Welcome to the monthly digest for July Hi , During July, Ian Robinson analysed the arguments of the No case in the Voice referendum, Hugh Harris questioned the ongoing role of Religious Instruction in public schools, and Reg Naulty reviewed
Chomsky's latest book. Si Gladman
Editor |
Highlights from Rationale
|
| Misinformation and the path to deeper
polarisation By Shasha Wang Many Australians believe the nation is more politically polarised and divided today than in the past. It’s a divide that has long plagued the United
States, but new data show it is increasingly eroding nations’ unity, shared goals, and wellbeing all over the world, including in Australia. Our research suggests the spread of misinformation on social media is part of the problem. For example, we showed participants misinformation claiming that the “Biden administration lost 20 million COVID vaccines”. In fact, the Biden administration searched for these vaccines because the distribution system established by the Trump administration failed to
track the full route they travelled. But this didn’t matter: seeing this misinformation made people angry and polarised their attitudes towards the government. |
| The Voice: Analysing the official No
case By Ian Robinson The official No case for the Voice referendum – the pamphlet of which has just been published by the Australian Electoral Commission – reminds one of the old
joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. The document is nothing more than a farrago of vague epithets, patent untruths, unfounded fears, baseless claims, wild speculations and the same arguments repeated a number of times in slightly different language, as though the authors had run out of things to say. Running through the whole document is a strong streak of neophobia – an irrational fear of anything new or different. |
MBJ's view on current affairs
|
| How Queensland’s state schools remain ‘mission fields’ for
‘harvesting’
By Hugh Harris
“But Dad! Dad! We learned it at school!” This was how my son
defended his claim that “God created the whole world”. Evidently, this was a ‘fact’ he had been ‘taught’ in Religious Instruction (RI) class at his state school. He was also told that Jesus loves him and died to save us all but was miraculously resurrected. And these unverifiable beliefs were taken as truths beyond reproach because he learned them at school. I wondered who was more naïve – my six-year-old son or me for assuming state schools wouldn’t facilitate evangelism. For me, this moment
crystallised what’s wrong with RI and motivated me to campaign against it. |
| Chomsky’s take on the challenges of our
time
By Reg Naulty
In Noam Chomsky’s new hard-hitting book, his position is always clear,
incisive and challenging. Illegitimate Authority: Facing the Challenges of Our Time, co-authored with C. J. Polychroniou, covers the governance of the United States and its foreign policy, the war in Ukraine, and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. There are also brief comments about other matters, such as the current political situation in Egypt. Chomsky’s account of American politics goes right back to the beginning. John Jay, the first justice of the Supreme Court, declared that those who
own the country should govern it. According to Chomsky, they have, and they do. |
| Why removing evolution from science class is immoral and
irrational
By Peter Ellerton
Educators involved in curriculum design know one hard truth: you
can’t fit in everything. Whatever the finished product, there will always be someone who thinks something important has been missed or something unnecessary has been included. This is what happened in the recent redesign of the Australian Curriculum, for example, where the emphasis on Western civilisation became politicised. When it comes to science curriculums, the amount of potential content that can be included is staggering. |
| Is labour productivity the problem?
By Paul Carey
In a recent article, Alan Kohler, a financial journalist of some note, concluded that: “The reason labour
productivity (GDP per hours worked) has been flatlining is because workers don’t care any more.” Labour productivity is very much à la mode in all of the Anglo-Saxon economies. Kohler attributes a number of causes: flat wage rises; Covid working from home; jaundiced “team members” who don’t see themselves as such; cost-of-living struggles; small businesses themselves in an existential crisis, and the battle against inflation. |
|
|
