My new sociological model. Politicians and bureaucrats at the top, bottom-thinking in a tight bubble of a worldview, and thinking well of their 'success'. The public frustrated at policy failure. And policy researchers and developers in the squeeze of being...
Wright Mills’ The Power Elite (1956) has been a major sociological work that has repeatedly been the right framework to understand the political and social chaos I have experienced and witnessed in my lifetime. It is not a perfect work and not a perfect model. The...
This is a blog post to set everyone straight, which makes me open to the critique of being one of Manning Clark’s ‘straighteners’; but that’s another story. My arguments, as a general framework, is based on a basic critique of the neo-conservative paradigm. The...
“Is that really you, Ruth.” I was really feeling her hand on the side of my face, and my finger held in her other hand, as her alive body snugged against my bum, lying on the bed. A dream. A dream very deep in the prefrontal cortex, and after a night of heavy...
"History and historians play a crucial role in Australian culture. They are foundational to other fields in the arts, with historical research often underpinning film, theatre, literature and even, on occasion, dance. A government serious about implementing a cultural...
I was recently shocked by email replies to a short comment I made, as what I thought was a extending out a hand of friendship with an intelligent comment. The replies were hostile in the first case, and extremely annoyed in the second. Both replies...
“…it's one of these moments where you feel like an era has come to an end and the world is a little emptier,” so spoke the wisdom of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, on the occasion of the passing of Olivia Newton-John. In a matter of only a few days, two...
Stocker-Lohmann-French-Buch Eulogy for Uncle Arthur Arthur Edmund Sedgwick Ruckert 5 November 1930 – 25 July 2022 My role today is to pay tribute to a man known as ‘Uncle Arthur’, in regards to the four families which extended out on the family tree from the...
The Ontological Compass assists in mapping out our understanding of too many philosophical arguments which get conflated, and interpretations which overlap without clarity. It works on measuring out usual binaries in discussions, and provides the relational...