The thoughts that shape my writing

Fragments of history, reflections on memory, and glimpses of the human thread that runs through it all.

The Future Never Arrives
John Rees John Rees

The Future Never Arrives

We spend much of our lives waiting. Waiting for the right time, the next opportunity, the moment when life will finally begin. But here’s the hard truth: the future never arrives. When it comes, it isn’t the future anymore — it’s just today.

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The Age of Collective Stupidity
John Rees John Rees

The Age of Collective Stupidity

I lived through the first dotcom bubble — a time when hype, “expert” predictions, and collective belief drove stock prices into the stratosphere. I sold some shares early and was told I was crazy… until the bubble burst and fortunes vanished overnight.

Looking back, I realised this wasn’t just market failure — it was collective stupidity on a global scale.

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We Are the Future-Shocked
John Rees John Rees

We Are the Future-Shocked

In 1972, just as I was heading off to university to study economics and social psychology, I picked up a book that would quietly shape the way I viewed the world: Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. I must have come across it by chance, but its core ideas stuck with me. Toffler warned that the accelerating pace of change — technological, social, psychological — would overwhelm not just individuals but whole societies. His phrase “too much change in too short a time” lodged itself in my memory.

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The Meaning Wars
John Rees John Rees

The Meaning Wars

From “fake news” to “special military operations,” this is how political language is reshaped to suit power — and why it matters.

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