Richard FarrJun 8, 2018“Conservatives” and the problem of evilSome questions have to be asked again and again, because being unable to get a straight answer reminds us what’s really going on: What do...
Richard FarrMar 22, 2018UnlikeIn the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scanda l (an extraordinarily ugly story for the age of Trump), I have deleted my Facebook account....
Richard FarrJan 24, 2018Inequality – something we should all be able to agree aboutIt often strikes me that we almost all agree about the fundamental problem in political economy. Almost all. A few crazies on the...
Richard FarrJan 24, 2018TrumpocracyChoice is a great burden. The call to invent one’s life, and to do it continuously, can sound unendurable. Totalitarian regimes aim to...
Richard FarrJan 8, 2018The Genius in ChiefTo read books seriously is to be staggered by the knowledge of how many more books will remain beyond your ken. It’s like looking up at...
Richard FarrDec 29, 20172017I am a citizen of two countries, the UK and the US. Last year, in 2016, both acted in lock step, as they have so often done before: first...
Richard FarrDec 17, 2017Oliver Cromwell on the Republican Party’s holiday gift to the Koch brothersBe pleased to reform the abuses of all professions: and if there be any one that makes many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a...
Richard FarrDec 11, 2017Warlocks and witch-huntsThe revelations about Harvey Weinstein, and the sexual predations and or boorishness of other powerful men, are shocking and disgusting....
Richard FarrNov 16, 2017Great acting – and tyrannyHelping out with a high school class on dystopian lit, I came across one of the best examples of the craft I’ve seen in a long time – the...
Richard FarrOct 11, 2017ICAN: a small nuclear winSumiteru Taniguchi, Nagasaki victim and lifelong anti-nuclear activist, died just over a month ago. It’s a shame he didn’t live to hear...
Richard FarrSep 7, 2017America: a history lessonHistorian Eric Hobsbawn (quoted from memory): “It is the job of the historian to remember what others have found it convenient to...
Richard FarrJun 23, 2017Pushing dimensions at the NYTOnce again I find my morning coffee interrupted by the desire to rewrite some odd English in the The Gray Lady of Record (Shifting...
Richard FarrJun 9, 2017‘Lies’?One of today’s New York Times headlines raises an interesting point for the word nerds among us. Comey …. accuses the White House of...
Richard FarrNov 27, 2016After the cataclysm: thoughts from the deck of a sinking shipThis great ship, the USS America, is in deep trouble. Captain Barry Hope — “Audacity” to his friends — is about to be helicoptered off...
Richard FarrNov 17, 2016“Not I”: An Open Letter to American Conservatives on the Eve of the ElectionThe most frightening book I’ve read in the past ten years is not a novel by Stephen King, but a childhood memoir by the German historian...
Richard FarrSep 18, 2016Edward Albee, 1928–2016A great talent. RIP. In 1996, I had the opportunity to interview him at his home in Manhattan. Along with my introduction, this is what...
Richard FarrJul 31, 2016A conversation with Marcus Aurelius about Donald TrumpI was talking American politics recently with my old friend, the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Marco is a good person to talk...
Richard FarrJul 20, 2016Trident: yet another depressing vote in the UKThirty six years ago, as a student, I wrote to the then Minister of Defense, Francis Pym, to argue that both the enormously expensive...
Richard FarrJun 19, 2016Guns, violence, and terrorismFollowing the Orlando massacre, here are a couple of numbers, and two new acronyms, that may help to make sense of these important...
Richard FarrDec 10, 2014Torturing Dick Cheney: “Brutal, un-American, and ineffective”The Senate Intelligence Committee has now released its report on the American people’s torture of Dick Cheney, and has reached three...