Sveriges mest populära poddar
Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

To Generalise is to be an Idiot. William Blake on politics, disillusionment and abstraction

13 min21 juni 2024

William Blake lived during the period in which the modern world was born. A prophet, he detected the tendencies that now powerfully shape our age. The love of abstraction was high on his list of troubles.

Such generalisations profoundly shape politics today. Politicians sell themselves on whether they will boost the economy, drive up growth, fight inflation, and I think the rhetoric is itself alienating, dumbing, dreary. Vision departs, imagination declines, disillusionment becomes the norm.

Accept for when it doesn't - hence the rise of popularism, too.

Abstractions infect the arts and humanities, as well. They have become a way of life. So what is Blake's analysis?

Fler avsnitt av Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

Visa alla avsnitt av Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts med Mark Vernon finns tillgänglig på flera plattformar. Informationen på denna sida kommer från offentliga podd-flöden.