After slavery was abolished in 1833, Britain's GDP fell by 10 percent -- but they knew that cheap goods and fat profits made from flogging people until they broke were not worth having. Do we?
Once it had to rely on persuasion rather than intimidation, the story of British Christianity came to an end. Some 63 percent of us are non-believers, while 82 percent say religion is a cause of harmful division.
We all make mistakes. We also all have a choice about whether to approach our errors in terror so we suppress, ignore and repeat them -- or whether we make them our honest, open ally in trying to get to the truth.
The excellent young American journalist Jake Hess has just been imprisoned in Turkey in extremely worrying circumstances for his excellent reporting on the conditions for Kurdish civilians.
The recession has given a fresh burst to the fraudulent management consultancy industry, as corporations beg to be told where to apply the leeches.
If you believe the way to deal with the human appetite for intoxication is to criminalize and militarize, then blood is on your hands. How many people have to die before we take the drugs trade back from murderous criminal gangs?
The broader public mood, smeared like sunscreen over us all, isn't active denial. No -- it's the desire to endlessly postpone this issue for another day.
