Bring back the gatekeepers and the iconoclasts
It is already too late to avoid a full-blown, AI-driven epistemic crisis. We will need trust figures, but who will pay them?
Rural property rights: when the ‘baas’ mentality endures in a new form
“The handover of these title deeds on the eve of Human Rights Day,” President Ramaphosa said at a recent event conferring formal ownership on a community whose claim had taken three decades to process, “reminds us that achieving our freedom was about far more than rights on paper.”
How should we hope the Iran War ends?
The most essential objective has already been achieved in the Iranian conflict, yet many challenges remain.
The difference between ad hominem, insult, and taking things personally
(Warning: this article contains swear words and penises.) “Dear fucking lunatic,” reads the salutation of a famous open letter to Donald Trump. It goes on: “At your recent press conference – more a word salad that had a stroke and fell down stairs – you were clearly so out of your depth you needed scuba gear.”
The tragedy of following leaders
Sixty million people were butchered, burnt, blown apart, starved or otherwise reduced to dust in the two great conflagrations of the 20th Century.
Is South Africa quietly ushering in a Basic Income Grant?
There is a peculiar art to incremental governance: the ability to arrive, by degrees, at a destination one was never quite willing to announce. South Africa may be in the middle of just such a journey.
Why Zille’s Johannesburg stunts are more serious than they look
An election campaign is often described in the grand language of strategy, messaging, and ground operations. But in reality, this vocabulary, for all its value as a tool of practice and analysis, can actually be boiled down to two simpler and more unforgiving essentials: being able to win attention, and making promises people believe.
Pigeonholing wrecks intelligent public debate
Labels are sometimes useful, but pigeonholing and binary thinking also undermine the conversations on which democratic debate depends.
When family ties do tie too tight
It’s Sunday, shortly after midday, and the meat is on the braai. Noah’s cousin, Biff, has invited us to share it, together with all the usual trappings. We know them on no better than a wedding‑and‑funeral basis, so the invitation came as a surprise. Equally surprising is the fact that we are the only guests.
How to restore Roedean
The recent controversy at Roedean School in Johannesburg, which arose following the boycotting of a tennis fixture with King David, Linksfield, generated intense public debate concerning anti-Semitism and the politicisation of schools.