Lovers of humanity in general don’t seem to be very happy in themselves. How can they be, from the strictly ethical point of view, with so much misery to commiserate? “Now that we talk of dying,” asked Eliot, “should I have the right to smile?”

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With the idea of 'progress', all that became necessary was that what was produced should be the forerunner of something else. Everyone could claim he was John the Baptist, without having to specify who or what the Christ was

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How can we waste our compassion on someone who is responsible for her own misfortune? Are there not enough people in the world who are victims of misfortune, injustice and cruelty for us not to bother with those whose misery is self-inflicted?

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The Marxists of my youth wrestled with the problem of artistic genius, compelled to deny the very concept of genius because its outpourings were those of individuals rather than 'forces', 'classes' and, of course, 'historical inevitability'

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The fashion for ugly, squarish dogs that look menacing and unappealing have joined the tattoos sported in certain areas of our towns and cities as symbols of ugliness and menace. They are to most dogs what cudgels are to walking sticks

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The young would-be terrorist seeks to soothe, repair and avenge his personal grievances by identifying with a larger historical grievance, that of all Muslims. Thus petty personal grievance takes on a reflected glory and self-pity, the near-universal characteristic of adolescence, is ennobled

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The willingness to take loud and public offence manifests that peculiar modern imperative to be aggrieved and disport oneself in the mantle of no-risk victimhood.  More than that, it affirms that one cares deeply about something in the absence of any other transcendent purpose in life

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More and more people will discover the Aborigine in themselves in the hope of something-for-nothing, even if in the end their only reward is the moral satisfaction of having been among the oppressed. Such is the lure of privilege that it turns minus into plus

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The sub-pagan belief in nature, very common among those who claim to be spiritual but not religious, is very successfully mocked on a website called Save the Guinea Worm. A parasite of revolting appearance and habit, who amongst today's green-eyed romantics speaks for its survival?

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Those who backed Brexit were deemed ex officio provincial and xenophobic, seeking to have done with the European Union because they hate foreigners and want to pull up the drawbridge. They were, as usual, slandered thoroughly by their presumed betters

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