As you would now know from my essays, I tend to read a lot. I don’t read much fiction however. It’s not that I don’t like fiction – I do. Fictional tales can be exciting, moving and very entertaining in many and various ways. Some, using allegorical devices, can also be quite meaningful and didactic. […]
It has been a boast of politicians of various political persuasions that that Australia is the most successful nation on earth regarding multiculturalism. Traditionally we have been able to assimilate migrants into the Australian way of life from very diverse backgrounds. They have contributed productively to our economy, enriched us with their cultural heritages but […]
Postmodernism has largely sought to modify our notions about how to think of the world. In doing this it has attempted to downplay rationality in favour of more subjective criteria. Steiner Kvale was the Professor of Educational Psychology at the Aarhus University in Denmark. He was a noted international authority on postmodernism and psychology. […]
It is an unfortunate fact that Australian black activists, always looking for props to support their unrelenting ethos of victimhood, have promoted the British colonisation of Australia as a primary reason to justify indigenous dysfunction. It is a convenient excuse to blame those events of two centuries past to explain the ills of some of […]
There is no denying that most of the intellectual debates in today’s society, particularly those that have significant political and social ramifications, evoke emotional responses. This is unsurprising because for most of us our beliefs underpin who we think we are. They form a vital part of our self-concept. It is unremarkable then that we […]
Every now and then I am forced to remove myself from the apparent urgent demands of the “real” world and remind myself that there are more important issues than the ones that dominate the headlines every day. Of course I feel the injustice and suffering caused by conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine. And […]
Almost inevitably it seems, we woke up on 26 January to see pictures of a bronze statue of James Cook lying on the ground having been sawn off at the ankles causing it to topple from its plinth. It seems as though the perpetrator of this act of vandalism believed he was making some sort […]
Many of the activists decrying the celebration of Australia Day on 26 January seem to be historically illiterate. They vilify Captain James Cook, implying that Cook was somehow responsible for the British settlement of Australia. They seem to confuse Cook’s discovery of Australia in 1770 when he mapped Australia’s east coast with the later settlement […]
Education is in crisis in Australia today. The international ranking of our educational outcomes has been on the decline for decades. Our teachers seem to be more dissatisfied with their profession than they have ever been. And all this increasing educational dysfunction has come to be despite huge increases in expenditure on education. No doubt […]
What a strange contradictory world we live in. Or perhaps it might be more pertinent to say what strange contradictory beings we are! We live in troubled times. There is armed conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East. The state pf our economy is parlous and many Australians are facing real cost of living pressures. […]