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Category Archives: Life
The Fertility Rate: the Best Dam(n) Wellbeing Index Going Around?
Valiant attempts have been made to measure happiness and wellbeing. People much smarter than me have developed fancy indices, and people even smarter than that, such as our own Nicholas Gruen, has called bullshit on many of them. What I … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Health, Life, Philosophy, Social Policy, Society
13 Comments
Fatalism and counterfactuals in times of lockdowns
One of the more curious phenomena of the last 18 months has been the fatalism on display on both sides of the lockdown divide. In the anti-lockdown brigade fatalism props up in the guise of “this was the inevitable outcome … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Dance, Death and taxes, Life, Philosophy
16 Comments
On Faust, Lord of the Rings, and lockdowns
A major theme in our book “the Great Covid Panic” (now also on Kindle!) is how a whole layer of politicians, medical advisers, and opportunistic business people grabbed the opportunity for more power and money during the lockdowns of 2020-2021. … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Dance, Death and taxes, Health, History, Life, Philosophy, Social
4 Comments
Sex and war in Afghanistan
I visited Afghanistan only once, on a brief visit in 2014. I fell off a donkey to great hilarity of the local villagers, slept in a compound with the armed owner keeping watch the whole night, heard stories of how … Continue reading
Pragmatic utilitarianism?
I have been a utilitarian for about 30 years now and am seen in my academic work as an extreme version of the genre. I did my Phd on the topic. I do not merely say that governments should make … Continue reading
Book Launch of the Handbook for Wellbeing Policy-Making July 1st
Wellbeing & Policy Making Book Launch Event on 1st July 5-6.30pm London Time. Attending the Launch is Free, the book is not! 1: The What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and our commissioning partners at the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council have been … Continue reading
