Looking Sideways: 10 Things
1. With the third and final episode of The Announcement now out and released, it has been brilliant to see the commentary and interpretations from people as they listen to and digest the series. Especially from experts and leading thinkers in the field of philanthropy and sustainable business, who know the world, and the arguments I explored, inside out.
2. I spoke last week about the spooky timeliness of some of the topics I discussed in the series, particularly the ethical and democratic implications of unelected billionaires making decisions on behalf of the rest of us.
I had a brief debate about this with Sam Haddad when she interviewed me for her excellent Climate and Boardsports (there’s a sample of our exchange above), a debate I was reminded of when I saw this story about billionaire Mike Bloomberg stepping in to fulfil the US’s Paris Climate Accord obligations in the wake of Trump pulling out.
3. Yes, I’m sharing another piece by the great Len Necefer. And yes, it is another must-read.
4. A lot of people sent me links to the USEO, “an initiative aimed at creating a more equitable distribution of wealth by providing the mechanism, money and training to enable employees to own the majority of the companies they work in”. More here.
5. “Why is my t-shirt more offensive to our prime minister than a 50-year assault on democracy?” asks Grace Tame in this piece. It’s a fair question IMHO
6. I’m woefully uninformed about the impact of PFAs, so I’m finding this comprehensive investigation into the topic very illuminating.
7. I love how skateboarding has room for ideas as esoteric as Thomas Kemp’s paper on "The Skateboarding Ethic and the Spirit of Anti-Capitalism." NPR digs in here.
8. This book is so illuminating and enraging.
Not just because the story of what happened to 14 year-old Emmet Till at the hands of a group of adult white men is so obviously barbaric and horrifying.
But because, for example, the book is also incredibly insightful about the way overseas capital backed by government shaped the Deep South; with the cotton industry essentially a brutal, intentional extractive capitalist tool designed to coerce the enslaved black population into delivering vast profits to overseas and local companies and corporations.
Take the land upon which the barn Emmitt Till was murdered in still stands. That land was previously owned by a manufacturing company called the Manchester Fine Spinners and Doublers, who had it cleared in order to bring in the sharecropping system that so impacted the local black community, and enriched so many.
That’s Manchester as in my hometown in England. Which, to put it mildly, benefitted greatly from this wealth. Sure puts that proud ‘Cottonopolis’ nickname in a new light, that’s for sure.
The collective impact this had on the ecology and culture of the area, not to mention the corrosively violent relationship between local white and black people, rings through history right up to the present day.
In this way, Wright Thompson very convincingly makes the case that decisions taken at the governmental, political and corporate level decades earlier paved the way for the cultural and economic circumstances that ultimately led to Emmett Till’s lonely, violent death.
In doing so, The Barn confirms the lie at heart of this insidious idea that you can magically ‘escape’ politics by ignoring it.
Ignore politics all you want. But it won’t ignore you.
9. Who’s seen A Complete Unknown? I thought it was great. Big up Timmy Chalamet for that performance, although everybody was brilliant in it.
I loved this Guardian piece by Laura Snipes about the impact the film had on her. One definition of good writing is that it captures something you elusively discern, but haven’t quite articulated, which is definitely the case here.
Use Db Journey discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 15% on any purchase.
10. Related: a timeline cleanser. This week my YouTube algorithm has been throwing up all manner of Dylan-related ephemera, including this remarkably good duet with Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell, which is the best thing I’ve seen all year.
Wow, interesting, I can't relate to a feeling of being "Dylan agnostic." I've always felt like he was quite polarizing. His weird voice, his incendiary writing—ya either love him or hate him. I'm sure we're exposed to him in a different way here in America... ANYWAY, I thought the movie was great (thankfully, you don't want to fuck up a Dylan biopic). It was a great encapsulation of a time and place. One thing that struck me was, compared to that grassroots 60s scene in Greenwich Village, how lonely living today feels like. Back then, if you gave a shit about a cause, you had to go find your people and do something about it. Vs now, it's more of a "I'm gonna sit on my couch and post about how I feel" vibes ... so isolating.
Came here for the action sports, stayed for the political opinions.