Articles & Essays – Page 90

The Death of the Dining Room

April 14, 2014 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays, Food

Eating at table should not be equated with formality and outmoded etiquette. Its main association should be conviviality. We sit around a table, but in front of the TV. We eat together at the table, but merely at the same time elsewhere. Even when eating alone, however, dispensing with a dining table comes at a cost. When we have our meals while doing other things we are not eating, we are merely feeding. We cease paying attention to what we are ingesting and our food becomes mere fuel.

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On taking food seriously

March 26, 2014 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays, Food

It is absurd to claim that anything that is not essential to our survival is a “luxury” we should not be concerned about. This is not a humane viewpoint, but a deeply anti-humanist one. Why, after all, are we so concerned that many people do not have the necessities of life? Not because we think that mere survival is the purpose of existence. We want people to have food, shelter, health and education so that they can thrive and flourish. To put it another way, we want our “middle-class indulgences” to be available to everyone.

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Oh, what a lucrative war?

March 11, 2014 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays

Which event taking place in Britain this year promises to offer many “commercial opportunities”, serve “as an economic driver”, “contribute to the regeneration” and provide “a great opportunity to promote” a “wonderful town”? The 450th birthday of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, perhaps, or the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow? No. It’s the anniversary of the start of the First World War…

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Templates for gaining wisdom

March 9, 2014 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays

A year or so ago, browsing in a bookshop, I came across a shelf dedicated to “Smart thinking”. I had never seen this term used to describe a category of books before yet I instantly knew what it meant. Its elevation to official bookseller’s category is confirmed by the appearance of “Psychology/Smart Thinking” on the back jacket of Gary Klein’s new book, Seeing What Others Don’t, and by Penguin’s launch of its “Think Smarter” e-newsletter…

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How we eat and what we eat

February 4, 2014 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays, Food

Too much of the received wisdom about good eating is based around a list of foods we should avoid. But knowinghow to eat – with balance and moderation – matters much more than making lists of what we should or should not eat.

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