James Marriott

I’m convinced… I don’t know what to think From confusion about our polarised politics to uncertainty over AI, suddenly it’s harder to take a firm stance on anything — and that’s OK

My column this week is on the insanity of feeling dogmatically certain about anything in a world that is undergoing a series of profound economic, political and technological transformations:

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Metropolitan + Live Recording of Past Present Future Podcast with David Runciman, James Marriott Whit Stillman’s masterpiece explores the impossibly bookish lives of a group of young Manhattan socialites during party season as they talk their way through topics large and small. A glorious pre-int...

Just a handful of tickets left for the first in our new season of screenings & live recordings - Metropolitan with @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social.

🎬 Regent St Cinema, London
📅 Thursday 19th March
⏰ 7pm
🎟️ Book your ticket here ⬇️

www.regentstreetcinema.com/movie/metrop...

The Pharmakon | Sam Leith | Substack Sam Leith on Reading, Writing, Re-Reading, Rhetoric and Recovery. Click to read The Pharmakon, by Sam Leith, a Substack publication. Launched a few seconds ago.

I've started a Substack for bits and pieces. First post asks the pressing question of our times: What Would You Do Alone In A Cage With Nothing But Cocaine?

yes agree... will try to find out. I think book cover designers are some of the unsung geniuses of the british workforce

Isn't it good! Some unsung genius at Bodley Head

And The New Dark Ages now has a cover! Bitter years of book reviewing have taught me not to get excited and that most books are fated to be ignored. But I am finding it hard to stay entirely jaded in this instance…

beautiful. I love this stuff

I know! i thought this was top Bluesky content!

Jeffrey Epstein circle’s ‘big ideas’ were vacuous guff Emails show that despite hooking up the rich, the powerful and intellectuals, the philosophising was utterly banal

One lesson of the Epstein emails is the total intellectual vacuousness of the international business elite

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Thank you - and very true. I think a lot of what elite educational institutions do for their students nowadays is less to educate them and more to give them the power of an iron-clad conviction of their own importance ... which sadly seems more useful for getting on in the world.

This really is a very good piece. I think quite a lot lies behind it. First that the *actual* education of the likes of Musk etc is very superficial. Just enough Western Civ classes at elite universities for them to persuade themselves that they are talented intellects without any deep study.

Jeffrey Epstein circle’s ‘big ideas’ were vacuous guff Emails show that despite hooking up the rich, the powerful and intellectuals, the philosophising was utterly banal

Epstein and his acquaintances — whom one might have naively credited with a kind of malign genius — trade specious sub-TED talk musings on polling, quantum physics, life after death, global warming and international relations
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Excellent @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social

“An age in which millions of people voluntarily sit through the podcasts of venture capitalists is one which has grown altogether too credulous of the idea that wealth is evidence of special insight into the human condition.”

“They will never believe it about themselves but sometimes the super-rich are as undeserving and talentless as the rest of us.”

Jeffrey Epstein circle’s ‘big ideas’ were vacuous guff Emails show that despite hooking up the rich, the powerful and intellectuals, the philosophising was utterly banal

One lesson of the Epstein emails is the total intellectual vacuousness of the international business elite

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Screenshotted text reads: ‘I really loved Henry V. When my friends played Star Wars and sliced each other with imaginary light sabres I had a special dispensation to be the Duke of Exeter. I recall in primary school our teacher telling the class we could nominate a song for everyone to sing. My peers all asked for Disney songs. I demanded we sing “Non nobis domine” from Henry V. I was astonished that nobody else knew the words. I suppose I have been culturally “off” from my peers by about the same factor for the rest of my life.’ From: https://jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-attention-crisis-comes-for-film

I was never particuly into the cool things at primary school but @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social took it to another level.

Democracy’s chaotic but somehow it works Liberal western systems are forever ‘in crisis’ yet they stumble on, outlasting fascist tyrants and communist dictators

Runciman shows democratic governments reacted to existential crises with complacency, bickering and delay. Unedifying but it’s how democracy works: “lots of little failures combine to produce lasting success”.
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Excellent & right by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social

This, from @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social, is I think the correct opinion.

A hermit who takes a newspaper is not a hermit in whom one can have complete confidence.

Thank you for reading. And yes - you guys are right on the front line against the forces of darkness. You have a civilisational duty to sell as many books as possible!

The dawn of the post-literate society And the end of civilisation

We are late to this piece by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social. It is brilliant, and sobering. We have a fight on our hands, booksellers…

jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-o...

As an Eastern European "frosty," I'm rarely rattled.

However, after reading @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social article, "The dawn of the post-literate society and the end of civilisation," I definitely was...

Check out our CONVO here 👇🏻

youtu.be/OpHIPKUWqOw

I really enjoyed this conversation about the decline of reading and the threat addictive digital devices pose to our civilisation

We have stopped READING - could it be a sign our civilisation is COLLAPSING?

@j-amesmarriott.bsky.social certainly seems to think so. Check out our conversation HERE👇🏻

youtu.be/OpHIPKUWqOw

YouTube video by Novara Media Modern Society Is Becoming Illiterate

I really enjoyed talking to Novara Media about why the post-literate society is an unfolding political catastrophe and why we need the mainstream media

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e4Y...

GBP logo and Books by people stamp

Here's the stamp on the back!

Beware the novel problems of our success True, we have never had it so good but no previous human society has had to face the challenges of such achievement

For all the pessimism around at the moment, in the context of history we are living in an unimaginable golden age. Many of the problems of the C21st are the unprecedented problems of success - ironically, that is what makes them so difficult to solve

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

thank you very much for reading!

The dawn of the post-literate society And the end of civilisation

Finally read this superb piece by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social

thank you for reading!