IN Agatha Christie’s They Came to Baghdad (1951), unassuming intelligence agent Mr Dakin tells Victoria Jones (described by Mrs Clayton as ‘an amiable nitwit with a lot of common sense’) just what the problem facing the world really is.
“The belief in a superstratum of human beings — in Supermen to rule the rest of the decadent world — that, Victoria, is the most evil of all beliefs. For when you say, ‘I am not as other men’ — you have lost the two most valuable qualities we have tried to attain: humility and brotherhood.”
The posts below are by writers of the past, who, in different times and places, saw what Mr Dakin saw, and encouraged us to expect more of ourselves and of our country.
1
If freedom and democracy are to have any meaning, the public must be able to talk back to their governors.
Picture: © Roger Kidd, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted October 8 2016
2
Ordinary people put too much faith in the judgment of experts, which is bad for us and bad for the experts.
Picture: By Georgios Jakobides (1853-1932), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 19 2023
3
Thomas Huxley believed that if schools did not ground their pupils in common sense, life’s examinations would be painful.
Picture: Photo by W. & D. Downey, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.. Source.
Posted October 11 2024
4
The English would not hand out so much unsolicited advice to foreign countries if they knew what they had been forced to endure.
Picture: © Boris Sakic, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted April 27 2023
5
William Gladstone explains that a truly ‘exceptional nation’ respects the equality and rights of all nations.
Picture: © Alex ‘Florstein’ Fedorov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted September 20 2017
6
In a Christmas broadcast in 1940, actor Leslie Howard explained why British sovereignty was worth fighting for.
Picture: Photo by RKO Radio Pictures, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 6 2016
8
A good knowledge of history is essential if we are to understand how words such as liberty and democracy are understood.
Picture: Allen &co. (1902), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted October 5 2019
9
Picture: By Donaldson Brothers, Five Points, NY, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted December 31 2024
10
The British Empire’s hostile breakup with India should have taught everyone two things: money cannot buy love, and power does not command respect.
Picture: © Sujayadhar, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted May 15 2021
11
The study of history can distract us from pressing modern problems, but failing to study it is much worse.
Picture: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 22 2024
12
Richard Cobden deplored the way that politicians in Britain justified their wars abroad by portraying other countries as barbarous and backward.
Picture: © LMarianne, via the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted June 21 2023
13
As war engulfed Europe, an Anglican bishop called on Russia to unite the world’s Christians around their veneration for the Bible.
Picture: © St Petersburg Theological Academy, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.. Source.
Posted April 12 2023