The return of sacred violence
“Central to both torture and terror is the political psychology of degradation” Â Paul Kahn, Sacred violence:…
Free speech and public service
A minor controversy has broken out in Australia over restrictions on the free speech of public…
Republics in distress
As I look around the world at the state of politics, I conclude that our democratic…
Poem: The state of politics
Poetry and politics make for strained companions. The politics of poets is unreliable, inclined to the…
Poem: Nouriel’s Shoes
The following poem is from my Burning Archive collection. It had its origins in a strategic…
From flashbacks to testimony – reflections on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse
In September last year I delivered a paper to a conference sponsored by a major research…
On humility
For many years I have believed that Carl Jung once said or wrote that “you must…
On tyranny or terror?
The American historian of the holocaust in Eastern Europe, Timothy Snyder has delivered in On Tyranny:…
Commuting fragment: Julia sets
When people speak to me about complexity, I often pause and consider the synonyms that they…
Why is alcohol policy difficult?
About 10 years ago I took a job running an alcohol and drug policy unit in…