A Dictionary for Our Times

A Dictionary for Our Times

by | Apr 30, 2020 | All Posts, Articles

Originally published in the Spring 2020 edition of STIR magazine

Extracts from David Fleming's extraordinary, posthumous Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It (Chelsea Green, 2016).  Selected for this issue by its editor Shaun Chamberlin.  Endnotes omitted.

Asterisks mark words with their own separate entry in the dictionary.  Any of these can be read in full and for free at the newly-launched LeanLogic.online

Expectations. The attitudes and assumptions which shape the way we make sense of events and plan our response. Unless our expectations are right, or at least expressed as a considered set of probabilities, we plan to fail. But, right or wrong, expectations are self-reinforcing, for we see what we expect to see. We may not realise how critical expectations are in guiding perception, but they are decisive. In the context of our perception of *art, the art historian E.H. Gombrich reminds us of . . .

My coronavirus dilemma – weighing crises against each other?

My coronavirus dilemma – weighing crises against each other?

by | Mar 12, 2020 | All Posts, Climate Change, Cultural stories, David Fleming, Economics, Lean Logic, Out and about, Peak Oil, Surviving the Future, The Sequel, Transition Movement

So, we have a sold-out London event on Monday, launching our film, book and online course. And all week I’ve been agonising — with the others involved — about whether to cancel it or not, in light of the coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing (Thursday...