Culture

Culture

Rolls-Royce Goes Wild

Britain's most famous luxury car marque brings woodland magic to London Craft Week

At this year’s London Craft Week (12–18 May 2025), Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is bringing a captivating artistic display that reimagines the British countryside in exquisite detail and craftsmanship.

Created by artisans at the marque’s Goodwood headquarters, the triptych artwork draws on the flora and fauna of the British Isles, presenting a woodland scene across three evocative moments: day, evening, and night. The centrepiece is a kingfisher, depicted in each panel using a range of complex techniques, transforming leather, wood, metal and thread into an immersive natural tableau.

Chloe Dowsett, Bespoke Specialist at Rolls-Royce, explained the concept behind the triptych. “We wanted the three panels to talk to each other, to be connected,” Chloe explained. “The reeds at the bottom of the first panel, which are made of metal, in rusty red and mandarin orange, are matched in the second panel with grasses in leather dyed in similar hues.”

Paul Ferris, also a Bespoke Specialist at the marque, gave further details about the cohesive nature of the artwork. “For the first time we had the chance to create something that had nothing to do with…

Culture

Stephen Cox: Myth

Mesmerising mythology at a major new sculpture exhibition in Norfolk

Mythological beasts stalk the grounds of Houghton Hall – in a good way. The stately home in Norfolk is presenting Stephen Cox: Myth, an absorbing new exhibition of the work of the British sculptor. Arranged across the park gardens and interiors, this is the most comprehensive retrospective ever of the Royal Academician’s sculpture. Covering more […]

Culture

Turner: In Light and Shade

A landmark exhibition uncovering the artist’s overlooked prints

Everyone is familiar with JMW Turner’s matchless oils and watercolours. His 1839 masterpiece, the oil painting The Fighting Temeraire, is regularly voted the greatest British artwork of all time. To mark the 250th anniversary of his birth, the Whitworth gallery in Manchester is mounting an enthralling new exhibition of his prints, equally magnetic, yet far […]

Conservation, Culture

Cristina Mittermeier

by Dr Andrew Hildreth

Rewriting the manual for planet Earth

This is the year of social distancing and remote living, in which we feel a global common purpose to beat a virus that is sweeping the world. Therefore conservation has become an afterthought as we concentrate on our own immediate survival. But, what happens in the aftermath?

What lessons are we going to draw from this global disease? Conservation photographer Cristina Mittermeier wants all of us to reverse the idea of distancing ourselves from our environment, and instead, embrace it; she encourages us to learn from the way we have acted and reacted to the disease, take some tough decisions and rewrite our current operation manual for planet Earth.

Cristina occupies a unique place among conservation photographers. A trained scientist in marine biology with published academic papers to her name (some of them are cited and referenced in new work on the impact of COVID-19 on the natural marine environment), she also attended art school to study photography. She now travels the world on behalf of National Geographic and her Sea Legacy Foundation casting her committed and enthusiastic eye on conservation issues that affect both local communities and the rest of the world. After two decades crisscrossing the planet from sea to mountain, arctic to desert, and even though each success has been hard fought, she has lost none of her energy and passion to see humanity save nature and mankind as part of the bargain.

Giant Jelly Fish. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia.

Due to her intensive travelling, Cristina had always taken photographs. It was a fortuitous collaboration with a publisher on a coffee-table book that provided the impetus to take the photography side seriously. She remembers the launch party, watching the guests open the book, not once reading any of the scientific essays in it but spending time on the pictures, “I thought, you know? Science is fundamental to what we do, but it’s a very highbrow way of inviting people into the most important conversation that humanity needs to be having. Photography on the other hand is very democratic and we all have a device today in our hands [picking up her mobile phone] that makes us experts. Therefore, we are a lot more confident to participate in the conversation because we feel qualified; it lowers the price of entry.” Photography allows everyone to appreciate and understand, irrespective of their scientific knowledge, what is happening to the natural environment.Since then, Cristina has truly taken the road less travelled. In trying to win the hearts and minds of us all, to worry and care about conservation, and the implications if we do not, she has set up organisations that seek to galvanise and focus individual effort. First was the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) in 2005.

The important part of the set up was to involve a disparate band of photographers and make sure they were part of the conservation argument, “until you start attending the important international conversations among scientists, until you embed yourself in conservation groups, pictures are not impactful,” she reasons, “how can you know what impact pictures can have if you don’t know where the conservation initiatives are going? So, I was trying to make those connections between photographers and the conservation community.”

There have been successes. The ILCP has provided a platform for photographers to play an important role in conservation campaigns such as the preservation of the Flathead River basin in Montana, which was aided by the ICLP and a well-orchestrated platoon of conservation photographers to capture the lost natural beauty in the area should open-pit mines go ahead in British Columbia, Canada.

Despite the efforts its not an easy battle to win. Localised successes where an impact has been made are belittled against the general dismissal of the need to engage in global conservation arguments. In Cristina’s view, photographers and conservationists should have a seat at the table with governments and presidents making the key decisions. Disappointingly this has not been the case for the past twenty years, there has been no change in consensus despite recent events. “I think we’re not taking it seriously enough and people have not yet made this important link between the way that we treat wildlife, as a commodity, and the assault on the natural world that it represents, with consequences that reach all humanity, including climate change. It’s a conversation that’s not loud enough and that needs to be clearer in the minds of people.”

The starving polar bear that shook the world.

Substituting goods and services we wish to buy for preserving something essential but unseen is not an easy option to offer a population conditioned on consumer choice. And therein lies the problem. We can all appreciate a poignant and compelling photograph and even the message it conveys, but rarely do we wish to take on the full implications of what it represents. Cristina’s photograph of an emaciated polar bear staggering across the tundra in Somerset Island, Canada, was one of the top ten photographs in the world in 2017. It was heart wrenching and sad; a once magnificent creature reduced to a scavenging, dilapidated, skeletal ghost of its former self.

To read this interview in full, please order your copy of our new issue now

Culture

Aldis Hodge

Pushing the needle forward

(Opening photo taken by @Briana Hodge Photography)

As a parent, you often hear stories of those overachieving kids who play several instruments, do well in school and are captain of their sports team, putting your progeny and your skills as a parent to shame. Well, Aldis Hodge is one of those. The son of US Marine Corps parents, as a kid he played the clarinet, wrote poetry, painted and acted (first part at the age of two), all of which he still does today besides film producing and learning French. He is one of the new generation of gifted artistic polymaths that make us all reconsider the definition of free time.

To a large degree, a successful career in acting is all about being in the right place at the right time. Young Aldis used to hang around film sets with his mum and his older brother Edwin. Their dedicated mother was helping Edwin with his wish to be “in the box” taking them from one casting to the next hoping he’d be selected for any role, however miniscule. Their persistence paid off and Edwin would act a bit here and there.

At one of these productions, the younger brother Aldis was offered a part as well; they just happened to want another kid. The reward from the boy’s mother: a Batman toy and so, Aldis’s two-year old entrepreneurial brain thought “Hmm, let’s get my Batman hustle going.” As an extra bonus, he happened to be naturally gifted at acting.

Starting his career as a toddler meant he didn’t really have the chance to go to drama school. As he puts it, “I was afforded the life experience to learn on the job. I think drama school can help you practice your basics but you will still have to find yourself and figure out on the job what kind of artist you really are. That’s no disrespect to any drama school, I just believe that you’re going to be put in many more tough scenarios than you can anticipate.”

Aldis Hodge and Brian Banks on the set of Tom Shadyac’s BRIAN BANKS. Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street.

He played a small role in Bed of Roses (1996), a romantic comedy with Christian Slater and Mary Stuart Masterson before landing a job – aged eight – in Die Hard with a Vengeance opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. Because of his age, he was not allowed to see this kind of movies so he had no idea who those two guys were. Jackson shared with his mum a few gems of knowledge. One of the things he told her was, “If your boys want to learn the true foundation for acting, get them on stage.” Aldis recalls that “oddly enough, as we were wrapping Die Hard, my brother and I had an audition for a play called Showboat on Broadway. It was a two and a half year tour. My brother joined first and I came in the last year and a half, when I got a little older (nine). Stage definitely gave us a better foundation, helped us figure out the fundamentals of performance. Sam was right, that’s for sure.”

Precociously smart, by the age of 12, Aldis had already realised that as an actor, you have to create the environment that you want to participate in. So he decided that he was going to stay in the business to fight for his own values. Like many other industries, Tinsel town is not exactly known for its love of rebels. They abide by a certain image and based on that, tend to put people in boxes and tell them exactly what they are not and how much they are not worth as soon as they set foot in town. Aldis shared with us a story that unfortunately is likely to happen more than we realise as an audience: “When I was a child, I got fired from a job for being too good. I did the job, a pilot for a children’s series. They tested it nationally and myself along with two other actors on the show tested higher in popularity than the actual lead. So they fired us instead of training the lead or getting a better actor for that role. It didn’t make any sense to me. Then I realized that it is a machine in the middle, a plug-in-place system where they take you off the shelf, there is the role and you have to fit.”

Less funny is another audition he remembers from when he was 11 or 12, in which “a forty year old white man looked me in my face and said I was not black enough for the role. He said that because my brother and I were educated, eloquent and articulate. This is how we would present ourselves; my mother raised us right.” All these experiences made young Aldis think about how the world looked at black people and the outlook seemed abysmal. “I hated not having control over my own autonomy. Having to be a gun for hire, only to be put back on the shelf when somebody else was done with me, made me feel worthless. I never wanted to be in that position again so I started writing scripts when I was 13 -my brother was writing too, and that gave me a different mindset for how I approached myself and the business and what I would and would not accept.”

To read this interview in full, please order your copy of our new issue now

Culture

Lessons From a Small Country

by Dr Jane Davidson

This book is being published as finally, the world feels ready to come out of the lockdown imposed to control the spread of Covid-19, a pandemic that has unfortunately taken many lives, but has also given us the opportunity, as the author Jane Davidson puts it, “To capitalize on our rediscovered kindness and sense of society, to celebrate the importance of nature, to build on our increased virtual engagement to act on that other silent killer –climate change- for the benefit of current and future generations.”

Former member of the National Assembly for Wales, Jane Davidson, proposed the Well-being of Future Generations Act during her time in government, the first legislation in the world to enshrine the rights of future generations alongside current ones. The UN Assistant Secretary-General, Nikhil Seth, commented about this initiative: “What Wales is doing today, the world will do tomorrow.”

In ♯futuregen, Davidson explores whether the concept of a legal “golden thread” of intergenerational fairness can reframe the system. Her fundamental proposition is that in a country that passes a law to protect the interests of future generations, the law in itself will drive different behaviours, both in how decisions are made and in what decisions are made.

Despite having been one of the first industrialised countries based on coal, iron and steel industries, Wales has been the first nation in the Western world to have a duty to promote sustainable development explicitly stated in its found constitution (1998). In delivering such a promise, every decision challenges the traditional way of operating and prioritises finding strategies to promote economic and social advancement in ways that avoid environmental degradation, overexploitation or pollution. Key strategies within the act include supporting local public space, a zero-waste policy, the regeneration of Swansea for well-being and wildlife, supporting agricultural communities and connecting environmental and social justice into a sustainable society.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act places sustainability at the heart of Government and requires long-term, collaborative systemic solutions to complex issues including poverty, health, ecology, environment and meaningful employment in the interests of current and future generations.

Other countries are following suit. Already in the UK, Lord John Bird and Carolina Lucas are leading a Future Generation Act through Parliament and governments in New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Canada and Gibraltar are looking at the Welsh experiment with interest.

www.chelseagreen.com

Culture, Lifestyle

Sam’s Riverside Hosts Two Celebrity Online Quiz Nights

Good news at last! One of our favourite riverside restaurateurs has come up with an ingenious plan to keep us sane and entertained. While we wait with anticipation for Sam and his incredible team to reopen their doors, we have Quiz night. Personally I can’t wait.

Drawing on his impressive address book and a few favours, restaurateur Sam Harrison, of Sam’s Riverside in Hammersmith, west London, has devised plans to launch two online Celebrity Quiz Nights, on 16 and 29 June. The initiative will be fun with a focus on supporting the restaurant’s own lifeline to reopen in July, and also raising money for the Charlie Waller Memorial HostTrust (www.cwmt.org).

Live on Zoom webinar, and kicking off both nights at 7pm, participants will pay £25 per household, with bookings made via the Sam’s Riverside website (www.samsriverside.co.uk) and EventBrite from Monday, 8 June. Sam has also assembled an impressive list of prizes for several lucky participants, including a Summer Wine Selection from Ellis Wines, a Mega Food Hamper from HG Walter Butchers and Oui Chef Fruit & Vegetables, Riverside Studios Cinema Vouchers, and also a meal for four people at Sam’s Riverside.

The quiz players will see all the celebrity hosts as they pose their round of questions, and will be able to immediately post their answers to each question on a special interactive scoring system.

The line-ups for the two quiz nights are below:

Tuesday, 16 June
Iain Morris (Co-Creator of The Inbetweeners) is hosting
Anthony McPartlin & Declan Donnelly (TV Hosts) – TV Round
Joe Thomas (Actor) – General Knowledge Round
Andy Nyman (Actor) – Theatre Round
William Sitwell (Saturday Telegraph Magazine Restaurant Critic) – Food & Drink Round
Iain Morris & Sam Harrison – West London Facts Round

Monday, 29 June
David Tennant (Actor) is hosting
Connor Swindells (Actor) – TV Round
Suranne Jones (Actor) – General Knowledge Round
Alistair Petrie (Actor) – Theatre Round
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday Restaurant Critic) – Food & Drink Round
Adam James (Actor) – West London Facts Round

For further information, check the website – www.samsriverside.co.uk
Sam’s Riverside – Crisp Walk, Hammersmith, London W6 9DN
Instagram/Twitter – @samsriversidew6

For press enquiries, contact Network London PR
Maureen Mills – Email: maureen@networklondonpr.com, Mobile – 07802 603627
Pia Marston – Email: pia@networklondonpr.com, Mobile – 07739 807050

Culture

London Art Week Summer 2020 Goes Digital

Words: Lavinia Jury

(Opening photo: An extract from “Two Amazonian Horned Frogs”, 1884, watercolour, Stephen Ongpin Fine Art)

Between the 3rd and 10th of July, the public will be able to attend London Art Week using an innovative online platform. This (Two Amazonian Horned Frogs) image, taken from a series of environmentally inspired works called Drawn to Nature: Flora and Fauna from the 16th Century to the Present, will be one of many available to view online, allowing visitors to enjoy the cultural event – albeit virtually. Stephen Ongpin Fine Art is one of 50 confirmed participants to present the finest paintings, drawings and sculptures from the last 5,000 years.

Under normal circumstances, galleries in Mayfair would be eagerly preparing for an occasion that has brought together museums, auction houses and art-enthusiasts since its launch in 2013. This year Covid-19 has forced the event to go digital. Stephen Ongpin, chairman of the event, stated that in spite of the challenges posed by Covid-19, it has provided an opportunity to explore alternative ways to unite the community, “We feel London Art Week Digital will offer a platform to dealers around the world to join forces and offer their best works to a varied audience of international collectors and curators.”

Dealers will exhibit up to 25 works per gallery side-by-side in curated viewing rooms, each accompanied by a detailed description. Visitors can discover similar works or watch videos describing the works for sale in more depth using a ‘discover more’ button and will be able to search for artists or art disciplines. The News & Features page of the website will host podcasts, videos and editorial features as well as live events and contributions from dealers, curators and auction house specialists.

As Covid-19 has ignited a new wave of digital hobbies, London Art Week serves as a fantastic opportunity to curb isolation boredom and get stuck into the art world from the comfort of your own living room. It boasts an unprecedented collection of several eras of art meaning there will definitely be something to fulfil your culture cravings.

Head to www.londonartweek.co.uk/subscribe/ to join the London Art Week community and receive updates about the event.

Culture

Madame Bovary

by Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert’s masterpiece Madame Bovary is The Folio Society’s stunning new limited edition of 750 books, each signed by the introducer, the translator and the artist. Illustrated with sensual oil paintings by Nushka and beautifully bound in Douppion silk, this exquisite edition mirrors the perfection of the Flaubert’s writing.

The story follows Emma, a rural doctor’s wife, who yearns to escape the banality of her life. A masterpiece in realism, the novel, subtitled Provincial Morals, was controversial when it was first serialised in 1856, and lead to Flaubert standing trial for obscenity. More than 150 years on, Madame Bovary’s depiction of desire, disaffection and love is as poignant now as it was then.

Originally painted in oils, Nushka’s subtle, seductive compositions are infused with a blend of American and European influences. Nushka staged the scenes she chose to paint for this edition using live models, props and costumes. The result is artwork that is both intimate and evocative, very much in line with this young artist’s style, celebrated for her honest explorations of the female body and her dynamic painterly style .

The translation selected for this edition is by Adam Thorpe, an author whose translations of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Zola’s Thérèse Raquin have received critical acclaim. In this book, he only uses syntax, vocabulary and expressions that were in general use up until the 1850s, when Madame Bovary was first published. This approach immerses readers in the ambiance of 19th century France.

In a new introduction specially commissioned by Folio from Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgard, he explains not only why Madame Bovary is the perfect novel, but also why “the novelist of today continues to write in Flaubert’s shadow.” Henry James’s 1904 piece On First Reading Madame Bovary is also included, completing this unique edition.

Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
Published by The Folio Society.
Limited edition hardback in slipcase, £245

www.foliosociety.com

www.foliosociety.com/uk/madame-bovary/

Culture

Must-See Street Art Around the Globe

Street art is great at breaking up the monotonous cement and brick landscape a lot of towns and cities have and has been recognised by the British public as art opposed to graffiti, piquing our interest and putting a smile on our faces as we pass through.

Art can take many forms and is delivered in many different settings — particularly when it’s free to view and accessible to all. Unfortunately, except for Banksy and a few more, street artists don’t get the recognition they deserve. As we are slowly coming out of the lockdown imposed by Governments to control the spread of Covid-19, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the best street art in the world and share it with you.

Puerto Rico: San Juan

Right in the heart of the Condado area in Puerto Rico, lies the colourful neighbourhood of San Juan. Fortaleza Street is decorated with a beautiful canopy of umbrellas, which has become a major attraction in the streets of the town. As well as being a visual spectacle for passers-by, they also shelter the public from the sun and the rain.

Other cities have joined in on brightening up their streets with coloured umbrellas of different shapes and sizes like golf umbrellas, including Barcelona’s Fiesta Major de Gracia, Portgual’s Umbrella Sky Project, Dubai’s Miracle Garden, Turkey’s Old Street, and the UK’s own Vinopolis Piazza near London Bridge. If you’re visiting any of these locations in the future, make sure to check them out!

Germany: Berlin

The historic Berlin Wall was once used as a barrier that divided and oppressed the people of Soviet controlled Germany. Now, it is used as a symbol of freedom through artistic and creative independence. The Berlin Wall has been graced with several iconic murals, such as Thierry Noir’s colourful cartoon heads, for something totally unique and original.

Remembering what the wall once stood for and seeing what it represents now is certainly worth a visit.

Turkey: Istanbul

Going back to 2013, a retired forestry engineer started his street art project by transforming a huge staircase from an eye-sore to a bright and colourful rainbow, injecting life into an unvisited, insignificant part of town. Not everyone was a fan and, in response, the government painted over it with a dull grey colour.

Source: Shutterstock, by blackboard1965.

This caused terrible anger in the public, who saw the government’s action as a lack of respect and of attempt to control artistic freedom of expression. This sparked the rainbow revolution! To represent unity, members of the public repainted the stairs with rainbow colours, as well as other staircases and walkways in the city.

Italy: Naples

The city of Naples has an abundance of stunning street art across the city, with detailed murals and portraits that you could swear were alive. Jorit Agoch is one of the most significant street artists in the city raising this destination’s profile as a cultural hotspot.

Il Merola Park of Ponticelli, the Park of Murals, has four great portraits — check out the range of art and attractions to have a look at.

To conclude, I’ve realised that there is amazing street art all around the world and that once I can travel freely again, I’ll definitely seek it as a way to better understand the culture of the places I visit.

Culture, Lifestyle

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

Route de France 18, CH - 1348 Le Brassus

Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, the company remains a family business today that has not been sold at any point in history, a very rare case in today’s watch world. In 2014, the Swiss manufacturer asked the architectural firms Bjarke Ingels Group and CCHE to design an expansion to their historical premises.

The result was a contemporary spiral-shaped glass pavilion to complement the company’s oldest building, blending tradition and forward thinking, offering a pristine setting for the horological creations that have made Audemars Piguet one of the most prestigious watchmakers in the world.
The curved glazing entirely supports the steel roof, while a brass mesh runs along the external surface to regulate light and temperature. The green roof further helps regulate temperature, while absorbing water. Inside, the curved glass walls converge clockwise towards the spiral’s centre, before moving in the opposite direction: visitors travel through the building as they would through the spring of a timepiece.

More than 300 watches are on display at the museum, including feats of complication, miniaturisation and unconventional designs. These watches tell the story of how modest 19th century artisans from an isolated valley at the heart of the Swiss Jura produced creations that caught the eye of metropolitan clients far beyond their borders and today, continue to captivate watch enthusiasts across the world.

The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet offers a unique perspective of the Vallée de Joux and of the history of watchmaking, a project made possible thanks to the creativity and collaboration of a host of experts, including architects, engineers and local artisans.
Traditional workshops, where some of the manufacture’s most complicated timepieces are still perfected today, have been included in the museum’s spatial experience to bring visitors in close contact with Audemars Piguet’s craftspeople.

“We wanted visitors to experience our heritage, savoir-faire, cultural origins and openness to the world in a building that would reflect both our rootedness and forward-thinking spirit. But, before all, we wanted to pay tribute to the watchmakers and craftspeople who have made what Audemars Piguet is today, generation after generation.”

Jasmine Audemars , Audemars Piguet’s Chairwoman of the Board of Directors to offer visitors a truly diverse experience, museum designer Atelier Brückner imagined the composition of the exhibition as a musical score. Interludes, including sculptures, automata, kinetic installations and mock-ups of intricate mechnical movements, give life to various aspects of horological technique and design. Visitors are also invited to try their hand at some of the ancestral techniques perpetuated by Audemars Piguet, such as satin brushing and circular graining. The visit culminates at the centre of the spiral with the display of Grandes Complications, where each watch composed of more than 648 components spends six to eight months in the hands of a single watchmaker before leaving the workshop.

The second specialized workshop at the heart of the spiral hosts the Métiers d’Art, where Haute Joaillerie creations are conceived and crafted by highly skilled jewellers, gem-setters and engravers.
The astronomical, chiming and chronograph complications that have been at the core of Audemars Piguet since its establishment are orbiting around the ultra-complicated Universelle pocket watch from 1899. Inspired by the solar system, the spherical showcases of this section evoke the astronomical cycles of time at the heart of watchmaking.

The watch exhibition ends on a rich collection of Royal Oak, Royal Oak Offshore and Royal Oak Concept.

The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet also houses the Audemars Piguet Foundation, which has contributed to forest conservation through environmental protection and youth awareness- raising programmes since 1992. Preserving forests, educating children to the environment, restoring biodiversity and valuing traditional knowledge are the Foundation’s top priorities. Its approach aims to initiate, through the projects funded, a virtuous circle of sustainable development, by and with local communities.

The Board of the Audemars Piguet Foundation is chaired by Mrs. Jasmine Audemars, Audemars Piguet’s Chairwoman of the Board of Directors. Since 2012, Audemars Piguet has fostered a creative dialogue between contemporary art and Haute Horlogerie by commissioning artists to explore its geographic and cultural origins as well as themes including complexity and precision. For the opening of its Musée Atelier, they will exhibit commissioned artworks by friends of the brand Dan Holdsworth, Quayola and Alexandre Joly, which offer a creative interpretations of Audemars Piguet’s origins in the Vallée de Joux.

www.museeatelier-audemarspiguet.com/

Culture

Humankind by Rutger Bregman

Words: Julia Pasarón

(Opening photo by Maartje ter Horst)

In general, I think it is safe to say that the most general view of the nature of mankind is not a very positive one. Most people think humans are bad. This is not just in the times we live. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the assumption is that we are terrible by definition. The whole of economics is premised on the Hobbesian notion of human nature, which sees us as rational, self-serving individuals.

However, not all thinkers and philosophers agree. Rousseau is a well known example, a firm believer in the innate goodness of humans, as it is the author of this book, Rutger Bregman. In Humankind, he makes the case for the argument that assumes that people are good, supported by a myriad of well researched examples in many scientific disciplines, from anthropology to sociology, that go back as far as cave times and move on through history up to the results of experiments conducted during the 20th and 21st century. In short, all these evidence seems to indicate that the evolution of our species is based on the survival of the friendliest, rather than the fittest, who Bregman calls Homo puppy, meaning that we can’t be all that bad after all.

As the placebo effect makes us feel good without real reason, its opposite, known as the nocebo effect, will cause a more negative effect conditions by negative expectations. In the same way, we could say that our general grim view of humanity is also a nocebo, often encouraged by the news, which tend to highlight the most dramatic and negative events, making us think that these are the most common. News have become a kind of drug to which most of us are addicted. As the Swiss novelist Rolf Dobelli put it,

“News is to the mind what sugar is to the body.”

Bregman is of the opinion that believing in human kindness and altruism is actually a more realistic way to think – and the foundation for achieving true change in our society. He is no fool though, he realises that humans are capable of terrible things and recognises that our genetic inclination to tribalism can have disturbing consequences, starting with the distrust of strangers and going all the way to genocide. However he argues that for people to get to those horrendous extremes, they have to be pushed and conditioned pretty heavily. Historical records and scientific experiments mostly indicated that humans feel an innate aversion to violence.

Every time there is a disaster of some kind, we see the best in people shining through. Following this line of thought, Bregman makes the acute observation that “the tragedy of war is that it’s the best facets of human nature –loyalty, comradery, solidarity- that inspire Homo puppy to take up arms.

The rise of Enlightenment brought the power of rational thought over everything else and Adam Smith, the author of the economic Bible “The Wealth of Nations” established the principles of the free market upon the rational principles of Enlightenment, which considered human nature as driven by selfishness. This view has ruled the way we go about governing countries and how we organise our economies until the present day, or has it? Bregman points out that increasingly, we are seeing a new kind of realism pushing through, one that expects the best from us and believes in the power of intrinsic motivation. Rather than relying on a system of reward (capitalism) or punishment (communism) to motivate people, here comes a revolutionary thought: trust people to do their best and give them the autonomy to do it. If you treat people as if they are responsible and reliable, they will be.

If you are thinking that all this sounds a bit naïve and/or pro-anarchism, maybe you are right; maybe a bit of anarchism and positive vibes is what we need to shake things up and get society and the economy moving in the right direction once and for all. In any case, I wholeheartedly recommend you to read Humankind: it is fresh, it is relevant and it is hopeful.