Britain's race problem: what politicians aren't telling you about multiculturalism - Trevor Philips

Is the phrase ‘white privilege’ increasingly out of touch? The received mainstream wisdom has generally described Britain as a white majority society in which the non-white community are invariably oppressed, discriminated against or overlooked. But a new report from the think tank Policy Exchange paints a complicated picture of multicultural Britain, showing that, actually, the experiences of ethnic minorities can’t all be grouped into one, ‘non-white’ label. In fact, minorities such as British-Indians and the British-Chinese consistently outperform the white majority, even those who are wealthier.

In this no-holds-barred interview, the broadcaster and author Trevor Phillips talks to The Spectator’s assistant editor Cindy Yu about race in modern Britain. What do the summer’s riots tell us about the real problems of integration in this country? Is the right better at dealing with the nuances of race and class than the left? And why is it that the white majority are increasingly left behind?

Critique of the Traditional Race Narrative in Britain

• A new report from Policy Exchange suggests that class might be a bigger barrier to success than race in modern Britain.
• The traditional "received wisdom" has been to focus predominantly on race, but the report indicates that not all ethnic minority experiences can be grouped under one non-white label.
• The Orthodox narrative—that the white majority runs the country, the establishment, and the media, and that everyone else is oppressed—is being challenged by reality.
• It is a mistake to view diversity through a simplistic black-white binary, as the landscape in Britain is much richer and more multidimensional.
• The idea of "white supremacy" is broadly speaking beginning to run so counter to the reality most people experience that it sounds "out of touch" and "silly".

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - Greg Mckeown

Have you ever found yourself struggling with information overload? Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilised? Do you ever feel busy but not productive? If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is to become an Essentialist.

In Essentialism, Greg McKeown, CEO of a Leadership and Strategy agency in Silicon Valley who has run courses at Apple, Google and Facebook, shows you how to achieve what he calls the disciplined pursuit of less. Being an Essentialist is about a disciplined way of thinking. It means challenging the core assumption of ‘We can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time'.

By applying more selective criteria for what is essential, the pursuit of less allows us to regain control of our choices so we can channel our time, energy and effort into making the highest possible contribution toward the goals and activities that matter. Using the experience and insight of working with the leaders of the world's most innovative companies and organisations, McKeown shows you how to put Essentialism into practice in your own life, so you too can achieve something great. Essentialism is a systematic approach to focusing on what's truly important by eliminating non-essential activities and commitments. It's about doing fewer things, but doing them better, making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy to achieve maximum results.

Key Principles

1. Explore and Evaluate: Carefully assess opportunities, recognizing that not everything is equally important.
2. Eliminate: Ruthlessly cut out non-essential tasks, activities, and commitments that don't align with core goals.
3. Execute: Create systematic routines and practices that make executing essential tasks easier and more effective.

The Unstoppable Power Of Reframing Your Experiences - Chris Williamson with Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker. Tony Robbins once famously asked, “How can the worst thing that ever happened to you become the best thing?” This highlights the power of reframing. By changing your perspective on life events—whether they’re objectively true or not—what matters is their usefulness. If a perspective serves you positively, it works, and that’s the real power of perspective. Expect to learn how you can reframe your perspective for the better, what the term ‘Useful Not True’ means, why your thoughts cannot be trusted nor should you believe each one that pops into your head, why people don’t bond over facts but rather perspectives, how to not become discouraged if you are thrown off course, how to make better decisions and make the best choice possible and much more...

The Philosophy of Usefulness Over Truth

• Derek Sivers' central thesis is that he chooses beliefs because they are useful, not because they are necessarily true.
• Definition of True: Truth is narrowly defined as something absolutely, necessarily, objectively, and empirically true—something any creature or machine could observe and agree upon, such as "squares have four sides. Everything else is open to reframing.
• Applying Usefulness: Beliefs are chosen as a countermeasure to one's natural tendencies. For example, deliberately choosing to believe "men and women are the same" might counterbalance a personal tendency to view them as too different. Thinking of marketing as "being considerate" is a more useful approach than viewing it as spamming or annoying people.
• Functionally True but Literally False: Many successful life strategies fall into this category. Examples include treating a porcupine as if it can throw its quills (protects you from injury) or avoiding walking under ladders (protects you from objects falling on your head). Another is always treating a gun like it is loaded.
• Literally True but Functionally False: Conversely, a literally true belief, such as "free will doesn't exist," can be functionally false because adopting it often results in people becoming nihilistic, fatalistic, or apathetic.

Why Do Humans Actually Have Emotions? - Chris Williamson with Dr Laith Al-Shawaf

Dr Laith Al-Shawaf is an evolutionary psychology researcher and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCCS. Humans have a wide range of emotions. But why do we feel anything at all? Why do we actually have emotions and how did they come about? Expect to learn why humans evolved to have emotions, whether some emotions are more basic than others, evolutionary explanations for joy, anger, disgust, envy, awe, happiness and much more…

The Adaptive Function of Emotions

• Emotions are adaptive and serve a function, contrary to the long history in psychology and philosophy of viewing them as irrational forces that cause trouble.
• Each emotion has an evolved function tied to survival or reproduction, or goals tributary to them, such as navigating status hierarchies, building friendships, and repairing relationships.
• Examples of functions include:
  • Fear protects us from danger and helps us escape.
  • Disgust protects us from pathogens and contamination.
  • Anger helps us negotiate with people who are treating us poorly or blocking our goals, essentially saying, "treat me better or I will impose costs on you or withhold benefits".
  • Romantic love serves to bond two people together in a pair bond.
  • Envy is useful in navigating status hierarchies.
  • Guilt functions to repair relationships where we have harmed a valued person.
  • Sadness functions to solicit aid from loved ones and helps one withdraw, conserve resources, and recalibrate if stuck in a non-working situation (e.g., a bad job or marriage).
• Emotions advocate for our interests in the broader sense, which includes survival, reproduction, building networks of kin and friends, and having loving relationships; it is not meant in a purely selfish way.