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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Fronting up to Islamist Extremism


Woe to them who fake Scriptures and say ‘This is from God’ so that they might earn some profit thereby. The Koran   Most of us are familiar with the famous painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It was commissioned by Pope Julius II, a commission only reluctantly […]

November 20, 2015

Another Look at Education


I have written a few essays on education in the past, being an area of some interest of mine. I have been thinking lately, that perhaps we should go back and ask some basic questions about education. It is a very ambitious task, I know, but I am going to attempt to address the following […]

November 8, 2015

The Future of Marriage


Fiddle de dee, fiddle de dee, The Fly has married the Bumblebee Children’s Nursery Rhyme Evolutionary psychologists tell us that monogamy is the most likely natural disposition of human beings when their mating patterns are considered. They draw this conclusion from the fact that whilst men are on average slightly bigger than women and generally […]

November 1, 2015

Moral Relativity


The conventionally religious have historically believed that morality is handed down as a prescription by God. They think that Mankind is so debauched they could not possibly develop a moral code that got beyond individual benefit. Plato had a higher opinion of Mankind and believed that human beings were imbued with ideals that were innate […]

October 25, 2015

On Leadership


Augustus sat at the feet of his teacher, Takygulpa Rinpoche. “Tell me Master, about leadership. What is the quality that most helps someone exemplify leadership?’ “True leadership emanates from a sense of inner strength and equanimity. You know how that is attained for that has been the subject of our practice for many years.” “Yes, […]

October 15, 2015

The Self-Esteem Trap


Human beings have social needs. The quality of our existence, and sometimes even our very survival, depends closely on our ability to construct mutually beneficial relationships with others of our kind. Human beings have a profound need to feel connected, to trust others and be trusted by them, to love and be loved in return. […]

October 10, 2015

Differentiation and Unification


Although we can never really know, it is believed that after birth, as soon as it becomes aware, the baby believes it is the universe. But after a time it notices that as it is moved around some parts of its world change. This will cause it to realise that it is only part of […]

October 2, 2015

Obstinate Decency


[Trigger warning: Reader’s should be aware that this essay contains language feminists might find offensive! Be warned also that it contains doses of other unadulterated twaddle.] It would be very easy in the light of recent political events to pontificate on the triumph of Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott and map the details of the […]

September 25, 2015

Passing Through


Philosophers over the ages have debated the question, “What does it mean to be human?”   My answer would be that it is the special nature of our consciousness that makes us human. Not only can we think but we are aware of our thoughts. Not only are we aware but we are aware of […]

September 19, 2015

A Most Dangerous Idea


Religious scholars tell us that the notion of heaven or paradise is a relatively recent human idea. Heaven was largely unknown to the characters of the Old Testament. They did not seem to aspire to eternal life in a paradise with God, but in a rather early acknowledgement of Richard Dawkins and “The Selfish Gene” […]

September 12, 2015