![narcissus](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/narcissus-e1564896117651-1.png)
The Forbidden-to-Forbid Generation
It used to be, more or less, that if you felt that you were being followed, you were mad; but nowadays, if you feel that you are not being followed, you are either very ill-informed or exceptionally obtuse. Your telephone knows where you are, even when turned off (if you have it with you, that is); much of the public space is under the surveillance of CCTV cameras; and no sooner do you buy something online, or appear to be about to do so, or indicate that you are thinking of doing so, than you are inundated electronically by offers of similar products or services. “They”, whoever “they” are, also know what interests you. Your internet server sends you articles about subjects that you have already read about, on the reasonable assumption that what has interested you in the past will interest you again.
Astringencies appears in every edition of Quadrant.
Click here to subscribe
Sometimes “they” seem to have your best interests at heart. Once, for example, someone from my…
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