Category: Politics

The strange attraction of ‘The End of Days’ mindset

Personally, I am attracted to the idea [yes it may just be a conspiracy theory] that the world is ruled by plutocrats who somehow believe they will – when the shit hits the fan – be able to retire to Planet B. Or at least an island they own, or a mountain top somewhere. And there they’ll retire to a bunker and await the rapture, or some such epiphany that miraculously fixes everything and lets them get back to business as usual.

A hopefully comic interlude interrogating one of Mr. Brandis’s opinion pieces

Photo by Nicholas Swatz on Pexels.com In a July 9 opinion piece in the Sydney morning Herald, we meet this shouty headline: Left’s identity crisis means Dutton can be a champion for equality. The piece is by the ex Liberal Senator George Brandis; he doesn't disappoint us with opinions we'd never expected from him. Let's … Continue reading A hopefully comic interlude interrogating one of Mr. Brandis’s opinion pieces →

Quotables 2

we are essentially a trusting and positive species; Rousseau’s noble savage somehow tricked by time, and civilisation, into something that is not really human – a distrust of our fellow creatures. Bregman would agree with Camus’s character in The Plague  - one Dr. Rieux – ‘that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.’

Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful PART II - The Great Paradox What Arlie Russell Hochschild calls the "Great Paradox" might itself spring from our difficulty in determining exactly what POPULISM is [or of what political wing; right or left, it is]. Populism has been both of or at least partially of the ‘left’ – the … Continue reading Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild →

Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful An introduction I’ve been exercising what passes for my mind with THE GREAT DIVIDE that currently occupies much of the debate about the state of the [American] nation. Forgive my anything but slick allusion to that address given by the US president, but it’s almost incumbent on anyone with an … Continue reading Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’ →

Regarding statistics, floods and the public nuisance that social media can be

The Guardian asks: "Are eastern Australia’s catastrophic floods really a one-in-1,000 year event? Describing a flood as a one-in-1,000-year event doesn’t mean we won’t see another one until the year 3000. Photograph: Bradley Richardson/Australian Defence Force/AFP/Getty Images Scientists say describing floods as ‘one-in-1,000-year’ events can mislead the public about the probability of such disasters recurring" On … Continue reading Regarding statistics, floods and the public nuisance that social media can be →

Excerpt from ‘Plagued’ book 1 – Viral government

And is he a murderer? If you live in the Arabian peninsula, he certainly must be, common logic has it. The C.S. drone strike Bridge ordered on Assyrian commander Kalaa Inmani Suk a little over 2 weeks ago has been labelled an act of Terrorism by Assyria’s leader, Qassim Mohammed Kaan. The Assyrians have sent the case to the world court in Amnstahm, Nederlands. They have backing from Norda, Albane, Sweda and Belgrada (which probably doesn’t mean all that much to America’s government).