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Heroic Failure: Brexit and the politics of pain, by Fintan O’Toole

A review written and spoken by Tudor Rickards
28 December, 2024

Heroic Failure examines the nature of Brexit from the perspective of an Irish historian and political commentator. His central proposal contributes to a wider concept often described as English exceptionism parodied gently in the Flanders and Swann ballad, A song of Patriotic Prejudice, and which still rings round my memory banks 

"The English, the English, the English are best, I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest"

The Heroic Failure of the title is taken from Stephanie Barczewski’s book Heroic Failure and the British which deals with the ill-fated quest by John Franklin to find the North West Passage a century earlier. His first expedition ended in failure with the ship abandoned and many crew lost. He was lauded for his heroism, and made a further ill judged attempt which resulted in a further conclusion with loss of the ship and all its crew including Franklin. There followed a classic case of history repeating itself as tragedy then as farce. Numerous attempts were made to the North West in search of the passage but the story had become merged with a sacred search of the lost hero Franklin. When the passage was eventually discovered it had lost the glamour of the earlier adventures. 

As O’Toole put it, ‘complicated realities are no match for heroic failure’ (p68). 

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An undated version for festive enjoyment...

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Lord  Mandelson, and a diplomatic comparison with Nigel Farage 

Written and spoken by Tudor Rickards 
20 December, 2024

Yesterday, Thursday 19 December, the news broke that Lord Mandelson was about to be confirmed as British Ambassador to the United States.
Mandelson had a controversial political career, often making headlines for colourful newsworthy stories about his private life. 

His political legacy rests on the contributions he made in establishing Tony Blair’s New Labour movement which resulted in the longest period in power for the Labour Party at the expense of what traditional Labour supporters saw as a betrayal of their essential commitment to socialist beliefs. Other saw in him a ruthless political operator with dubious private activities. 
His private activities forced him to resign from Government on two separate occasions, although in Houdini-like fashion returned to power on each occasion. 

As the BBC put it
Lord Mandelson was dubbed the "Prince of Darkness" during his years as New Labour's spin doctor. The 71-year-old will now be the key link between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with Donald Trump's incoming administration during a crucial time for US-UK diplomacy.

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How Donald Trump’s long connection with professional wrestling helps us understand his effectiveness at manipulating reality.

Prepared and spoken by Tudor Rickards 19 December 2024, drawing on Goldman, A.J., ‘How Trump turned the elections into a wrestling match’, Published 12 September 2024, on the University of Lund website,  
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-trump-turned-elections-wrestling-match

A fascinating article from the university of Lund suggests that Donald Trump’s long connection with the professional wrestling game helps understand his effectiveness at manipulating reality so that the difference between truth and fiction is masked.

The Article, by Religious Studies scholar Aaron James Goldman, is part of a wider research project at the University of Lund led by Associate Professor Patrik Fridlund  exploring how political discourse is increasingly being characterised by ‘alternative facts’, fake news and conspiracy theories.

Reference

Conspiracy Theories, Post-Truth, and the Conditions of Public Debate,
Page Manager: [email protected] | 2023-03-07
https://www.beyondtruthandlies.ht.lu.se/

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Understanding Artificial Intelligence through the lens of creativity. 
Written and spoken by Tudor Rickards
14 December 2024

AI researchers have found creativity to be a valuable conceptual tool or lens for thinking about the nature of Artificial Intelligence.

One of the leading creativity researchers, Professor Mark Runco, wrote one of the most cited articles making a claim to standardise the definition of creativity. This was published in 2012 in the prestigious Creativity Research Journal which he founded and edited for many years.

The paper widely cited is 

Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The Standard Definition of Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092

How was the standard derived? Essentially by offering it as received knowledge, the kind I describe in DIlemmas of Leadership  as a ‘shared platform of understanding’. The authors write: ‘The standard definition is bipartite: Creativity requires both originality and effectiveness.’ This captured a considerable consensus among creativity scholars and communicators.

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A disturbing discovery in creative education. The rise of theory-lite courses
Spoken and written by
Tudor Rickards
December 5 2024

In researching for a revised edition of my textbook Dilemmas of Leadership, over the period August-December, 2024, I have become increasingly disturbed about the lack of progress in the field of teaching materials on offer about the nature of creativity.

This informal note is addressed in the first instance to members of my professional network of contacts with whom I have been corresponding. 

It has the merits (and weaknesses) of  a preliminary announcement. Through it, I hope to encourage discussion among colleagues with prior interest in, and many with considerable practical and scholarly knowledge of creativity.

This note is at present no more than an initial impression from a literature search for new ideas on creativity and leadership. It also drew on creativity research sources cited in the most recent edition of Dilemmas of Leadership which was published in 2015 (itself based on earlier editions in 2006 and 2012).

The precise concern arose after I had closely examined the first nine chapters, each of which addressed a theme dealing with an aspect of leadership. Each  chapter is examined through case examples and a literature-based study. In every chapter I was able to identify new and valuable material. 

However, in Chapter ten, on creativity, I was disturbed that I have so far failed in finding any convincing new contributions which took a theory-based approach. Worse, the bulk of the new courses ignored vital contributions historically.

As one simple but important example, the work of Teresa Amabile helped moved the focus of research underpinning creative education towards incorporating a social science perspective. This seems to be ignored in the plethora of newer research-lite offerings I am finding.

A related omission is the significance of creativity as a personal felt experience 
which grew out of the human potential movement pioneered by Maslow and by Carl Rogers.

This suggests that creative education is attracting a large number of new entries to the field. This is clearly a potential source of innovation. However, it seems to be coming with a disturbing number of organisations and individuals with simplistic models for supporting creative thinking. 

Some are using the emerging AI paradigm to claim the novelty of the new courses. As far as I can see, there is little appreciation of the nature of the creativity paradigm.

I have avoided citing specific courses, and would encourage anyone interested to carry out their own search and share their findings.

If my preliminary finding turns out to be correct, it will become a matter of concern to the community of creativity and innovation researchers and practitioners, and a focal point for action.

Postscript

My work at present has been confined to courses offered in English. Any comments from international sources would be particularly welcome.

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President Biden’s final dilemma. What to do about Hunter?
December 2 2024.
Written and Spoken by Tudor Rickards 
 
President Biden announces he intends to pardon his son Hunter over long-running criminal charges. The president had previously indicated he would not make a special case for his son, who has well-documented problems of alcoholism.

https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-ukraine-firm-memoir-beautiful-things-40d98f7edf2e72f84ba2f12856327c5e

Hunter was convicted of three firearm charges in June. He subsequently pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. He was due to be sentenced later this month.

The President’s action prompted the expected response from the incoming Republicans. Donald Trump criticised Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son as an "abuse and miscarriage of justice". 

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Wit and wisdom, late November 2024

DocAtCDI
Before you laugh at children who believe in Santa Claus, Remember there are adults who believe in Donald Trump

Juliest@101
Now that the dust has settled ... the farmer's protest and wall to wall positive coverage by the MSM hasn't garnered public support for their cause but simply informed the public that some greedy farmers and landowners don't want to pay their fair share of taxes.

@labour_history
On death of the Labour politician John Prescott

2001. Labour Manifesto Launch.
Deputy PM John Prescott is hit by an egg after encountering pro-fox-hunting protesters in Rhyl. 
He responds with a left jab. 
Prescott later tells Blair 'well, you asked me to go out and connect with the electorate'.
RIP JP 🌹🌹

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Creative protests by book lovers

27 November 2024
Spoken and written by Tudor Rickards, based on an article from the Central Bylines website published earlier this week.

I have long supported Everyday Creativity, the ways we all can add to our everyday routines to produce more creative results. 
I came across a splendid example in a gentle response to the publication of his autobiographical book ‘Unleased’ by Boris Johnson. The former Prime Minister applied his own everyday talents to marketing his book at an appearance on a TV chat show about the American presidential election earlier this month. So much so, that he was banned from further appearances after a post-show confrontation.

He and his book were subsequently on the receiving end of a series of public protests of a most unusual by members of the public.  The results were described in the article in Central Bylines.

https://centralbylines.co.uk/lifestyle/books/a-great-british-bookshelf-revolt-buries-johnsons-unleashed/

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