Creativity is an over-used word these days…..The reality is greater and greater homogeneity. I have to rack my brains to come up with the names of individuals – including the dead - whose combination of original insights, language and sensibility makes me feel as if I'm being directly addressed. I’ve just tried to do that exercise – and here’s what I came up with….So far. Interesting that most tend to be awkward characters and out of sympathy with the prevailing mood.
I need to include more women – and Chinese!!
Name |
Nationality |
Reason for inclusion |
1938- |
UK/US |
The
insights his wide reading give of both other countries and previous periods
– and the elegance with which they are expressed |
1907-2012 |
French/US |
Historian
– with special interests in cultural history and history of ideas |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945 |
German |
Pastor
whose protests and writings against the Hitler regime continue to inspire;
and who was executed in the final days of the Second WW |
|
He
may not have been a very laudable character but his political poetry is very
powerful |
|
Peter Drucker 1909-2005 |
Austro/US |
America’s
first writer on management |
1908-2006 |
Canadian/.US |
The
breadth of his experience in both public service and academia gave him the
ability to express home truths in a pithy, amusing and provocative way – much
to the discomfort of the powerful |
Francis Fukuyama 1952- |
US |
He
writes brilliantly – on a wide range of subjects |
Johan Galtung 1930- |
Norwegian |
Initially
a sociologist but has made major contributions to other social sciences.
Occupied the world’s first chair in Peace Studies |
David Graeber 1961-2020 |
US/UK |
Anthropologist,
anarchist and activist – and prolific writer |
Chris Hitchens 1949-2011 |
UK/US |
may
lack the humility but compensates with his brilliant oratory and range of
reading |
Ivan Illich 1926-2002 |
Austro/South
American |
A
cleric who moved on to work with Paolo Freire and to brilliant critiques of
western society |
Clive James 1939-2019 |
Anglo
Australian |
A
hugely underrated essayist and aphorist |
Paul Johnson 1928- |
English |
is an extraordinarily cultured and highly
independent English historian whose book on “Intellectuals” did him no favours. “Modern Times” OK |
Arthur Koestler 1905-1983 |
Hungarian/UK |
Spanned journalism, literary and scientific work |
Deirdre McCloskey 1942- |
US |
may be too much the American centrist - but is
both highly original and a fantastically clear writer |
Pankaj Mishra 1969- |
Indian |
A bit of an autodidact essayist |
Edgar Morin 1921- |
French |
a
real original – a prolific writer who breaks disciplinary boundaries and
speaks frankly even about the most personal matters for which French
academics take him to task. This is a superbly crafted profile |
Michel Onfray 1959- |
French |
An
original, prolific and provocative French thinker – who set up a people’s
university in Brittany |
Elinor Ostrom 1933-2012 |
US |
Has
straddled various disciplines – and produced the key intellectual justification
for the new work on “the commons” |
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