Richard Wilkinson was an English playwright active in the early 18th century, known primarily for his comedic works that often explored themes of love and morality. His notable play, 'Vice Reclaim'd: or, The Passionate Mistress,' premiered in 1703 at the Theatre Royal and reflects the era's fascination with the complexities of human relationships and the tension between virtue and vice. The play's comedic elements and its focus on the passionate entanglements of its characters showcase Wilkinson's ability to blend humor with social commentary, a hallmark of the Restoration and early Georgian theatre. Though not as widely recognized as some of his contemporaries, Wilkinson's contributions to the theatrical landscape of his time provide insight into the evolving nature of comedy in the early 18th century. His works often mirrored the shifting societal norms and attitudes towards gender and morality, making them significant in understanding the cultural context of the period. Wilkinson's legacy, while modest, is marked by his engagement with the themes of passion and redemption, which resonate through the comedic tradition he helped to shape.
“Twenge says that in the 1950s only 12 per cent of teenagers agreed with the statement ‘I am an important person’, but by the late 1980s this proportion had risen to 80 per cent. So what could have been going on? People becoming much more self‐confident doesn’t seem to fit with them also becoming much more anxious and depressed. The answer turns out to be a picture of increasing anxieties about how we are seen and what others think of us which has, in turn, produced a kind of defensive attempt to shore up our confidence in the face of those insecurities.””
“The big idea is that what matters in determining mortality and health in a society is less the overall wealth of that society and more how evenly wealth is distributed. The more equally wealth is distributed the better the health of that society.””
“You can predict a country’s performance on one outcome from a knowledge of others. If – for instance – a country does badly on health, you can predict with some confidence that it will also imprison a larger proportion of its population, have more teenage pregnancies, lower literacy scores, more obesity, worse mental health, and so on. Inequality seems to make countries socially dysfunctional across a wide range of outcomes.””