Dealing with Dichotomies

In a previous blog I mentioned the problem outlined by religious historian, Karen Armstrong, in interpreting religious writings. She maintained that there was always tension between Logos and Mythos. Much of the wisdom of the world has been transmitted by myth, fable, allegory or parable (Mythos). When we get into trouble is when we start […]

Continue Reading

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

In our little book republished as The Myth of Nine to Five, the late Dr Phil Harker and I argued that despite the illusion we have of free will, in fact the only real choice human beings have is whether to choose to live with a worldview of fear or a worldview of love. (If […]

Continue Reading

The Primacy of Consciousness

As I sit here in my office I can see the small tree in the front yard. It is a favourite place for the bull-finches to sit before they venture down to the bird bath. This might seem to be just the start of a casual conversation but it has already introduced many philosophical concepts. […]

Continue Reading

The Spiritual Evolution of Mankind

The figures move about a bit with the continuing years of research, but on the evidence it is fair to say the universe is a little less than fifteen billion years old. The first vestiges of life on earth seemed to appear some one and a half billion years ago. Hominids have been around for […]

Continue Reading

Countering the Jihadists


Last week we saw another Jihadist manufacture slaughter and mayhem, this time principally of young women and girls, in Manchester. Manchester has been a particularly troubled area. It has experienced riots, is replete with street gangs and has been home for a number of other Jihadists who have perpetrated atrocities. I have recently written about […]

June 3, 2017

The Future of Work


The study of the world of work has always held its fascinations for me. My management career revolved about changing workplaces, and I was always keen to have an understanding of the evolving nature of work to inform my management practices. To better understand where the world of work was going, I visited as many […]

May 27, 2017

Fifth Wave Jihadis


Over the decades we have seen a vast change in the nature of jihadism. In a recent piece, writer and commentator, Kenan Malik, identified the following five iterations of jihadism. The first wave of jihadis were the mujahedeen who were marshalled to fight the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The second wave were elite Muslims from […]

May 20, 2017

Time and Again


My friend and I were having one of our chats over a glass of wine as we have done for some years. We were discussing some material written by the good Dr Phil. It was a testing hypothesis involving spirituality and quantum physics. It is amazing what a rich recursive tapestry such considerations weave. In […]

May 13, 2017

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