CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
PHILIPBALLisconsultanteditorfor Nature andauthorofHgO: A Biography of Water (Weidenfeld&Nicolson) TONYBLAIRistheprimeministerand LabourMPforSedgefield BRUCECLARKisajournalistonThe Economist andwriteshereina personal capacity DIANECOYLEiseconomicseditorofthe Independent andtheauthorofWeightless World (Capstone) ROYDENMANwasEUenvoytothe USandisauthorofMissed Chances (Cassell) NEENAGILLisaLabourMEP for the WestMidlands WILLIAMGILLisawriter JEAN-MARIEGUEHENNOisauthorof L ’avenir de la liberte (Flammarion)and isalawyerbasedinParis CARHILLSisawriterlivinginLondon ALISTAIRHORNEistheauthorofHow Far From Austerlitz? (Macmillan)andis currentlyworkingonahistorical study ofParis PICOIYERisauthorofA Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls and the Search for Home, tobepublishedinJulyby Bloomsbury JOHNKAYisdirectorofLondon EconomicsandauthorofThe Business of Economics (OxfordUniversityPress) ANGELALAMBERTistheauthorof Golden Lads and Girls (BlackSw'an) JOHNLLOYDisafreelancejournalist livinginLondon BRYANMAGEEisauthorofConfessions of a Philosopher (Phoenix), tobereissued inMarch JAYNORDLINGERismanagingeditorof theNewYork-basedNational Review
BENPIMLOTTisWardenofGoldsmiths College JONATHANRAUCHisnational correspondentfortheNational Journal inWashingtonDC STEVENROSEisformerdirectorofthe BrainandBehaviourResearchGroup attheOpenuniversity NEILSINYARDisseniorlecturerinfilm studiesattheUniversityofHull STELLATILLYARDisabiographerand historian, andtheauthorof Artistocrats (Chatto&Windus) GEOFFREYWHEATCROFTistheauthor ofThe Controversy of Zion
2 PROSPECT February 2000
contents
Issue forty-nine February2000
OPINIONS 10 High ait, high altar BENPIMLOTT High art is now for the many. Ithasbecomeakindofsecular religion, but without a soul.
11 Milk monitor NEENAGILL It iseasier tomakeadifference in Brussels thanatWestminster.
12 Buchanan is right ROYDENMAN Hitler could have been defeated without British or American intervention.
14 Lawyers’ paradise JONATHANRAUCH By2050,therewasonlyonecompany left—McNikeSoft. Thatmeantthere wasonlyonelargedefendant tosue, whichsavedeverybodyalotoftime.
W ITNESS Pico Iyer is a stranger in a strange land
Despite living with my Japanese girlfriend for 12 years, I w ill always remain an outsider in Japan and that is just how I like it. PAGE44
DEBATE 16
Does the New Economy change everything? DIANECOYLEANDJOHNKAY Is the information technology revolution changing the rules of economics? Or is it no different from earlier revolutions?
Not so simple.
ESSAYS 27 A new biology STEVENROSE In the hands of a generation of ultraDarwinists, modern biology seeks to explain everything in terms of DNA. The biology of the future must transcend this crude reductionism.
32 Is France French? JEAN-MARIEGUEHENNO The French state is withdrawing— and the French are having to learn that Europe is not France writ large. Can the country stay distinctive in a globalised world?
3 6 St George’s shroud GEOFFREYWHEATCROFT In the 50years since his death, Orwell has become England’s secular saint. Orwell is a great something, but a great what?
