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Freedom and Flourishing
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The purpose of this blog is to explore relationships between freedom (liberty) and human flourishing.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'politics'
How credible is Rudd's spin on the history of economic reform?
In his comments in “The Australian” (8 Sept. ’09) on Paul Kelly’s new book, “The March of Patriots”, Kevin Rudd attempts to make a distinction between the economic reforms of the Hawke-Keating Labor governments and those of the Howard con...
How can a conservative favour centralization of power?
One of my reasons for reading Tony Abbott’s recent book, “Battlelines”, was to remind myself why I am not a conservative. The more serious reason was to find our how a politician who proudly wears the conservative label would attempt to justify...
Is there an issue of respect involved in climbing Uluru?
When I visited Uluru for the first time about 10 days ago I learned a little about its significance to the Anangu (western desert people) who are the traditional owners. A few days later, while we were driving home to New South Wales, the board of ma...
Why is Rudd's essay like toxic debt?
When Jim asked me what I thought of Kevin Rudd’s lengthy essay on the global financial crisis (published in the February 2009 issue of “The Monthly”) I said it was like a CDO. He said: “I agree. Its just a heap of garbage.”I replied: “No,...
What can be done to promote public understanding of complex issues?
Jim began our discussion by wishing me a happy new year and asking whether I had made any resolutions. I told him that I had not had much success in keeping new year’s resolutions, so there wasn’t much point in making them. Jim then offered to ma...
Are voters rationally irrational?
When we met next day, Jim wanted to talk more about Bryan Caplan’s book, “The Myth of the Rational Voter” (previous discussion here and here). He asked: “How original is Caplan’s stuff about voter irrationality?” I suggested that Caplan...
How good is Bert Kelly's bull story?
When I next saw Jim I had to tell him that he should have been more kind to Bryan Caplan, the author of “The Myth of the Rational Voter”. You might recall that Jim implied that Caplan did not recognise that economists bear some responsibility for...
Does voter rationality have to be a myth?
I think it was probably the sheep on the cover of the book that caught Jim’s eye. When he saw my copy of Bryan Caplan’s book, “The Myth of the Rational Voter”, Jim picked it up and asked me what it was about.I explained that Bryan Caplan cons...
