Hi y’all!
I guess I’ve always been a bit of a social revolutionary.
So this blog is going to be the place where I get to say everything I have to say about anything under the sun. Frequently to complain, but hopefully also to suggest how things could be done better.
Expect to see social and economic topics, and a lot of stuff related to Belgium and the UK. As a decided (or should that be undecided) renaissance man, I will be tackling my topics with a certain interdisciplinarity and, I hope, the needed dose (but not an overdose) of skepticism and irreverance. I consider myself an economist, often in the “Freakonomics” genre – that’s to say I like to apply economics to social as well as business issues. I’m skeptical about economics too though, as you’ll see… and I’ll give plenty of space to behavioral economics, “alternative” objective functions, and bounded rationality. In other words, to the numerous empirically important ways in which people don’t behave according to neoclassical precepts – even approximately or in the aggregate. A moment’s observation of the real world is enough to confirm that neoclassical assumptions are not universally appropriate, but there are, of course, many people who don’t think reality should get in the way of a good theory…
I can’t promise, though, you won’t get here any of my other passions (or irritations): politics, for one (which exists in a rather symbiotic relationship to economics); philosophy; business; travel… the list goes on. I did think for a while I needed a different blog for all these different issues. Now I see I don’t. What you get here are not themes and issues, but engagement and creativity: you get “pure subjectivity”, “myself as actor”; all very soundly postmodern. I don’t want to fetishize analysis or use the blog as a narcissistic outlet. If it don’t change things, it ain’t worth doing. To help you out though, I will classify the posts along the way.
Amongst the many things I studied, one is theology. In fact I do have a sister blog (I just love contradicting myself) devoted to spirituality, with a strong dose of psychoanalysis and social commentary. My current theological standpoints are rather different from those I held as a student, but not totally underived. Hence also the title of this blog. The need for a new earth is of course a staple of apocalyptic thinking, as it is of political discourse. But I agree with the anonymous author of the last book of the Bible: I want a new heaven too. Indeed, the existing earth is quite fine in most respects; it is our representation of it, our collective geo-ego, that I take issue with. This must be renewed if ever we are to be at peace.
Please do take a moment to subscribe to the blog using RSS (I recommend Google Reader) and post your comments here! I’ll moderate ex-post if necessary but will try to have an open comment policy. Feel free also to contact me directly.
Enjoy!
Sean
