A collection of 341 posts
One possibility is that morality is dependent on local circumstances and facts about social order and organization.
The Hagia Sophia was the brainchild of a unique figure in history.
The US’s hegemonic period, now shrinking, often looked like empire, especially the British version, which it mostly replaced.
Contemplation of such great age is intrinsically moving, perhaps because it releases us from the oppressive clamour of the moment.
And this neo-totalitarianism has learned from the past: It has its inquisitions, its auto-da-fes, its purges and cultural revolutions, reeducation and self-criticism sessions, and above all the ostracization and ultimate erasure of dissidents.
So in the end, slavery, the slave trade and imperialism were not only morally disgusting but also of dubious economic value.
Paradoxically, it was Lady Thatcher who, bowing to reality, acceded to the handover of the colony to the communist despots in 1997—with the proviso that Hong Kong would remain autonomous until 2047. Perhaps she thought that time would transform China into a wealthy and free country.
Cook is best understood as a quintessential figure of the European Enlightenment, with all the consequences flowing from that, positive and negative.
Stalin publicly misused the term so often, in fact, that Princeton history professor Stephen Kotkin has suggested he lacked a fundamental understanding of the word’s meaning.
Gregg finishes the book by concluding that the success of Western civilisation rests on the “four theses” of creation, freedom, justice, and faith.
The War of Return is an important book and, unquestionably, a welcome corrective to the plethora of myths, lies, and misconceptions that litter the discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In Pepys’s time a scarlet cross on the door denoted an infected household and sentinels stood guard outside to keep people inside.
Social isolation can be so stressful that it “disrupts brain development (in younger members of social species) and leads to mental health problems later in life.”
The Black Death wiped out half the population of Europe in the space of four years.
There is no reason—no reason at all—that middle-class American Blacks or Appalachian whites cannot be expected to perform at the same level as recent immigrants from the Philippines.