Reflections 9 May

On my Mind.

In a week that has seen elections here in the UK, an increasing level of noise about returning to work and holiday travel amidst a still explosive international situation, my mind has been on our relationship with ideas.

A mixture of apparent relationships has struck me. At one end, there are the dogmatists, those who insist they know what's going on, what to do about it and don't entertain discussion. On the other end are the dreamers, who believe that we can change our situation by willing it to happen. In the middle are the pragmatists, who work with what's available. 

The dogmatists are easy to spot. They sit atop hierarchies, far away from the day to day realities of those further down. Whether they are preaching populist notions of sovereignty or advocating that a return to the office world is the only acceptable mode of working, they have high levels of propositional and practical power and will shape our short term future. They are those who are often wrong but never …