- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

I know it's fashionable to get the guilt on. And it's not as if there isn't plenty to feel guilty about.

Even so - inherent dignity and inherent human rights are both unique concepts, and key cultural drivers.

Exceptionalism is SOP for empires. It's what empires do. But the idea that something better might be possible isn't quite so common - no matter how unlikely it's looking at the moment.

If there's a way to rehabilitate Euro-culture politically, it's to move that concept back to the centre and make it an anchor of integrity around which everything else revolves.

We've had so much to be cynical about politically for such a long time it's hard to imagine how that might be possible. But the alternative is likely to be worse, so it may not be such a bad thing to aim for.