Keywords: Disillusionment
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AUSTRALIA
- David Halliday
- 26 September 2023
In the lead up to the Voice referendum, there's a subtle yet seismic undercurrent at play: How do we sustain a meaningful democratic conversation when the foundational truths seem so fragmented? Our ability to connect, converse, and find consensus could be the real referendum of our times.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Gillian Bouras
- 01 May 2023
5 Comments
As the UK prepares for the coronation of King Charles, ideas about national pride and loyalty to the crown have been revolutionised since Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as attitudes towards the British monarchy continue to change both at home and abroad.
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AUSTRALIA
- Anthony N Castle
- 18 May 2022
5 Comments
I was invited to a party the night of the 2019 election. The night’s entertainment was invite-only, with long tables of bread and wine, and I stepped back from the sounds of celebration to hear the political coverage on my phone. Standing at the far window, I looked up to see people in the night below, out in the dark, silent. Behind me a party guest shouted over the noise ‘what happened?’ I looked away from those outside and answered: a loss.
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RELIGION
- Gerald O'Collins
- 20 May 2021
24 Comments
Over forty years ago I drew on the doctoral work of Bridget Puzon to produce The Second Journey and reflect on midlife journeys. Human history, as I realised then and later, throws up everywhere examples of such journeys: from Abraham and Sarah to Moses, from Paul of Tarsus to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, from Dante Alighieri to Eleanor Roosevelt, from John Wesley to Jimmy Carter, from John Henry Newman to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Catherine Marshall
- 20 February 2020
3 Comments
This communal outpouring during the bushfires has an opportunity to perpetuate itself indefinitely, even though the embers have been extinguished and those not directly affected by the fires have gotten on with their workaday lives. For even as the fires burned, Tourism Australia was mounting a campaign to encourage Australians to holiday locally instead of taking their patronage abroad, and to persuade international tourists to visit, too.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Osmond Chiu
- 11 February 2019
14 Comments
Just as the focus of post-war reconstruction was not merely demobilisation but the maintenance of full employment, developing social security and economic development, decarbonising Australia must involve rebuilding faith that politics can deliver a better Australia. We need to ensure our response leads to a good society.
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AUSTRALIA
- Jeff Sparrow
- 08 November 2018
3 Comments
If we say the man's lost his mind, we must, in fairness, acknowledge that he possessed a mind to lose. Bizarre as the notion now sounds, Latham brought consider intellectual firepower to the Labor leadership. His deep commitment to free market policies meant his hostility to Hanson always came as much from the right as the left.
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MEDIA
- Celeste Liddle
- 08 October 2018
8 Comments
Most of the requests wanted my slant on the racist cartoon, the blackface incident or the girl who wouldn't stand for the anthem. They weren't interested in delving into the systemic issues which led to most of those other situations. Most wanted Aboriginal opinion for the purposes of producing clickbait.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 18 June 2018
6 Comments
The contrast between success and failure shows that successful independents and minor parties cannot just be based on major party disillusionment, creative election campaigns, or attractive candidates, but also on deep listening to and engaging with their communities which enable a positive and grounded alternative to be offered to voters.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 23 May 2017
54 Comments
Catholics have a proud record of exercising their democratic rights within Australian democracy as voters, members of political parties and lobby groups, and as elected representatives. But within their own church they have been taught to leave their democratic rights at the door. Now is the time to challenge that norm in parishes, dioceses and the wider church. In responding to the royal commission the church needs an infusion of democratic values, including transparency and accountability.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tim Robertson
- 17 February 2017
11 Comments
This is not the beginning of the normalisation of Hanson and One Nation: it's the end. In a piece for The Monthly, Dominic Kelly highlighted how large swaths of the rightwing commentariat have embraced the 'more mature', 'disciplined' and 'principled' Hanson 2.0. Despite this rhetoric, for the Right, appeasing One Nation has always been a balancing act. They're guided by one question: How much racism is permissible before it has to be condemned?
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 14 February 2017
19 Comments
In itself inequality is not harmful. It is part of the diversity proper in any human society. But the inequality that is now in question is toxic because it is extreme when measured by any scale, and because it is programmed to increase. It is self-perpetuating and self-intensifying. The increase of wealth of the few entails the marginalisation and impoverishment of others. Inequality is the enduring root and not the transient blossom of the plant of social division.
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