As Gramsci wrote: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: Now is the time of monsters." In an ordinary world the likes of Liz Truss would never rise to power, but in an age of monstrosity her her refusal to be deterred could just win her support amongst the political Kaiju fanciers. Scoff at your own peril.
Back in our tutorials, Truss demonstrated an unnerving ability to surprise. No other student matched her mischievous ability to read out essays on any number of the main events in British political history which always managed to say something new; not always accurate, but definitely new.
These essays were creative and self-consciously unconventional. As we argued over the hour, she almost never backed down, even when I did what all Oxford tutors try to do and present fact after fact to try to change her mind. It was frustrating at times, but as a young tutor, I really liked how she insisted her judgment mattered just as much as anyone else’s. Older tutors were probably more frustrated by how she was happy to deviate sharply from the textbooks.
There's a lot going on between the lines in this assessment.
Yes, positive- ish, but in a very backhanded way.
As Gramsci wrote: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: Now is the time of monsters." In an ordinary world the likes of Liz Truss would never rise to power, but in an age of monstrosity her her refusal to be deterred could just win her support amongst the political Kaiju fanciers. Scoff at your own peril.
...or something like that.
Here's a bit of what Stears wrote in The Times:
There's a lot going on between the lines in this assessment.