Bishop de Las Casas (1484-1566) is both labeled the founder of the Spanish transatlantic slave trade, and the initiator of the fight for human rights, a paradoxical and seemingly contradictory position. Yet both are true.   Nigel Pocock   It was unfortunate indeed that de Las Casas suggested that Africans […]

“Nothing is what it seems”. So goes the Zen Buddhist saying. Karl Marx echoed it with his famous statement: “Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so can we not judge such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; on […]

Do you know the names of your eight great grandparents? Where were they from? What did they do? In three generations or less it is very likely that our names will have been forgotten, but not the consequences of our acts.   Mabel Encinas   The recklessness of contemporary life […]

Unpleasant as it might sound, and it is unpleasant, the most poorly adapted to survive in the face of coronavirus are those most likely to die prematurely, unless they are helped by others not to do so. For adaptation is collective, as well as individual.   Nigel Pocock   This […]