Author Archives: John B Ledger

So here we are, at the end of the 2010s… Despite my ambivalence towards today being Christmas day (ambivalent to the point of having my heart and mind changed by future happenstance), dates have always held their symbolic sway. Perhaps, you could argue, too much. Nonetheless, we are about the leave the 2010s, and IContinue reading “Personal summary of the 2010s: it’s time to learn to live”

As the 2010s draw to a close, I am thinking of the late Mark Fisher. I first discovered his book ‘Capitalist Realism’ in the summer of 2010, and as I subsequently began to discover his many articles and essays kept upon his blog page Kpunk, it was like I’d opened a concealed crate inside ofContinue reading “Ignore your cynical sentiments, GE2019 is truly a chance to overcome the politics of despair.”

I recently completed a dissertation at masters level. I recently made an art and music, film odyssey that has received great feedback from nearly everyone who’s seen it. Interestingly both of these projects dealt with a lot personal experience loop of impostor syndrome: the feeling of never being good enough, whatever one has achieved isn’tContinue reading “Punching above your weight (reflections on impostor syndrome)”

In recent years I have tried hard to stay away from the gut-driven urge to be an ideologue. Perhaps this is for reasons I am about to go into. However, what I see being offered by the UK Labour Party is more like the kind of opportunity offered by a counsellor; not a rigid doctrine,Continue reading ““Not now, Jeremy, we’ve gotta get on the with show””

As you will notice from this painfully long blog I’ve kept here, there’s a lot of stuff about how bad capitalism is. No bones in my body wish to reverse this sentiment; it’s about five minutes to twelve in the life of capitalism, I’m not about to change my mind. However, I have come toContinue reading “Self-acceptance and politics”

This will be a clumsy post, a jumble of ad-libbing thoughts that have nonetheless been a concern at a deeply personal level over the past few years. I don’t think my politics has ever changed, really. The deep sense of bad and good (or healthy or unhealthy, through the language I so far identify asContinue reading “Wrestling self-help language from Neoliberal-speak (self-help in a ‘cult of self-belief’)”