ECLECTICIST

ECLECTICIST 48: Harris and Adams on Trump

Sam Harris has spent the last God knows how long railing against Donald Trump. He’s had many people on his podcast who are in as much disbelief as he is. And he’s one heck of an atheist I can tell you. Concerned his Waking Up podcast was becoming an echo chamber, he asked his audience to suggest a Trump defender for his stated reasons of providing ‘balance’ and to try and understand how on earth someone not completely insane or a completely ignorant ‘low information’ type can support a man like Trump. The resulting conversation was interesting and fairly depressing. That’s what we’re going to attempt to unpack here today. Eclecticist.co.uk.

ECLECTICIST 47: Multiculturalism

'If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness'. So said the writer, philosopher and all round clever clogs Voltaire (as he liked to call himself) during the European 'Enlightenment' period. Multiculturalism as a strategy is largely a European invention designed to produce an all inclusive bazaar of human difference housed in the internally borderless EU superstate. Create a suitably non-interventionist, non-religious, socialist-leaning liberal progressive democratic framework and you will appeal to the all those who live in countries that don't share these sets of principles. In the case of European countries, add a generous welfare system, a commitment to aiding those fleeing war or persecution and a large scoop of the 'guilt of empire' and you get a virtual mania of xenophilia. Is it to be 'united in difference' or 'competition for the dominant culture'? Eclecticist.co.uk.

ECLECTICIST 46: The Migrant Crisis

How much of a hard time can you give a person if all they were doing is trying to improve their life? One on side of the polarizing European Migrant Crisis debate, that is their argument and reason enough to rally together to help these poor people and get them back on their feet with all the milk and honey that those of us fortunate enough to be born in the west, take for granted. What of the other half? And what are the measurable consequences of the crisis beyond the United Kingdom becoming two distinct tribes? Eclecticist.co.uk.

ECLECTICIST 45: Social Media

"Please, for the love of all that's glorious in the world, look at these cat pictures." So says the global conversation according to that mass interactive communication platform: Social Media. One can scarcely bear to imagine what life might have been like before the brow dampening joy of tweeting one's whereabouts to the indelible archive that is the Internet. "Validate me now, you sods." So says the unflinchingly self aggrandizing mode of standing before the precipice of the infinite echo chamber. Possibly the perfect manifestation of Aestheticism, we are as Dorian Gray—made monstrous bipolar narcissists forever shoveling coal into the furnace of negative feedback, built from an advertisers wildest fantasy. "You blocked me on Facebook, and now you're going to die." Eclecticist.co.uk.

ECLECTICIST 44: Political Correctness

What can we not say this week? Who will I offend if I speak disparagingly about potatoes? The Irish? Christ. Oh wait, oh jeez-louise, son of a sea-cook. Can I say that? Has the increasingly thin skin of the younglings given rise to the Trump phenomenon, the sensible minority are all terrified about? A natural reaction to the eggshells we've all been forced to hover over. Social Justice warriors: happy now? Eclecticist.co.uk.