On human frailty in governing
Once ten years ago I gave answers to one of those personal profile questionnaires that aimed…
The victorious hermit in Copenhagen
I was only in Copenhagen for a day in which time I strolled down Stroget, ate…
Poem: Spring in Lisbon
Spring in Lisbon The pale indigo fireworks of spring Stand like guardians Of my origins. In…
Do we repair our republics with big ideas or ordinary virtues?
My old boss and sometime mentor, Terry Moran, has given an oration in which he sets…
On the renunciation of the political world
Since I was very young I have been drawn, like a moth to light, to the…
On the rescue of society
Writing in the New York Times (Jan 10 2019), David Brooks proposes the “remoralization of the market” as the…
Identity Crisis – some theses on identity politics
What are we to make of the phenomenon of identity politics? Here are some exploratory theses….
Could the culture wars descend into civil wars?
Over at the online magazine Quilette, a Shakespeare scholar at a minor English university, Neerna Parvini,…
The meaning of a coup
Barely a week ago Australia was gripped in political drama – a clumsily organised coup was…
Bureaucratic utopianism
Bureaucracy is not meant to be Utopian. After all, is not bureaucracy the home of the…