Weekend Reads: December 18, 2020

Welcome to Lowercase Weekend Reads. Our weekend reads highlight the most important articles of the week.

COVID-19 and the Failure of Swedish Exceptionalism

I always wondered why everybody raved about Sweden. It almost seemed they could do no wrong. That changed with their response to Covid. 

Radicals and  Religion: Slavoj Žižek's "Materialist" Christianity

I am a big fan of Matt McManus. He is becoming a prominent writer in the left. The guy is a machine and it is for propositions like this that he is different from your left thinkers. The left could use some religious ideas. 

Dostoevsky's Critique of the Modern World - Areo

I am going with another MacManus article here. This one about Dostoevsky and modernity. His views on nihilism were a warning sign back then that we chose to ignore and well you know what happened next.  

Keeping tax low for rich does not boost economy

Not what a conservative wants to hear. This is a summary of the research paper (PDF included in there) but I cannot say I am not surprised about the findings. I am glad to see research like this being published. 

The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret

I always knew electric vehicles promise was too good to be true. 

Ice Age art-making was a tactile, joyous exploration of the world

Top article of the week. Art has been with us for a long time. It's part of who we are and what defines us. We would not be here without the ability to tell a story through art. Cave art demonstrates that as soon as we got the ability to communicate we had the urge of making sure this knowledge is engraved and passed on.

“We evoke sentiments of the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when discussing the role of art: we live in a society where our basic needs are met, and therefore can indulge in the frivolous activity of art-making. There are exceptions, of course, such as political and religious art. But it’s rare to see art that is intrinsically woven into, and ultimately shapes, the very fabric of society. Was art always destined to be something that came only after we had satisfied our basic subsistence needs? Human evolution suggests not.”