Is violence decreasing worldwide? This is the question addressed by Steven Pinker (professor of psychology, Harvard), to which he answers a resounding, albeit qualified, 800 page ‘Yes!’ Nigel Pocock For hundreds of years violence has been dropping, even if there are huge spikes in the downward graph caused […]
Needle’s Eye
Should we love ourselves?
Do people really love themselves? Some writers think that people do not love themselves, saying that true self-love, in the sense of self-acceptance, is learned, often very painfully so. I agree. Nigel Pocock Part of the difficulty is that people confuse self-esteem and self-love. I concur, with Scott […]
Why do I feel the shame of failure?
What are the effects of ‘shame’ on Caribbean families? I believe that this powerful emotion is perpetuated by the dysfunctional family structures that exist there, such structures being themselves directly caused by the deliberate humiliation visited on the imprisoned Africans by the slavers and their plantocratic masters. Nigel Pocock […]
Multiculturalism: Social engineering for a balance of unity and diversity?
I want to examine the key issue of how to establish a balance of diversity and unity. Too much diversity, and society will fragment; too much unity and we have a closed society. How do we find the balance? Is it too much to suggest that it is possible to […]
Christian fanaticism and fundamentalism: help or hindrance?
What unites all fundamentalists is an over-riding commitment to a sacred text, through which all of truth must be interpreted. The sacred text cannot be questioned; only obeyed. Nigel Pocock In the past the word ‘fanatick’ (sic) meant an ‘enthusiast’ and it usually seems to have had an […]