Aweh, Dear Ruminants and Groupies, I watched all 85 minutes of the recent interview between Elon Musk and Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist.Not merely the flurry of soundbites it subsequently produced. I had two reactions. The first was: Bloody hell, this is fascinating. The second was: Bloody hell, this is disturbing. These reactionsContinue reading “Ruminations on Objective Reality and Elon Musk”
Tag Archives: politics
Ruminations on Who You Think You Are
Aweh Dear Ruminants and Groupies, A Bar, a Cow, a Vice President, and a Vorlon A pink cow, JD Vance, a Vorlon, and I walk into a bar… This is not the beginning of a joke, although it probably should be. It is also not, strictly speaking, a bar. It is more of a diningContinue reading “Ruminations on Who You Think You Are”
Ruminations on March and March and the seductive pleasure of not thinking
Aweh, Dear Ruminants and Groupies, The American columnist David Brooks has observed that many people seem remarkably uninterested in the hard work of thinking, finding it far easier to outsource that burden to whoever offers the simplest explanation. Thinking requires holding contradictory ideas simultaneously. It requires tolerating uncertainty. It requires sitting with the discomfort thatContinue reading “Ruminations on March and March and the seductive pleasure of not thinking”
Ruminations on the topics we are not supposed to touch and dialectic debate
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies On Pompous Words and Pipes I have quite rightly been accused of using pompous vocabulary that requires a footnote, and “dialectic” probably belongs squarely in that dock. It sounds like something you’d mutter over a pipe in a wood-panelled study while adjusting your tweed jacket. A dialecticContinue reading “Ruminations on the topics we are not supposed to touch and dialectic debate”
Ruminations on Bubbles, Xenophobia, and Pig Wrestling
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies Bubble Life, Then and Now Nerine, my wife, has often accused me of living in a bubble, detached from the perspectives of other people in the real world. When I was in the corporate world, I went from my air-conditioned office to an air-conditioned car to anContinue reading “Ruminations on Bubbles, Xenophobia, and Pig Wrestling”
Ruminations on empathy
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies, One of my readers sent me the featured quotes. My visceral response was to demonise Musk and identify with Hannah Arendt—but then I started to ruminate, as I do. Is empathy the most essential feature of a successful society? The empathy quote is widely (but wrongly) attributedContinue reading “Ruminations on empathy”
Ruminations on Trump
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies, One of my readers asked me last week what my latest views are on Trump. I am an obliging chap so here goes. Trump is a full employment scheme for journalists, sensationalists, comedians, and obscure bloggers. If we still relied on ink, we’d have a global shortage.Continue reading “Ruminations on Trump”
Ruminations on living outside the Overton window
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies, On Monday, Elongated Rusk graced X with this gem: “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” That’s it. That’s how the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced the collapse of the U.S. Agency for InternationalContinue reading “Ruminations on living outside the Overton window”
Ruminations on academic freedom
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies What can you say, and what are the risks of saying it? Can I say anything I like on my blog? Theoretically, yes. But if you work in a corporation, you’re expected to speak in carefully laundered PR-approved phrases while the official spokesperson spoon-feeds the public aContinue reading “Ruminations on academic freedom”
Ruminations on the futility of speaking and writing precisely
Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies Forgive me, dearly beloved groupies, but it’s been four weeks since my last blog. I could offer very good reasons and excuses, but let’s keep it real with today’s theme: the dog ate my blog. So, here we are, with Donald Trump elected to a second termContinue reading “Ruminations on the futility of speaking and writing precisely”
Ruminant Pink Friday 