![either or II](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/either-or-II.png)
False Binaries and Faux Virtues
Hillary Clinton’s reference to the deplorables and irredeemables gave shrill voice to the bleeding obvious: the elite’s disdain for the great unwashed. The Brexit imbroglio and the so-called ‘climate emergency’ reveal it in full force.
The elite deal in two currencies. First, they are globalists. What better way to distinguish yourself from the parochialism of underlings? But second, and my focus, they offer false choices.
False choices abound. The new progressive left is particularly fond of them, though elites on the other side of the political spectrum are also in the mix. As different as they are, false choices share a binary characteristic. Do as we say or face catastrophe or otherwise transgress against nature or morality. There is no third way apparently. Let me give you an inkling of what I mean.
# Remain in the EU or experience prolonged and severe economic disruption and permanent immiseration.
# Build wind turbines and solar farms in vast numbers or fry.
#…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins