66 quotes
National security is becoming the new word of God to which all must submit in blind obedience.
Security services in principle exist for our protection but that is so only when they are accountable to the public for their considerable power.
Once the right of the people to see justice being done is eroded, it is not long before there is no justice at all.
You should not expect politicians to promote freedom of information. Why should they? They have a vested interest in controlling the public's access to information and thereby maintaining their grip on power.
With its idolising of stony-faced ‘strong men’, its fantasies of domination and control, fascism is the ideology of the insecure man. A man who feels - at base - unworthy, unwanted and powerless.
Substack Newsletter - Fascism: a disease born of male insecurity (2024)
A brutal work culture adds to the feeling, pushing people toward transience. Jobs have primary importance not just for a necessary salary but to get health insurance.
Substack Newsletter - Alienation in America (2024)
Two things signal to me when a group is more interested in self-righteousness than making actual policy: Picking on allies and name calling.
Substack Newsletter - Pick your poison: moral purity or power? (2024)
What I see now when I visit America is the juxtaposition of wild nature and sterile humanity. People boxing themselves away - in houses, cars, offices.
Substack Newsletter - Alienation in America (2024)
Violence is a moral crime not just against others but against one’s own heart. And we can only commit such crimes when we let our minds override the voice of our soul.
Substack Newsletter - Protesting and what it means for democracy (2024)
When people with good intentions don't own and take power, it becomes the preserve of the heartless, ruthless, greedy, narcissistic, psychopaths. That’s why not using power can be just as bad as using it badly.
Our thoughts are formed through our social world and the opportunities we have in that world to act. Our actions and experiences are what form and change our beliefs, often without us even noticing.
Substack Newsletter - Why Protest? (2026)
Being a professional journalist is rather like training to be a lawyer. There's a certain amount you can learn in school but largely it is a vocation learned through practice, with scepticism being a primary attribute.
To solve our current dependence on fossil fuels is a complex problem that demands communication and cooperation. Taking binary stands and publicly shaming people, doesn’t seem a good way to solve this problem.
Substack Newsletter - Pick your poison: moral purity or power? (2024)
The reason I specialise in the intricate details of bureaucracy isn't because I have a passion for paper-pushers, but rather because I need to know all the types of information collected, by whom and where they are stored so I can get my hands on them.
There are three main things the public need to know about courts
Truth needs to be told regardless of how it makes people feel, and more often than not it makes people feel bad before it makes them feel good. It’s crucial to get through that initial pain, because only by doing so, and seeing reality as it is, can we learn and change.
Substack Newsletter - Happiness takes work (2024)
Weak power has no vision for a world where beings are free and flourishing. It cannot conceive of a world based on pleasure, diversity and abundance, though that was life on our planet until very recently.
The world may be more complex and uncertain than we would like, but giving away our freedom for the false promises of protection is not a sustainable solution. We are defined not just by what we preach, but by what we practice. We cannot claim to be an enlightened democratic society if we live in breach of these values, without the rule of law, without reason, or the rigorous commitment to truth.
Followers of fascism also have their own ‘daddy issues’. Are they drawn to an authoritarian father figure, as replacement for their own? The fascist leader granting a simulacrum of love, acceptance and belonging to men who feel cast out from the fatherly fraternity.
Substack Newsletter - Fascism: a disease born of male insecurity (2024)
Politicians may initially find it difficult to accept new standards of public accountability, but we must make the costs of not doing so even greater. The best way to do this is by publicly embarrassing and shaming those officials and departments who refuse to answer to the public.