179. INFERRING THE END - Doom-Spiral or Fallacy?

“We had seen the signs that things weren’t going well. That the wheels were falling off a bit. And we had made the inference - this place was going out of business. And the inference was right.“

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155. THE IMPERMANENCE OF VALUE - Fluctuating Perspectives on Worth

“Philosophers might ask: if value changes all the time, is there really such a thing as value at all? If we can’t pin it down - define it - then is it really anything? Is there anything eternally valuable and undeniably valuable to all?  But even in philosophy value fluctuates based on who is doing the valuing. To some thinkers that question is important. Personally, I see no value at all in finding an answer to that question and would rather set my mind to other things.“

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135. UNLOCKING CAGES - Language, Asylum, Immigration and Abolition

“When one takes a step back and realises that amidst all the language of ‘asylum seekers’, ‘detainees’, and ‘illegal immigrants’ what we are really talking about is human beings, it is hard not to hang your head in shame at the way our country routinely treats certain human beings.“

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106. WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS - On Our Failure To Communicate

“Often we hear people say something that they didn’t think they said at all. They might accuse us of not listening, or being ignorant of certain things, but the fact remains that if you say X and I hear Y, then you did not communicate X to me, you communicated - whether intentionally or not - Y.“

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6. IDENTITY CRISIS - On Immigration and Belonging

“It is only in the last few years that I began to realise how much I had been affected by being the child of an immigrant.  Growing up, because my skin was white, the idea that I was a second-generation immigrant didn’t even cross my mind, although the fact of my status acted constantly in the shadows without my recognition, and I remained completely aware of my non-British heritage even in my ignorance of living its consequences. “

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2. THEN CAME THE LAST DAYS OF MAY - How Do We Mark An Ending?

“To paraphrase Plato’s old Euthyphro dilemma: do we mark significant endings because they are special, or are endings made significant and special because we mark them?”

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