The myth of a winning personality
Before we tell people that they should cultivate a winning personality, we have to demonstrate to them that winning is more than just a distant possibility.
ReadCategory: Articles & Essays
Information as inaction
To be truly empowered we need both to better understand the information we are given, and to realise that the biggest abuses of information concern how it is used, not how it is gathered.
ReadIn search of self
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius’s advice to the young prince – “To thine own self be true” – has become a self-help cliché. Yet far from being a glib platitude, these six monosyllables raise profound questions. Being “true to thine own self” is more easily said than done…
ReadThe black tie that binds
Like most dress codes worldwide, the evening suit is a symbol of elitism and exclusion. When people are required to put on special dress, you don’t need to be an anthropologist to recognise that it is designed to emphasise the difference in status between those who wear it and those who do not.
Read
British politics and the lost art of rhetoric
Hilary Benn and others were acclaimed for their speeches in the Syria debate in the Commons. But if this was the House at its best, its best is not good enough.
Read