Essays
Exploratory CW essay pieces look at the broader trends in contemporary society, politics and culture.
A selection of the Battle of Ideas’ Battles in Print is also available here.
Therapy culture revisited
Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes reply to Lee Jones’ critique of their critiqueOur view is that education is now the key to our future. This is not to revert to an archaic form of change through education but to recognise that, at the present moment, it is only by asserting subjects that we can develop subjectivity.
How Bollywood portrays ‘the other’
Train to Pakistan (1998), directed by Pamela Rooks / Gadar: Ek Prem Katha [Mutiny: A Love Story] (2001), directed by Anil Sharma / Pinjar [The Cage] (2003), directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi / Veer-Zaara (2004), directed by Yash ChopraAlthough Hindi films have been known to be merely melodramatic, the portrayal of Indian Sikhs and Hindus as protagonists and Pakistani Muslims as antagonists is a theme that is reinforced throughout most but not all of the films dealing with the subject.
Against an ‘Ethical Lifestyle’
A short essay looking at the idea of ever-progressing ethics, and how 'ethical living' relates to our ideas about right and wrongThrough ever-progressing ethics we ‘learned’ slavery was wrong a couple of centuries ago; racism and sexism turned out to be bad sometime during the 20th century; and homophobia became unethical a decade or so later. In another half century we’ll all become vegetarians.
Lead on, Macduff: McLeadership and the real thing
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008Both the fetishisation of strong leadership and the reaction against it stem from a one-sided focus on leaders as personalities, and neglect of the other side of the relationship.
Whose culture is it anyway?
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008When it comes to thinking about culture and artworks, torn between a multiculturalist melange and celebration of cynicism, the problem seems not to be we don’t know who artworks or culture belong to, more that we want nothing to do with the whole lot of them.
Slam-Dunk the Funk - Defending Progress in the Age of Environmentalism
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008This essay defends the material basis of progress and the right of developing countries to undergo development, and finally argues that material development offers the only way to avoid the environmental disasters that we are constantly warned are just around the corner.
Capitalism, the financial crisis, and us
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008In order to develop a more incisive critique of contemporary society, it is necessary to consider not only the particular nuances of the financial economy, but also the broader historical context, and the relationship between capitalism and wider social and political forces.
Radicalism then and now: what’s changed since 1968?
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008Today, politics has lost its meaning, and all that’s left for so-called radicals is to call for a more extreme version of what ‘politics’ is about. The form is still there, but the content has changed.
The Truth? - you must be making it up!
A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008The Truth concerns a lot more than scientific platitudes: all sorts of figures have laid claim to knowing the truth about the human condition and their societies, from novelists and journalists to campaigners and politicians. In fact, one of the most important things about putting forward new ideas and persuading others is that no particular credentials are necessary.
The community mural and the changing cultural paradigm in America
A photoessay by Californian muralist Rip Cronk, with examples of his muralsIronically, the autonomous self is dependent on immersion into culture. As a function of culture, the community mural inspires symbolic experiences of an actualisation process that reveal our potential as well as define our limitations. A subtle ‘leap of faith’ occurs as the viewer identifies with values and ideals expressed in the mural.
The Culture of Adoption
A Battle in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008There is an assumption that people in general are increasingly vulnerable and in need of ‘support’. In this sense, the adoption reforms are a product of a wider ‘cultural’ problem – not in the ethnic or anthropological sense, but with regards our political culture and the ideas that it tends to generate.
Down with cant: up with rhetoric!
A Battle in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008The language of contemporary politics is packed full of jargon. It stands in for real political discourse and debate but is no substitute. In its place we need to rehabilitate rhetoric: language designed to convince others of the rightness of our propositions.
A Hypochondriac Nation
A Battle in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008We are now a nation obsessed with our bowels and bumpy bits, indulging in the guilty pleasure of a meat-feast pizza then seeking penance with the cholesterol kit. But why should it follow that a healthier population must be more obsessed with health?
Social critique by stealth: why a subversive heart supplies the veins of all good comedy
A Battle in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008Although the interwar years of Weimar Germany and 1960s Britain appeared to be golden moments for anti-establishment mirth, it is easy to miss the insubordinate heart of satire that is still beating as strong today, as thoughtful humour is so often social critique by stealth.
Head to head on space exploration: ‘man not machine should explore space’
A Battles in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008Two students from Barton Court Grammar School in an email head-to-head on whether man or machine should be exploring space in the twenty first century
