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SubscriptionsCategory: Philosophy
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The Upside Down: Jeremy Bentham – Auto-Icon for the People
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson remembers the original social justice warrior
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Neoliberalism: ‘Capitalism’s Response to Democracy’
Matt Gallagher watched Guardian columnist George Monbiot make the case for a ‘politics of belonging’ – but how to get there?
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The Empathy Gap and a Politics of Extremes
Empathy – to be of any meaning – needs to be bolstered by a willingness to accept one’s failures, writes Iain Overton
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The Upside Down: Why Our Rituals of Death Need Re-Thinking
John Mitchinson reflects on what he learned about the ‘baffling presence of absence’ when his father died in his arms
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The Media Scandal the Media Didn’t Want to Touch: Byline Times Will Keep Exposing the ‘Dark Forces’ in the Shadows
This newspaper will continue its special investigation into TV presenter Dan Wootton and expose wrongdoing in the established media – without fear or favour
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‘While “the Government” is a Thing Political Parties Fight to Own and Control, Real Government Will Remain a Dream’
Governments are run by political parties and for political interests – but they shouldn’t be, argues philosopher AC Grayling
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The Upside Down: The Ruffian on the Stair
For this month’s column, John Mitchinson pens a personal reflection on why knowing about what kills us makes it no less mysterious
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‘It’s the Stupidity, Stupid’: Brexit and Populism
As the London stock market falls behind Paris for the first time, Matthew Gwyther looks at the real inner causes of Britain’s decline
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British Identity: The Empire’s Spectacle
The mourning of the Queen’s death has been, largely unconsciously, a nation in a state of ‘appearing’, writes Joe Haward
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Death by a Hundred Scandals: Are We Living in a Sociopathocracy?
Iain Overton considers the calibre of people drawn to high office, and how power has warped their sense of empathy and compassion
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The Upside Down: Where Is the Man? The Many Lives of Pontius Pilate
John Mitchinson explores the enduring fascination with the man who was asked to send Jesus to his death
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Backwards Britain: Having Rejected a European Future, We Can Only Hark Back to an Imperial Past
Hardeep Matharu explores how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed the UK’s perilous retreat – at a time when collaboration and a new vision of itself is required to navigate the dangerous realities of a changing world
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Putin’s Unjust War and the Enabling of Monsters
Otto English explores the Russian President’s warped justifications for the invasion of Ukraine that should terrify us all
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The New Winter of Discontent Will Expose the Corrupting Forces Strangling Our Society
With Brexit, the pandemic, the energy crisis and cuts to benefits all combining to create difficult months ahead, Reverend Joe Haward considers what can be learnt from the true meaning of ‘apocalypse’
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Less Is More – What Buckminster Fuller Still has to Teach Us
John Mitchinson explores the lessons in the inventor, philosopher and mathematician’s ‘doing more with less’ philosophy
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Coronavirus and Climate: The Choices We Face
Tom Burke sets out the battle-lines in the conflict over the planet’s future – between policy and politics, cooperation and competition, young and old, freedom to and freedom from
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Dominic Cummings and the Quandary of Human Motives
The majority of people for the majority of history are a cauldron of contradictions and the Prime Minister’s controversial former chief advisor is no different, says Reverend Joe Haward
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Lust: Can We Afford to Keep On Rewarding Excess?
Matthew Gwyther looks at the craving for power, money, sex, success, legitimacy and legacy – and wonders whether the world is big enough for any one person’s greed So, bye bye, then Jeff Bezos. The CEO of Amazon – who with a worth of $188 billion was for a while the richest man in the…
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From Folklore to Wokelore: How Myths of Britishness are Turning Totalitarian
Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu argue that Britain cannot ignore the Conservative kulturkampf, and that one way to combat the mythologising of politics is to expose the politics of the myths
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The Upside Down: Long Live the Elders! The Exemplary Life of Barry Lopez
John Mitchinson returns with his reflections on the final book of the late great American author and what it reveals about the demands on humans to evolve ethically in order to meet the many challenges on the horizon
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‘Strongmen’: How a Crisis in Masculinity Paved the Way for Fascism
Heidi Siegmund Cuda speaks to the historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the new global rise in authoritarianism and why the recent defeat of Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election was so significant
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The Year of Living Distantly: The Comfort of Strangers
Peter Jukes explores the melancholy emptiness of city centres during the COVID-19 lockdowns and wonders whether the invisible cities of social media will ever become civilised or inhabitable
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The Powerful Lure of the Soft Fascism Within
Hardeep Matharu with a personal account from the psychological frontline of the culture wars exploring the inner appeal of hate, division and xenophobia
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The Illusionists of Hope can be Defeated with the Real Thing
Reverend Joe Haward considers how a dedication to rooting out corruption and accepting the realities of the present can provide an engine for change
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‘When Suicide Becomes Logical’: Inside A Separatist-Run Prison In Ukraine’s Donetsk
Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Asyev explains why choosing life over death was so important during his horrific 962 days imprisoned by the Kremlin-backed statelet
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Demon Sperm: Donald Trump, Evangelicals & the Politics of Hate
As President Donald Trump embraces the extreme Christian fringes, Reverend Joe Haward looks at the radicalising role of religion and nationalism among the US right
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To Alabama and Back: The Memorial that Holds Up a Mirror to Racism
Hannah Charlton takes a journey into America’s dark history of segregation and subjugation of black communities and wonders how Britain could do the same
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White Complicity Matters: The Nazis by the Lake
Musa Okwonga’s message to white people following the murder of George Floyd.
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Dominic Cummings’ Biggest Blind Spot is Dominic Cummings
Hardeep Matharu explores why the chief advisor’s revelation about his failing eyesight was so revealing – about his lack of self-knowledge and need for reality.
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Bearing False Witness: How Mr and Mrs Cummings Broke the Ninth Commandment
Reverend Joe Haward provides a Bylines Times ‘Thought for the Day’, in light of current events and the duty in the Ten Commandments to tell the truth.
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The Ideology of Sacrifice Conditioning Us Must End
Reverend Joe Haward explores how the political narrative of struggle and fear, enforced through market-driven ideology, needs to be replaced with one placing humanity at the centre again.
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Britain’s Chernobyl: COVID-19 and the Cost of Lies
Hardeep Matharu finds echoes of the nuclear explosion that helped end the Soviet Union and the UK’s response to COVID-19, which has resulted in one of the highest Coronavirus death rates in the world.
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The Year of Living Distantly: Lockdown Shadows of the Mind
Confined to a small urban apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bonnie Greer reflects on her time in the Actors Studio, and how shaming memory brings self-knowledge.
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The Ungrateful Country
First published in 2016 in The Good Immigrant, a book bringing together writers exploring what it means to be black, Asian and minority ethnic today, in this essay, Musa Okwonga explores his complex relationship with Britain – and himself.
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Five Weeks of Italian Lockdown: Welcome to Your Future
As Italy enters the fifth week of lockdown, Kamin Mohammadi gives the rest of the world some insights into what happens next.
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The Year of Living Distantly: We Were Boxed In Before Lockdown
Byline Times’ Editor Hardeep Matharu reflects on some of the profound questions raised by the Coronavirus pandemic and how we have been living our lives.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: The Eloquence of Saying Nothing
John Mitchinson explores how being quiet and listening might help us to adjust to the isolation imposed on us by the Coronavirus – and beyond.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Apart From That
Otto English explores, well, that thing. The thing we can’t forget. The thing that’s everywhere, inside and out.
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The Year of Living Distantly: The Stuff that Happens Somewhere Else
Christina Patterson explores how she is coming to terms with our terrible new reality – and the snatches of beauty within it.
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The Year of Living Distantly: The Empty Hours
Chris Keulemans reflects on what living with the Coronavirus might teach us about the kind of life we really want.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: The Cloud of Unknowing and the Veil of Ignorance
Hardeep Matharu explores how the uncertainty around the Covid-19 pandemic has reanimated forgotten philosophies of social justice and mutual aid.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Raising Hell – The Long Afterlife of William Blake
John Mitchinson explores the lasting resonance of the works of the English poet and artist who attracted little acclaim during his lifetime.
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From Sunderland to the Bullingdon Club: Englishness Unravelled
Unsatisfied with George Orwell’s description of patriotism, John Mitchinson digs deep into his own personal history to untangle the complex roots of his Englishness.
