Category Archives: Politics – international

The descent into Darkness of the UK and Victoria. Quo Vadis?

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[Bottom line: the conflicting forces now being created in the UK and Australia are truly frightening.] The UK government has just announced a nationwide return of one of the most destructive elements of lock downs: mandatory social isolation. Gatherings of … Continue reading →

Posted in bubble, Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Democracy, Health, History, Inequality, Journalism, Law, Libertarian Musings, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Social Policy, Society | 101 Comments

How change has changed: changemaking then and now

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

Below is a piece I published on the NESTA website in early 2016 which they took down in a web revamp. It’s still available on archive.org, but I thought I’d also publish it here for the record. There’s a fascinating … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Economics and public policy, History, Philosophy, Political theory, Politics - international, Politics - national | 5 Comments

The ongoing wellbeing loss from covid-policies. Sign the protest letter!

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Paul Frijters

The UK Office of National Statistics data on the wellbeing of the British population shows a unprecedented drop of about 10% in average wellbeing in the UK since March 2020. Anxiety levels almost doubled, slowly returning to normal, but wellbeing … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Health, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national, Public and Private Goods, Science, Social | 56 Comments

The Jester As King

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Antonios Sarhanis

Welcome to Antonios Sarhani’s first post. I’ve got a brief post welcoming him aboard immediately above this post. Nicholas Gruen The ceremony and the circumlocutions of the kingly court is cut by the jester. As long as the jester commands … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics - international | 15 Comments

What kind of crowd are we now seeing? The 5 surprises in this pandemic.

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Paul Frijters

There are 5 aspects of the covid-19 pandemic I really did not see coming, all pointing to a phenomenon that European sociologists of a century ago spent their whole lives describing, coming up with theories about crowds and their behaviour … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, History, Life, Philosophy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Society, Theatre | 117 Comments

A seminar/workshop on wellbeing cost-benefit analysis applied to covid

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Find below the video of a seminar for the Australian Institute for Progress done a few weeks ago detailing the basic cost-benefit view of the current pandemic. The slides of this presentation are here: Presentation CBA Covid May 2020_V2 Most … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Employment, Health, History, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society | 79 Comments

Covid strategies for Australia: herd immunity or quarantine land?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Let’s talk about some of the covid policy options facing Australia in the coming months and years. It seems to me we can either grasp the nettle and accept we will get a wave of highly visible covid-19 deaths before … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, History, Journalism, Libertarian Musings, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national | 16 Comments