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Review: ‘Power Trip’ Ably Guides Us Through the History of Energy

By Jonathan A. Knee

• May 17, 2019

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The classic definition of energy, Michael E. Webber tells us in his illuminating book, “Power Trip: The Story of Energy,” is “the capacity to do work.” As such, energy is “the builder of civilization,” and the history of the world can be seen as a history of our collective relationship to energy.

And yet, as an unseen force, energy remains poorly understood. Indeed, the Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman famously lamented about a half century ago that “in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is.” Professor Webber seeks to shed light on this simultaneously ubiquitous and mysterious phenomenon. “Power Trip” offers intertwined essays that chart the history of six key uses of energy — water, food, transportation, wealth, cities and security — and, importantly, quantifies the trade-offs inherent in every significant innovation along the way.

Food production, for instance, was revolutionized in the second half of the 20th century. The introduction of synthetic fertilizers and various chemicals increased crop productivity and reduced losses, but those innovations came with an environmental cost. The parallel shift from labor-intensive to energy-intensive farming also drove huge social changes; less than 20 percent of the population remains in rural areas.

“Power Trip” also reminds us of both the importance of long discarded forms of energy and the social consequences of various advances. How many of us know that wars were once fought over access to salt, a primary means of food preservation long before the availability of refrigeration? And few probably appreciate the role of the Franklin stove in reducing female fatalities from burns (the second leading cause of death among women in colonial times) and indoor pollution. Nor are most of us aware, even today, that indoor air pollution caused by the use of solid fuels in simple cookstoves in many parts of the world is responsible for 2.5 million premature deaths of women and children each year.

The central trade-off that animates “Power Trip,” however, is between the existential imperative of global decarbonization to staunch our march toward self-destruction and the moral imperative of increasing energy access to the “more than one billion people without access to electricity, piped water or sanitation.” Notably, the efficiency improvements in the United States, combined with the slowing of growth in energy consumption, has actually resulted in a reduction in our emissions domestically. The problem, of course, is that to achieve a reduction in overall global emissions while improving basic access to water and power will require significantly more aggressive efforts.

On the questions of what to do and where we are going, “Power Trip” does not provide much of a road map. Professor Webber crams a head-spinning number of lists and imperatives into a 10-page epilogue on “the future of energy.” We are directed to consider “six demographic trends, three technological trends and one overarching environmental trend” and told that, while “there are no universal, immediate solutions,” there are a variety of principles we would do well to follow. Long-term, global thinking is good, old clichés and false choices are bad. Hard to argue with that, but the complex underlying policy issues raised could have used a less perfunctory treatment.

“Ultimately,” Professor Webber argues, “we need some combination of new production, increased energy access, smarter solutions and a cultural emphasis on efficiency and conservation.” This exhortation may just seem like an anodyne slogan but, coming at the end of the book’s careful historical survey, it reflects something much more profound. Effectively addressing our energy challenges will require us to simultaneously confront large political, technological and social obstacles. In short, it is precisely the kind of complex policy problem the current polarized era feels structurally incapable of intelligently addressing.

Jonathan A. Knee is professor of professional practice at Columbia Business School and a senior adviser at Evercore Partners. His latest book is “Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education.”

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The Story of Energy

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Power Trip: The Story of Energy Hardcover – May 7 2019

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• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Basic Books
• Publication date May 7 2019
• Dimensions 16.51 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
• ISBN-10 1541644395
• ISBN-13 978-1541644397
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books (May 7 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541644395
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541644397
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 500 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
• #279 in Oil & Energy Industry (Books)
• #289 in Energy in Physics
• #293 in Energy Physics (Books)

About the author

Michael e. webber.

Dr. Michael E. Webber is the Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources at the University of Texas at Austin and CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a $2 billion cleantech venture fund. From September 2018 to August 2021, Webber was based in Paris, France where he served as the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, a global energy & infrastructure services company. Webber’s expertise spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. His book Power Trip: the Story of Energy was published in 2019 by Basic Books with an award-winning 6-part companion series that aired on PBS, Amazon Prime and iTunes starting Earth Day 2020. He was selected as a Fellow of ASME (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and as a member of the 4th class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars, which is a leadership training program organized by Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton. Webber has authored more than 400 publications, holds 6 patents, and serves on the advisory board for Scientific American. A successful entrepreneur, Webber was one of three founders in 2015 for an educational technology startup, DISCO Learning Media, which was acquired in 2018. Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He was honored as an American Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow on four separate occasions by the University of Texas for exceptional teaching.

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The Story of Energy

• 4.0 • 3 Ratings

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A global tour of energy--the builder of human civilization and also its greatest threat. Energy is humanity's single most important resource. In fact, as energy expert Michael E. Webber argues in Power Trip , the story of how societies rise can be told largely as the story of how they manage energy sources through time. In 2019, as we face down growing demand for and accumulating environmental impacts from energy, we are at a crossroads and the stakes are high. But history shows us that energy's great value is that it allows societies to reinvent themselves. Power Trip explores how energy has transformed societies of the past and offers wisdom for today's looming energy crisis. There is no magic bullet; energy advances always come with costs. Scientific innovation needs public support. Energy initiatives need to be tailored to individual societies. We must look for long-term solutions. Our current energy crisis is real, but it is solvable. We have the power.

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Nick norman enjoys a bold attempt to track the past, present and future of energy.

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There’s a scene in the film Apollo 13 where one of the engineers delivers a classic line which cuts through all the deliberations that have taken place up until then: “ power is everything ” . Indeed it is; without sufficient onboard power, there is no chance of returning the three astronauts safely to Earth. As we know, the story ends well, but perhaps it provides a metaphor for the issues tackled in Michael Webber’s book, Power Trip.

What Webber sets out to do in 250 or so pages is to trace the history of energy or power and how completely dependent on its availability we and our societies have become. He tackles this by way of six chapters which focus on water, food, transportation, wealth, cities and security. In each case, we’re treated to a historical introduction followed by an analysis of our increasing dependency on energy in that particular domain, usually with some personal anecdotes along the way.

What struck me most was not so much the basic factual material, much of which I either knew or is fairly obvious when you think about it, but rather just how interconnected everything is – and just how utterly dependent we have all become on energy available, literally in some cases, at the flick of a switch. All of this comes at a price, of course, not just in financial terms but increasingly in terms of the environmental costs associated with how all this energy is produced. Webber addresses this point as well and I’m pleased to see that he goes beyond the obvious impact of burning fossil fuels and considers some of the problems that come with renewables, not least biofuels (and how their production all too easily competes with food production).

The environmental costs of energy production are one thing, but we cannot ignore concerns around security of supply and Webber examines this in his final chapter. One need look no further than an event that took place on the day I’m writing this review: the attack on Saudi Aramco’s largest oil processing plant. Wars have been and will no doubt continue to be fought over energy (and resources generally).

What’s in store for us, Webber explores in an epilogue titled “The Future of Energy”. If I have any criticism of the book, it’s with this section. The problem is not so much with what it does include as with what it doesn’t. I’d like to have seen a little more on future challenges and how we might address them. It’s not just about technological solutions, I know. Energy efficiency and social change will play their part (and a big one), but readers might have valued some discussion on, for example, the prospects for nuclear fusion and how to address the many issues associated with greatly increased use of batteries such as recyclability and the current reliance on rare elements in their manufacture. Despite those concerns, however, in an expanding library of books on global change and what we’re going to do about it, Webber’s will be a useful addition to the shelves.

Nick Norman is a professor of chemistry at the University of Bristol .

Power Trip: The Story of Energy By Michael E. Webber Basic Books, 304pp, £25.00 ISBN 9781541644397 Published 20 June 2019

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The Power Trip: A Novel Paperback – October 1, 2013

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From blockbuster bestselling author Jackie Collins comes a sexy, sun-drenched thriller set on a state-of-the-art luxury yacht off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. The Power Trip ― it's the journey of a lifetime. Take if it you dare… Come aboard the Bianca 's maiden voyage. Here you'll meet Aleksandr Kasianenko, a billionaire Russian oligarch, and his sexy supermodel girlfriend, for whom the yacht is named. Other couples in tow include Hammond Patterson, a driven Senator, and his lovely but unhappy wife, Sierra; Cliff Baxter, a bachelor movie star, and his ex-waitress girlfriend, Lori; Taye Sherwin, a famous black UK footballer, and his interior designer wife, Ashley; Luca Perez, a Latin singing sensation with his older decadent English boyfriend, Jeromy; and Flynn, a maverick journalist, with his Asian renegade female friend, Xuan.You'll also meet Russian mobster Sergei Zukov, a man with a grudge against Aleksandr, and Sergei's Mexican beauty-queen girlfriend, Ina, whose brother, Cruz, is a master pirate with orders to take the Bianca and its illustrious guests for ransom. Ahoy! "This sea of extravagant creatures, whose sexual tastes lie on the fringe of raunchy, is abashedly rousing, and what more could one hope for from Collins?" ― Publishers Weekly

• Print length 544 pages
• Language English
• Publisher St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date October 1, 2013
• Dimensions 5 x 1.16 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 1250842433
• ISBN-13 978-1250842435
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"Climbing aboard with this sea of extravagant creatures, whose sexual tastes lie on the fringe of raunchy, is abashedly rousing, and what more could one hope for from Collins?"― Publishers Weekly " The queen of chronicling the lives of the jet set, Collins toggles rapidly between plotlines, keeping the action moving and the sex abundant. Glitzy and exciting."― Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin (October 1, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250842433
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250842435
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.16 x 8 inches
• #20,673 in Billionaire Romance
• #23,051 in Contemporary Women Fiction
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Jackie collins.

There have been many imitators, but only ever one Jackie Collins!

The iconic author has been called a “raunchy moralist” by the late director Louis Malle and “Hollywood’s own Marcel Proust” by Vanity Fair magazine.

With over half a billion copies of her books sold in more than forty countries, and with thirty one New York Times bestsellers to her credit, she is one of the world’s top-selling novelists.

From glamorous Beverly Hills bedrooms to Hollywood movie studios; from glittering rock concerts in London to the yachts of Russian billionaires, Jackie Collins chronicles the scandalous lives of the rich, famous and infamous from the inside looking out.

“I write about real people in disguise,” she once said. “If anything, my characters are toned down - the truth is much more bizarre!”

Born in in London, England, her first novel, "The World is Full of Married Men" was published in 1968 and established Collins as an author who dared to step where no other female writer had gone before. She followed it year after year with one successful title after another, including “The Stud” and “The Bitch”, both adapted into films in the 1970s starring her actress sister, Joan Collins.

The 1980s saw Jackie finding her stride when she published "Chances”, the first installment in a sprawling family saga introducing the strong, sexy and powerful Lucky Santangelo. Soon after came the seminal 80s blockbuster, “Hollywood Wives” which was adapted into one of ABCs highest rated mini series.

The 90s and 2000s saw Jackie on a wild writing streak, satisfying her devoted readers with hit after hit, including “Lady Boss”, “Hollywood Kids”, “Poor Little Bitch Girl” and “The Power Trip” among many others.

Jackie was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the Queen of England in 2013 for her services to literature and charity. When accepting the honor she said to the Queen 'Not bad for a school drop-out' - a revelation capturing her belief that both passion and determination can lead to big dreams coming true!

Jackie was a long time supporter of AIDS Project LA, HIV & AIDS research and equality for the LGBT community. She was widely known for writing characters who reflected a whole spectrum of society.

In addition to her long and lustrous career, Jackie valued her family above all else, including her three daughters and six grandchildren. She wrote every one of her manuscripts by hand, as well as being widely known for her photographic skills, constantly documenting family, friends and her celebrity circle.

Jackie died of breast cancer on September 19th 2015, six years after being given a stage 4 diagnosis, which she chose to keep private until the final weeks of her life.

She believed in the power of positive thinking and during that six years continued to write five more books and traveled the world on yearly book tours. Her last novel, “The Santangelos”, the thrilling final installment in the epic nine book series, was released in 2015, just weeks before her death.

Jackie Collins was a creative force, a mentor and trailblazer in fiction, and an inspiration to all who knew her, in addition to the millions of readers whose lives she enriched through her novels for over four decades.

In her last interview before her death, Jackie said "I want people to see me as an example of strength - and doing things my way...'"

The Jackie Collins 'way' will most definitely live on through her absorbing characters and compulsive plot lines for years to come

A compelling documentary about Jackie's life and trailblazing career 'Lady Boss-The Jackie Collins Story' produced by Academy Award Winning Passion Pictures, CNN Films, BBC Arts & AGC productions will be released in 2021.

Visit Jackie's website at www.JackieCollins.com to delve into Jackie's world and sign up for the #GetYourJackieCollinsOn newsletter - for book promos, all the latest news on all things Jackie and bonus exclusives!!

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POWER TRIP: A SNEAK PEEK at the Ultimate POWER RECORDS Guide

Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 2, 2022 | 5 comments

Jason Young’s latest is shipping now…

We’ve been waiting for it as anxiously as you have, but now it’s on it’s way: Jason Young’s Power Trip — a comprehensive guide to all things Power Records.

Jason wrote two pieces for us over the last few weeks — THE TOP 13 POWER RECORDS LPs — RANKED and THE TOP 13 POWER RECORDS Book and Record Sets — RANKED  — but now we can share with you a SNEAK PEEK at the book itself, published via Jason’s Oldtimes Blue Ribbon Digest .

And this is only a taste of the 160-page, full-color paperback (which lists for $25). Man, I cannot wait for mine to arrive. To get yours — as well as Young’s The Wonderful Artwork of Wax Wrappers and An Old School Halloween, click here .

— The TOP 13 Trading Card WAX WRAPPERS — RANKED, by Jason Young. Click here .

— The TOP 13 Frank Romano BEN COOPER Costume Designs — RANKED, by Jason Young. Click here .

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Author: Dan Greenfield

May 2, 2022

That is some neat stuff.

May 3, 2022

I was fortunate to be a kid when these came out. I got a few power records for my birthday over the years. The Batman records were the best and fit in. Iceland with my comic books.

May 9, 2022

Where can you order this?

May 10, 2022

The link is in the story!

August 21, 2023

Looks like the site to order this from is gone. Anybody have any updated info?

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Power Trip: A Decade of Policy, Plots and Spin by Damian McBride – review

T his is a book you should judge by its title. "Power trip" says all that is warped about the author and his conception of politics. To him, it is an addiction and a game, Grand Theft Auto transplanted to Westminster. As the body count from his drive-by shootings piles up, right or wrong never comes into it. As for beliefs, they are always incidental to his only important cause – engorging the influence and notoriety of Damian McBride by making himself indispensable to Gordon Brown. It tells us something ghastly about his former boss – or, rather, confirms long-held suspicions – that McBride judged that the best way to bring happiness to his master was to engage in repeated character assassinations of Labour colleagues.

McBride isn't an idiot and, when sober , he has a sophisticated mind and can turn a phrase. So in both the book and the interviews he has given to promote it, he has acknowledged how destructive he was. He seems to think that if he calls himself a "nasty bastard" often enough we will somehow find that redeeming. Some commentators have fallen for it. "At least he's honest," they have said of his confessions to practising "the dark arts of political spin" – itself a dishonest euphemism that semi-glorifies what should be called lying and smearing. Damian, the sinner repentant? I am not buying it. What about penance? Forgiveness is not found by trousering a large cheque from a rightwing newspaper so that it can serialise your repellent activities to coincide with the Labour conference. Most disgusting of all is his attempt to gain our understanding for his amoral behaviour by insinuating that the fundamental fault lies not with him, but with the "cut-throat" world of politics into which he fell, "sucked in like a concubine at a Roman orgy". Thus he seeks to present himself as some sort of victim. Pass the sickbag. It is just another of his dirty spins to try to tar everyone else in politics with his shitty brush.

There's a further reason why his claimed regrets stink of insincerity. He still sounds terrifically pleased with himself. It is with bragging relish that he details how ruthlessly he stitched up this minister or how artfully he manipulated that journalist. He tries to tempt us to admire him despite ourselves. I may have been a bad boy – this is his line – but you've got to admit I was terribly good at being wicked.

Truth to tell, he wasn't. This book can be shocking without being in the least bit surprising because its author's reputation was already well-established. He acquired the sobriquet "McPoison" when he was still in post because he was a bungling assassin who left his grubby dabs all over his victims. McBride relates how he became the prime suspect of a leak inquiry. He is interviewed by two retired detectives from special branch, whom he attempts to gull by pointing the investigators in the direction of an entirely innocent party. When they cannot prove their suspicions, McBride pats himself on the head for using a practised tactic of "lying-without-lying". Yet it is a hollow escape. He has enough self-awareness to concede that "everyone in government believed I was responsible" and "it didn't do Gordon any favours either, once people worked [it] out."

Even when he becomes semi-conscious of how appallingly and recklessly he is behaving, he is too in love with his own cunning to stop, too intoxicated with his power and his capacity to use it to hurt other people. He is also too pissed. "I was by any measure an alcoholic, albeit probably the dictionary definition of a functioning one." Not so sure about the "functioning". Having set off an uproar with a briefing about some EU negotiations, he gets utterly wasted and is therefore oblivious to the trouble he has unleashed. He wakes on the sofa at around midday to find 26 missed calls on his mobile, a number of them from Brown saying: "This. Is. Gordon. Call. Me. Immediately." On another occasion when McBride has gone missing, Ed Balls finds him lying drunk in a hotel room and resorts to dousing him with a bin of cold water.

Apart from the author, who else does this book indict? It is a poor advertisement for the civil service selection process. He got into government in the first place because he passed the entry tests. These include an interview with a psychiatrist, which is supposed to establish whether a candidate is an egomaniac, a liar or a potential security risk. As he writes, for this book is not without some wit, "at no point" were "my violent competitive streak, excess drinking, duplicitous instincts, preference for football over work" regarded as reasons not to appoint him.

People ask: "Why did no one blow the whistle?" Here was the problem. The client group of journalists who swallowed his stuff and regurgitated it into the public domain were not going to bite the hand feeding them. That left everyone else with the same difficulty as the ex-special branch detectives who quizzed him about that leak. Unless one of his collaborators was willing to speak out, it was hard to turn strong suspicions into cast-iron proof.

It was all done, says McBride, out of devotion to "the greatest man I ever met". He tells us that there was an "unspoken" understanding with his master that Brown would not "question my methods". Even if true, that is reprehensible in itself. Brown was famous for his attention to detail and his obsession with media coverage. Are we seriously to believe that he never once inquired about his spin doctor's "methods"? To my certain knowledge, Brown was given frequent and authoritative warnings. Gus O'Donnell , the cabinet secretary, urged him to dispose of McBride. Jacqui Smith , Harriet Harman , Alistair Darling and Douglas Alexander were among the many cabinet ministers who protested directly to Brown. To them all, he would claim that he knew nothing. I am prepared to believe that he was not always aware of the detail of every dirty trick if only because he decided to "look the other way", to use one of McBride's favourite phrases.

Yet here we have, from the hatchet man himself, plenty of evidence that Brown was the opposite of an innocent bystander. McBride describes one occasion when Brown instructs him to leak at a European summit. "Be careful – don't do it with any British guys." When one of McBride's schemes goes wrong, Brown asks: "Is all that business over with?" When Brown fears that a McBride leak will upset Buckingham Palace, he rings up at five in the morning screaming: "How can you do this to me? This is the Queen! THE QUEEN!" On yet another occasion when McBride has caused mayhem, Brown asks: "Why do you do this stuff?" Why? Because McBride believed that is what Brown wanted from him. After all, if Brown didn't want it, he would have sacked him.

It was Brown who created and presided over the brutish, treacherous, gangland culture in which his hitman operated. Even McBride laughs at his former capo's "comically irrational outbursts" and propensity to "unleash a tremendous volley of abuse, usually just a stream of unconnected swear words". Then there is Brown's default response to things going wrong – which is to blame someone else. "Blair!", roars Brown about a self-inflicted blunder. "Blair made me give him the figures. Why has he done this to me?"

The real villain of the period was not McBride. He was just the vicious little monkey. The organ grinder was Gordon Brown , the man who prated about his "moral compass" while allowing his smear merchant to trash the characters of colleagues. In the end, the reputation it most fouled was his own. Which is a sort of justice.

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Karl Marx 1845

Theses On Feuerbach

Written : by Marx in Brussels in the spring of 1845, under the title “1) ad Feuerbach”; Marx’s original text was first published in 1924, in German and in Russian translation, by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Marx-Engels Archives, Book I, Moscow. The English translation was first published in the Lawrence and Wishart edition of The German Ideology   in 1938. The most widely known version of the Theses is that based on Engels’ edited version, published as an appendix to his Ludwig Feuerbach in 1888, where he gave it the title Theses on Feuerbach ; Translated : by Cyril Smith 2002, based on work done jointly with Don Cuckson.

The main defect of all hitherto-existing materialism — that of Feuerbach included — is that the Object [ der Gegenstand ] , actuality, sensuousness, are conceived only in the form of the object [ Objekts ] , or of contemplation [ Anschauung ] , but not as human sensuous activity, practice [ Praxis ] , not subjectively. Hence it happened that the active side, in opposition to materialism, was developed by idealism — but only abstractly, since, of course, idealism does not know real, sensuous activity as such. Feuerbach wants sensuous objects [ Objekte ] , differentiated from thought-objects, but he does not conceive human activity itself as objective [ gegenst�ndliche ] activity. In The Essence of Christianity [ Das Wesen des Christenthums ] , he therefore regards the theoretical attitude as the only genuinely human attitude, while practice [ Praxis ] is conceived and defined only in its dirty-Jewish form of appearance [ Erscheinungsform ] [1] . Hence he does not grasp the significance of ‘revolutionary’, of ‘practical-critical’, activity.

The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth, i.e. , the reality and power, the this-sidedness [ Diesseitigkeit ] of his thinking, in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking which is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.

The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of changed circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change circumstances and that the educator must himself be educated. Hence this doctrine is bound to divide society into two parts, one of which is superior to society. The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-change [ Selbstver�nderung ] can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice .

Feuerbach starts off from the fact of religious self-estrangement [ Selbstentfremdung ] , of the duplication of the world into a religious, imaginary world, and a secular [ weltliche ] one. His work consists in resolving the religious world into its secular basis. He overlooks the fact that after completing this work, the chief thing still remains to be done. For the fact that the secular basis lifts off from itself and establishes itself in the clouds as an independent realm can only be explained by the inner strife and intrinsic contradictoriness of this secular basis. The latter must itself be understood in its contradiction and then, by the removal of the contradiction, revolutionised. Thus, for instance, once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must itself be annihilated [ vernichtet ] theoretically and practically.

Feuerbach, not satisfied with abstract thinking , wants sensuous contemplation [ Anschauung ] ; but he does not conceive sensuousness as practical , human-sensuous activity.

Feuerbach resolves the essence of religion into the essence of man [ menschliche Wesen = ‘human nature’] . But the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In reality, it is the ensemble of the social relations. Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence is hence obliged:

1. To abstract from the historical process and to define the religious sentiment regarded by itself, and to presuppose an abstract — isolated - human individual.

2. The essence therefore can by him only be regarded as ‘species’, as an inner ‘dumb’ generality which unites many individuals only in a natural way.

Feuerbach consequently does not see that the ‘religious sentiment’ is itself a social product , and that the abstract individual that he analyses belongs in reality to a particular social form.

All social life is essentially practical . All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.

The highest point reached by contemplative [ anschauende ] materialism, that is, materialism which does not comprehend sensuousness as practical activity, is the contemplation of single individuals and of civil society [ b�rgerlichen Gesellschaft ] .

The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society or social humanity.

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

1. “Dirty-Jewish” — according to Marhsall Berman, this is an allusion to the Jewish God of the Old Testament, who had to ‘get his hands dirty’ making the world, tied up with a symbolic contrast between the Christian God of the Word, and the God of the Deed, symbolising practical life. See The Significance of the Creation in Judaism , Essence of Christianity 1841

Deutsch | 1938 translation of Marx’s original | 1969 Selected Works translation | Engels’ 1888 version

Marx/Engels Works Archive | Study Guide | Engels on Feuerbach | Image of Thesis 11 | Works Index

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Politics latest: Key voter on Humza Yousaf's future will make proposals to 'help him out of a tight corner'

Ash Regan, who is the Alba Party's sole MSP and potentially the deciding vote in a no-confidence motion in Mr Yousaf, is expected to meet with the first minister. Listen to this week's Politics at Jack and Sam's as you scroll.

Sunday 28 April 2024 11:15, UK

• Sunak refuses to rule out July general election
• Watch in full: Trevor Phillips interviews the prime minister
• Key voter on Yousaf's future will make proposals to 'help him out of a tight corner'
• Connor Gillies:  First minister must reset relations with very people he's burned bridges with
• Salmond asked Alastair Campbell to negotiate on behalf of Scotland if it gained independence
• Explained: How did we get here - and what happens next?
• Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam's
• Sam Coates explains why the local elections matter
• Live reporting by Brad Young

By Trevor Phillips, presenter

I've known Rishi Sunak slightly for almost a decade, having first met him after he penned a thoughtful, comprehensive, well-received report on Britain's minority communities, which I'd say is still the best of its kind.

Sitting down to interview him in a state-of-the-art defence facility this week, I could still see the same energetic, likeable problem solver that I met back then, even if he's now surrounded by the prime ministerial cavalcade of aides, security and media.

That Peloton and fasting regime are clearly doing their job. He's keen to show his detailed grasp of the situation, whether that's welfare reform, defence or migration. It's easy to see why he shone in Silicon Valley and thrived in the Treasury.

However, in the political world he chose, there's a downside to being highly intelligent, disciplined, and super-focused on delivery, as they might say in California.

He betrays frustration with what he - not wholly unjustifiably - sees as a media obsession with polls and presentation.

Unfortunately, as Enoch Powell once pointed out, a politician who complains about journalists is like a sailor who doesn't much fancy being at sea.

He rightly points out that it's his job to make hard choices - for example, funding the defence budget even if it's at the expense of schools and hospitals.

But a political leader should also know that what follows is an even harder job: to cajole the electorate into supporting that choice - and the voters aren't always governed by the logic of the computer.

Read on here...

Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, has said her party will not be changing its mind about supporting the upcoming motion of no confidence in First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Ms Slater said they would vote in favour of the motion on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show,

"I cannot imagine anything at this point that could change that position.

"This was a spectacular breach of trust."

She was asked if policy offers from Mr Yousaf ahead of the vote could persuade them to abstain.

“[The Bute House Agreement] was based on mutual trust and respect. I do have trust and respect for many of my SNP colleagues," she said.

"But Humza Yousaf himself has broken that and he needs to face the consequences."

Policing minister Chris Philp said he was posing a "rhetorical question" after he appeared to ask whether Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were different countries.

The MP for Croydon South said he was struggling to hear when he was asked about the government's new law on deporting some asylum seekers to Rwanda by a Question Time audience member.

He told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "I was struggling a little bit to hear the question.

"When I put that point to him I was asking that as a clearly rhetorical question rather than a substantive question, as I think any fair-minded listener would conclude."

What did he say on Question Time?

The audience member, from Congo, pointed out there has been a long history of violent conflict with neighbouring country Rwanda.

He asked Mr Philp: "Had my family members come from Goma [a city on the country's border] on a crossing right now, would they then be sent back to the country they are supposedly warring – Rwanda? Does that make any sense to you?"

Mr Philp replied: "No, I think there's an exclusion on people from Rwanda being sent to Rwanda."

After the audience member objected that his parents were not from Rwanda, the Conservative MP appeared to ask: "Well, I mean, Rwanda is a different country to Congo, isn't it?

"It's a different country?" he said, followed by laughter from some audience members.

Rishi Sunak was quizzed over the local and general elections, the Rwanda Scheme and defence spending today on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

If you missed it, here's your chance to catch up on all the key moments - or watch the interview in full.

• The prime minister tried to manage expectations for Thursday, saying: "Local elections are always difficult for incumbent parties";
• Asylum seekers travelling across the land border to Ireland was a sign the Rwanda scheme was working as a deterrent, he said;
• Despite being asked several times, Mr Sunak refused to rule out a July general election;
• He declined to comment on polling and, when asked if he would have any regrets should the Conservative Party lose, Mr Sunak said: "You're again focused on all this personality stuff."

A little earlier this morning, Rishi Sunak told Sky News that the movement of migrants from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland showed his Rwanda scheme was working as a deterrent.

But the Irish government is to consider legislative proposals next week on returning asylum seekers back to the UK who have travelled across the land border.

Justice minister Helen McEntee will also meet Home Secretary James Cleverly next week, after saying the number of migrants crossing the border was now "higher than 80%".

"I'll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK," she told RTE.

Ms McEntee added Brexit was responsible for the UK seeing an increase in people seeking asylum.

A spokesman for Irish premier Simon Harris said he is "very clear about the importance of protecting the integrity" of Ireland's migration system.

"Ireland has a rules-based system that must always be applied firmly and fairly.

"In that context, the Taoiseach has asked the minister for justice to bring proposals to Cabinet next week to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe 'third countries' and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK."

Alex Salmond asked Alastair Campbell to negotiate on behalf of Scotland with the UK government in the event it voted for independence in 2014, Mr Campbell tells Sky News.

The proposal was made when the pair were in Scotland ahead of the referendum, making tributes to Tony Benn, the former Number 10 communications director says.

"If Scotland had become independent, then that would have been a massive, massive thing for the country, so I would have been very happy to do that.

"I would want people who weren't necessarily pro-indpendence to be part of that team."

As Humza Yousaf fights to maintain leadership of Scotland, the Alba Party's Alex Salmond joins Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

Meanwhile, Ash Regan, the Alba Party's sole MP and potentially the deciding vote in a no-confidence motion in Mr Yousaf, is expected to meet with the first minister.

Ms Regan will "make a set of reasonable proposals to help him out of a very tight corner", says Mr Salmond.

"Scotland is lucky that somebody like Ash Regan is in that position."

Independence forces should be "cooperating together to try and get independence back as a priority in Scottish society".

Asked if an agreement can be reached with the SNP, Mr Salmond says Mr Yousaf is "in a very difficult position" but he will be in a "listening mode".

"He wouldn't have sacked the Greens from his administration unless he wanted a significant change in direction," says Mr Salmond.

"One possible outcome of this political crisis is there might be a Scottish election."

Earlier this week, Labour pledged to nationalise the railway system.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting says the plan is a "reflection of the failure of privatised rail and the absence of competition".

If you bring the franchises back into public ownership as they come up, the profits can be reinvested into better services and fairs, argues Mr Streeting.

"There is already enormous public ownership of our railways, but they are owned by French, German, Dutch and Italian taxpayers, and our profits go into their countries."

"It's time that we had public ownership of our railways so we can reinvest."

Trevor Phillips continues to put questions to shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.

He is about Keir Starmer's pledge to maintain the triple lock, with Phillips raising statistics showing median wealth for those in their early 60s was nearly nine times higher than those in their early 30s.

"I don't buy into that intergenerational conflict argument. We need to give pensioners the reassurance to know that as they have planned for retirement... that Labour will protect the triple lock."

Wes Streeting is asked about the possibility of a July election, which the prime minister has refused to rule out.

The shadow health secretary says: "He should get on with it. We are not just ready, we are, as with the rest of the country, fed up of waiting."

People are "crying out for an opportunity to deliver their verdict on this government and vote for change", he says.

"That's why the prime minister bottled an election earlier this year, that's why he's bottled it now, and that's why he will have to be taken out of Downing Street by his fingernails."

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