John Gillam

England faces a civilisational predicament of historic proportions, in no small part because we have forgotten our own history; or, indeed, have been made to forget it. Episode One of The Call of England, 'The Foundations', is out now, a documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, to find what remains of old England, and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one. A century ago, H.V. Morton drove east out of London in search of England and he could find it everywhere. I drove the same road and found that the country has been transformed almost beyond recognition, whether demographically, spiritually, architecturally, and in ways that few nations, indeed, perhaps none, in history have experienced. Watch and subscribe below.

Global Britain, where hanging a national flag of one of the constituent nations is illegal.

@AuronMacintyre confirmed on Thinking Class

This is an excellent starting point for anyone curious about why the art sector, in Britain & beyond, has betrayed contemporary creation & its role as custodian of culture. @verdur_in, mapping out this development, brilliantly summarises the concept of "post-cultural" polity. youtube.com/watch?v=Cwd8Ha…

There might be a vibe shift in politics, but it is less clear if this happens in the art world. That being said, we begin to see a decline by which the institutions are no longer able to even pretend that they're interested in their original role of properly supporting artists and art. Fundamentally, as @verdur_in argues in his interview with @thinkingclasses, "their claims become displaced". But saying that art "does X or Y for society" (which is today the paramount parameter for measuring its success) this is simply no longer sustainable. The re-alignment of the arts with things that are absolutely external to them (e.g. climate change, wellness and global health, etc.) participates to the definition of the post-cultural state. What it describes. more broadly, is that the state political interest, at the level of policy, is evacuated of an understanding of what culture is for and what it is that culture does, most notably in what potential investment in culture might do with regards to national unity, how people's sense of belonging works, etc. The post-cultural state simply gives up on trying to navigate any of this. substack.com/home/post/p-18…

15k people on YouTube have now watched me flick my hair as I talk at John Gillam @thinkingclasses about CuLtUrE. Why?! youtu.be/Cwd8HaCr8GQ

R.R. Reno confirmed on Thinking Class

@verdur_in @AudreySuffolk If only the poster realised that you would desperately like to be able to answer that question with a name rather than...*crickets* In other news, note to self: don't be so complimentary about the positive efforts of others.

@AudreySuffolk "Who funds you?!"

Some say that I'm not posting enough about my personal life. Strap in.

On this day in 927 AD, near Eamont in Cumbria, King Æthelstan united the English people and became the first Rex Anglorum. Prior to this, the land was already called England and the people had been called English for centuries but this was the start of England as a single kingdom 1099 years ago

@Leigh_Phillips Well corrected, @Leigh_Phillips - an important book. I was glad to have interviewed Jonathan recently on Thinking Class. youtu.be/OKHcEo2QrJg?si…

Not actually true. Jonathan Rose’s 2001 study, based on some 2000 working-class autobiographies, library records and archives, shows that (roughly between the advent of 19th C education reforms and the mid-century arrival of television), weavers at mills were reading Milton while butlers and maids were reading Proust. If the life of the mind is for freaks, then it turns out we all have the potential to be those freaks.

I can't bear it. To be defamed as a bigot as you die. That poor lad.

That's great to hear, @RichardLon34932. Excuse me for the sync issues in the first edit that weren't picked up. This has now been remedied. Here's the updated YouTube: youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk And the updated audios (re-download for the latest version): - Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/135… - Substack: open.substack.com/pub/thinkingcl… - Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4JXgrK…

🎧 What went wrong with Britain's cultural state and would it take to change it? Just some of the easy questions John Gillam asked me on his @thinkingclasses podcast this week. - Apple: buff.ly/LKAECmT - Spotify: buff.ly/QRNcYCf - Substack: buff.ly/o4obhY5

@thinkingclasses Please do listen to John's other interviews — he has excellent guests and is more diligent a reader of their work than just about anyone here.

@verdur_in @thinkingclasses I enjoyed it. So much that I wanted to listen to it again, which is rare. The lag due to some IT issue makes it quite difficult to follow, which is a shame

Thinking Class podcast with John Gillam - There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The Western World. This Is Why youtu.be/yrlmkVl86-0?si…

Future historians are going to be puzzled about how Britain, in the face of terminal decline - economy decaying, infrastructure crumbling - had a political & media class who spent its time on talking bins and trivial nonsense, all while utterly ignoring the impending crisis

Good to see that – as so often in international sport – the sympathies of neutrals in this match are with the victims of colonial expansion... x.com/roddreher/stat…

Announcing the Second Annual Heterodox Social Science conference at @UniOfBuckingham, 23-25 July Free but with places strictly limited so you must move quickly. tickettailor.com/events/alderbo…

Democracy is great. We just need to totally manage the entire information space so that voters don't accidentally see something outside the approved narrative and vote the wrong way. Other than that, adversarially robust.

Fair point..,