A Point of View

Clive James reflects on the conundrum of living in a technologically advanced world. As life is made easier, with machines doing our thinking for us, will our intellect suffer and eventually slow future advancement as we no longer have the brain power to build new technology?

Clive James enjoys the wisdom of former Wimbledon tennis champions, whose insights as commentators, he says, double as a philosophy for life.

Clive James marvels at the sight of children gliding in shoes with wheels fixed into the heels, and reckons the secret of happiness is to think how much fun you would have had at the same age.

Clive James gives his personal reaction to Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull and considers its significance as a work of art. It might worth £50m, but, he says, it is nevertheless ‘art for all’. Why? Because it's glittering, hollow and perfectly brainless - so you can talk about it to anyone, just like you can Paris Hilton.

There are lots of reasons to be cheerful about the world - many the result of human creativity. Clive James reminds himself of the need to celebrate the good things in life and to show others – especially the young – that life really is worth living, while remembering at the same time not to be miserable.

The thing with hoaxes is that they work – and that’s a good reason for not liking them, says Clive James. Although, he has himself performed his own convincing hoax in the past – as have writers Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh – Clive says there is a streak of the self-congratulation in every hoaxer, which he finds hard to admire.

Clive James considers the problem of torture and whether television dramas, like the American series 24, encourages its use in the fight against terrorism.

Clive James considers the extra burden we are in danger of placing on the shoulders of outstandingly successful young, black Britons to be representatives for their race.

Clive James criticises the high spending planned for the London 2012 Olympics. It would be much better, he argues, to think in terms of television coverage and forget all the expensive new buildings.

Clive James takes a wry look at the world of the paparazzi after the publicity surrounding the wedding of the actress Elizabeth Hurley. Their antics may be justified when their quarry welcomes the attention but the hounding of others in the public eye is a different matter altogether.