Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion have set up camp in my part of London.
So this week, reflections on their mission, its legitimacy, and what it tells us about the nature and uses of power in 2021.
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If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The Mad King.
Links in this week’s instalment
1. A few days ago, Extinction Rebellion parked a whopping great double-decker bus across London Bridge, one of the main routes in and out of the city’s financial district.
2. Four decades after Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan, another Englishman, John Locke, was inspired to make his reply: resistance can be legitimate if the sovereign fails in his duty to protect life and liberty.
3. XR’s stated mission is clear: they are protesting against government inaction on climate change.
4. I’ve written before on the idea that our democracies are being hijacked by an accelerating quest for tech-fuelled convenience.
5. Survey data released by Ipsos MORI last week showed that 32% of Britons agree that climate change is ‘a major issue for the country’, making it second only to COVID in the list of national concerns.
New Leviathan
Thanks for listening this week.
Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan inspired the greatest illustration ever featured in any work of philosophy.
What’s more, the book still has much to teach us about one of this newsletter’s great obsessions: the nature of political power in the modern world.
New World Same Humans will continue to view the climate crisis – and much else besides – through that lens. There’s one thing you can do to help: share!
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I’ll be back as usual on Wednesday with another New Week; until then, be well.
David.
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