Context is all important in asking any question? And these days a key question is the importance of history. Pragmatic agendas of the daily grind obscure how significance the study of the past is for getting a perspective on how to live a better life. This blog looks at how different present contexts are better understood from what preceded.
“One of the many paradoxes of higher education is that while it is dedicated to the production of new, often ground-breaking ideas, its institutions perpetuate obsolete practices from previous centuries…. Think of a typical journal paper in the humanities or social...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-10/us-toxic-politics-started-long-before-donald-trump-arrived/13042856 Dear Stan, I have been a cultural and social historian in relation to the ‘American challenges’ for many years. While I appreciate your moderating commentary, I...
Sometime ago, two scholars – an American, and an Australian – discussed descriptions of populism and progressivism in the history of the United States and Australia after 1945. The reflection that flows here is a synopsis of that conversation, reshaped as an argument...
In The Philosophy Cafe, Brisbane, Australia, meeting, this discussion will not be a debate, but a process of deconstructing the mixed messages that tangle people up in cognitive knots. In both categories, of 'religion' and 'science', misconceptions abound. For Script,...
What does it cost for those better historians, the ones which are trained for their profession and sacrifice for their passion in reading, research, and writing? The question should be asked in the time of the increased pricing of the Arts course, recently...
Last night I listened completely to the audio-book, 'The Fire Next Time' by James Baldwin. Cornel West is right, from a recent interview, Baldwin was unpopular with the largest section of the population, and he was often misunderstood by his 'white...
The signs might be early, but I believe we are seeing the alliance of the global "New" (so old now) Christian Right collapsing; the alliance at the very least. And I suspect that if the Christian Right reforms and creates a new movement, it will have to step away from...
Friends, do not be distracted by the diversion fallacies, currently going around social media, about what is at stake in our contemporary history. It is wrong to not to take a stand when it is so blatant that a great wrong has been committed. Those who...
I took the IDRlabs.com 8 Values Political Test, and, much like most tests designed for unreflective responses, so as to get to the prejudices of a person, I was frustrated on these psychological goals as an educator and a researcher. Many of the questions, if not all,...