Holding Pattern

Time for a cost benefit analysis of US alliance

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  (Published on ‘The Drum’ 3 November 2010) Australia’s alliance with the USA seems to be popular with the Australian electorate. Polls by the Lowy Institute (LI) and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) suggest strong support for the Australian-US alliance. These polls tell us that most Australians regard the alliance as important “for Australia’s […]

Views on the afterlife- including no sex for Christians in heaven

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Summary: Jewish views on the afterlife; Islamic views on heaven; Christian views on heaven and hell; Modern questions about life in heaven; No sex in the Christian heaven; Changes in how a person gets to heaven. The Middle Eastern religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam all believe in an afterlife in heaven. Jewish views on the afterlife […]

Utilitarianism and politics

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 Summary: However applicable utilitarianism is to the development or assessment of ethics and public policy, in the end, it probably adds little to successful navigation of the political process. In 2010 Professor Peter Singer delivered an oration to the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). His topic was ‘Ethics & Public Policy’. Professor Singer advocated a […]

The Self

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Summary:  Discusses religious and philosophical views of the self , the changing self, Demasio’s views on the continuity of the self and location of the self in the brain stem, death and the end of consciousness, debates on the role of the unconscious and Kahneman’s distinction between the experiencing and the remembering self.   Religious and […]

Answering the Environmental Crisis: Democratic Mobilisation or Technical Fix?

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Summary: Discusses neo-liberalism and the environment, geo-engineering, Co2 removal, solar radiation management, carbon emissions pricing, criticism of emissions trading, price signals and innovation, progress traps, Easter Island, Latin America and China, persistence of global poverty, the environmental movement, future generations, precautionary principle, economic cycles and environmentalism, unions and the environment. Introduction UK journalist and environmental […]