In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Trump

  • Regarding Grendel

    Posted:

    Footnote : Grendel is the name of a monster who appears in an Anglo-Saxon ‘epic’ called ‘Beowulf’. The poet Seamus Heaney is one of several people who have translated it into modern English. Heaney’s introduction is worth reading and gives his thoughts on what the long Beowulf saga is suggesting, or why it is still…

  • Posted:

    … continue reading

  • Posted:

    … continue reading

  • Truth cf. ‘Impartiality’

    Posted:

    This is being written a few days after Gary Lineker refused to back down. He won’t read these words, but I feel the need to declare here to whoever might be visiting my deep admiration and gratitude for the position Lineker has taken and held, both on a disgraceful and abhorrent government policy (and the…

  • Putin’s Mind

    Posted:

    It is hard to put yourself in Putin’s mind.  But how hard ? Is it impossible ? Maybe not. He looks out at the world and is much concerned with maintaining control and his own footing and security there.  Consequently, he has always been pre-occupied with strengthening and extending borders, creating safe distance between him…

  • The Potent Appeal of the “Strong Model”

    Posted:

      Why do certain behaviours, or opinions, or political policies, become popular at some point, where before they would have been rejected out of hand ? Why do certain approaches, or qualities of presentation, previously scorned, suddenly start to be given value ?  And do all such changes represent advance, or improvement ? No.  And…

  • In Search of Good Faith

    Posted:

    I have been carrying a little string of thoughts in my head for several weeks. They make a point I haven’t seen being made elsewhere and which might be worth adding to the mix. Maybe it would be of interest to someone passing, even throw some further light, however dim and peripheral, on what’s happening…

  • Where You Live

    Posted:

    This poem was finished on the day of Joe Biden’s Inauguration, January 20th  2021. It does not have the glitter and panache of Amanda Gorman’s poem recited on that day, but I think it carries a great deal of the relief so many of us will have felt on receiving Biden’s clear signals that sense,…