Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Ross Murdoch Martin: ‘The Peerless Pair’
The Peerless Pair
Long ago, they set the mental
Parameters of our own time.
Each rejected the black thread of
Magic, fixed Reason in its place,
But thereafter went their own way.
For Plato, true Reason was ‘pure’
Like maths, the mind an isolate.
His argument champions the
Red thread of religion and all
Authoritarian regimes.
Aristotle’s Reason, marked by
Respect for the sensory world,
In time begat modernity’s
White thread of science; and ever
Supported the democratic impulse.
Magical, one’s tempted to think
Of this amazing conjunction:
Two utterly epochal minds
Flowering in the one puny
Town, in the same flicker of time,
Like orchids in an Arctic clime!
Ross Murdoch Martin
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
