British paper, French and Canadian writer

Interesting enough unherd has published writing from two of my favorite living writers: Michel Houellebecq and Douglas Coupland. 

 

How is it, Houellebecq predicted “incels” in 1994 and Coupland predicted Minecraft in 1995? When in 1998, in the novel Atomised, Houellebecq wrote that islam, no matter how it looked, acctually is doomed. In 2011 Coupland wrote in his Marshall McLuhan biography that while religion came back to politics in a big way, it might get replaced just as fast. I thought about that since I just saw this article with the following introduction: Recent surveys indicate strongly that across the Middle East and Iran, almost half the population is loosening their ties to Islam. Governments have reacted differently to calls for reforms of institutional religion. That’s interesting.

 

Then I need to write one good news. Tuesday last week we saw the claim Sweden, compared to the US basically had the same percent of the adult population vaccinated with at least one dose. > 70 %. We’re making the novel corona virus endemic. To mention unherd again, it doesn't really fit with the headlines I saw on that site, that the EU screwed up the vaccination (unless you want to say the US did the same). As a personal note, everyone I know that’s over 30 are vaccinated.