“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” Joseph Joubert
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Liberal Democracy became the norm in Western societies after World War II and formed the basis for the world economic and political order. What is the National Conservative challenge to that, and how can those believing in liberal democracy respond?
Proposals to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life are to be introduced in Parliament this month.
Research in several countries suggests that over the last decade or so a divergence has emerged between young men and women. This seems to particularly noticeable amongst those referred to as Gen Z, ie those born from 1997 onwards.
We will be discussing concerns about the impact of social media on mental health. Roger Heppleston will be opening the discussion by outlining the work of Harvard social psychologist Jonathan Haidt on this subject. Roger will base this on Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Haidt’s research suggests that social media are seriously damaging the health of teenagers, particularly girls. This is leading to serious mental health issues including a dramatic increase in rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide.
Human beings have a strong moral sense, a belief in what behaviour is right and what is wrong. We may not always agree on exactly what is right, but that there is right and wrong is a universal human sensibility.
Throughout human history there has been continual debate about the nature of this moral sense.
Are our moral faculties developed through reason and then applied to our actions, or are they are based on innate abilities and that we rationalise about them only after the event?
Since the birth of civilisation there have always been extremes of wealth and poverty. Many societies from the Roman Empire to Victorian Britain have had a small very rich elite who rule over the masses. The Roman Empire had very high levels of slavery. The working class in Victorian Britain was exploited and impoverished. And yet they were both societies that survived and thrived.
Why then should the increasing levels of inequality in the West be destabilising? Peter Turchin in his recently published book End Times has developed an interesting explanation which has implications for all of us. He says increasing levels of inequality have two