Dr Mark Dooley

Philosopher, Journalist, Broadcaster

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Without our gadgets, we knew how to make friends. We also knew how to commit to a cause, a creed and to someone for life. Tragically, to my children’s generation, the idea of committing to anything for life appears alien.

Without our gadgets, we knew how to make friends. We also knew how to commit to a cause, a creed and to someone for life. Tragically, to my children’s generation, the idea of committing to anything for life appears alien.

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← At its best, commitment involves a promise to be faithful come what may. If true friendship demands such a promise, it is because friends must know they can rely on each other even in the darkest times. That is why friendship is not found but made, built up over time and cemented in trust. We played, we lived and we loved. In everything around us, we found some source of enjoyment. The entire world was our playground and it never dawned on us that, one day, it would be reduced to the size of a games console. That, however, is where we are, which is why offering an alternative to our children is not an option but a duty. We can do so simply by providing an alternative vision of life, one that is rooted in lasting attachments. Let them see the beauty of real friendship, of lasting love, and they will discover why lifelong commitments are the only true source of earthly joy. →
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Latest Book

Against the Tide is the definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume edited by Mark Dooley, Scruton's Literary Executor.  Right up until the last essay in this book ('My Year 2019'), Scruton proves himself to be at his most scintillating and controversial. He writes with passion and conviction about such varied topics as feminism, racism, fascism, Tony Blair and Donald Trump. In all cases he takes aim at those who defy conservative common sense in favour of liberal falsehoods. But with polymathic intelligence, he also writes of Michel Foucault, Male Domination, The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Monumental Egos and The Trump of Nothingness.  This book shows Scruton at his most brilliant and demonstrates how his influence will remain strong and will last. Like Christopher Hitchens' final collection And Yet, this new collection shows a writer at the height of his intellectual powers whose works will provide a philosophical legacy for many years to come. 

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