Another Lazy Thinking Way Of Operating
There is no left or right, not really, not in political terms. There are many shades of thought and philosophies existing and interacting around the place at any one time in history. Grouping everything into a binary is just another lazy thinking way of operating. It is similar to focusing on one individual at the expense of acknowledging teams and organisations being responsible for actions, achievements and perceived failures. This all comes down to how we like to tell stories and the kind of stories we most like consuming. We, as human beings, shift the emphasis within episodic events to make them more coherent and linked to a central theme or character. We strip out the stuff we judge as tangential and beef up what we want to shine through.Continue Reading
Greed Gave Us The GFC & We Have Been Paying Ever Since
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) grew out of the wage suppressing impacts of neoliberalism and its response to the lack of domestic economic demand and growth this engendered within Western economies in the late Eighties and Nineties. Manufacturing jobs were moved offshore to cheaper labour markets in the developing world.Continue Reading
How The Black Death Shaped Humanity
I have been reading some interesting stuff about how the Black Death shaped humanity. Plague has been with humankind at least 5, 000 years and has been one of our most efficient killers.
“Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacteria, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. It is transmitted between animals through fleas.”
(https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/plague#:~:text=Plague%20is%20an%20infectious%20disease,transmitted%20between%20animals%20through%20fleas.)
Yersinia pestis is the official name of this malevolent bacteria, which has a predilection for human victims. It manifests in bubonic and pneumonic ways to spread death and disease. It has been found in ancient DNA by scientists and looks to have originated on the steppes of Eurasia.Continue Reading
Albanese Government Need To Lift Their Game
Let me make one thing clear at the outset of this post, the ALP federal government may be lukewarm in my opinion but the Opposition is no alternative. The Albanese government need to lift their game, as the timidity and treading water approach are beginning to smell of self-preservation. We do not want a government, which is more interested in not offending folk than getting anything progressive done. The Voice rejection was a very disappointing failure for Australia but it is no excuse for ducking the difficult issues facing the nation. Anthony Albanese needs to go watch some footage of former PM Paul Keating and find some backbone real fast.Continue Reading
Is Anglo Racism The Worst Kind?
By this I mean the racism expressed by some members of the British ethnic identity toward those they define as ‘not truly of their kind’. The Anglo identity has colonised dominions including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, parts of southern Africa, and smaller territories here and there. So, when asking, Is Anglo racism the worst kind? I am including these nations and places in the examination of the evidence. The argument against this questionable assertion is that every ethnic identity displays at times in part what we now call racism toward those people it so defines as ‘other’ or ‘not like themselves’.Continue Reading
Blame It On The Poor Immigrant
The conversation among my work crew is a fairly good reflection of the average discursive exchange happening around the nation at the moment, I reckon. Dressed as we are in high viz gear and steel capped boots ensconced in our work ute on the way to the site. Smoko ramps up with the news of the day and plenty of opinions. One of my erstwhile colleagues, a migrant from the old country, was voicing her support for those kicking up a stink in Britain. Blaming it on too many immigrants coming into the country and receiving special treatment to the detriment of those who really belong there. Blame it on the poor immigrant.Continue Reading
Inflation Facts
Bankers like to stick fat with the big end of town, as they are their clients. Inflation facts often get lost in the emotive discussions about who is to blame and what can be done about it.Continue Reading
AI: Why Do We Give Our Power Away?
We are in the midst of a hype driven mania for all things AI at this time. This is not entirely unusual, as humanity has done this before. There have been fevers for all sorts of things from tulips to Facebook over the years. In this instance, however, it involves handing over agency to something called Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI: Why do we give our power away? Human beings have a tendency to be inclined to pass over responsibility to something perceived as wiser than ourselves. We did it with God! For millennia, large sections of the human race have handballed autonomy to an invisible, apparently supernatural entity with a lot of oms. Omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. All powerful, all knowing and everywhere. Of course, the concept of God has proven to be scientifically unverifiable.Continue Reading
WTF Is America? Who Is The USA?
A nation in the grip of Trumpism sees the demise of President Joe Biden for future re-election. No matter the irksome words emerging from Republican candidate Donald Trump a goodly part of America backs him. A gun crazy culture nearly witnesses the assassination of yet another political leader and that makes him some kind of hero in their eyes. WTF is America? Who is the USA? A multiracial population resides in America and still the white identity wants to hoard power for itself. Make America Great Again – was that back when white Protestant men controlled all the levers of state power?Continue Reading
Dumb Americans & Trump
If you talk to most Australians about America and Trump the general consensus is that America’s love affair with Donald Trump puts them in the ‘too stupid to believe’ category. Dumb Americans and Trump. Are they really believing the non-stop lies coming out of Trump’s mouth? This has most of us rolling our eyes in disbelief. Dysfunctional relationships are often like this – you know when a close friend falls for a complete arsehole and cannot see him or her for what they truly are. It happens and the destructive consequences of such hook ups may go on for some time. In this instance, with a fantasy creation like Trump ascending to the highest office in the world, the impact is felt far and wide.Continue Reading