The Perversity of Transgender Politics

It is such a strange phenomenon, Transgender Politics. It is built on the fantasy that human beings can voluntarily choose their gender. Many other aspects of our biological endowment are not challenged in such a way. I haven’t heard for example of brown-eyed people demanding that they should be called blue-eyed or short people demanding […]

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The Death of Charlie Kirk and the Erosion of Democracy.

Charlie Kirk died in a mindless, murderous attack that reflects a growing assault on our democracy. Democracy is built on the foundation of free speech and the vigorous intellectual competition of ideas. In democracies we shouldn’t seek to silence those who disagree with us. We should listen respectfully to their ideas and if we disagree, […]

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Remembering My Father

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are largely occasions created for commercial reasons to make us feel compelled to buy presents and increase retail sales. They are cynical manipulations of our inherent feelings (normally) of affection for our parents. I must confess that I was blessed with the parents I had. I loved and admired them […]

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The Existential Threat of Radical Islamism

It is a strange quirk of the human condition that we almost universally romanticise the past. T H White captured the sentiment in his lovely book The Once and Future King. The myth of King Arthur and Camelot reflect our desire to reclaim an idealised past. As in many such myths (including the Christian one) […]

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Gender Politics and Responsible Parenting


There has been some discussion in recent weeks about the censoring of the screening of The Red Pill which reportedly is a documentary produced by Cassie Jay. Jay, who has been an active feminist, decided to document the workings of the Men’s Rights Movement. She has conceded that as her investigations progressed she began to […]

April 29, 2017

In Search of Our Valuables


Some of you would be aware that I have written extensively on Buddhism and have authored books and a series of parables revolving around one of my fictitious characters, the young master, Augustus.  Let me share one of those parables with you. Augustus was the guest of the Lord Tchun-si. Tchun-si was a wealthy Governor […]

April 22, 2017

What’s So Special About Easter?


My favourite definition of religion is “a misinterpretation of mythology”. And the misinterpretation consists precisely in attributing historical references to symbols which properly are spiritual in their reference. Joseph Campbell The populace at large have little understanding of, and perhaps even less interest in, the Easter Myth. As a concession to our Christian heritage, we […]

April 15, 2017

Oh For Another Accord!


My last two blog essays have been about unions and the Labor party. This week I want to enlarge on the theme that the anti-business stance of the both the unions and the Labor party are in the end self-defeating. In the debate about the reduction in company taxes Bill Shorten has railed about reduced […]

April 8, 2017

The Future of the Union Movement


I come from a working class family. And it would be appropriate to emphasise the “class” part of that description. My father, who was a good man, had a social conscience and was always on the side of those he felt were unjustly wronged or oppressed. He was a staunch unionist and participated in local […]

April 1, 2017

Selective Civil Disobedience


Newly appointed ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, made headlines this week by declaring that unions had the right to break “unjust” laws. Now “unjust” is quite a subjective term and one might wonder what criteria she would use to determine which laws are unjust. It takes little investigation to ascertain that her definition of unjust covers […]

March 25, 2017

Knowing Who You Really Are!


Understanding the Human Condition has probably been the prime focus of my life. The good Dr Phil has sometimes flattered me by saying that I know more about psychology than most of the psychologists he knows. (On reflection I am not sure this is a compliment to me or an insult to psychologists!) The more […]

March 18, 2017

Why Section 18C is Hindering Indigenous Advancement


Well, unfortunately, the parliamentary review into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has delivered its findings, but instead of showing leadership has fizzled into a hotchpotch of uncontroversial recommendations leading us to believe that our nation’s politicians are again reluctant to show leadership if there is any likelihood that they might offend minority interests. […]

March 10, 2017

Erosion of Democracy


Some would claim that the slow trajectory towards modern liberal democracy began with a very limited, faltering step which was Magna Carta, the charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. Although it gave little solace to the average citizen, it began the slow erosion of the […]

February 25, 2017

The Futility of Reconciliation


As I write this essay, the annual Closing the Gap report is being presented to parliament by the Prime Minister. The report attempts to quantify progress on a number of health, education and welfare measures where indigenous Australians perform poorly compared to other Australians. As I understand it, improvements were made in only one of […]

February 18, 2017