Digest: February 2023

‘Capitalism says: take what you can afford, based on the market value of your labour-power. Ecology says: you can give everything you have, because everything you have is a gift. Nature is, in this sense, kenotic: it works by self-sacrifice. It only becomes fully kenotic when moral agency is possible: that is, when self-sacrifice is an act of love. The activists who give up their time, who forego pleasures and recreation in order to donate their bodies to the cause of the world, which is the human cause, who put themselves in danger of police violence, arrest and prison, who struggle to speak of their love to people constantly blitzed by anxiety, manifest that reality.’

‘he idea that art should be made by and available to all has been a rallying cry for socialists for decades. Contrary to stereotype, the traditional demands of the labour movement haven’t just been about ensuring people have food on their plates and heat in their homes, but about enabling the beauty and creativity stifled by the market to thrive and be enjoyed by everyone.’

‘The idea that art should be made by and available to all has been a rallying cry for socialists for decades. Contrary to stereotype, the traditional demands of the labour movement haven’t just been about ensuring people have food on their plates and heat in their homes, but about enabling the beauty and creativity stifled by the market to thrive and be enjoyed by everyone.’

‘Though flawed, Phoenix Nights is a landmark in British comedy. At its best, it’s a tightly written and gorgeously observed series steeped in the working-class culture that it celebrates — an anomaly in modern British television. Its quality lies in the wide range of experiences and gallows humour in everyday working life, and of the working people who made it: the hospital employee Dave Spikey, social worker Janice Connelly, the travelling salesman Justin Moorhouse, the languages teacher Archie Kelly, the seamstress Enid Dunn.’