criticism that today’s mainstream political satire serves to promote rather than undermine the establishment and extremist politicians. By providing the likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Jacob … Continue reading Why Satire Isn’t Funny
