I am happy. Imagine that ;-)
I take it as axiomatic first that human existence is always to some extent unsatisfactory, and second by that most, or at least many, men desire transcendence in the sense that they want their lives to have some larger purpose than the flux of day-to-day existence. Shopping and going to the pub are all very well in their way, but for people of larger spirit they are not enough. When the Soviet Union de facto acknowledged that it had lost the Cold War, I thought that we had seen the end of ideological politics. Does your life lack meaning? Dig up a grave
Selecting a mate is the most important decision you’ll ever make. Why not get it right? For instance, sniff him first, then take the pill. Our appetite for a relationship fuels a billion-pound industry of matchmaking services Sexual attraction: the magic formula
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Europe's politics of victimology
Yes, immigrants have to adapt to new lands, says Flemming Rose. But Europe must get rid of its old ideas of blood and soil and take migrants for what they are: new Europeans
As one who once championed the utopian state of multicultural bliss, I think I know what I'm talking about. I was raised on the ideals of the 1960s, in the midst of the Cold War. I saw life through the lens of the countercultural turmoil, adopting both the hippie pose and the political superiority complex of my generation.
• The unreadable sign [Addiction? A myth promoted in 1822 by De Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium Eater. In fact, says Theodore Dalrymple, heroin doesn’t hook people: people hook heroin. Contrary to the orthodoxy, drug addiction is a matter of morals, which is why threats such as Mao's, and experiences such as religious conversion, are so often effective in "curing" addicts Poppycock; Scientists want to have normal lives like the rest of us: to date, to get married, have a family. But marriage can sink scientific careers Scientific Success: What’s Love Got to Do With It? ]
• · Search for happiness and you’ll never find it. Search for something else, and it may come your way. As for the notion that the government could supply it to you Why the 'politics of happiness' makes me mad ; With $300 million in the bank, Paris Hilton can have whatever her heart desires – so she goes out and buys cheap fame. It’s the fate of glamour ... Is Paris Hilton glamorous? She meets all the criteria. She's young, shiny, obscenely rich and reckless. She does precisely as she likes. She's an heiress. Old money! The allure of illusion; Boozy art openings The Proof Is on the Painting
• · · All academic knowledge about India”, Edward Said wrote in the introduction to his Orientalism, is “tinged and impressed with, violated by, the gross political fact” of Western colonialism Where Edward Said was wrong ; Anatole France said that “it is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.” He meant we should stop buying dumb travel souvenirs... Why We Buy Dumb Souvenirs; Why I called my boobs Simon & Garfunkel
• · · · When Macy’s went into book retailing, there were worries: clueless clerks, middlebrow tastes, and deals that ruined small shops. And that was 1869 Chain Reaction: Rebel Bookseller ; When you lose an [independent] bookstore, you don't just lose the place, Kaplan explains. You lose the people. Knowledgeable book people are being lost from book culture. 7/7: Truth about Freedom -Rebel Publishers ; The truth about 7/7: it was meaningless
• · · · · Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood – like you’ll be happy to come home to your dump amid mansions? But happiness. You're happy. Imagine that! ; The man who put 'critic' in 'criticism.' F.R. Leavis’s career raises a question he thought he’d definitively answered: was it a good idea to “professionalize” literary criticism? Dr. Leavis, I Presume? ; The Artistic Temperament The Unknown Masterpiece
• · · · · · The Brits often assume that Germans have no sense of humour. In truth, writes comedian Stewart Lee, it's a language problem. The peculiarities of German sentence construction simply rule out the lazy set-ups that British comics rely on ... Lost in translation ; Are we just a bunch of hypochondriacs? Are Yanks Sicker Than Brits? ; From Oliver Stone's JFK through The X Files to Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code, Hollywood catapults ideas from the radical fringe into the cultural mainstream Dean Bertram: Cracking the conspiracy code ; They can play, but they can never win World Cup blues