What and how I write on Substack
a thank you note to new and old subscribers
A big welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined me over the last couple of months. Many of you may have found your way here in response to my YouTube videos and through the Substack network. A big thank you for supporting my work. It is a privilege to have you as my reader.
I welcome new and old subscribers. I did write an introductory piece back in early February 2024, but many of you may have missed that piece. Moreover, my approach to the Substack continues to evolve. In this short article, I introduce or re-introduce you to what and how I write here on Substack.
What and how I write here on Substack
For me writing is a process of inquiry and discovery of new ways to share difficult insights. Since I wrote in plain bureaucratese for 33 years (when I was a very, very minor government official), I make my writing style here literary and metaphorical. There are many ‘news analysis’ outlets these days, and the Burning Archive is not that, although I learn from them and offer my unique commentary on similar issues.
Nor is the Burning Archive a how-to newsletter. I do offer courses separately on history and geopolitics, which of course you are welcome to explore. But here I rarely write with a practical outcome in mind, and I do not limit myself to a narrowly defined ‘niche’. I write about history and poetry. I write about the multipolar world and the myths that drive us mad. I write about statecraft, and I write about culture. I try to join the dots and share how I see the map.
But there is a common personality to these many topics. I aim to write for people who are seekers - who want to learn about history, literature, and ‘geopolitics’ for the purpose to live in tune with the mode of a changing world. I do not seek to change that world or even to change your minds about the world; but I hope I can offer you some insights and an occasional glimpse of beauty in your own search for how to live a calm, cultured and compassionate life today.
Let me know what interests you
Please feel free to say hello - whether you have been a subscriber for a day or a year - and comment on posts and notes. I would like to learn more about my readers (Substack stats don’t tell me much). If you comment on posts, I can learn more about your challenges of living in tune with the mode of a changing world, and so make this little ‘newsletter’ more valuable to you. For example, one subscriber recently suggested I write a post on the theme of austerity. And I will do that soon. Let me know any ideas you have for topics. Let me know who you are and what are your questions. It will help me manage the flames of the burning archive.
New reader guide: themes of the Burning Archive
Since my writing here on Substack has evolved over the last year or so I thought I would also briefly mention some recurring themes about the writing you will find here. These themes will help you know what to expect, and point you to some of my earlier writing on your interests.
One theme is the symphony of civilizations. My hypothesis is we live in a multipolar world, and those of us who live in ‘the West’ need to improve our dialogue with the other civilizations and cultures of the world, especially the great powers, China, India and Russia, and the newly assertive cultures of the Islamic world, Africa and South America. For me this involves not only geopolitical analysis, but appreciating the literature and history of all these cultures. One example of an article on this theme is
When Ancient Civilisations become Modern Great Powers
India, that is also known as Bharat, has become a modern great power. Its assertion of great power status, however, is not done by becoming like the West, or ‘modernising’ in the Euro-Atlantic model. Rather, this ancient civilisation is drawing on the powers of its own traditions. Even in its modern statecraft, it draws on the great epics that are thous…
A second theme is how we overcome social fragmentation or political polarisation, the lost art of talking and listening to strangers. I have a long background advising on social policy issues - such as mental illness, fertility, ageing, work, community, identity, and health - and a training in social history and social theory. Too often today we talk at cross purposes when we try to resolve differences in our societies. I try to write about the writers and the daily practices that can help us achieve a society of islands, rather than an island society. An example of my writing on this theme is
The Great Confinement and How I Am
How we respond to mental illness, or if you prefer madness, tells us so much about who we are. More than cooking. More than social media. Far, far more than the shadow plays of politics. We respond to mental illness through so many personas. We may be society, which conditions the norms and networks that help or hinder those who suffer madness. We may be governments, those distressed republics, which often fail the test of generous, humane care for people with mental illness. We may be the culture, which fills our mind with ideas that can save us from despair, and with poison that drives us over the brink. We may be doctors or carers or families, who seek solutions in a crisis. We may be mad ourselves, and wonder really who I am.
The third theme is authentic writing about the past. I explore, read, share, and reflect on voices of remembrance that can renew our lives and restore some more appreciation of cultural exchange, including between the present and the past. They are the treasures I am seeking to save from the Burning Archive, an image of loss and protection of shared memory.
Red Memory. Dread Trauma
Tania Branigan, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution (2023) is an account of the trauma of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and how it is remembered by people and state in China today. Trauma is a place where memory, history and forgetting mingle uncomfortably.
I changed the format of my weekly newsletter in October 2023. Before then I was writing more fragmentary pieces that offered “glimpses of the multipolar world”. But these pieces have lots of interesting material you may wish to browse through, such as
Glimpses of the Multipolar World, 9 September 2023
The Big Story. The G20 Falls to Earth. Governing the Multipolar World. Guterres on UN Reform. Using History Mindfully. Russian Ark and the West’s Last Waltz. Fragments of the Burning Archive. Nobel Prize and Annie Ernaux. What surprised me most. Chinese law and Huawei’s chip.
You could summarise my approach to my themes in three practices: authentic writing, mindful history, and cultural dialogue. All three themes are united by one hope. Let us return the world to the path of dialogue, diplomacy and respect for difference. Between different civilizations. Between different social groups. Between different cultural traditions and schools of thought. Between the past and the present.
Three ways to read the Burning Archive
On a more practical level, I do encourage you to read my pieces in whatever way works best for you. They come out by email, but you can also read them on the website or in the Substack app. Reading them in the app or on the web helps you discover my other articles and notes, and also you also read the corrected versions (if as occasionally happens little typos creep into the first edition email).
Over the last few months, I have also attempted to achieve a little more coherence between my content on YouTube, my podcast and my content here on Substack. Each channel is a bit different, but all come from the same burning archive. For example, I have adopted the practice now of posting a short five- to eight-minute video on YouTube on a Saturday evening on the theme of my Substack post. On YouTube I try to make it more personal and relatable. I am also experimenting with live streams on the YouTube channel, and doing some videos based on Substack articles as well. Do check it out if you have not already done so.
Thank you for your support
There are of course ways you can directly support my work by becoming a paid subscriber or supporting me through the Tip Jar at Buy Me A Coffee.
But, at this time, I think the best way you can express your appreciation of what I do is to share my work with others so that I can grow my audience.
If you would like to explore my work more fully you can also buy my books:
I will be publishing selections of my writing from the last 18 months in books, with a focus on my Pearls and Irritations articles and my paid subscriber series on the World Crisis and on the Brief History of the Multipolar World. I plan to complete editing these books over the months ahead. I will let you know when they are done and offer you a discount.
Thanks for sharing the Burning Archive. Please explore it at your leisure.