On Wednesday, anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee hung himself in a Barcelona prison, while awaiting extradition to the US on charges of tax avoidance. McAfee had long insisted there was a conspiracy against him and all of humanity, and in the minutes before he died, he played his final card — uploading the letter Q to his Instagram.
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, I saw the name ‘Bo Burnham’ trending on Twitter.
I looked him up, he turned out to be a young comedian who made one of the best films of 2018, ‘Eighth Grade’
Eighth Grade is a deeply cringey, touching and scary film about the effect of social media on an awkward eighth-grade wannabe-influencer.
Read MoreCOVID didn’t just exacerbate a pre-existing mental health crisis.
It massively exacerbated a pre-existing touch deficit.
Our liberal individualist society has put a great premium on the privatization of personal space. Don’t touch me. Hands off.
Our society gives us a lot of space and freedom to be ourselves, free from the encroachments of others. But it also creates loneliness and a touch deficit.
We’ve created a society where, in Britain, there are 8 million people living on their own.
Read MoreWe’re in an entirely new level of interconnection, and we’re freaking out. Breathe.
Read MoreMost social media technology has made us more polarised, despite the best intentions of their liberal employees. The exceptions are online dating apps. Despite the low motives of founders and users, they’ve accidentally led to a marked rise in inter-racial romances.
Read MoreRecently, I’ve noticed several friends and acquaintances – mainly millennials - getting into magick. A 30-year-old successful professional woman who pays to consult a globe-trotting voodoo-priestess about her love life. A 33-year-old musician who's left a humanist community and joined a coven. Stephen Reid, formerly a leader of UK Uncut, who then set up The Psychedelic Society and now runs magick rituals.
Read MoreThere is an anecdote in the psychotherapist Stephen Grosz’ book, The Examined Life, about a client who is always talking fondly about the house he is renovating. Whenever he’s had a bad week, he lets off steam by talking about all the wonderful improvements he will make to this dream-house - the new conservatory, the bay windows, the rock garden, and so on.
Read MorePublic anger over revelations that governments snoop on our internet activity comes partly from a sense that our online selves are not entirely in our control. The more networked we are, the more our selves are ‘out there’, online, made public and transparent to a million eyes.
Read MoreA few newsletters back, I talked about the idea of the ‘mass intelligentsia’, and posted an interview I did with Melvyn Bragg about the term (he used it in this programme on class and culture back in March). I’ve been digging into this idea a bit more since then, for an academic research project I’m doing on philosophy clubs. I’d like to unpack the idea some more, if that’s alright by you.
Read More
