What I read in 2023, the list. How to read this list: * = Recommend** = Really recommendNC = No comment (or, really, do not bother)RR = Re-readF = FictionNF = Non-fictionP = Plays Titles and micro-reviews of what I read over the last year. Not many great ones, but a few interesting gems amidst the mid … Continue reading 2023 – A Year In Books
Author: bronwynruthwilliams
Futures. Field Agent. Speaker. Spy.
What is growth?
Growth is a funny thing. Without growth, that is without change, we are, by definition, dead. As such, for most of human history, growth has been considered to be a good thing – growth and flourishing were synonymous. Politicians promised it, citizens demanded it, economies and investment bankers grew fat on it, and living standards … Continue reading What is growth?
In defence of Imperfect information
All the world’s a stage, yet what happens when there is no more ‘backstage’? On the surveillance state and having nowhere to hide (from creditors, taxmen, states and corporations), and conversely, on the benefits of transparency. Do we really want to live in for-profit private city-states? Does your government really need to know who you … Continue reading In defence of Imperfect information
Monkey Bars
I’m very interested at the moment in what is happening with the various social contracts that hold our civilisation together; those explicit and implicit agreements that govern what society is and how it functions. This topic of “social contracts” covers everything from the agreement states have with their citizens to provide services and protection for … Continue reading Monkey Bars
Debt and Taxes
Ah, I've been thinking a lot about the late David Graeber lately. He was right about diagnosing so many problems (and quite wrong about many of his proposed solutions). Debt, The First 500 Years, has become one of my favourite economics books. I keep coming back to it and how it makes explicit the dirty … Continue reading Debt and Taxes
Ritual without relationship
I've been thinking lately about secular religion (again) and our general metaphysical turn. Yes, post plague and pandemic, in the apocalyptic age of uncertainly, where the gods of war, famine and flood run amok and technology we do not understand begins to look a lot like magick, it's not surprising there is a dramatic shift … Continue reading Ritual without relationship
Citizens or code? – who do you trust?
From the calls to “defund the police” that rang across the USA in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, to the community groups that mobilised across South Africa to defend their homes and businesses in the midst of the July 2021 riots that ripped through South Africa from Durban to Johannesburg; citizens are … Continue reading Citizens or code? – who do you trust?
Built not to last
“the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same … Continue reading Built not to last
The great divide -and the Disappearing Co-Dependant Class
This essay was first published in the book, Aftershocks and Opportunites. It was written in 2020. I think it aged fairly well. Is COVID-19 a great equalizer or a great divider? COVID-19 is by no means an equalizing crisis. Indeed, one of the most significant lasting socio-economic effects of the crisis will be the opening … Continue reading The great divide -and the Disappearing Co-Dependant Class
Look, don’t touch
When cathedrals and manor houses become museums and billboards, open to "the public" (for a fee), but closed to being an integral part of our individual, personal lives their beauty becomes ugly, garish, and unnecessary. They no longer belong to us. They are just objects to be looked at, not spaces to play and pray … Continue reading Look, don’t touch