Of all the things that the corporate world has done, the most devious was to create the myth of consumer demand. We hear about it all the time, in news reports, in the papers, in documentaries. I heard about it just the other night in a documentary about the Amazon. The narrator was telling us [...]
Allegedly, Buddha once said, “Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are; it relies solely on what you think.” Or . . . you might say it relies quite simply on two of Enid’s orange-yolked eggs, gently poached and served on Damien’s country sourdough toast. I’m sure Buddha would be [...]
On many occasions, Sally and I have been challenged on our views that the complex industrial system which supplies most of our food is malignant. Though we patiently try to explain the workings of this global leviathan, our views are generally dismissed as being at best misplaced and at worst positively conspiratorial. If we [...]
Continue reading about Lunacy and Larceny – with official approval
Released in 1940, The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin’s first true ‘talking picture.’ A humorous film based on the age-old comedic concept of mistaken identity, it nonetheless has serious overtones in its parody of despots like Hitler, making it a welcome addition to the UK/US propaganda machine of the day. One might suppose that [...]
A conversation between Blackadder and Baldrick . . . (with thanks to Chris and Peppa Tolley and whoever they got this from) Baldrick: What I want to know, sir, is before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there’s one type of [...]
Continue reading about The intelligent person’s guide to the Euro
There is a lot of talk at the moment about fracking, or ‘induced hydraulic fracturing,’ as it is more formally known in the oil and gas industry. It is a way of releasing natural gas trapped in rock layers far below the surface. It is contentious, difficult, expensive, energy-inefficient and resource-hungry, using anything up to [...]