january & february 2008

40] Capture the moment

Peter Hamilton celebrates the work of eO Hoppéé and Don McCullin, two masters of documentary photography

columNs 7] Diary Ben Anthony visits the cult at the end of the world 14] Opinion elizabeth Wilson in defence of militant atheism 29] Thinker Paul Bishop reconsiders Carl Jung

33] Opinion When did torture become acceptable? asks Stan Cohen

book Reviews 44] AC Grayling reviews a Catholic attack on nonsense 45] Philip Womack admires another fable from Nobel Laureate Joséé Saramago 46] Ken Worpole visits utopian villages with Gillian Darley 46] Natalie Haynes is unimpressed by African Psycho 48] Michael Bywater is in awe of Poppa Neutrino 48] Bill Thompson is excited by the digital revolution 49] Poem Dead, Brilliant Thing by Leah Fritz

CONTRIBUTORS

Filmmaker Ben Anthony‘s diary appears on page 7. He specialises in observational documentaries, from Al-Jazeera’s newsroom during the 2003 Gulf War to the Women’s Institute. His diary is based on his stay with a cult in New Mexico, while filming The End of the World Cult for Channel 4. Visit the New Humanist blog to see what the cult’s “messiah” thinks of the film.

Elizabeth Wilson is Visiting Professor of Cultural Studies at the London College of Fashion. Her many books include Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. She defends Richard Dawkins’s outspoken atheism on page 14.

John P Clark, who profiles the superstar philosopher Slavoj ŽŽižžek on page 18, is the Curtin Distinguished Professor in Humane Letters and the Professions at Loyola University, New Orleans. His most recent book is Anarchy, Geography, Modernity (Lexington Books).

Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Green College, Oxford, Stein Ringen has worked as a journalist and in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice. He has been undertaking a major investigation of “good government” for the past 20 years. He will be discussing the ideas raised in his new book A Liberal Vision (see page 26) at an event presented by New Humanist at the Royal Society of the Arts, London, on 31 January.

JANUARy FeBRUARy 2008 New Humanist 5