Latest Articles
A Sydney-based academic and columnist for the Nine rags sets out to explain the US to Australians. It's not a pretty picture
Sep 20 2024
8 mins
The philospher began with the conviction 'the only human activity that seems to have any importance' is the great cosmic 'why?'
Sep 20 2024
24 mins
In the Senate, a very queer notion of free speech
Sep 20 2024
2 mins
Libby Sommer: ‘Hostilities’
Hostilities
I worry about the ones
who disbelieve in science,
the ones on social media
with no qualifications
but a good command
of gobbledygook,
and the one who said
she’d had enough of wimps like me.
Scientists observe and calculate,
study the risks,
wave us across
as we wait by the side of the road,
even though the science of pandemics
is incomplete.
It takes a lot of guts sometimes
with those who are close to us.
Relatives, old school friends, intimates …
Anti-vaxxers still find arguments
to fire at us. I think of Aristotle’s warning:
there is only one way
to avoid criticism—
do nothing, say nothing,
and be nothing.
Libby Sommer
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
