Richard Irvine

And then he was allowed to undermine any attempt within the Labour party to restore its principles. And then Starmer, the inept fool, decided to give him a job. Probably on the very grounds that he went to the same parties as Trump. And we now know clearly what kinds of parties those were.

A traitorous associate of paedophiles was allowed to sit at the heart of the Labour government for so long - and happened to be the man who was instrumental in its pivot away from being a party for the working classes! The amoral architect of Labour's abandonment of its heartlands.

I don't think it's possible to overestimate how much my sense of politics throughout my life has been shaped by the fact that I could never ever trust anybody who thought that Mandelson would make a good bedfellow.

I wonder how much better male mental health would be if things were built to be repairable

"Grant me, indulgent Heaven, that I may live,
To see the miscreants feel the pains they give;
Deal Freedom's sacred treasures free as air,
Till Slave and Despot be but things that were."

#BurnsNight

Alas, so do I.

hmmm. That's true, but this kind of thing emerges even in contexts where there aren't such pressures, as in the case of the guy who said "previously there has not been an anthropology of ethics". He might have even taught you ;)

see also "previously there has not been an anthropology of Christianity"

The scourge that lays waste at noon: Monks, acedia, and the anthropology of depression - CAMHRA Event Abstract Attentive to the ways that inertia can take hold of life, Catholic monks recognise despondency as a potential…

Join us this Wednesday for Dr Richard Irvine’s talk:
“The scourge that lays waste at noon: Monks, acedia, and the anthropology of depression.”
📅 21 Jan, 3–5pm | 📍 RB01 & hybrid
More info:
camhra.soas.ac.uk/event/the-scourge-that-lays-waste-at-noon-monks-acedia-and-the-anthropology-of-depression/

Tim Stanley was a contemporary of mine at Cambridge. Everybody saw him then for what he was: an amoral controversialist, adopting whatever noisy stance was likely to get him most attention. If there had been a "most likely to turn out to be Lord Haw Haw" poll at the time, he would have topped it.

Growing up in Liverpool (80s/90s) it was usually "entry" but occasionally "jigger".

That climate change interest group listserv explosion was one of my highlights of AAA, did a great thing in burying all my other emails so I could focus on having fun in New Orleans

I liked twitter for Mongolian reading practice but even then most of the social interaction with friends there and keeping up to date with Mongolian stuff happened on facebook. (Still does - pretty much the only reason I'm still on facebook now.)

I like discord in a way that I never liked twitter.

I don't have much nostalgia for anthrotwitter though. It was far too America-centric, just parochialism all the way down.

"It appears that progress in understanding will depend on our ability to free the notion of death from its encapsulation in behaviour, custom and folklore and to restore the experience of the termination of individual life to its full problematic status."

RIP Johannes Fabian

@wildtwin.bsky.social hope you don't find this too much of a mischaracterisation!

DELÍRIA (SIGNED COPIES) - Jeff Young ROUGH TRADE EDITION NO. 56 Set against the backdrop of ‘the city’—as activation point for dreams, for visions, as a receptacle for memory, as a canvas for meaning, for art, poetry, sex, for the very s...

Currently reading Delíria by Jeff Young. A theory of the city for day drinkers and nightwalkers. roughtradebooks.com/products/del...

Greenland belongs to its people. Greenland is a self governing territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes, as well as Greenland, Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Although we think of it as one island – it actual…

Greenland belongs to its people. Orkney has a close relationship with its north Atlantic neighbours in the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Aggression towards our neighbours will not be forgiven. Appeasement by the UK government will not be forgotten. theorkneynews.scot/2026/01/09/g...

And I think it's certainly true that Adam Smith would have torn into this bullshit.

I used to be sceptical about the concept on the grounds that I thought it more useful to call it liberalism &to emphasise the historical continuity (& highlight the relation between social and economic liberalism).I've gradually come around to the idea that there is discontinuity that needs the neo-

Playing GTA V and I think I've just noticed there's a reference to Mike Davis' City of Quartz in it (Davis quartz quarry).

Rousay coming back from 5-0 down to win 10-8 against South Ronaldsay in the Orkney parish darts quarter final.

I got your Viking Blood Feud for Christmas. Given it has an academic affiliation on it I'd say you're in more danger of being absorbed by greedy academic megapublishers!

Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto
ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.

The low sunlight enters Taversoe Tuick, Rousay, on the Winter Solstice.

"At the time of the year's deepest darkness, a finger of light touches the chamber of death; there is a hint of a promise of resurrection." George Mackay Brown

Unremittingly miserable for the sake of being miserable. Dreadful film. And I rather like some of Kaufman's other work.

Aside from the doublespeak of this being "ethical", the irony is that young people are going to absolutely rip the piss out of such nonsense. And rightly so. It reeks of "how do you do fellow kids" desperation.

Jeely Piece songwriter Adam McNaughtan dies aged 86 Adam McNaughtan wrote a host of songs including The Yellow on the Broom and Oor Hamlet.

RIP Adam McNaughtan, legendary Glasgow singer who carried the traditional songs and added new songs to the tradition - above all his Jeely Piece Song www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...