The question of whether or not to have children has never seemed so political. Sensing a fertility crisis on the horizon, the populist Right are embracing pro-natalism. Elon Musk, father of 11, warns of the mass extinction of entire nations, …
Jeremy Clarkson: populist tribune
Capturing a glimpse of Napoleon at the head of his Grande Armée in 1806, Hegel described him as the world soul on horseback. Today, such figures do not appear in small German towns leading revolutionary armies, but on YouTube, Spotify …
Jordan Peterson wrestles with meaning
Like every conservative intellectual, Jordan Peterson once was a man of the Left. Left-wingers were hard to come by in Seventies Alberta; Peterson grew up in what was in effect a one-party state. When he was a teenager, all but …
How humans became microplastic
This past summer, I spent a morning hunting for shrimp and prawns on a remote beach in Scotland. It was the kind of ritual interaction with nature that modern people have long prized: wading through tidal pools at the edge …
Sex strikes are hot again
There are four simple principles to South Korea’s 4B movement. These are all refusals, since the “B” stands for “bi”, meaning “no” in Korean. No heterosexual marriage (bihon). No childbirth (bichulsan). No dating men (biyeonae). No sexual relationships with men …
The Left has forgotten its philosophy
A mere glance at the headlines underscores what most working people under 40 intuit. Unfathomable wealth inequality, flat or barely improving wages, falling life expectancy, and a massive housing shortage are overturning the hard-won gains of the 20th century. And …
The cult of cuteness is revolting
When it comes to softening a stern public image, the Japanese have a special trick: just introduce a cute-looking cartoon mascot. High security prisons have them, as do the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Japanese Sewage Association. Such mascots have …
Will an Etsy witch find you true love?
Something wicked this way comes. Across the land, jilted maidens are engaging in digital necromancy, wreaking revenge on past lovers and using £5 spells to bewitch Hinge situationships into confessing true love. Welcome to the coven of the Etsy witch. …
The squashed birds of progress
Early in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, a magician performs a trick with a small bird which disappears in a cage flattened on the table. A small boy in the audience starts to cry, distraught that the bird was killed. The …
It’s time to re-enchant the world
The meaning of the leaf is the leaf, as I once heard Roger Scruton say. Perhaps it was an original coinage from the Sage of Sundey Hill Farm, but it has the slight feel of a Zen koan: a …
What feminists get wrong about kink
If Oxford’s needlessly infamous sex-party scene (think the Piers Gav, or termly ketamine-fuelled fumblings in someone’s Cowley living room) is anything to go by, it’s a wonder anyone at all takes kink culture seriously. My sources assure me that spending …
Without socialism, liberalism will die
Brexit. Trump. Meloni. Le Pen. Liberalism is struggling — and no wonder. Since neoliberalism emerged triumphant in the Eighties, and certainly since the Financial Crisis ravaged communities from Dundee to Delaware, sensible centrists have dramatically failed to improve the lives …
Advice for Gen Z: avoid cocaine and learn to sew
As anxieties about the younger generation escalate, and a new cohort leaves home, a select gathering of contributors have some words of advice:
Gillian Anderson, Actor
It’s been a minute since I was in my 20s and the world has …
The danger of copying China
We live in an era in which globalisation and the geopolitical environment have arguably made a certain level of coordination between private corporations and nation-states — i.e. “public-private partnership” — a necessity for achieving the interests of both parties.
Nothing …
Don’t be deluded by delulu
The Instagram influencer — let’s call her Meg — gazes at the camera and shares “one tiny trick” for life success. Whatever happens in your life, she says, you need to repeat the same phrase in your head: “How does …