Your Book of Life

If you were a book, you would be a book of memories. The idea that your memories make you who you are is a common one. They are probably not the whole story of you but it is difficult to deny that they are a significant part of that story. Mark Rowlands Professor of Philosophy […]

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An Unexamined Life?

Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Socrates is: An unexamined life is not worth living. It is undoubtedly true that to be a well-functioning, competent human being requires that we have adequate self-knowledge. We need to be realistically aware of our strengths and weaknesses, our skills and vulnerabilities. So there is indeed value in […]

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In Loving Memory

It is an inevitable consequence of growing older that we increasingly know more people who have died! We dutifully attend funerals and endure endless eulogies. To begin with we are often introduced to the deceased by a religious person officiating at the funeral of someone who barely entered a church in their lives. This well-meaning […]

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Of Hanukkah and Hate

Western civilisation was built on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Most of us are probably more familiar with Christianity than we are with Judaism. But Judaism has a long (predating Christianity), colourful history. It is the oldest of the religions of “The Book” and the antecedent of Christianity and Islam. According to Jewish folklore, the Maccabees were […]

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Time for Some Plain Talking Part 2 – Racism and Gender Politics


This is the second essay of two where I am trying to encourage ordinary Australians to speak up and have their say in the face of the opposition from the politically correct. I am protesting in my own little way about the restrictions that we face because of political correctness and cancel culture that contrive […]

August 15, 2021

Time for Some Plain Talking Part 1


Part 1 – Covid and Climate Change Most Australians, I fear, are reluctant to take part in the public debate on many important issues. This is because we suffer from political correctness, cancel culture and even infantilisation by the governments we have elected supposedly to represent us. As a result of these various subterfuges we […]

August 1, 2021

Become What You Want To Be


For some time I was on the Council of my local University, the University of Central Queensland. CQU’s motto is Be what you want to be! I was somewhat bemused by this well-meaning but misguided maxim. No doubt it was supposed to promote learning and the notion that University study provided a path to our […]

July 11, 2021

Climate Change as a Weapon in International Relations


It is easy to see how surreal the climate debate has become when half the world seems to be in the thrall of a Swedish teenage environmentalist activist named Greta Thunberg with no scientific qualifications but powered by youthful idealism and misinformation. Having failed to convince sufficient adults to worship at the altar of climate […]

June 29, 2021

The Cleaving of Labor


I come from a rusted-on Labor family. My father was a Labor councillor on our local council. My sister-in-law was a Labor state member. My father was a strong unionist. His hero was Bob Hawke. He fervently believed in many of the union dictums like “one man – one job”. This philosophy eschewed multiskilling and […]

June 7, 2021

Global Warming – The New Religion


The question that is inevitably asked of us these days is, “Do you believe in global warming?” Now for most of us this is indeed a question of faith because very few of us have sufficiently interrogated the science on the matter as to be sufficiently informed to be able to objectively make a rational […]

May 26, 2021

Our Limited Perspective of Others


I was flicking through the Review section of the Weekend Australian the other day and I came across an article by Stan Grant titled World of Difference. The article was a critique by Grant of Tom Keneally’s novel, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. I was most intrigued by the byline to the article which read: […]

May 4, 2021

Some Plain Speaking About Indigenous Deaths in Custody


I have often written about my dismay about indigenous disadvantage. Despite the fact that many indigenous people are prospering and contributing positively to Australian society, there is still a significant cohort experiencing undue hardship including domestic violence, poor educational outcomes, significant health issues and high levels of incarceration. An emblematic issue for indigenous people has […]

April 17, 2021

The Politics of Sexual Assault


The news these last few weeks has been dominated by various sexual indiscretions allegedly committed by politicians and those close to politics in Canberra. There are many decent men and women in politics and being a politician is a demanding and testing career for both men and women. And it is easy, but wrong, to […]

April 4, 2021

Live Not BY Lies


Live Not By Lies Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a famous Russian dissident and author. His Gulag Archipelago exposed the depravity of Soviet totalitarianism and made him a global hero. The Russians finally expelled Solzhenitsyn and he took up residence in the United States. On the eve of his forced exile he published a final message to […]

March 10, 2021