Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane
Category: Concepts in Public History for Marketplace Dialogue
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What is Education, and Why are Educational Policies Failing?
Is ‘Schooling’ Education? Or is it behaviour modification, and is it that necessarily a bad thing? What I am suggesting is that the problem is not so much around the institutional commitment to modify behaviour for socialisation, but much, much, more that ‘schooling’ fails to produce comprehension in the educational needs and “outcomes.” Schooling…
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C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, the Old-New Left, and Queensland lived Ideologies
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 sociologist examines three firmly interlocked prongs of American power:…
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The Language and Ignorance of the Culture Warrior and Knowledge of Religion & Culture in Late 20th Century Queensland
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 paradigm is a defence of a cultural position(s) which has become…
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Phenomenology of Ruth Memory (also webpage in The History of Ruth story)
“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 drinking…
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Please Read Carefully
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 misunderstood my intent for the comment, and misunderstood the…
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Extraordinary Times and the Wisdom of Ages
“…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 Australian icons in…
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Is Social Media to Blame for Academic Ruin?
The Philosophy Café Meet Up, Brisbane, Australia IS SOCIAL MEDIA TO BLAME FOR ACADEMIC RUIN? A Document to be Read by Academics: A Message from the Wider Communities Is Social Media to Blame for Academic Ruin (Corrections 7 Oct 22) Saturday, October 8, 2022 Is Social Media to Blame for Academic Ruin? Start Time 1.00…
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The 1967 Referendum And The Thinking For The Next Referendum
The change in 1967 demarked that, in the historical period before, Australian Aboriginals were not treated as citizens, but accounted in narratives of flora and fauna. There is unfortunately ambiguity in the narratives. Larissa Behrendt (2007) explains it best: “The focus on citizenship rights as an important part of the campaign for Indigenous…
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The Historiographical Argument for a ‘Yes’ Vote
In dialogue with a friend, I seek to meet his skepticism with a convincing vote for ‘Yes’ to the Uluru Statement. My message was (is) as follows: Friend, yes, I like your question, and it should be asked. And, yes, you are right, “First Nations are specifically NOT entitled to a unique voice unless…
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D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo (1923): One Hundred Years On, Questioning Social Philosophy and Policy for Today
THREE ESSAYS (REVIEW COMMENTS) IN ONE ESSAY An examination of D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo (The Cambridge Edition) in social philosophy, and demonstrating a fundamental policy problem in Australian political history. Image: Sydney Region and Central-South Coast Staging of Kangaroo (1923). ***** List of Site Markers. Order from north to south Narrabeen New South Wales 2101…