Excellent!

For those who, like myself, did not know what the RSA is, it is the Royal Society of Arts.

that was brilliant!

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by dystopianfuturetoday.

That these come from a society of arts surprises me not. Having studied art at the University of Fine Arts, the lightness on facts and analysis and heavy on the self-righteous and judgmental brings me back to the kind of simplistic discussions that we were encouraged to pursue in the Uni (as long as, you know, you cover everything with a shiny coat of complicated words or nice pictures - can't have anyone going around exposing our hypocrisy by making sense).

Art has divorced itself from reality since post-modernism, perhaps even before. The argument made here that enlightenment ideals have failed and we need some new bogus spiritual (and I'm using the word in a broad sense, not talking just about religious spirituality) way of looking at the world just sounds to me like a perfect way to plunge the world into a new dark age of thought.

Enlightenment didn't fail, it was corroded over time by the usual suspects - greed, ignorance, selfishness. It doesn't need replacement, it needs renewing. "Every generation needs its own revolution" because conditions and forces on the terrain are always changing, but the ideals of reason and progress, have no doubt, are eternal and the only tools that can save the naked ape. Lazy thinking bestows us no miracles.

this one seemed very busy up front... excellent closing though. I feel inspired.