It is always tempting to frame those who disagree with us in our terms, rather than theirs. Religions and political ideologies provide framings through which we view the world. When we notice that others seriously and persistently disagree with us, it is very tempting to see them as being driven…

Marx taught intellectuals to systematically mis-understand commerce. Recently, I did something I probably should have done years ago. I systematically went through Karl Marx’s Value, Price and Profit. It is based on a lecture Marx gave in 1865, as he was writing the first volume of Capital. …

When what’s on your shirt is more salient than successfully landing a probe on a comet, the processes that built modern freedoms and prosperity are in reverse. Most species have dominance (top-down status) as their dominant status strategy. Homo sapiens are distinctive in developing two other status strategies as social…

Opinions that mark one off as one of the smart-and-the-good can have a disastrous effect on policy and organisations. In her review of Andrew Doyle’s recently published book arguing the case for free speech, novelist, lawyer and commentator Helen Dale makes the following observation: Relatedly, one of the most depressing…

And bad things come from pretending it was. A friend forwarded me this email: Never Forget: Holodomor Memorial Day In 1932 and 1933, 7 Million (estimated) Ukrainians were massacred by genocidal famine ordered by the Bolshevik government. Many were Christians. Students do not learn about the Holodomor in middle school…

What vanguard capital is and why it is bad for your organisation. Many people within academe claim to be Marxists. Many people within academe, or with degrees, draw on intellectual ideas that have developed from Marxism. Yet, the (surely worrisome) record of actual Marxist regimes does not resonate with them. …

Bullshit and lies that feed identity politics and turning away from the politics of bargaining to the politics of domination. Bullshit: statements made for rhetorical effect without regard for the truth. Let’s start with the claim that the various changes in favour of broadening women’s participation in society is an…