Yet the superstition In which we have grown up, not therefore loses When we detect it, all its influence on us. Not all are free that can bemock their fetters... The worst of superstitions is to think One's own most bearable. G. Lessing, Nathan the Wise
Category: books
magic and technology
Prof Alan Jacobs wants to know whether magic and technology can learn to get along with each other. He laments the dominant tone of fantasy literature that sees natural magic opposed to cultural machinery. http://theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/magic-and-technology-can-the-two-coexist/260412/ Jacobs hopes for: "A fictional world where magic rules but is not the only game in town". This sounds … Continue reading magic and technology
Success is always rationalised, says Michael Lewis
Princeton University - Princeton University's 2012 Baccalaureate Remarks http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S33/87/54K53/
Selling the Sizzle
Every salesperson has learnt that you don’t sell the sausage, you sell the sizzle. Sizzle: “the desirable, tempting and enticing sounds and aroma that convince you to eat what is basically a dead pig.” Sausages are only the start, of course. Wouldn’t you love more time? This new dishwasher will give you what you want! … Continue reading Selling the Sizzle
Samuel Bowles on economic inequality as a policy option
http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~bowles/ Prof Sam Bowles has a couple of books that compliment the work of Richard Sennett on cooperation - one published in 2011, the other due later in 2012. Whereas Sennett takes a sociological approach, Bowles focuses on economics. In particular he has done some interesting work on computer modelling of property rights.
Richard Sennett on the Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation | David Bollier
“They expected nature to be on their side”: Roland Huntford on Polar Exploration
Leadership Mismatch – what Napoleon can tell us about the evolution of leaders
The Emperor Napoleon was a consummate manipulator of other people’s expectations regarding leadership roles, and here's how you can be too... In an RSA lecture Matthew Taylor engages Mark van Vugt, author of Selected, over the salience of Cultural Theory to van Vugt’s evolutionary theory of leadership. [about 30:00 in] Professor van Vugt’s idea is … Continue reading Leadership Mismatch – what Napoleon can tell us about the evolution of leaders
Explaining Political Judgement
Fourcultures has previously reviewed the work of Perri 6 , Professor of social policy at Nottingham Trent University. The Institutional Dynamics of Culture (which he edited with Gerald Mars) remains the most important compendium of sources on Mary Douglas's cultural theory. His latest book is Explaining Political Judgement, which looks to be a very thorough … Continue reading Explaining Political Judgement
The medium is the bias
We don’t carry cultural biases around in our heads so much as encounter them in our environments. Humans require the flexibility to be able to engage with different cultural biases in different contexts. A person who is acculturated to be biased in one particular way will either gravitate towards that way of working or be … Continue reading The medium is the bias
Four Cultures 