Discussion about this post

User's avatar
A C Harper's avatar

A good article. You can extend it in a couple of directions.

Firstly the desire for Utopia is partly a nominal place where nothing unplanned can happen and easy to rule - and as a prerequisite all the grasshoppers are dead or converted to ants. One size *shall* fit all.

Secondly the assertive government still has a worm of doubt about their ability to rule (reality sucks) so there is a craven willingness to have a web of international organisations and treaties to spread the authority and lend certainty. There are still plenty of people in governments who wish that Brexit had never happened and it was a close call that the global medical authority of the WHO was derailed. After all to those who value the collective one size *shall* fit all. It makes planning so much easier when you reduce the variables.

Expand full comment
Nicholas Coulson's avatar

At least the much-misunderstood Canute knew he could not control the tides, however much his courtiers flattered him to the contrary. Our lords and masters seem to have unlearned that humility. I often wonder whether the belief that we can and should control the climate isn’t the ultimate hubris.

Expand full comment
29 more comments...

No posts