September 2023 Volume LXVII Number 9, No. 599
Nationalism and the Conservative Basics
The Kindness Imperative
The Good Son
Nixon and Kissinger: Bringing China in from the Cold
Alexandre Dumas’s Hobart Town
George, Eileen and the Patriarchy
Contents
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'Why do so many of us walk around with a palpable sense that something has gone fundamentally wrong,' wondered a speaker at the recent National Conservatism conference in the UK. Just how wrong and how disenchanted will become clear on July 4, when Britons go to the polls in Rishi Sunak's surprise electionMay 24, 2024
13 mins
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The drive for kindness seems particularly to be a feature of the current West, so much so that even armed forces' recruiting ads stress their good-heartedness. Is it that the West sees itself obliged to atone for past sins, or that we have forgotten that sometimes one needs to be cruel to be kind? If we aren’t, someone else willJanuary 31, 2024
12 mins
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A Quadrant short story: 'George started pulling up the roses just after 6 a.m. I’ve dreaded this day. But I can cope -- just -- because I know by 5 pm things will be settled for my future. He’s organised it all and says he has the deposit ready and the personal phone of the retirement home's manager. Mostly, it’s a relief to have him take over. Mostly.'December 28, 2023
14 mins
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Kissinger worries that all the work he and Nixon did back in 1971-72 to open an effective long-term relationship between Washington and Beijing is being undone and, far worse, that we may well be headed for a Sino-US war. A naysayer might counter that the work he and Nixon did is the very reason very we might be heading for war. First published in September's edition, this analysis is reprised upon news of Kissinger's deathDecember 1, 2023
20 mins
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There is an interesting text by an eyewitness to the 1840 execution of four murderers in Hobart Town Gaol, an account that bears the fingerprints of Alexandre Dumas, which is curious indeed as he never set foot in Tasmania. What the condemned quartet left behind is something of a literary curiosity and, their stories pieced together, an account of dreadful crimes and speedy punishmentNovember 6, 2023
14 mins
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Human life is very complicated. All of us are constrained by and sometimes hostage to things we cannot easily control or change and might be unwilling to change even if we could. In the new biography of George Orwell's first wife, Eileen, author Anna Funder seems oblivious that factors other than a pernicious patriarchy might have shaped their relationshipOctober 6, 2023
10 mins
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There can be no doubt Harry Nathan composed 'Waltzing Matilda' in its original bush song form. After his 1903 copyright patent was disregarded and it became famous as an advertisement for Billy Tea, poor Harry drowned himself in drink and passed from this world three years laterOctober 1, 2023
9 mins
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'Things changed that night. I slept through the warning sirens and woke with the first explosions. First there was a crash followed by silence, then a second that lit the night sky. In the morning we learned eleven Russian missiles had been targeted at Lviv and three had penetrated the air defences, landing on residential apartments. People were still being excavated from the rubble'September 28, 2023
25 mins
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One seldom learns much of value in the SMH, but every now and again there's a telling insight. One such recent moment saw Yes supporters accused of 'raining down' hate, which is a real thigh-slapper of a joke given that, funnily enough, the advocates of so-called 'empathy' delight in villifying their political opponents. Empathy for the victims du jour, good. Empathy for church-going conservatives, badSeptember 27, 2023
16 mins
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No doubt those who promote the idea of a separatist Voice to represent Aborigines think alteration of the Constitution will in some way make amends, undo the injustices or tragedies of the past, as if by the operation of some healing time machine. The truth, as both history and the activist mindset leave no doubt, is that any such dressing of the wound actually rubs salt into itSeptember 26, 2023
8 mins
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When I dropped by the Museum of Sydney, various anti-white artworks were on show. One of them was a colourful piece bearing the words “Are you f****** kidding me”, which for many attendees would accurately summarise their entire experience. Indeed, the coarse-minded among us would be mouthing those words long before seeing themSeptember 23, 2023
8 mins
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Having children is no crime, though encouraging people into thinking it might be is closer to one. The cultivation of certain habits of thought, combined with various material developments, have led us to this impasse, an impasse where love, once considered the prime mover of life, seems likely to escape half the populationSeptember 20, 2023
27 mins
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The Coutts documents show the bank lied in saying Nigel Farrage's account was closed for lack of funds. Its forty-page dossier, full of left-wing clichés and rumours, spoke of xenophobia, racism and reputational damage from being associated with BREXIT's chief advocate. So, with an arrogance unthinkable when banks focused on banking rather than activism, he was cast contempuously asideSeptember 19, 2023
9 mins
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Disney execs confirmed their intent to repudiate the studio's formula when they opted to remake Snow White with actors rather than animations. Keep the dwarves? That would be regressive. Cast a white Snow White? How dare you! Those presiding over the House of Mouse came not to praise Walt Disney's wholesome and lucrative shtick but to bury itSeptember 18, 2023
8 mins
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Try as we will, we couldn’t not be organists. Prospects of glittering financial rewards seldom motivate us and our incomes would be greeted by plumbers and electricians with derisive mirth. We lack even the spiritual benefits that come from being actively resented, like cops or tax collectors. Rather, truth be told, we become organists not because we can, but because we mustSeptember 17, 2023
9 mins
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There is much to be had in Che's Last Embrace despite being a relatively slim volume. A page-turner and rollicking read, Nicholas Hasluck also offers us a paradigm for the nonsense that can pass for intellectual thinking in current Australian culture. Overall, as many critics have previously observed, this is a further demonstration of his perspicacity as a writerSeptember 16, 2023
6 mins
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It would be more accurate, and truthful, if the Uluru Statement from the Heart were to be renamed 'The Uluru Manifesto' because, like The Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels, it is a document declaring a revolutionary political plan of action. No wonder its proponents strive to keep voters in the darkSeptember 13, 2023
52 mins
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The story begins in 1941 in the Egyptian desert, where David Stirling is beside himself with frustration that efforts to relieve Tobruk are coming to nought. He proposes an elite group of well-trained malcontents to attack from the desert interior and destroy Rommel’s airfields and supply convoys. All of that is true, as is most of the very well done six-part series Stirling & Co inspiredSeptember 9, 2023
18 mins
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Voice advocates are well-mannered in the light of day but many are offensive and aggressive in the shadows. My daughter, Senator Nampijinpa Price, and I have been threatened with death several times. In the Northern Territory we women are used to that. We are routinely vilified in obscene, racist and misogynist terms simply because we disagree with the Left’s narrativeSeptember 5, 2023
13 mins
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Bruce Dowding spent spent the 18 months before his execution in Nazi prisons where a fellow inmates later recalled the onetime Wesley College teacher's 'celestial voice' singing 'O Holy Night'. Sadly, until the release of Secret Agent, Unsung Hero, that has been about the only recognition this brave Melburnian has receivedSeptember 2, 2023
10 mins
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Carmenta’lia The frass on the mimosa indicate larvae have tunneled […]August 31, 2023
1 mins
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This is Not a Fire Sale I tell myself this […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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Hunter silent road winter morning iced puddle shines in the […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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The Rope Who among you will embrace the rope, Will […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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Skins people spend for pictures inked on their skins for […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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Taking It Out On The Wood On Sunday afternoons behind […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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I Shall Compare Her to … My neighbour is not […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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Remittance Men after Judith Wright All dead, now—did some consider […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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The Azalea The azalea beside the front door is ablaze […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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The Lazaret our memories of childhood wind like lines in […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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Fire & Landscape Deep in the landscape Smoke billows, Downwind […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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The Horse i.m. Jean McCleary Picture a few horses waiting […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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Adagio for strings Last night I dreamed the clouds spoke […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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The Density of Cows The road to Eden is bordered […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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email from the minders in heaven Of course we have […]
August 31, 2023
3 mins
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Our Most Familiar Landscape We remember its contours before the […]
August 31, 2023
1 mins
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Electioneering on the Mall Actually, I know which party I […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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On hearing the crows Some might hear the black breath […]
August 31, 2023
2 mins
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Few recent news items have attracted more attention than the […]
August 30, 2023
16 mins
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Should The Sydney return to commissioning set Australian works, by different composers each time, as a means of not only engaging more Australian composers, but also of promoting Australian composers internationally? Or, in fact, is The Sydney first and foremost a piano competition, and thus is it counterproductive to mandate the inclusion of any works—Australian or otherwise—if the chief qualification of those works is their composer’s nationality?August 30, 2023
7 mins
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If the fundamental parts of an artwork are craft and style, quality is the sum of those parts. The parts themselves, in this final analysis, essentially cease to exist independent of one another—sometimes to a work’s detriment. To re-examine an earlier metaphor, the table may be functional, but if the style of its design is ugly then its quality is negatively impacted. Conversely, a beautiful table that lacks structural integrity is little more than a delayed disaster; knowing that it lacks craft, the success of its style is mitigated and its quality lessened.August 30, 2023
12 mins
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Is the Absurd the key to the meaning of life? […]
August 30, 2023
24 mins
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Humphrey’s system for stalling. According to Tom, it’s in five […]
August 30, 2023
26 mins
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Sir: Many years ago, I was an examination assessor in […]
August 30, 2023
7 mins
