Robert Manne’s self-important puffery
At the risk of making him sound more interesting than he is, emeritus professor Robert Manne reminds me of one of Dostoyevsky’s liberals. In the distant past, he wrote something (who can remember what) which won him a literary reputation. Then, in the 1980s, Manne found it necessary to dem...CONTINUE READING
Neoliberalism and the individual
In The History of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky suggests that peasants for the first time won a sense of the importance of their individuality during the February 1917 revolution. At first glance, this seems strange: isn’t individuality natural? Trotsky did not think so. Rather, ind...CONTINUE READING
Safe zones outside abortion clinics are welcome
The New South Wales state government recently passed laws imposing bans on protests outside abortion clinics. If you live in Victoria or one of the four other states with such bans, then you won’t have seen one of these protests for a few years. This is because, in 2016, the state governme...CONTINUE READING
The beginning of the end for identity politics?
In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, who had for years passed as Black, was exposed as having Caucasian parents. She was accused of blackface and epitomising white privilege. Unsurprisingly, she was ruined. In a recent autobiography, she defined herself as “transracial”. The feminist journal Hypatia t...CONTINUE READING
Trump’s victory and the ignoble death of ‘progressive’ neoliberalism
Trump’s victory marks the defeat of “progressive” neoliberalism. The astonishment and dismay at his victory show that the basis for this defeat was laid a long time ago. It wasn’t Trump who was disconnected from reality, but the political establishment, the A-list, the media and inner city...CONTINUE READING
Modern day Rasputins
In 2010, the Sydney-based firm BBY was ranked fourth largest stockbroker in Australia. On average, it traded $150 million per day. Five years later, the company went into voluntary liquidation, owing clients about $61 million. An investigation into BBY has discovered that its insolvency we...CONTINUE READING
Vultures circling over multicultural Melbourne market
The suburb where I grew up, North Watsonia, wasn’t much of a cultural hub. Aside from the milk bar and local park, about the only place to go was Greensborough Plaza. If you’ve never been, you aren’t missing out. It’s the same as every other shopping mall in the country. But Saturday morni...CONTINUE READING
Politicians are not good people
Events in the UK over the last week have made me realise that politicians are just not good people. Take the debate in the British parliament over the future of the UK’s nuclear weapons program, “Trident”. The British parliament is hardly a bastion of upstanding moral forthrightness. Who c...CONTINUE READING
Nice, Dallas, Baghdad and Orlando
At least 80 people have been killed in an attack in Nice, France. As of Friday, it appears that a single attacker rammed a truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on Thursday night. At the time of writing, world leaders have not pronounced at length and most opinion pieces have not bee...CONTINUE READING