The State is merely the committee for managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie, innit? The evil moustache-twirling CEOs get together and tell their political meat-puppet underlings what to do. Simples. Well, sometimes, but every so often maybe it is more complicated. I’m collecting examples of these every-so-often moments for my PhD thesis. I have quite... Continue Reading →
Getting your head around other people’s heads. Phenomenologically, tingle-ing-ly good
Can we ever really know what is going on in someone else's head? Meh, there's one way to piss someone off and that's to say “I know exactly how you feel, the same exact thing happened to me.” Because, of course, there's events but they have to be interpreted, and even the same person's interpretations... Continue Reading →
Mark Latham and his crystal balls
This below is from a 2013 Quarterly Essay called Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogny by Anna Goldsworthy. It's in the correspondence bit, talking about the previous essay, 'Not Dead Yet' by Mark Latham. Here below is a prediction Latham made while replying to (most of) his critics. And so it came to pass, especially after... Continue Reading →
Neoliberalism and the forced march to nowhere #Australia #Keating
This below is from a Quarterly Essay called Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogny by Anna Goldsworthy. It's in the correspondence bit, talking about the previous essay, 'Not Dead Yet' by Mark Latham. Fwiw, imo, Guy Rundle is a very very smart guy. That social vision is advanced by most of the current ALP elite past... Continue Reading →
SA Blackout: From name-calling to … report writing
The political and cultural battle around the South Australian blackout of 28 September is moving from the ‘(s)pinning-the-blame’ phase to the ‘await the verdicts of the “independent” reports’ phase. All available insults have been traded, and other issues will be popping up on the radar imminently. For example, a stoush over the proposed gay marriage... Continue Reading →
Books I absolutely did not buy today.
I went to a worthy (and fun) protest at which people closed their accounts with the Commonwealth Bank, because it (and the other three biggies) are saying they want to keep the world under the two degree warming target, which I wrote a short factual piece about, and will use to think more about mobilising... Continue Reading →
Nugget Coombs on power defending itself…
I play a "Tardis" game. I'd scoop up various folks and bring em forward to the here and now; set them up in a London penthouse with a subscription to the FT, Economist, cable TV, a kindle with an unlimited download limit. I'd give them a month to come up with their analysis of where... Continue Reading →
Targets, Science and targeted Scientists: Australian government and its climate change advisors
The Climate Change Authority that Tony Abbott tried to abolish has created a fresh headache for his successor, Malcolm Turnbull. Seven of its members have agreed the sort of compromise emissions reduction target that even the Business Council of Australia can live with. Two – public intellectual Clive Hamilton and scientist David Karoly- have produced... Continue Reading →
Beating nukes into plowshares
I thought I was cynical enough. Nope, not by a gazillion miles. Turns out both the US and the Russians were keen on using nukes for peace. Some of this I knew, but I didn't realise it was quite so extensive... "Project Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to... Continue Reading →
Brexit and climate – is the world too complex for our political institutions?
The British people have narrowly voted to leave the European Union. Britain's elites are in a state of bewilderment and fear not seen since the Global Financial Crisis hit in September 2008. Already the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will step down, and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also being challenged. ... Continue Reading →
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