Funfare for the Common Man

(Given to me by one of my Latvian students, 2007) Or perhaps you’re better off burying your head in the sand and reading something else. At first, I wanted to provide an objective (as possible) take on current events. But I try to steer clear of politics on these pages.  And, get your 2021 off to an introspective, contemplative start with a few philosophical yet practical articles that have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with politics or pandemics.  Feel free to skip down to the reading list. Otherwise… My upbringing I grew up in democracies – Western Europe and the United States – during the Cold War era. I studied and learnt about various coups and insurrections in other parts of the world: the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe even…but North America? Not so much. I studied history and politics at university and graduate school. Again, much of the same, but in more depth. Over the years, my students have asked me various questions about history and politic...

This is the seventh US Presidential election in which I’ve been an eligible voter. Regardless of the result, these are always raucous occasions. It all started in… 1994 : this was the first election where I was eligible to vote. I’d just turned 18 and was in my first semester at university. But for the life of me, I truly cannot remember whether I even voted, much to my shame. I think I did, but…I honestly can’t say. But it was all a bit anti-climactic for me anyway. Whether I voted or not, my first election wasn’t a Presidential one – it was merely the mid-term election, or for my non-American readers, the equivalent of a parliamentary election. Turnout at these is usually much lower. 1996 : the first time I can vote in an election, but I wasn’t even in the US to do so. I was studying abroad in London for the semester and voted by absentee ballot. And this was the start of a tradition of sorts, staying up all night because of the time difference. The election wasn’t close, so we knew ...