Weekend Reading

Writing worth reading - 27th/28th June 2020

The virtual couch by Sharon Hendry

• “At first the abnormal suddenly became normal, says Blumenthal: “The initial phase of covid-19 turned psychopathology on its head. Many people showed signs of hypochondriasis, ocd, paranoia and depression – while those who had those symptoms anyway felt normalised.””

• The Secrets of Successful Female Networkers in HBR

  • “The female executives who rise to the top are “more strategic and thoughtful””

• Culture wars risk blinding us to just how liberal we've become in the past decades by Kenan Malik

  • “the very decline of the economic and political power of the working class has helped obscure the economic and political roots of social problems”

• Why John Bolton Book’s Revelations Won’t Make a Difference in Trumpland by David French

  • “To stop the worst mistakes (Bolton claims that Trump once threatened to quit NATO, our nation’s most important military alliance), one must be “in the room where it happens,” to quote Bolton, quoting the musical Hamilton. But to stay in the room, one must engage in the flattery and the loud public defenses Trump requires.”

• The Decline of the American World by Tom McTague

  • “For the United States, this cultural dominance is both an enormous strength and a subtle weakness. It draws in talented outsiders to study, build businesses, and rejuvenate itself, molding and dragging the world with it as it does, influencing and distorting those unable to escape its pull. Yet this dominance comes with a cost: The world can see into America, but America cannot look back. And today, the ugliness that is on display is amplified, not calmed, by the American president.”

• Modelling the Human Trajectory by David Roodman

  • “How much should we care about people who will live far in the future? Or about chickens today?”