Hatred of democracy is certainly nothing new. Indeed it is as old as democracy itself.                                                   —Jacques Rancière Who could possibly hate democracy? Well, lots of people, and the further back you go in history, the more you find. Of course, twentieth-century fascists, communists, Nazis and killjoys of all kinds were full of contempt for […]

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Long live the King. Even if you don’t like him (and many don’t), it would be positively churlish to wish Charles III a short life, considering that he’s already seventy-four years old. Churlish, but not in our vulgar society déclassé. In a reversal of the linguistic order of things, it seems the higher you go […]

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Narendra Modi will receive a rapturous welcome to Sydney, the cheering crowds begging to differ with activist academics who will tell you that he has made India a tyrannical fascist dictatorship. Check the facts, and you'll find that India is the freest country this side of Poland -- and the freest in the world with anything like its GDP per capita of just $2600

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The tramp stamp will always look suggestive on a twenty-something yoga instructor; the shoulder skull will always look fearsome on a twenty-something muscle-head. At forty or fifty, not so much. Tattoos were better suited to a time when the average life expectancy was thirty-eight. People don’t age well, but tattoos age even worse

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Varanasi is reputed to be the oldest city in the world—and the holiest. On both counts, it looks the part. Its modern name derives from its location in northern India on the left bank of the Ganges River between two tributaries: the Varuna (downstream) and the Assi (upstream). Varanasi’s poetic name, Kashi, means something like […]

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In Iran, homosexuality is banned, but sex-reassignment surgery to turn would-be homosexuals into pro-forma heterosexuals is subsidised by the government. What could be more 'right-wing' than that? Boys will be girls and girls will be boys, but is the Australian establishment’s wholehearted embrace of transsexuality really just a return to reactionary conservatism? Only an April fool could say

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The burgeoning ranks of Australia's genocide scholars, advocates of a republic and the Voice and, of course, the Prime Minister have their visions of the nation they hope to leave to their children. Figuratively speaking, of course. If they really do get the Australia they want, there won’t be much left to leave

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On December 6, 2022, a forty-five-year-old woman was arrested in Birmingham, England—on suspicion of praying. She was silently standing on a public footpath in the vicinity of a provider of abortion services. The police asked her if she was “part of a protest”, to which she answered “No”. They then asked her “Are you praying?”, […]

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If India really were hostile to the free practice of religion, as a Pew survey claims, it would raise legitimate concerns, including unfortunate geopolitical implications. But democratic countries should not allow themselves to be set against each other by spurious allegations feeding on mutual ignorance. Western democracies owe it not only to India, but to their own self-interest, to get the record straight

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Here's why the post-Christian proponents of the West’s new woke religion push their agenda with the full fiery force of Abrahamic fervour. No Ayatollah or Salafi Imam ever laid down the law with more self-righteousness than the Woollahra Municipal Council. God speaks directly to them, as surely as He speaks to Greta

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