The theory of history: What Marx missed

Below is the text to my ‘three-minute thesis’, delivered at Selwyn College on Thursday 4 March 2020. My thesis concerns a crucial gap in Marx’s theory of history. Karl Marx is known as a lover of the state. Under socialism, the state would do away with profit-driven markets through public ownership of production. Marx’s theory … Continue reading The theory of history: What Marx missed →

The fork in the path: The stakes of the UK general election tomorrow

Tomorrow, something important's happening. Though it has become a cliché, clichés are sometimes true, and this one is: tomorrow's general election will define the UK's future. Here's why. The NHS: At risk of privatisation (Creative Commons) If Boris's Conservatives win a majority--even if Boris himself loses his seat--the Conservatives will go through with their manifesto … Continue reading The fork in the path: The stakes of the UK general election tomorrow →

Vote Labour: My speech at the Cambridge Union

Yesterday, I gave the opening speech at the Cambridge Union for the proposition, 'This House Would Vote Labour'. Here's what I said (abridged). I hope you will join me in voting and/or campaigning for Labour in the coming UK General Election--because Labour will help everyone, not just the billionaire class: We’ve reached the fork in … Continue reading Vote Labour: My speech at the Cambridge Union →

On power: Tech, the state, and class

Power comes in many forms. Productive power is a relationship between society and nature, whereby people transform nature through technologies (or ‘forces of production’, as Marx called them). Social power is a relationship between people, involving both coercion (the use of threats and rewards, most often to maximise power over production) and legitimation (the use … Continue reading On power: Tech, the state, and class →

How power begins

In the beginning, there was nothing. No power, no nature, no hope. Then, there was something. Power by legitimation is exercised in this sculpture of a female deity in the first city-state of Uruk, Mesopotamia (Creative Commons). Time, space, atoms, and energy sprang from the strange singularity that gave birth to our reality. Since 4.7 … Continue reading How power begins →

What power is

Power, for the sociologist Max Weber, is the capacity of agent A to achieve their will despite the resistance of agent B, regardless of the basis on which this ability rests. But there are two problems with this view of power, which might suggest what an alternative theory of power might look like. In this … Continue reading What power is →

What it means to be human

What does it mean to be human? There are few questions more basic but also more difficult to answer. So, let me start as all answers to hard questions must. With a story. Meet Australopithecus africanus. An early human (Creative Commons). Yesterday, I sat as countless numbers of students before me have sat. In an … Continue reading What it means to be human →