Dr Neville Buch

Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane

Category: Important Public Statement

  • The Thinking of Dumbassery: Clear Message to Government and Corporations

    The Thinking of Dumbassery: Clear Message to Government and Corporations

            dumbassery Jump to navigationJump to search Contents 1English 1.1Etymology 1.2Noun 1.2.1Synonyms English[edit] Etymology[edit] From dumbass +‎ -ery. Noun[edit] dumbassery (uncountable) (slang,vulgar,Canada, US) Immature, foolish behavior; behavior typical of a dumbass. quotations ▲ 2008, Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl‎[1], →ISBN: Speaking of savages, Bruce Cowell and his pack of jock-wannabes, who’d been kicked off every school team because of attitude problems and/or the use of…

    Read more…

  • PASSING OF JOHN MOSES

    PASSING OF JOHN MOSES

    Dear Colleagues,             Ingrid Moses messaged last night that John had died, after a long illness, although he was still quite sharp still in the last weeks and we had been messaging often. He was 91.       Quite upsetting for me as he was a constant support both…

    Read more…

  • Universities and Employability: Why am I not employed (contracted)?

        “The [UK] creation of the Office for Students by the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act to ‘encourage competition between English higher education providers’ and to ‘promote value for money’ has been particularly instrumental in promoting a mercantile narrative that has forced universities to close departments and courses that have not been recruiting well.”   Zahid Naz, The employability agenda corrupts educational and personal…

    Read more…

  • I and My Colleagues have been Saying the Same Thing For Decades as Leading Journalistic Statements: So, Why I NOT Employed or Contracted?

    I and My Colleagues have been Saying the Same Thing For Decades as Leading Journalistic Statements: So, Why I NOT Employed or Contracted?

    Dear friends,   Not understanding the A.I. risks.   Tyler Austin Harper (2024). The Big Ai Risk Not Enough People Are Seeing: Beware technology that makes us less human, The Atlantic, MAY 21, 2024, 6 AM ET.     GIFT ARTICLE   In 1977, Ivan Illich, an Austrian-born philosopher, vagabond priest, and ruthless critic of metastatic bureaucracies, declared that…

    Read more…

  • Centrism (now called neopopulism): I said it, now the NYT is reporting it May 19, 2024

    Centrism (now called neopopulism): I said it, now the NYT is reporting it May 19, 2024

    Dear Friends, and I thank Graham Perrett’s office for its recent kind support, and several friends who made sure I have not gone under,   I said it, now the NYT  is reporting it May 19, 2024: Gift Article (I paid for it, the least you can do is read) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/briefing/centrism-washington-neopopulism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU0.99mB.4xpAfXEjbZQR&smid=url-share So, I said it back in March with the emerging…

    Read more…

  • Is there Room for “Minor” Public Intellectuals?

    Is there Room for “Minor” Public Intellectuals?

    From Peter FitzSimons, “David Marr on Dutton, Waleed … and being an outsider on Insiders,” The Sydney Morning Herald online.       Fitz: David! I interviewed the brilliant Hannah Ferguson last week, and one of the things she was decrying is that there’s no more space in Australian media for the public intellectual. What do you…

    Read more…

  • Have I Got What It Takes to Take a Stand Against the “Self-Righteous Political Decision-Makers”?

    Have I Got What It Takes to Take a Stand Against the “Self-Righteous Political Decision-Makers”?

    From Nell Gluckman, ‘Call the Philosophy Department Office and Tell Them I Have Been Arrested’, MAY 7, 2024   Tell me what that day, April 25, was like for you. How did it start?   I’m chair of my department, and we were having our once-every-10-year external-review process, so I went to pick up the…

    Read more…

  • Thinking in Both General and Particular Details: Memories as Public Insights

    Thinking in Both General and Particular Details: Memories as Public Insights

      “Four Older men in a restaurant. Nothing unusual about that. Except to the observant and astute to the modern social dynamics, it does warrant a thought. Four Older men, each representative of at least three age groupings, 40s, 50s, and early 60s, and each at separate small tables across the dining room. There are…

    Read more…

  • How intelligent and sensible politics is done

    How intelligent and sensible politics is done

    This is how intelligent and sensible politics is done.     “In return, the university will form an advisory committee made up of student, faculty, and staff members to ‘provide a conduit to engagement’ with its investment committee; answer questions “to the best of its knowledge and to the extent legally possible” about its investments…

    Read more…

  • Presentism and Parallelism: Why Political Decisions-Makers Need to fund, contract, or employ professional historians

    Presentism and Parallelism: Why Political Decisions-Makers Need to fund, contract, or employ professional historians

    An excellent piece, Christofer:       “At issue between these two interpretive poles is the basic presumption of applied social science: to what extent can the recognition of recurring patterns translate into effective political policy? Yet, Thucydides was not writing social science as we know it. To the extent that his text articulated anything…

    Read more…