Around the Web 19

Taylor Swift 💃, Niger’s Coup 🇳🇪, and Medieval Nominalism 🏛

[Talking🗣️points for your next outing📍]

💃 Taylor Swift Is the Subject of a New University Course on Social Psychology

🧑‍💼 87% of employed U.S. adults said they would be very or somewhat interested in a 4-day workweek

🇳🇪 What caused the coup in Niger?

🍟McDonald Still Reigns Supreme

[Long Read 📰 / Watch 🎥]

[I]: We Don’t Need a New Twitter.

There is a quote I heard a while back (I am not sure of the source), it goes something like this "With my family, I'm a communist. With my close friends, I'm a socialist. At the state level, I'm a capitalist."

The import of this is that larger groups tend to have less trust and more dishonesty, leaning towards capitalism, while smaller groups foster trust and socialist values.

Having a huge number of people participating in this game, comes at its own cost.

I recall this in light of this, well written contrarian take on text-posting social media (with the goal of connecting huge number of people on the same platform.)

With such a huge number of people, it appears toxicity (that often degrades experience) is almost unavoidable. 

The author states at some point:

“There’s great value in connecting huge groups of people to the same platform, where they can be monitored and sold targeted advertisements, even if the resulting experience is dehumanizing for those involved.”

[II]: Who is Manchester United’s new £73m forward?

I know I don’t talk much about sports in this newsletter, but believe it or not, I am a Manchester United fan. Despite our improvement last season, there is something about that team that’s just not quite right. And the opening games of the new season are beginning to show us that that hypothesis is correctly articulated.

The boss, EtH has made a few purchases for the new season and this short film is about one of those new players: Rasmus Højlund

A few things about our new striker, according to the Tifo Football:

-       In August 2023, Manchester United acquired Rasmus Hoyland for 73 million pounds. Despite being only 20 years old, he had already played for four clubs in the past 20 months.

-       A year prior, he was a substitute in the Danish Super League.

-       Rasmus is from Hersholm, Denmark. He began playing football at the local amateur club, Hui, at the age of four. While he was physically impressive, he wasn't particularly fast or technically outstanding in his early years.

-       At 12, due to Hui's partnership with the top-flight side Bronber, he joined their academy. Later, he moved to FC Copenhagen where he began to show his potential, scoring 16 goals in 23 appearances. However, he mostly played as a substitute.

-       Concerns about his technical ability led him to transfer to Austria's Sturm Graz in January 2022 for a fee of 2 million euros. There, he quickly made an impact, scoring four goals in his first three games.

-       After only seven months at Sturm Graz, he transferred to Atalanta for 17 million euros, making a significant profit for Sturm Graz. His performance at Atalanta was impressive, with the head coach praising his abilities.

-       However, after a hat-trick in a Euro 2024 qualifier, rumors and attention from other clubs seemed to distract Hoyland. Despite this, his potential was evident, leading to his acquisition by Manchester United.

[III]: Peter Thiel: "Diversity Myth" 30 Years Later

Peter Thiel is the entrepreneur(-philosopher) who, through his talks, introduced me to the work of the Great Rene Girard.

I love Peter Thiel’s intellectual interests, and l endeavor to follow up with his interviews, since he doesn’t use social media (smart choice). He recently gave an interview via his VC firm, Founder’s Fund.

He talked about diversity, science, economics, religion, and politics.

[IV]: Medieval Nominalism and Postmodern Despair

This essay is written by the Theologian, Craig A. Carter. He started off by discussing Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel, “The Name of the Rose”.

The novel is a multifaceted work that delves into metaphysical ideas, detective narratives, and historical events set in Italy in 1327. The novel explores the rise of nominalism, championed by William of Ockham, through the lens of a detective named William of Baskerville.

Eco emphasizes that historical novels can reveal aspects of a period that aren't always evident in history books. He argues that certain "modern" or "contemporary" ideas have been present throughout history, challenging the notion that our era is unique. Eco's perspective is that every era has its own form of postmodernism, and human nature remains consistent across centuries.

The novel suggests that the challenges faced by modern Europe originated in the Middle Ages, a time marked by upheaval, war, and societal change. A central theme is the nature of the universe and the role of God, with characters grappling with existential despair similar to that of postmodern Westerners.

The author also draws parallels between the novel's themes and a recent headline about a Catholic archbishop's appointment, highlighting the relevance of medieval nominalism in contemporary times. Nominalism denies metaphysical realism, which underpins moral realism, leading to the idea that morality is ever-changing and unstable.

In essence, the novel underscores the cyclical nature of philosophical and moral challenges, suggesting that the dilemmas of the past continue to resonate in the present.