Attempts At A Desert-Based Theory Of Justice

Crooked Timber has asked for suggestions of "must-read articles in political philosophy from the past 25-30 years". I'm too lazy to be bothered to put together a list personally: all that trawling through old reading lists, trying to remember exactly which articles were not only good, but actually ground-breaking, seems far too tedious. I link though because someone mentions a friend of mine's DPhil thesis here. I went for a drink with him yesterday to celebrate his submission of the magnum opus, and although it is good, I suspect that expecting epoch-defining articles to be carved out of it may be a little much. Still, kudos to him, getting mentioned on Crooked Timber comment threads.

In other news, as Phil details, Silvio Berlusconi apparently thinks that clinging to power in a manner which has gone beyond undignified and is increasingly quickly straying into the megalomaniacal is a good idea, presumably because he fears that, stripped of power, he'll no longer be able to so easily deflect the consequences of being widely known to be about as corrupt as they come. One wonders if in fact he's not frightened of going to jail, but of becoming surplus to the requirements of some of his less savoury associates once he loses the trappings of power, since, even for a man as brazen as Berlusconi, this has a definite air of desperation. It seems implausible that this kind of open defiance of the will of the electorate is going to play well in any elections should the left coalition collapse, even in an electorate which seems to be more susceptible to the man's dubious charms, so it looks otherwise increasingly inexplicable behaviour. Anyway, more distribution of kudos. Alex thought he wouldn't go, even if he lost. Everyone else thought that was a bit much, even for Berlusconi. We were wrong, Alex was right. Kudos to Alex.