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
Kevin Densley:’As Happy as Larry’ and ‘Rewriting, Reliving’
As Happy as Larry
I’m not as joyful as Harvey
but more buoyant than Tom,
though I would be content
with the plain happiness
of my good friend Laurence.
Kevin Densley
Rewriting, Reliving
Rewriting an early poem
—because you like it so much
but can now see the faults, not obvious then
—is like trying to relive youthful days
with the benefit of experience;
you make the effort, kidding yourself
that, with what you know now,
the result will be superior:
you won’t make the same mistakes twice.
But every time you try
to rewrite, relive the past,
you see no other outcome
was ever possible
than what you did then; it is
utterly of its time.
Rewriting, reliving the past provides
only two guarantees:
disintegration and failure.
Kevin Densley
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
