Read Anthony Barnett's 'After Britain’s shocking Thursday, is the earthquake still to come?'

After Britain’s shocking Thursday, is the earthquake still to come?

Anthony Barnett, 7 May 2011

About the author

Anthony Barnett is the founder of openDemocracy and the Co-Editor of its UK section, Our Kingdom.

The contrast between the astounding success of the Scottish Spring and Britain’s embrace of its imperial voting system of First Past the Post better described as ‘to the victor the spoils’ suggests to me that we have entered an explosive political decade. 

Far from settling issues of reform the conservative establishment may come to rue the day they so brutally crushed a harmless compromise. AV was advocated as “a small change that makes a big difference”. Who can think of a slogan that is more ‘British’? While its actual supporters and campaigners on the ground who worked their hearts out wanted real change and not “small change”, the campaign for AV was run in a way that was truly conservative.

It was always going to be very difficult to win because

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Click on link to read Anthony Barnett's article from OurKingdom

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Huston Smith, "Why Religion Matters: The Future of Faith"

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Jon Kabat Zinn: Coming to Our Senses

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Fundamentalism - excellent essay

FUNDAMENTALISM.

A term used loosely to describe a reaction of (neo)traditional religion against the pressures of modernity, fundamentalism became a widespread topic of interest in the media and the academy during the last quarter of the twentieth century. According to many observers, fundamentalism is a worldwide phenomenon, arising in various societies with differing cultural backgrounds and experiences of modernity. The original understanding of fundamentalism, however, took shape in an American Protestant context—a context that initially informed popular and scholarly notions of fundamentalism and sometimes led to simplistic comparative interpretations. For this reason, among others, critics have questioned the viability of fundamentalism as a universal religious category, especially when applied to non-Western societies; and comparative studies of fundamentalism have been marked by self-conscious attempts to prove the existence of the phenomenon that they are presumably examining.

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Brilliant summary of 'The Dangers of Fundamentalism' -- John Dominic Crossan

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Fundamentalism - a list of resources

Fundamentalism

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The meaning of mysticism and its misunderstanding - cf fundamentalism

Our definition of mysticism as true philosophy-science or the enlightened state of mind -- come about through contemplation or meditation -- is thus: on the cognitive side, the recognition that All is One, that All has come from nothing or can be here at all, and that Everything is just the way it is, complex, orderly, and beautiful; and, on the emotive side, the amazement in these three recognitions, and the feeling of love for All and the acceptance of All in the way it is.⁷

We are not satisfied with the mere complementarity between philosophy with physics, as suggested by the continental conception of philosophy (noted i

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Click on link for a long but very interesting essay

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