Category Archives: law

78. The Problem of Work and the Rise of the Precariat

The Prob­lem of Work and the Rise of the Pre­cariat Work, as a life expe­ri­ence, has evolved greatly over his­tor­i­cal time. For most ordi­nary peo­ple, their job is not some­thing that they enjoy much. How­ever, with­out for­mal work many lose … Con­tinue read­ing

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77. Fakes, liars, cheats, deceivers, animals in the forest

It’s all around us. From face lifts to lux­ury cars on hire pur­chase, from inflated CVs to exag­ger­ated job titles, from com­pany pub­lic­ity mate­rial to the spin that gov­ern­ments put on their fail­ures and decep­tions. At what point does fak­ery … Con­tinue read­ing

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76. Multicultures – communities of familiar strangers

Thor May Bris­bane, 2014   Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not a researched aca­d­e­mic doc­u­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, it includes a fair amount of per­sonal com­ment. Where a topic is of broad gen­eral inter­est comes up with friends, I have adopted … Con­tinue read­ing

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73. Some Uses and Misuses of Reason

When can the use of rea­son lead to bet­ter lives and soci­eties, and when can it under­mine them? Thor May Bris­bane, 2014 Think­ing point: The Aus­tralian Attor­ney Gen­eral, George Bran­dis has just declared that argu­ments for cli­mate change are irra­tional and that … Con­tinue read­ing

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72. Crime without Punishment – the journey from means to ends

Sooner or later every­one – indi­vid­u­als, gov­ern­ments, com­pa­nies – has to make choices about whether to put aside cer­tain val­ues to achieve a desired end. Michael Pas­coe, an Aus­tralian finan­cial jour­nal­ist, has recently dis­cussed this at http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/abandon-principles-and-pay-the-price-20140331-35tz4.html Image credit: Hugh … Con­tinue read­ing

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67. How Can We Treat Refugees Humanely? – An Australian Perspective

Refugees,  or more par­tic­u­larly asy­lum seek­ers arriv­ing by boat in Aus­tralian ter­ri­tory with­out prior autho­riza­tion, are a hot but­ton polit­i­cal issue in Aus­tralia. The pub­lic sen­ti­ment against them has hard­ened in the last sev­eral years, partly as a result of … Con­tinue read­ing

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66. What will be the dominant ideologies of the 21st Century?

The 20th Cen­tury revolved polit­i­cally around com­pet­ing inter­pre­ta­tions of Cap­i­tal­ism, Com­mu­nism, Social­ism and Fas­cism. These are all ways to orga­nize the lives of peo­ple on a large scale. Are real alter­na­tives or new inter­pre­ta­tions likely to emerge in the chal­leng­ing years … Con­tinue read­ing

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