Tag Archives: Intellectual elite

The pacifist and the soldier: Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein

Bertrand Russell had been jailed for his anti-war activities but his close intellectual friend Ludwig Wittgenstein was in the Austrian army as a private soldier. By March 1919 Russell had been released but Wittgenstein was still in a prisoner of … Continue reading

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Wittgenstein as a (failed) teacher

For our own part, we struck Wittgenstein as intolerably stupid.1 He would denounce us to our faces as unteachable, and at times he despaired of getting us to recognize what sort of point he was trying to get across to … Continue reading

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The way of the world: the Internet

“…the internet is now a major driver of the growth of cognitive inequality.” Or in simpler terms, “the internet makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter.” Kevin Drum Mother Jones 27th Dec 2014 Chris

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The BBC, Diversity and TV Quiz Shows

Greg Dyke, a former BBC Director-General, famously described the BBC as ‘hideously white’*. This associated the BBC’s recruitment policy with ‘institutional racism’**. His analysis is crassly simplistic, identifying ‘diversity’ only with skin colour. Differences associated with colour are readily identifiable … Continue reading

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