Bob's blog - the realm of threalm

The 21st Century paradigm?   Left v Right was so 18 th Century. Collectivism v Individualism was so 19th Century Socialism v Capitalism was so 20th Century The cultural and political debates that are emerging in the 21st Century seem to be better framed in the related, but more informative, dichotomy of " Progress v Freedom", than the opaque, out-moded and blunt, " Left v Right ".  Labelling that tries to be  more descriptive of the political content of a person's ideas is more helpful than the arbitrary putative positioning of that person relative to  opponents. Admittedly there is a residual problem that "progress" is also merely a directional indicator , that on its own doesn't indicate a destination. This means it can be appropriated as a label by anyone who wants to takes us to a different place. "Progressive" is still used as a virtua...

What is stupider than being stupid while calling other people stupid? Nice question. It was put by Ann Althouse after reading  this piece of stupidity from progressive US commentator Jonathan Chait in The New Republic, whilst he sought to ridicule as stupid an economic recovery proposal put forward by the Republican governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels: A proposal that seems remotely close to reality will be widely praised, as if we were watching a person with severe disabilities manage to finish a race. Wow, look at that! You have a plan! With numbers! Hooray for you! Yeah. Wow. Just how stupid is that? This sanctimonious galah apparently feels so morally superior that he could not even contemplate that whilst carefully crafting these acerbic words he could also be caught in the act of transgressing a sacred tenet of the Talibanic moral code of political correctness: thou shalt not to be seen to belittle mino...

During this intriguing inter-regnum as Australia waits to see if a minority government can be cobbled together in Canberra between one or two of the major parties and the independents, we have again been shown the brazen double reporting standards of Fairfax and the government media. As occurred throughout the Rudd Government, these influential news agencies have seen their primary self appointed role as holding the Opposition to account. As they see it, the Government is so clearly on track with their urban latte sippers' approved policy and clever news management systems, that independent press scrutiny can be focused on the easy sport of picking at the Opposition's failings, rather than the substance of holding the Government's actual performance to account. And some people still seem to wonder aloud why Australia was caught by surprise when the Labor party killed off...

. I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—too? Then there's a pair of us? Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know! How dreary—to be—Somebody! How public—like a Frog— To tell one's name—the livelong June— To an admiring Bog Emily Dickinson

HL Mencken: "There is always an easy solution to every human problem; neat, plausible, and wrong." Ronald Reagan: "There are simple solutions, just no easy solutions."

I reckon that if a bunch of well meaning central planning ideologues can choose to brand their artifical process for the global reduction of the main chemical element in all known life forms, carbon, the " Clean Development Mechanism ", without recognising the hubristic over-reach and irony of such aspiration, they deserve to have this happen to them .

There is something dangerously seductive about the idea of being able to deliberately plant an idea, cut down to its simplest form, so that it can take hold in the human psyche and self propagate like a virus. Whilst bravely putting to one side the whole of the advertising and marketing industries, I have recently been prompted to ponder the genesis and success of some quite influential ideas: There is but one God . Love thy neighbour as thyself. Christ died for our sins . From each according to his abilities , to each according to his needs; God is dead . Survival of the fittest . Anatomy is destiny . E = mc2 . Let freedom ring . Every man has his price . The answer is blowin' in the wind . You've  nothing to lose except your chains . You are only limited by your imagination. Freedom is a myth . Language determines how you think. It's time . The selfish gene . The greenhouse effect . The tipping...