Lynn Arnold was a long-serving minister and premier of South Australia from 1992-93. After Labor’s defeat in 1993, he moved to Spain to research for a PhD in linguistics, worked for World Vision, then ran Anglicare. Since Anglicare was essentially a lobbying body, Lynn thought it appropriate to resign from the ALP.
When he left Anglicare, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and later appointed to St Peter’s Cathedral, Adelaide. He made several attempts to rejoin the ALP but was essentially fobbed off by head office. When he tried, he was asked who he was. Clearly factional heavies were worried about his intentions and whether he would rock the boat. While he remains a supporter, he is not a party member.
With the entrenched factional system, branches are largely irrelevant, community engagement pointless and recruitment a waste of time.
Barry Jones, How Labor factions actually work, The Saturday Paper, June 7 – 13, 2025 | No. 553. (my emphasis added)
What the great Barry Jones reveal in this quote is quite insightful. It basically says that that such institutional thinking, in such conflictual and chaotic settings, demonstrates that systemic social change for the good is impossible; the social change for good, under such context, is accidental.
When will it be accepted that institutional thinking reduces the capacity for better thinking:
- Institutional thinking refers to a way of understanding the world that emphasizes the importance of institutions and their internal perspectives and purposes. It involves the dogmatic view and action (as the truth of that personality) that institutions are not just structures but also embody values, ethics, and long-term goals that shape human behaviour and societal development (it is not true: human beings do, not institutions);
- Institutional thinking is involved in all power plays that hid, takeout, or reduce the intellectual thought that challenge its fallacies;
- Institutional thinking spirals around in the stages 1-2 and thus erodes the conditions of being a society.
Only the openness to intellectual histories and well-founded sociology in theories of the intellectual can prevent the processes and stages of 1-3.
REFERENCES
Barnes, B. (1983). Social Life As Bootstrapped Induction. Sociology, 17(4), 524–545. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42852643
Bartley, T., & Schneiberg, M. (2002). Rationality and Institutional Contingency: The Varying Politics of Economic Regulation in the Fire Insurance Industry. Sociological Perspectives, 45(1), 47–79. https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2002.45.1.47
Bennett, A. T. (1983). Discourses of Power, The Dialectics of Understanding, The Power of Literacy. The Journal of Education, 165(1), 53–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42772845
Bernsand, N., & Narvselius, E. (2018). Cultural Heritage in Sweden In The 2000s: Contexts, Debates, Paradoxes. Politeja, 52/1, 57–94. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26564319
Bottrill, M. C., Hockings, M., & Possingham, H. P. (2011). In Pursuit of Knowledge: Addressing Barriers to Effective Conservation Evaluation. Ecology and Society, 16(2). http://www.jstor.org/stable/26268888
Boyd, N. J. (2019). Hegel’s Hobbes: From The Historical Context of The Constitution to Conscience and Consciousness. History of Political Thought, 40(2), 327–356. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26726496
Brown, Susannah K., & Charles A. Burdsal. (2012). An Exploration of Sense of Community and Student Success Using the National Survey of Student Engagement. The Journal of General Education, 61(4), 433–460. https://doi.org/10.5325/jgeneeduc.61.4.0433
Collins, P. A. (2012). Do great local minds think alike? Comparing perceptions of the social determinants of health between non-profit and governmental actors in two Canadian cities. Health Education Research, 27(3), 371–384. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45110874
Crowley, H. (1999). Women’s Studies: Between a Rock and a Hard Place or Just Another Cell in the Beehive? Feminist Review, 61, 131–150. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1395578
Darnell Cole, & Ji Zhou. (2014). Diversity and Collegiate Experiences Affecting Self-Perceived Gains in Critical Thinking: Which Works, and Who Benefits? The Journal of General Education, 63(1), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.5325/jgeneeduc.63.1.0015
de los Reyes, G. (2019). Institutional Entrepreneurship for Digital Public Health Promotion: Challenges and Opportunities. Health Education & Behavior, 46, 30S-36S. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48625498
Dror, Y. (1986). Adjusting the Central Mind of Governments to Adversity. International Political Science Review / Revue Internationale de Science Politique, 7(1), 11–25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1600912
Gardbaum, S. (2017). Political Parties, Voting Systems, and the Separation of Powers. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 65(2), 229–264. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26425340
Gould, C. C. (2009). Structuring Global Democracy: Political Communities, Universal Human Rights, and Transnational Representation. Metaphilosophy, 40(1), 24–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24439858
Halx, M. D., & Reybold, L. E. (2005). A Pedagogy of Force: Faculty Perspectives of Critical Thinking Capacity In Undergraduate Students. The Journal of General Education, 54(4), 293–315. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27798029
Hotchkins, B. K., & Dancy, T. E. (2015). Rethinking Excellence: Black Male Success and Academic Values in Higher Education. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 4(1), 73–98. https://doi.org/10.2979/spectrum.4.1.05
Jain, L. C. (1976). Integrated Industrialisation of Non-Metropolitan Areas. Economic and Political Weekly, 11(22), M59–M69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4364665
Kiernan, J. P. (1976). Prophet and Preacher: An Essential Partnership in the Work of Zion. Man, 11(3), 356–366. https://doi.org/10.2307/2800276
Kimball, E., Schnee, E., & Schwabe, L. (2015). Writing the Personal in an Outcomes-Based World. Composition Studies, 43(2), 113–131. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45157102
Korten, D. C. (1980). Community Organization and Rural Development: A Learning Process Approach. Public Administration Review, 40(5), 480–511. https://doi.org/10.2307/3110204
Lilienfeld, S. O. (2017). Psychology’s Replication Crisis and the Grant Culture: Righting the Ship. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(4), 660–664. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48591559
Marin, A., & Bjørklund, I. (2015). A tragedy of errors? Institutional dynamics and land tenure in Finnmark, Norway. International Journal of the Commons, 9(1), 19–40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26522814
Pugh, C. (1997). Poverty and Progress? Reflections on Housing and Urban Policies in Developing Countries, 1976–96. Urban Studies, 34(10), 1547–1595. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43083773
Ryan, C. (2011). Democratic Duty and the Moral Dilemmas of Soldiers. Ethics, 122(1), 10–42. https://doi.org/10.1086/662532
Sunstein, C. R., Kahneman, D., Schkade, D., & Ritov, I. (2002). Predictably Incoherent Judgments. Stanford Law Review, 54(6), 1153–1215. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229618
Teles, S., & Kaliner, M. (2004). The Public Policy of Skepticism. Perspectives on Politics, 2(1), 39–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3688339
Thrasher, J., & Vallier, K. (2018). Political Stability in the Open Society. American Journal of Political Science, 62(2), 398–409. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26598737
Trebilcock, M. (2016). Between Universalism and Relativism: Reflections on The Evolution of Law and Development Studies. The University of Toronto Law Journal, 66(3), 330–352. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24855536
Waldman, M. (2013). System failure: the underlying causes of US policy-making errors in Afghanistan. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 89(4), 825–843. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23479396
Wals, A. E. J., & Benavot, A. (2017). Can we meet the sustainability challenges? The role of education and lifelong learning. European Journal of Education, 52(4), 404–413. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26609387
Featured Image: dreamstime_m_189508406.jpg (purchased)
Culture war and cultural wars concept or USA heritage and divided American politics as different philosophy as cultures and ideology in conflict in the United States in a 3D illustration style.
Neville Buch
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- A Eulogy for Jack - July 8, 2025
- Freedom in both The Domestic Home and The Open Road - July 7, 2025
- Australian Universities Afraid of Open Communication and Intelligent Conversation - June 27, 2025