This week’s Economist is a double-issue for the Christmas period, and in addition to its usual coverage of politics and business, it contains a number of essays and features on slightly off-the-wall topics. Well, relative to its usual content, that is.
There’s a good piece on Socrates and how his methods of debate apply to modern-day USA; an examination of whether progress is really the yardstick to measure by; an attempt to answer the question of which language is the world’s hardest [SPOILER: it’s not !Xóõ].
My favourite piece, however, was an obituary of sorts for the last two British soldiers from World War I, who both died this year. 2009’s Remembrance Sunday was the first with no surviving WWI veterans alive, and this article details how that war has now fully passed from memory to history.
The two soldiers (Harry Patch and Henry Allingham) declined to talk about their experiences until they were over 100 years old, and when they did the images were still incredibly raw. Their thoughts towards war are recorded here, and it is quite choking to read.
Highly recommended, if a little depressing.
NOTE: The article might be behind a paywall. I’m logged in automatically, so not sure which articles are free and which aren’t.
