Rationale: Monthly digest for July

Published: Sun, 07/31/22

Welcome to the monthly digest for July

Hi ,

During July, Jack Galvin Waight provided an insight into the ongoing interference of religious interests in the public school system. Paul Monk reviewed the new book by Douglas Murray, The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason. And, ahead of the parliamentary debate over restoring rights to the territories to legislate for voluntary assisted dying, this Editor took a look at what a younger Anthony Albanese had to say on the matter.

If you’re enjoying reading Rationale, you can support the magazine and gain full access by signing up as a member of the Rationalist Society of Australia.

If you’d like to send a Letter to the Editor or submit an article for publication, please contact me via editor@rationalist.com.au.

Si Gladman
Editor

Highlights from Rationale

Religious interference in the public school system

By Jack Galvin Waight

Imagine a country where public schools teach religion, not as an academic subject, but as sectarian truth. Imagine a country where books are published on how to infiltrate schools and create followers. Imagine a country where the government cuts funding to public schools by $559 million, and in the same period delivers $184 million for school chaplaincy. This country is not imaginary; this is Australia.

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Reason and unreason in the critique of Western civilisation

By Paul Monk

Douglas Murray is a wonderfully free spirit who lucidly tackles the manias of political correctness with erudition, panache and limpid reasoning. At just 43 years of age, he is a ‘conservative’ and courageous author in the era of cancellations and deplatformings motivated by various phobias – which is to say, fears of alleged fears – such as ‘Islamophobia’, ‘transphobia’ and what have you. Murray writes without fear or favour. The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason, his latest book, is a cry from the heart about the vandalism and desecration that he sees being heaped upon Western civilisation.

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MBJ's view on current affairs

See all of MBJ's recent work

When Albanese spoke up for euthanasia

By Si Gladman

When parliament resumes in Canberra later this month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have an opportunity to delve back into the Hansard and reference a speech given in the midst of the debate over territory rights in the 1990s. It was a speech given by a fresh-faced Albanese in late 1996 that provides a rich source of material for his current-day speech writers as his government looks to restore the right of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory to legislate for voluntary assisted dying (VAD).

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Why conspiracy theories are exciting – and dangerous

By Donovan Schaefer

Conspiracy theories have been around for centuries, from witch trials and antisemitic campaigns to beliefs that Freemasons were trying to topple European monarchies. In the mid-20th century, historian Richard Hofstadter described a ‘paranoid style’ that he observed in right-wing U.S. politics and culture: a blend of “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.” But the ‘golden age’ of conspiracy theories, it seems, is now.

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Big data: Unlocking insights into psychology

By Simon Dennis

When investigating human behaviour, people in a laboratory situation can behave very differently to how they actually are in the wild. Context, then, is essential to understanding human decision making, but short of following someone around 24/7, accurately capturing this context has always been difficult. Until now.

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