Monday, September 03, 2018

Is Populism Our Future?

The single fact of existing is already a true happiness.
~ Blaise Cendrars, born in 1887
The End of History or The Clash of Civilizations? Which theory better captured the post-Cold War zeitgeist and predicted what would Follow?

Opinion: Importing au pairs is only a solution for the rich. We need childcare for all classes

The texts, threats and lies that will haunt the Morrison government


Some moments during the Liberal Party leadership crisis were so brutal they are burnt into the memories of MPs.


NSW government guarantees loan to bail out CBD light rail


Transport Minister Andrew Constance minister was forced to reveal the existence of the guarantee after Labor's claim of department leaks.









Government staffers are often among the collateral damage of leadership contests
"Behind the scenes there are dozens of government staffers whose jobs are dependent on their bosses' political fortunes. The rules are merciless but absolute." (ABC)



Eight smart cities that are restoring privacy and empowering citizens with data


  
Every swipe you take, they'll be watching you 
Inside the shady private equity firm run by Kerry and Biden’s kids

French illustrator Antoine Helbert is a great fan of the architecture of Byzantium and has created more than two dozen intricate drawings of buildings and monuments in the capitol city of Constantinople spanning a period of almost 1000 years from the 4th century to the 13th century. (via open culture)


Secret rebels: Chinese students in Australia are not just here to study


These young people are carving a new future for Chinese international students in Australia.


He’d been a talented researcher, an academic, until his friend started a small technology company. He had joined the company and helped it to grow. It eventually became so big that the company had been acquired by one of the tech giants. And so, then, was he.
 

Change The World? These People Are Dangerous


At first, you think: Rich people making a difference — so generous! Until you consider that America might not be in the fix it’s in had we not fallen for the kind of change these winners have been selling: fake change.
The strange story of Amo the African. Given as a child to a German duke, he became a philosopher, then, suddenly, went back to Africa. Why? 
Sydney - Is populism our future?
Practically all democracies are now experiencing the effects of living through a populist moment, so we need to think ahead and ask: is populism our future?

The Sydney Democracy Network is hosting a conversation with two of Australia's most informed commentators, Nicole Curato and Benjamin Moffitt, on the durability of populist leadership and whether there are alternative political visions on offer. The forum will deal with such matters as why we got to this moment, how the populist style is reshaping public conversations, and whether the current preoccupation with populism is a distraction from the deeper causes of democratic decline. The forum will also examine populism's legacies and what the future holds for democratic politics in the age of Hanson, Trump, Duterte and Podemos.

Chair: Professor Simon Tormey

Dr Nicole Curato is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra.

Dr Benjamin Moffitt is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the National School of Arts, ACU (Melbourne).

When: 6.00-7.30pm, Thursday 20 September 2018
Where: S249 Philosophy Room, Quadrangle Building, the University of Sydney

Please RSVP here
Pete Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is a progressive Democrat, Rhodes scholar, served a tour of duty in Afghanistan during his time as mayor, and is openly gay. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Buttigieg talked about the need for progressives to recast concepts that conservatives have traditionally “owned” — like freedom, family, and patriotism — in more progressive terms B

 You’ll hear me talk all the time about freedom. Because I think there is a failure on our side if we allow conservatives to monopolize the idea of freedom — especially now that they’ve produced an authoritarian president. But what actually gives people freedom in their lives? The most profound freedoms of my everyday existence have been safeguarded by progressive policies, mostly. The freedom to marry who I choose, for one, but also the freedom that comes with paved roads and stop lights. Freedom from some obscure regulation is so much more abstract. But that’s the freedom that conservatism has now come down to.
  Or think about the idea of family, in the context of everyday life. It’s one thing to talk about family values as a theme, or a wedge — but what’s it actually like to have a family? Your family does better if you get a fair wage, if there’s good public education, if there’s good health care when you need it. These things intuitively make sense, but we’re out of practice talking about them  
I also think we need to talk about a different kind of patriotism: a fidelity to American greatness in its truest sense. You think about this as a local official, of course, but a truly great country is made of great communities. What makes a country great isn’t chauvinism. It’s the kinds of lives you enable people to lead. I think about wastewater management as freedom. If a resident of our city doesn’t have to give it a second thought, she’s freer. 
Clean drinking water is freedom. Good public education is freedom. Universal healthcare is freedom. Fair wages are freedom. Policing by consent is freedom. Gun control is freedom. Fighting climate change is freedom. A non-punitive criminal justice system is freedom. Affirmative action is freedom. Decriminalizing poverty is freedom. Easy & secure voting is freedom. This is an idea of freedom I can get behind.
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