For "Justice" read "Financial Compensation"

Every day it seems there are folks being interviewed on the news over some issue announcing in sombre terms that they are only doing whatever in pursuit of justice. Supine journalists nod wisely and move on. Not a one seems ever moved to ask the proper question. "How much are you looking for in compensation?" That is the normal response from you or me but journalists it seems have not thought of that. (They could at a stretch say that they got the interview on condition that they did not ask that question). Think about it.

Historians not Idealogues

Today Eric Hobsbawm died at the age of 95. Good Innings. However - while practicing as a historian and writing many history books he was first and last a Marxist. This undermines and nullifies the content of his writing. We can not be expected to take seriously history writing from persons who start out with an ideology which distorts everything they write or say. The problem is widespread and there are all sorts of historians at work whom we should ignore. On the right we have the likes of Niall Ferguson and Michael Burleigh. Do not read work by any historian who is noticeably attached to an -ism. Historians should end by making some useful suggestions, they should not begin by having a fixed view of what they are about to explore.