It may not have the intellectual resonance of Pepys’s diary as a weblog, but I plan to make at least as many visits to Otis Fodder’s 365 days project this year. He plans to post a new, obscure mp3 file each day. Today’s offering is Red Shadow’s Understanding Marx. I don’t know how I’ve lived my life without hearing this song.
John Plender in today’s Financial Times asks, “Is Davos now poor form?” (I’d link to it, but I couldn’t find it on the FT’s site and it would probably be subscribers only in any case.)
His argument is that executives need to take better account of their role in society “in view of the legitimacy question that hovers uncomfortably over capitalism after the recent scandals. Maybe, in deference to global public opinion, business folk should refrain from attending triumphalist gatherings such as the World Economic Forum in Davos.”
I don’t think Plender has been in Davos recently. I’m sure his point is one that has been coming up in boardrooms over the last year. I understand that part of the increased focus of the Davos programme (fewer “oddball” sessions, more on corporate governance and security issues) is a response to member companies wanting Davos to be seen as more serious and business-like. I don’t think this programmatic trend is right, but I’m pretty confident that no one will use the word triumphalist to describe the mood in Davos later this month.
Kieran Healy has a wonderful quiz designed to make his students understand the profound difference between today’s world and the world of Europe 1800.
I’ve been giving some thought recently to American exceptionalism. There are classic examples, such as attitudes towards capital punishment, gun control, abortion and the absence of a true left-wing political party.
But some of the more interesting manifestations of exceptionalism are less weighty. Take sport. The most popular spectator sports in the US are all native sports that are at best minor sports just about everywhere else. It isn’t just the sports, it’s also the way they are organised.
I’ve just listened to the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup, the most sought trophy in English football. The most wonderful of the 16 matches pits Farnborough Town against Arsenal. Farnborough are an amateur team; Arsenal are currently leading the Premiership and have a team comprised almost entirely of international stars, including Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, Gilberto, Dennis Bergkamp and David Seaman. Transposed to the US, I guess it would be like my high school playing the Oakland Raiders.
On the draw, the game should be played at Farnborough’s stadium, which apparently would struggle to seat 4,000 people in considerable discomfort (actually, my high school’s stadium was a bit bigger than that). For financial reasons, Farnborough may well agree to play at Highbury, Arsenal’s stadium, which seats 38,500. It’s like something out of a Frank Capra film, starring Jimmy Stewart as the tongue-tied, folksy coach. Except it couldn’t happen in the US.