Epstein’s Monsters
- May 30, 2020
- by
- Matt
In Shelley’s poem Ozymandias, a traveller comes across a broken statue in the desert consisting of ‘ two vast and trunkless legs of stone’ protruding from a plinth, and ‘a shattered visage’ lying half-buried in the sand ‘ whose frown/And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command/Tell that its sculptor well those passions read/Which yet survive.’ This is all that remains of ‘Ozymandias, King of Kings’, the tyrant of an unnamed empire whose power has proven to be as pathetically ephemeral as his attempt to preserve it for posterity.
There will never be any monument...
Stuck Inside a Lockdown With the Paranoid Blues Again
- May 15, 2020
- by
- Matt
Conspiracy is an overused and often misused word. At its most basic dictionary level, it refers to a group of people who conspire together. Nothing controversial about that. History is filled with examples of actual conspiracies, from the assassination of Julius Caesar, to Contragate or the 9/11 hijackers.
Historical conspiracies are one thing; it’s quite another...
Beware the Lies of March
- March 29, 2020
- by
- Matt
In difficult times, it’s comforting and perhaps essential to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s also wise to bear in mind that there are always alternative possibilities. Historical tragedies are not like novels or theatrical tragedies. They don’t come with redemptive endings or instructive moral messages. They do...
Going Viral
- March 11, 2020
- by
- Matt
There is no good time for a pandemic, but some historical moments are definitely worse than others. The coronavirus has erupted in a world dominated by nationalist rightwing populist politics with an authoritarian/fascistic tinge, many of which draw their support from fears and phobias about globalisation, or ‘globalism’ as the far-right call it, that are...
Broken English
- March 01, 2020
- by
- Matt
So the government has released its post-Brexit ‘points-based’ immigration system, and no one will be surprised to hear that ‘All applicants, both EU and non-EU citizens, will need to demonstrate that they have a job offer from an approved sponsor, that the job offer is at the required skill level, and that they speak...
Johnson and Trump: That’s Entertainment
- August 27, 2019
- by
- Matt
If there’s one thing that Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have in common, it’s their propensity for lying. Where politicians like Blair and Bush lied and massaged facts to realise specific agendas, both these politicians at least recognised that truth existed and that it was important for politicians to make it seem as though it mattered.
Johnson...
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