Human Happiness and Economic Growth: The Easterlin Paradox

I originally wrote this article in October 2020 – better to publish it here now than have it sit on my hard drive forever!

So Australia has officially entered its first recession in 29 years. Heads are hanging in parliament and a chorus of concern is rising. But the most important question is not being asked: what is the purpose of it all?

Since antiquity some philosophers and religious leaders, in both the East and West, have held that the final purpose of a human life is happiness. Buddha […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:47:17+00:002022-11-10|Economics, Human Well-Being|

How Big Should the Economy Be?

How Big Should The Economy Be?

This article was originally published in January 2020 in the Echo here.

Anyone who has never studied economics would be excused for the common-sense belief that the economy cannot grow forever, but those who have been indoctrinated with an economics education know otherwise. The standard model of economic growth that they learn is independent of resources, so, they believe, there is no limit to an economy’s size. Sound strange? The key point to toppling this dogma is knowing that the economy is a real thing, requiring real resources to increase the amount […]

By admin|2023-01-24T07:36:53+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Economics|

Brick Walls or Rubber Bands? On the Nature of Ecological Limits

This article was originally published in May 2020 in the Echo here.

The concept of a limit can invoke the image of a brick wall; when driving at high speeds, sudden death can occur with one small error in steering. The brick wall metaphor of a limit has characteristics of immediacy and finality. Herman Daly has suggested that a more appropriate model for ecological limits is a rubber band. A stretched rubber band pushes back to a position of equilibrium, and the more it is stretched the harder […]

By admin|2023-01-27T23:53:18+00:002022-11-08|Ecology|

Students are not Citizens – Australia’s New Educational Policy

This article was originally published in February 2020 with slight editorial modifications in the Echo here.

Last December the Education Council of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) adopted a new educational policy – the Alice Springs Education Declaration – in which reference to climate change and the inclusion of sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority were removed, and students were reconceived, no longer as citizens, but as apolitical ‘members of the community’. To understand the significance of this new policy it’s necessary to describe the history of its predecessors.

By admin|2023-01-28T00:20:30+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Education, Politics|

A Lithium Coup d’Etat

This article was originally published in January 2020 in the Echo with slight editorial modifications here.

You’re all set to buy to the latest iPhone or its Android equivalent, the last thing on your mind is the recent overthrow of Bolivia’s government. Why should it be?

Your phone, like power tools, electric cars, and many other battery-powered technologies, depend on lithium for their energy supply. Being the lightest metal and highly reactive makes lithium a prime candidate for batteries, which are needed to help carry forth the renewable energy revolution now under way. Because […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:33:21+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Politics|

Perspecticide and Psychological Warfare

I recently finished reading Mindf*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World, by Christopher Wylie. Wylie was the whistle-blower on Cambridge Analytica’s nefarious behaviour. Like most people I spoke to after reading it, I had a general idea that CA was a shady organisation that committed some crimes by using people’s social media data. What I learned from reading the book, however, was much more detail on what exactly they did, how they did it, and just how unscrupulous and dangerous it was.

CA was backed by billionaire Robert Mercer, who provided about 15 million dollars […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:35:59+00:002022-10-16|Politics|

The End of Education

The word education derives from both the Latin educare: ‘to bring up’ and educere: ‘to lead forth’. Unlike its German counterpart bildung, which historically focussed on self-formation, education thus has a distinct social dimension. The perennial question is: To bring up for what? Leading to where? More generally: To what end?

Two overarching and conflicting purposes of education have existed in Australia’s national educational policy dating back to the 1989 Hobart Declaration – the first of its kind. These have been education as preparation for employment, versus education for active and informed citizenship. Consider the definition of […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:41:39+00:002021-12-05|Education|

Tokyo

The train ride was like any other in the early afternoon, so much space that one could watch the urban labyrinth flit by while sitting down. During rush hour people would gush in like water, filling the space completely and evenly, businesslike, without waste. The buildings of the outside world flashing by would be obscured, making for a tedious journey of staring at one’s shoes, the ads near the ceiling, or the back of the next salaryman’s neck. On rare occasions someone next to me would have the courage to practice his English, and state in a halting, monotonous […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:43:44+00:002021-08-29|Creative Writing|

Scarlet Honeyeater

Spring’s grevilleas,
Brings scarlet honeyeaters,
PLID-o-Willy-erk.

By admin|2023-01-28T00:45:39+00:002021-08-27|Creative Writing|

Class Division

In 1985 a grade three teacher in Iowa named Jane Elliott tried an experiment on her class to teach them about discrimination. On one day she gave to all the blue-eyed students special privileges, like extra recess time, while the brown-eyed students were disadvantaged: having to stay in at recess, not being allowed to use the drinking fountain etc. On the second day she reversed these privileges for the brown-eyed students and discriminated against the blue-eyed ones. Her experimental lesson was later turned into the documentary A Class Divided. What’s remarkable about this is how quickly the […]

By admin|2023-01-28T00:53:50+00:002021-08-24|Education|

About admin

Human Happiness and Economic Growth: The Easterlin Paradox

How Big Should The Economy Be?

Brick Walls or Rubber Bands? On the Nature of Ecological Limits

Students are not Citizens – Australia’s New Educational Policy

A Lithium Coup d’Etat

Perspecticide and Psychological Warfare

The End of Education

Tokyo

Scarlet Honeyeater

Class Division