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New article: The failure of Aung San Suu Kyi
My new article reflects on Aung San Suu Kyi’s first term in office, and the deep roots of Myanmar’s economic, social and political challenges. It’s a review of Thant Myint-U’s excellent new book, ‘The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century’ – which I highly recommend. Read…
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Can Meditation Help Enable Human Flourishing?
In my first piece for The Partially Examined Life, I consider what the latest scientific research on mindfulness and meditation means for project of human flourishing.
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Robert Wright’s Why Buddhism Is True
An invaluable introduction to the riches of secular, naturalistic Buddhism.
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Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia
I am very happy to have had the chance to analyse Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming – a book which considers non-Indigenous Australia’s coming to terms with it’s Indigenous past. The excellence of Griffiths’ work is to use archeological discovery as a prism to reflect on issues of dispossession, identity and socio-political change. It is an important and…
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The Age of Nothing: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God
Humans have been attempting to orientate themselves in the universe for millennia. Once our physical needs of food, water and shelter are met, we tend to pursue the higher goal of living a good or meaningful life. Some try to master this art of living intuitively, but others seek to formalise and classify experience to…
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Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist, was interned in a number of concentration camps during World War II, including the infamous Auschwitz. His parents and young wife were also interned, though Frankl was the only member of his family who survived long enough to see freedom. Man’s Search for Meaning is, in part, a…
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Labyrinths: On Jorge Luis Borges
I encountered the work of Jorge Luis Borges while travelling around the Guatemalan highlands last year. I was in Panajachel, a dirty little tourist town which lies in the shadow of a great volcano. Wandering the streets in the sweltering heat I stumbled across a small, English-language book store. Hungrily scanning its shelves, I picked…
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Sam Harris’ Waking Up
Sam Harris, the author of Waking Up, is best known as one of the “Four Horsemen” of the “New Atheist” movement. I first heard him speak on atheism in the summer of 2007 and was struck not so much by his disdain for the destructive potential of Biblical prophecy, but rather his interest in mysticism…
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George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell moved to London in 1927. Heavily disillusioned from his time at as police officer in Burma, he resolved to make his living as a writer. In the two years following, Orwell struggled intensely with homelessness and poverty in shelters across London and Paris. His first book, Down and Out in Paris and London,…
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Don DeLillo’s White Noise
White Noise was my first experience with Don DeLillo. I’d heard his name uttered over the years, usually coupled with the recognition that he is one of the most important novelists in recent decades. DeLillo’s literary gifts were apparent from the moment I began reading; his metaphors are sublime; his prose, smooth and easy to…