High life | 12 February 2011

Philosophy has been known to be a bit of a struggle for many of us, except, of course, if we happen to be professional footballers, pop stars, film actors, reality TV performers or hedge-fund managers. Although in last week’s Spectator Quentin Letts offered a primer on how to pretend to be an Egypt expert, the poor little Greek boy, always ready to offer more to the sacrosanct Spectator readership than an Englishman, will now take you to the wilder reaches of philosophy as applied to real life.

One of the reasons I always write about the past is ‘anamnesis,’ which is the exact opposite of amnesia, the latter a condition suffered by every single one of the world’s dictators and then some. Take, for example, Queen Rania of Jordan, quite a dish but one who has obviously not read my Greek colleague Aristotle. (More about old Ari in a jiffy.) European royal friends of mine have commented on how Rania got off on the right foot by asking advice and playing humble, but how quickly she reverted to type once inside the castle.