23. THE NOT-SO GREAT DEBATE - On The Need For Intellectual Self-Defence In An Age of Stupid

“There is a truth out there, beneath the soundbites and clickbait. There are actual facts about what our politicians have done and what they are planning to do and it is our duty as citizens, whoever we are voting for, to make sure our vote is as fully informed as is possible. A television debate will never give us that. They are nothing more than a PR stunt. Another stop on the campaign trail. A mechanism for repeating buzzwords and talking points. To treat them as anything more than that is to abdicate our democratic responsibilities and leave ourselves open for manipulation and propaganda.”

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22. THE VALUE OF FREE - Why Are We So Distrustful of Getting Something For Nothing?

“Imagine giving a friend a brand new MacBook for their birthday. It is highly likely they will assume the computer is somehow broken, secondhand, or stolen before they would simply accept that you have spent that much money on them and expect nothing in return. Because when something that good is given away for free, for no reason, it makes no sense in a world where everything has a price and where we have been socialised into a worldview that says money has ultimate value and should be collected, even hoarded, as much as possible. To give something of value away for free is the action of a crazy person. Sensible citizens only part with something of value if it will bring them something of more value in return. At least, that is the story we have been conditioned to tell ourselves.”

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21. WHAT MUST WE REMEMBER? - On The Worth of Remembrance Day

“as long as we have had Remembrance Day and worn our red poppies, we have continued to have wars. If we truly want to honour those whose lives were lost saving the lives of others we ought to put every effort we can into ensuring the sorts of wars which cost them their lives are never fought again.”

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- Half Term -

Just a reminder to anyone looking for a new post this week - the blog is only operational during term time so we’re taking the week off this week to enjoy Half Term and provide Halloween with the deep religious observance it requires. If you’re on half term yourself - please write us an article! Send it in via the contribute section. See you next Monday!

14. WHEN BAD MOVIES GO GOOD - Mind vs Celluloid.

“although we did watch the same movie on the screen, in our heads, we perceived two very different things. The cause of these alternative experiences being the mental environment into which the sense-data was ultimately processed, our mental experiences of the movie being more than merely passive acceptance of the sights and sounds projected inside the cinema.”

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13. WHO AM I MEDITATING FOR? - A Brief Consideration of the Mindfulness Industrial Complex

“As someone interested in critical thinking and intellectual analysis I have significant objections to the idea of a completely mindful life, and rather suspect the ascendency of mindfulness as a practice to cure all ailments in the modern day has a lot to do with its overall lack of threat to the status quo.”

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12. ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A "TRAITOR" - A Student Struggles With Forced Obligation To A Country

“I didn’t actually have a choice as to whether I wanted to accept these benefits or not. Some of these benefits, such as free healthcare, I agreed to as a baby before I had even developed long-term memory because if didn’t, I literally would’ve died. So I only really “chose” the United Kingdom in the same way someone with a gun pointed at them “chooses” to hand over their wallet. In other words, it isn’t really a choice. And if I didn’t choose to obey these rules, who can really call me a traitor?”

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10. IN DEFENCE OF WASTE - On the Essential Inessential

“It is now my belief that the inessential, the waste, may be the most important thing in life for ensuring our true wellbeing.  Furthermore, it may also ultimately have a knock-on effect of improving the productivity and efficacy of the essential.”

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9. WHAT EXACTLY IS MY OBLIGATION HERE? - Who Enforces A Promise We Make To Ourself?

“The crucial thing here is that if I did not do any one of these things, nothing at all would happen.  I am not doing them because I believe God told me to and the punishment for failure is hell.  I am not doing it because I signed a legally binding contract and would be in breach if certain things aren’t done.  There is no law compelling me and not even another human being to whom I have made my oath.”

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8. STADIUM HOT DOGS - On Vegetarianism, Food, and Culture

“When I travel, it always strikes me how immediately alienating and othering it is to have to tell people no to their local specialities. As a vegetarian, and as someone who on top of this also doesn’t drink alcohol for other reasons, I find myself constantly imposing a sort of cultural imperialism on the places I visit, insisting on meat free alternatives and never fully being able to immerse myself in the culture I am there to see, and I often wish I hadn’t made the decision that the suffering of non-human animals matters.” 

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7. YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME? - Re-evaluating Representation & Identity Politics

“If each of our experiences of the world are isolated within a personal island of subjective qualia, then no two people can know for sure whether they experience the world in the same way. What this means for identity politics, is that the underlying notion that Muslims can talk about Islamophobia, the LGBT community about homophobia, non-white ethnic groups about racism, and women about sexism (etc.) with an authority that is lacking from a “non-member” of each group falls apart.  Every woman will experience living as a woman in a patriarchal world uniquely; every person who has been discriminated against because of their race, sexuality or religion has felt that hurt without peer.”

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6. IDENTITY CRISIS - On Immigration and Belonging

“It is only in the last few years that I began to realise how much I had been affected by being the child of an immigrant.  Growing up, because my skin was white, the idea that I was a second-generation immigrant didn’t even cross my mind, although the fact of my status acted constantly in the shadows without my recognition, and I remained completely aware of my non-British heritage even in my ignorance of living its consequences. “

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5. BIG DATA - The Importance of Remembering there Can be a Data/Facts Disjunction

“Data, in theory, means measurability, tracking and accountability, and therefore is favoured and celebrated by those in the business of measuring education, tracking education, and holding education accountable.  Every year teachers across the country collect spreadsheet after spreadsheet of meaningless data on their pupils.  They analyse that data and discuss it endlessly with managers and leaders and make decisions about future planning based on what the data says.  But the data gathered is, invariably, pure garbage.”

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