Communication is power. In the modern world, one of the most effective tools used by the powerful to build and exercise their power is communication. More specifically, it’s the ability to understand how human beings think and behave and then use this knowledge to influence people – both individually and in massive numbers. This power
Continue reading...
I’ve just completed a booklet for Life Squared that has turned into a book! It’s a piece of work that I’ve been putting off for years as I knew it would be large and complex, but I’m delighted to have finished it as I think it’s a critical issue, yet one that hasn’t been exposed
Continue reading...
We live in difficult political times. Rarely does a week pass without Donald Trump’s administration ignorantly destroying yet another important piece of hope for the world – whether in foriegn policy or its attitude towards climate change. Under such circumstances, it’s easy to feel a sense of complete despair and powerlessness. With this powerless can
Continue reading...
What is the meaning of life? How should we live? What happens when we die? This weekend Humanists UK has published a new guide I’ve written for them on these and some of the other big questions of life. You can download it (for free) here. Over the last two thousand years we’ve been led
Continue reading...
In my post yesterday I explored how we might build a strong, attractive view of a progressive future – one that a large number of people might want to get behind. As promised, below is a first go at how to present the vision and what to include in it. No doubt it needs more
Continue reading...
It’s been baffling and annoying this morning to see so much news coverage of the non-story that the National Trust and Cadbury have dropped the word ‘Easter’ from their annual Easter Egg Hunt event. First, it’s hard to work out who planted this story in the media as a bit of speculative PR. The most
Continue reading...
“Politics has failed through a lack of competing narratives (to neoliberalism). The key task now is to tell a new story of what it is to be a human in the 21st century. It must be as appealing to some who have voted for Trump and Ukip as it is to the supporters of Clinton,
Continue reading...
The world is in a chaotic state at the moment. 2016 has felt like the most negative year I’ve experienced on this planet – and partly for the toxic and negative political atmosphere that has enveloped western democracies in the last few years. It’s reached its nadir (so far at least) with the rise and
Continue reading...
I’ve just been to see AC Grayling talk about Humanism at the Lewes Speakers Festival. It’s reminded me of a point I’ve been thinking about for a while. As religion becomes less of a central force in people’s lives (in the UK at least) there is, for many people, a ‘religion-shaped hole’ in their lives.
Continue reading...
Everyone seems to love the latest BBC popular science programme ‘The Wonders of the Universe‘ and it’s no surprise – apart from having everyone’s favourite former-pop-star-prof as a presenter, it provides an awe-inspiring view of the universe that we live in. I think having a regular dose of this sort of perspective is important in
Continue reading...
