It makes my flesh crawl. That 'one team' bollocks, where our lords and masters (be they corporate or state) make out as if 'we're all in this together' - to quote the words of some already forgotten Tory Prime Minister. Yeah, right. So, I really want to read 'The Good Soldier Schweik' (after my thesis.... Continue Reading →
You Canute be serious! On Heresthetics, floods and much more
King Canute eh? What an arrogant tosser, thinking he could command the tide not to come in. Except I already knew he wasn't - that he had (probably) pulled the stunt - if he ever did- to get some of his more over-enthusiastically sycophantic courtiers to knock it off. What I didn't know was that... Continue Reading →
Suspicious minds and climate policy
Goering is alleged to have said that whenever he heard the word culture he reached for his revolver. For me, whendver I hear the word 'trap' I think of my Elvis. Specifically, 'We're caught in a trap. I can't walk out....' Meanwhile, this from an article Nair, S. and Howlett. 2015. From robustness to resilience:... Continue Reading →
The absence of structure is hierarchy
I went to a meeting (won't say if it was activist or academic or whatever - that's not the point). There was explicitly 'no agenda'. And we were then, without warning, asked to introduce ourselves (say what we had done, were doing and what we wanted to do around this particular issue/topic). And did they give... Continue Reading →
A winning Streeck that could end any day now
From here. In a phone call a couple of weeks later, I press Streeck again. “If I look 10 or 20 years out, I don’t like what I see,” he says. Nor is he alone: he quotes a new book by the former head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and his projection of... Continue Reading →
Political image and mixing cement…
Former US vice-president Walter Mondale once observed that political image is like mixing cement. When it's wet you can move it around and shape it, he said. But at some point it hardens, and then there is almost nothing you can do. Oakes, L. 2011. Like concrete, lie could sink Gillard. The Australian, 12 March.... Continue Reading →
It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for… or “Gaudy versus powerful”…
So, imma try to join dots between The Last of Sheila, Australian climate politics and Bobby de Niro as Louis Cypher, with a little Clarice Starling, 'Parker,' Gene Hackman and Julian Rathbone thrown in for good measure. It all starts with this, from my PhD thesis research - The incredible Lenore Taylor wrote a piece in... Continue Reading →
Journalists as drips on the drip feed…
Journalism eh? But what is to be done, at a systemic level? [Rob] Chalmers, although a Labor sympathiser, put all politicians through the ringer. He refused to socialise with them and was disdainful of the trend towards celebrity journalism and the insidious practice of reporters being 'on the drip' – getting stories from politicians and... Continue Reading →
First draft of history? Gaia help us all
It is way too easy, as a historian of the present, (cough cough) to get seduced by newspapers. They're detailed, not infected with the memoirist's ability to fit the events into a convenient/coherent narrative - and in theory the journalist doesn't have a dog in the fight. ... Except, no. If there ever was a... Continue Reading →
Sexism and social movements….
‘Sexism isn’t the problem: anyone can talk when they want to,” declared one man. “It’s just that some of us have had more experience and can talk more easily in groups.” “We all support women’s liberation,” chimed in another man. Around the room, reactions spanned a wide range: resentment, distraction, passive interest, eagerness and anxiousness.... Continue Reading →
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