What follows is my submission to the Colin Brown Human Rights Project. This is a community consultation process carried out by the Law Reform Institute of Tasmania, at the behest of the Tasmanian State Government. The project is described here … Continue reading
Tasmania is considering bringing in a bill or charter of human rights, following the lead of the Australian Capital Territory and the state of Victoria. It has asked the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute to investigate the matter, consult with the … Continue reading
The New York Post can be expected to blame the victim for her rape, but when you see the New York Times constructing an article around the idea that young female doctors are showing too much flesh: There was just … Continue reading
I believe in the noble savage, or rather in the idea that in the absence of an overriding desire or fear a person’s essential nature is compassionate. So I’ve always been interested in evil although I think it’s overrated. When … Continue reading
In spite of their name, Australia’s ruling “Liberal Party” is conservative. Since winning the 2001 election by manipulating public fears about asylum seekers and security concerns after 9/11, they have not hesitated to play the race card. John Howard is … Continue reading
Freedom of speech in Australia is in far worse shape than generally understood. Frank Moorhouse, researching his essay, “The writer in a time of terror” came across first one and then a large number of extremely frightening examples of Orwellian … Continue reading
Complex systems can have emergent properties. In other words the interactions between the constituent elements of the system can give rise to events, patterns, and behaviours which are not easy to predict by examination of the individual elements in isolation. … Continue reading
Fundamentalism, whether Christian, Islamic, or even Hindu, has several driving energies. It seems as much a cultural and political phenomenon as it is religious; as much a reaction to liberal values and consumer culture as it is to secularism. But … Continue reading
TheBoy and I went down after lunch to get a coffee. Actually not coffee but fruit cups, with the temperature in the 30s [90F] and the smell of bushfires just starting to be blown away by a gusty sea breeze. … Continue reading
This week I’ve found myself by turns angry and sad about politics for the first time since the Israeli bombardment of civilians in Lebanon. This time the reason, I think, is that I had begun to believe that the right … Continue reading
A touching scene from a television documentary this evening: a family celebrates orthodox Easter in procession with candles. They stop at intervals, shielding the candles from wind, as the priest intones the ritual. The child’s face shows boredom but he’s … Continue reading
Christopher Alexander was interviewed recently on radio in Australia. He mentioned that several years ago he had been appointed part of the planning approvals process for Pasadena housing units. His contribution was to insist that the developers show how their … Continue reading
Australia is probably typical of the English speaking west in that it’s citizens are being buried in an avalanche of red tape. The litigious society meets the risk-averse society and the answer seems to be bureaucracy. We have occupational health … Continue reading
Last year the Australian federal government, led by John Howard’s conservative Liberal Party, introduced legislation which tied significant school funding to compliance with certain conditions, including: Flying the Australian flag at the school. Displaying a poster identifying what the Education … Continue reading
Edgar Jacobi: Heh. Well, you know that kind of cancer that you get better from eventually? Rorschach: Yes. Edgar Jacobi: Well, that ain’t the kind of cancer I got. Judi Bari and Earth First! In the 1980s some environmental activists, … Continue reading
The Ethics of Selfishness was always intended as an introduction to this article, which broadly speaking deals with altruism. I wanted to outline a proposal for a system of public ethics which was sufficient in scope to provide a useful … Continue reading
From Vasco Pyjama: Two years ago, when I was in the Philippines, I didn’t help a friend enough when she was sick. And she died. It is something I regret deeply, and have carried with me ever since. Yesterday, as … Continue reading
This is intended as a sort of postscript to The ethics of selfishness. Most people are primarily motivated by self interest, but it’s worth considering what form this takes. The simplest self interest is to gain pleasure and avoid pain; … Continue reading
If a person puts their own self-interest above all other considerations, they are said to be an egoist. Someone who claims that doing what is in their self interest is morally right is an ethical egoist, and someone who claims … Continue reading