Utopia (Thomas More)

Thomas More

Utopia

Classic text on government which sets out the advantages of a co-operative way of living where each takes according to need rather than greed, or production. Some would call it anarchy and others communism. Same difference taken to their natural conclusions. Not that Utopia as described is free of government but it's the way it's implemented. Utopia is interesting as it was written when there was still a lot of common land in Britain but it was being taken away from "the people" and given to landlords under acts or by violence. Today's local government owned land is not the same. From More's time onwards industrialisation hand in hand with capitalism has pushed people from community living to large cities where community is difficult to maintain especially related to governance. Or not. The latter parts go into great detail about enforced social regulations and it does tend to stray from the anarchist idea of utopia. Whether this particular society is utopia or dystopia or a bit of both is open to question and dependent on viewpoint and this aspect is covered in the essays included in the book. A good read.

Social Mobility and Its Enemies (Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin)

Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

Social Mobility and Its Enemies

An interesting read but with some big omissions such as no discussion about immigration and income as a measure of happiness. Much would lead to an outcome of socialism and it's a shame that the book doesn't make that radical yet obvious leap. There are also trite connection like why mention in a throwaway line with no backup football hooligans in the 70s. Other better analysis out there.

Cycling to the Ashes (Oli Broom)

Oli Broom

Cycling to the Ashes

A straightforward tale of cycling from London to Australia with a lot of cricketing on the way. Fairly readable although faintly irritating especially as firstly you wonder why he's putting himself through so much misery, second he's not just jumped on a bike Oli's got a lot of sponsors presumably through contacts probably through his well off parents and third he keeps on going on about pretty girls in a pretty creepy way. I nearly put it down but hate doing that and it's not too long or taxing to read. I picked it up from a Herne Hill Velodrome rummage sale and think it's signed. 

Humankind (Timothy Morton)

Timothy Morton

Humankind: Solidarity with Non-Human People

What turns out to be a very academic book - i.e. expects a certain knowledge of the subject matter being philosophy and the history of economic philosophy so leads to a lot of looking up references on Wikipedia and subsequent and inevitable browsing around that particular subject. Therefore what is a short book is going to take a long time to read. Summary seems to be an analysis as to how non humans should be brought into left thinking thought - and for that read what most would call radical left but for some just socialist rather than the neo liberal capitalist left - and how Marx and subsequent theories addressed human vs non human - and how to not view non humans equally as humans has an inevitable ending of capitalism and fascism - which is what is happening most notably in the USA and increasingly in Europe. Excuse the poor punctuation. Morton flips between very serious analysis which has me reaching for my on-line encyclopedia and jokey references. One I like particularly is when he references a social media storm (US dentist kills lion in Zimbabwe) "flash-mob moralism can descend on anyone at any time, like Hitchcock's birds (it's called Twitter for a reason)". Nice. The basic premise seems to be that we lost our way when we started farming which led to The One God religions and humans treating ourselves as god like and above all animals, and indeed above all non animals, which inevitably led to the type of capitalism that the world is threatened with today and that the climate change environmental movement(s) need to focus on how to get back to that pre agricultural state, at least in mindset, and start treating everything with equal value to humans. Or at least to have solidarity with what we share the earth with. This isn't just because we need to "save the planet", although I'm sure Morton would scoff at that phrase, save it from whom and for whom? without humans things would settle back down again probably, but because we are not just human as we're made up of millions, billions?, of parasitic critters who help us digest food and everything and also who we are is determined by our relationship with others including non humans like cats and indeed mountains and rocks and dirt. It's hardly a handbook for how to live your life, unless you're deeply into philosophy and teach it, but fascinating reading even if I was struggling to keep my head above water. There's a bit about Marx's dancing tables and I'm not 100% certain whether Morton believes that they can dance, I think he goes for at least rocking about a bit. He's obviously an ageing raver as he has a lot of references to dance culture and the effects of what were known as disco biscuits. At least I now have a philosophical dance tune playlist and I now need to re-read Das Kapital (OK, Morton isn't pretentious enough to call it that and refers to Marx's Capital but I am pretentious) and Kropotkin's Mutual Aid. Jeez I got a lot to read I really need to retire!