Category Archives: culture

80. The Agnostic’s Survival Manual

Posted on January 2, 2015 by thormay

The Agnostic’s Sur­vival Man­ual Thor May thormay@yahoo.com Bris­bane, Aus­tralia April 2013    Pref­ace Dear reader, are you really hop­ing for a book of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’? Do you want gen­tle ideas and a com­fort­able cor­ner in which to rest your … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in competence, culture, ethics, ideology, innovation, intellectuals, lifestyle, merit, motivation, philosophy, proportion, religion, truth, Uncategorized, value | Leave a comment

79. Does religion emerge as a product of complex systems? – exploring an allegory

Posted on December 29, 2014 by thormay

Why do peo­ple take up reli­gions, per­sist with them, and aban­don them ? What­ever you think of reli­gions per­son­ally, or any par­tic­u­lar reli­gion, they seem to have been around forever amongst (most) humans, and seem unlikely to go away entirely … Con­tinue read­ing →

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

Posted on October 9, 2014 by thormay

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 →

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, health, ideology, individualism, innovation, law, lifestyle, management, merit, motivation, philosophy, politics, reciprocation, refugees, regulations, rules, value, wealth, work | Leave a comment

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

Posted on September 25, 2014 by thormay

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 →

Posted in competence, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, law, lifestyle, management, merit, motivation, reciprocation, regulations, religion, rules, truth, value, war, wealth, work | Leave a comment

76. Multicultures – communities of familiar strangers

Posted on September 7, 2014 by thormay

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 →

Posted in China, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, Language learning, law, lifestyle, merit, politics, reciprocation, refugees, regulations, religion, rules, value, war, wealth | Leave a comment

75. Property and Life Choices

Posted on August 24, 2014 by thormay

How does own­ing (or not own­ing) real estate, and mort­gage debt, influ­ence the behav­iour of indi­vid­u­als in their wider lives? What are the con­se­quences of these pat­terns for whole nations? Thor May Bris­bane, 2014 Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, ideology, individualism, innovation, lifestyle, motivation, politics, regulations, rules, value, wealth, work | Leave a comment

74. The Purpose of Education – a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy?

Posted on August 10, 2014 by thormay

Is edu­ca­tion most com­monly treated purely as an instru­men­tal tool (e.g. to get a job), or as a path to self-devel­op­ment, or both? How can a bal­ance between objec­tives be achieved in pub­lic edu­ca­tion?  Thor May Bris­bane, 2014   Pref­ace: This … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, Language learning, lifestyle, merit, motivation, philosophy, Research & Study, teaching, truth, Uncategorized, value, work | Leave a comment