Is it possible to have sensible discussions in public? Last June there was a kerfuffle in the online magazine Spinoff over attitudes to intellectual activity in New Zealand. It was precipitated by an extract from Auckland retired academic Roger Horrocks’s recently published collection of essays, Re-inventing New Zealand.. The excerpt came from ‘A Short History of “The New Zealand Intellectual”’…
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The social worth of a person in no way reflects their income or wealth. To confuse the two notions is to play into the values of the rich. My brother, Keith, died in the hospital wing of a Christchurch retirement home recently. He had been diagnosed with metastatic bowel cancer two years before, and had 22…
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(William) KEITH EASTON: 18 August 1944 – 26 April 2016 When I was about 12, the family was hit by a virus which made us lackadaisical and sleepy. I recall that on the afternoon it impacted on me, I struggled to meet my raspberry picking quota. Keith, 17 months younger, went down for a week….
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AUT Briefing Papers October 6, 2015 Once upon a time New Zealand identified itself as egalitarian. Phrases like ‘a classless society’, ‘jack’s as good as his master; ‘a working man’s democracy’ were bandied around, often without much critical thought. A distinction was made between ‘egalitarian’ and ‘equalitarian’. Certainly the aim was that New Zealanders were…
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It is not what Eleanor Catton said about the government, but how we respond to what she said. Sean Plunkett’s intemperate attack on Eleanor Catton is a reminder of just how superficial is tolerance of dissent in New Zealand. I leave others to defend the exact interchange – Danyl McLauchlan was as I normally expect…
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Jeff Madrick identifies seven bad economic ideas; Alan Blinder is more cautious. What do economists actually believe, and how does it stack up against what we think economics says? Jeff Madrick, a highly respected American economic journalist, recently published a book, Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World. It was…
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The Secretary of the Treasury appears to have doubts. Pundit: 24 November, 2014. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; In a speech to economics teachers earlier this month, the Secretary of the Treasury, Gabriel Makhlouf, argued for a different approach to economics from the one which dominates the profession in New…
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Thomas Piketty says economic inequality has been getting greater in the world, and will get greater. What about New Zealand? Pundit: 28 October, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Paul Krugman has said “Thomas Piketty has transformed our economic discourse; we’ll never talk about wealth and inequality the…
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Jack Shallcrass died on the 13 August, 2014 at the age of 91. Many years earlier in 1965 – he was 42 and I 21 – he spoke at the University of Curious Cove. His lecture, ‘The Right to Dissent’ greatly influenced my thinking. Its themes of the central role of dissent in a civilised…
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Published as a briefing paper: 13 May, 2014 (A service being provided by AUT) http://briefingpapers.co.nz/ Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; The annual May budget is a public spectacle. The Minister of Finance is photographed holding aloft a copy of his speech while those from political parties and sectors dominate media discussions…
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As our main indicator of economic growth, GDP has major limitations. Listener: 30 January, 2014. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; The expectation is for normal economic growth in the coming year. The economy peaked in September 2007 and stagnated (in per-capita terms) through to March…
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Why it has taken so long for child poverty to become part of the conventional wisdom. Listener: 16th January, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Social Policy; Corso, the Council of Organisations for Relief Services Overseas, decided in 1979 that it was wrong to ignore poverty in New…
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The Truth Behind the Free Market by Bryan Gould (Macmillan, $54.95) This review was commissioned by ‘The Listener’ but not used Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; The dominant public narrative has a vision of business and the market as progressive forces, held back by unnecessary interventions from politicians and…
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St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society 24 October, 2013 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Those who founded this venerable church, more than 160 years ago, might be a little disturbed that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be introduced into it. However my intention is not so much…
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The Austerian Economists’ Error In the battle of opinions for managing sluggish economies, rhetoric often misrepresents the research. Listener: 13 June, 2013 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; The right response to high unemployment and lethargic economic activity is to cut back government spending, according to “Austerians”, whose…
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Indonesian Muslims don’t necessarily support the opinions and actions of Middle Eastern Muslims. Listener: 8 June, 2013 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History; I once flew from Dublin to Vienna – both Catholic but with very different atmospheres. The distance from Mecca to Jakarta…
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Presentation to the Ephesus Group, Wellington; 19 May, 2013. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; I want to start a conversation which I hope will not end tonight. Instead I hope that many of you will go home and read the books on which the conversation is founded and continue it from…
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It is said social scientists don’t live dangerously, but here’s one who did. Listener: 16 February, 2013. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Miraculously, all four Jewish schoolboys in the picture (which accompanied the column) taken in Berlin in about 1930 escaped the Holocaust, which killed…
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The available text of Shakespeare?s Timon of Athens is a bit of a mess. It was all the compilers of the 1623 Folio edition of Shakespeare?s plays had when it was published, but it is almost certainly an early draft by its two playwrights (Thomas Middleton wrote about half of it), replete with inconsistencies that would have been dealt with when the play was staged. This may justify more freedom than modern directors regularly take with Shakespeare; the British National Theatre seized the opportunity last year with a stage production (right), also on film, located in London after the global financial crisis.
During Rugby World Cup 2011, historian and editor of online encyclopedia Te Ara Jock Phillips searched for the “real New Zealand”. He trotted around museums and other earnest alternative exhibits, often rugby-related, reporting on what the non-rugby elite thought was important.