John Gray leaving LSE did us all some good. There is a prolific stream of material from the most notable contemporary thinker. Lets start from the most recent.
- Review of the Arguably, a book of essays from Christopher Hitchens. Predictable opening with the unexpected, loving conclusion. There is important point about the post-Trotskyists. Their utopian zeal is only matched or even caused by their acute sense of injustice. It even fits with Nassim Taleb who recently revealed his Trotskyist youth in Lebanon. (New Statesman)
- Related to the above is Gray’s podcast Believing in Belief (BBC Point of View).
- A put down on the new book by Steve Pinker. Can a nerd entombed in a conformable academia speak interestingly? (Prospect Magazine)
- Podcast about the Black Dog of depression visiting Churchill and saving Europe. (BBC Point of View)
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Thank you for this, Ben. I just picked up Gray’s book “The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death”. I also need to pick up “Straw Dogs” at some point.
Greg, Straw Dogs is the book of books.