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jonathanld.bsky.social
Jonathan
@jonathanld.bsky.social
800 followers 4.1K following 69 posts
He/him. Editor/Writer/Translator. European citizen. All views expressed here are my own. Interaction is not endorsement.
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jonathanld.bsky.social
History offers few if any persuasive prescriptions for the future. It does, however, suggest that politics in the hands of powerful personalities who claim to have a panacea for current ills and offer sweeping change to bring about radical improvement is rarely desirable. 'Be careful what you wish for' is a useful notion to keep in my when considering the claims of potential political leaders. For my own part, I would be happy to avoid charismatic' personalities altogether in favour of leaders who, if less colourful, can offer competent, effective governance based on collective deliberation and well-founded, rational decisions aimed at improving the lives of all citizens. But that is probably another definition of utopia. Personality and Power lan Kershaw
March 22, 2025 at 9:33 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
The Nazi Party's electoral rise was meteoric: 2.6 per cent of the vote in 1928, 18.3 per cent in 1930, 37.4 per cent in 1932 - making it easily the largest party in the German parliament (the Reichstag). Hitler failed only narrowly in 1932 to prevent Paul von Hindenburg, the revered war hero, from being re-elected as Reich President. By the time he took power in January 1933 the Nazi Party had around 850,000 members, and its paramilitary wing, the SA (Sturmabteilung - 'Storm Department'), comprised some 400,000 Stormtroopers, not all of whom were party members. The Nazi movement was, then, more than three times bigger than the Fascist Party had been at the time of Mussolini's accession to power in 1922. Personality and Power lan Kershaw
March 1, 2025 at 10:33 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Those who focus on power often do so in the belief that imagination is an ephemeral, weak, unimportant thing. This is not true, but imagination does influence the world in a different way to brute force. Water can be just as destructive as fire, even though its nature is to behave in an entirely different way. Imagination matters because ideas alter beliefs, beliefs shape attitudes, and attitudes decide actions. In this way does the story of the mind play out in the material world. Love and Let Die John Higgs
February 28, 2025 at 12:28 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Dear friends of #booksky. If you’re interested in #art or #illustration please take a look at the talent on show here www.jessica-poole.com

And follow @fillyjonk.bsky.social
Linocut print depicting birds flying through the landscape.
January 28, 2025 at 2:13 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
The beach is nice
January 21, 2025 at 9:09 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Perfect winter evening reading
January 2, 2025 at 7:31 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Starry night in North Yorkshire
January 1, 2025 at 10:47 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Happy New Year!
January 1, 2025 at 2:24 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
‘Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction’ by Alec Nevala-Lee
A book cover for ‘Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction’ by Alec Nevala-Lee
November 23, 2024 at 12:05 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Spotted last year in Sweden 🇸🇪
November 20, 2024 at 1:30 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
November 19, 2024 at 10:12 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
November 19, 2024 at 10:11 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Just finished ‘The Great When’. Moore can be frustrating, but his scope and ambition pushes ostentatious to spectacular. Pass sometimes-clunky imagery and be enthralled by an inter-dimensional, shapeshifting embodiment of London crime meeting a 1940s gangster. Maybe this writer is an actual wizard?
November 17, 2024 at 11:04 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Delighted to cross paths with this #hedgehog recently. And that’s as a good a reason as any to put out a reminder that they’re listed as “near endangered” after a decline in numbers of nearly 30% in the past ten years. Here is hedgehog first aid advice www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/found-a-hedg...
November 17, 2024 at 1:26 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
November 17, 2024 at 12:53 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
I’m trying 😂
November 17, 2024 at 12:30 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
November 17, 2024 at 11:52 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
The last months and weeks have left me thinking a lot about Patricia Lockwood’s ‘No One Is Talking About This’. A #book that looks more and more prophetic by the day. Here’s one of my favourite bits 🐀
The people who lived in the portal were often compared to those legendary experiment rats who kept hitting a button over and over to get a pellet. But at least the rats were getting a pellet, or the hope of a pellet, or the memory of a pellet. When we hit the button, all we were getting was to be more of a rat. No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood
November 15, 2024 at 7:30 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
A bit of good news to brighten your day: West Midlands came third for European Capital of Innovation! A heartening reminder that the UK remains an important part of Europe despite Brexit… #goodnews #europe #UKisEUROPE
Standing united, they are the West Midlands: one of Europe’s most exciting metropoles to live, work and play, spilt across the three cities of Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, and four surrounding towns. A place called home to 2.9 million people. They have a rich history that connects them all together. Once the worlds workshop for the automotive industry, innovation shaped their city-region to become an industrial powerhouse.
November 14, 2024 at 10:31 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
October 14, 2024 at 2:26 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Missing home, make homemade crumpets
October 15, 2023 at 12:28 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
It’s taken some work but I’m slowly getting back to where I want to be with running pace 🌞🕶️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️
October 7, 2023 at 12:19 PM
jonathanld.bsky.social
Goldsmiths Prize nomination is a good excuse to share some amusing lines from Ben Myers’ ‘Cuddy’. An academic visiting from down south offers his thoughts on northern England…
The north of England was a distant universe, a faraway celestial plane onto which little light penetrated, and to which I hoped I need never return as the very thought of it evoked, at best, indifference, and at worst, sensations of dread, nausea and outright hatred...
October 5, 2023 at 8:55 AM
jonathanld.bsky.social
I’m new here. What do you like most and least about Bluesky so far?
October 4, 2023 at 9:51 AM