Favourite Reads: Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature” #1...

Immanuel Kant argued that war and hostility is the natural state of man and so peaceful relations have to be established and not assumed. Democracies don’t fight each other since they are instituted to protect their citizens and war benefits rulers and not citizens; when the people are in charge, they wish not to spend their money and blood on war with another nation. This is known as The Democratic Peace. But wars do occur between democracies. Nations, according to Kant, ought to belong to a League of Nations whereby an objective voice can be heard and individual nation-states are dissuaded from thinking that they are always in the right. Kant links the benefits of this super-state coalition to democratic values since a democracy will see that another democracy shares its values and sees the same solutions to common problems. Furthermore, Kant argued that citizens should be allowed to cross borders unmolested to live and work in other countries  as long as they do so peacefully; this would ensure that what is considered right or wrong in one place will also be seen as such everywhere else. Governance results from a pre-existing set of assumptions or principles. The assumption that political murder is wrong led to the rise of democracy: the differences between some Islamic States, for instance, and Western European ones can be explained largely by attitudes to violence. Some practices that were once everyday are now unconscionable, from smoking in classrooms to public hangings. The Civilising Process has ensured that we no longer enjoy the practices or fantasies of our forbears. For instance, the unrestrained violence of burning cats and hanging people in public is truly out of step with today’s sensibilities; Pinker’s argument is that a greater appreciation of the individual,...

Monologue: A Postcard from beyond by Conor MacCarthy...

Been in college for a couple of weeks now. Been a lot of fun, to be honest. With a lot more free time and an inability to save money to do anything worthwhile, there have been some boring bits. There’s been a lot of good bits as well. I’ve joined several societies since starting college. My favourite is the Japanese Society, where we get to celebrate elements of Japanese culture. Obviously, I love Japanese culture (especially anime and origami) so it’s great to meet like-minded people. They’ll be having an EGM next week and hopefully I’ll be elected as the first year rep for that society. Wahey! What else have I done? Well, I’ve dyed my hair. Finally! Everyone seems really friendly and I’ve made a lot of new friends here. Of course, when you’ve got substances down your throat it’s always a lot easier to be out-going. And the studies themselves have been unreal. We got to see a live-screening of Othello for Drama class. It was my first time at a live-screening and my first time seeing Shakespeare performed. I’m not ashamed to say that I cried at the end of it. Living in the moment. Italian’s the easiest of languages to learn and English is, well, English. We’re studying Beowulf at the moment which is fascinating. So what’s next on the plate? Well, as I said, next week JapSoc will be having its elections. And there’ll be auditions for the play I’m directing. And who knows what the later weeks will have waiting for me. I really do think that college is my...