All by Abhiram Magesh
As for the social side, it was trial and error. A lot of trial. A lot of error. The entirety of socialisation, from the unwritten rules that govern our interactions, to the unspoken social cues, to understanding the nuances of speech and knowing when to take meanings literally or read in between the lines; they were a complex tangle of incomprehensible messes that I felt I was banging my head against over and over.
It has been almost a year and two months since the critically acclaimed (by my mum) first part of this crash course philosophy series was published. And although we have had not one but three lockdowns thanks to the efforts of our dear leader and his loyal lackey, I have managed to procrastinate this, the second part of the ‘What do we owe to each other’ series, until today, only a few weeks before my next ICA.
Boris Johnson, the current Prime Minister whose living it up in an antique four-bedroom suite in one of London’s most exclusive gated communities, at the taxpayer’s expense, has proclaimed in grand imperial fashion, “Screw the rules, I have a hard on for making bad decisions” .
“Hath not a Jew eyes?” asks Shylock in his monologue to Salarino and Salanio in Act 3 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s classic: The Merchant of Venice. “Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
The solemn melancholy filling the air
Passing through mind, depressed the rays of light
That’s battling onwards into the night
Inner turmoil who tortures all that care
The soft rustle of air amongst the leaves,
As the warm light cools its path
For one single ray breeches
And the mind straddles the indefinite line
And I feel…
And so it is done! The British exit from the European Union. It’s only been half a decade and yet it seems that this debate, if it could even be reasonably called that with the insidious interests playing their petty plots of debaucherous deceit and deception, is finally over. We’ve left after all. There’s nothing more to it.
If you're either a Philosophy nerd or TV buff, the title of this article may ring a bell. Philosophy nerds, indeed it is eponymous with T.M Scanlon’s book and TV buffs, you’ve got it, it comes from one of my favourite comedies, The Good Place. Sadly though, unlike Chidi from the show, I do not have a 6-part lecture series, each 3 hours or so long to discuss the intricacies of abstract theories, nor am I in any way qualified to do so. No, in this ‘series’ (quoted because I have no idea whether I can procrastinate my degree in the future to write these up) I want to introduce some basic philosophical and ethical concepts.
Unless you’re a real parliament nerd like me, who revels in the delights of subtle and firm put downs in the Queen’s English and the heated and often rancorous atmosphere that lines the walls of the Commons, you’ll probably be wondering what the hell has been going on? Well, never fear, this nerd has got your back and we can explore this very British chaos together.
