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The Forum > Article Comments > Imposing their own prejudices > Comments

Imposing their own prejudices : Comments

By Chris Lewis, published 14/3/2012

Many Australian academics believe that only those who agree with them are unbiased.

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Daffy is a good exemplar of the mind-set Chris talks about, although I'm not sure whether or not he is an academic. The fact that I publish right-wing Christians is supposed to be some sort of sign of bias, despite the fact the I also publish left-wing atheists. Do a Google search on the site for "euthanasia" and the top result is a pro-euthanisia piece: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11628. I rest my case.
Posted by GrahamY, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 3:19:23 PM
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GrahamY makes an interesting point. With the discrediting of old-style Marxism, the fundamental socialist propositions that the present is better than the past and the future can be better than the present, and that raising the material living standards of ordinal folk is central to this process, have largely gone out of fashion.

I think there are several things at play here. Marx was totally wrong when he predicted that the condition of the working class would get progressively worse under capitalism, while socialism offered prosperity for all. In fact, the reverse proved true. For all the slogans about rich getting richer while poor get poorer, the truth is that ordinary folk in Australia and most western countries enjoy living standards their forebears could only dream of. So, the left lost ownership of the notion that they alone could deliver better living conditions for workers.

Second, and a related point, is the greening of the left. Not only does the modern left no longer own the issue of ordinary people’s living standards, the green left is actively hostile to them. So Clive Hamilton bemoans the “affluenza” of people pursuing material ends, while Naomi Klein sees the great unwashed as hapless consumerist puppets of advertisers and corporations. These are the self-described “progressives” whose agendas look, for all practical purposes, deeply regressive.

Having recently resumed studying part-time, I also wonder if postmodernism has been detrimental to vigorous debate in academia and a healthy spectrum of views. It has taught that our worldviews are products of our class, gender, culture, nationality, self-interest etc. Rather than understanding others’ positions, they are deconstructed, usually to belittle or dismiss them. The hermeneutic of suspicion cares little for the validity of an argument and more for the motives and agendas of its proponent. This makes arguing from evidence and logic more difficult, because one can dismiss an uncongenial argument by attacking its author’s motives
Posted by Rhian, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 3:30:45 PM
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Chris Lewis,
If “Australian society is [not] by and large conservative, intolerant and bigoted”, how do you explain the fact that both major parties are desperately courting the conservative, intolerant and bigoted vote on boat people? to name just one sexy issue.
Ah yes, Graham, the progressives are the poor misguided fools who think human affairs are socially administered, as opposed to economically predetermined.
“Most progressives are actually regressives who want to return to an alleged idyllic past where the community told individuals what they could do”
I must say, your language is telling, implying that “individuals” were always the blooming hothouse Orchids they are now, only oppressed back then by communitarian regimens eh? But this talk of “regressives” is interesting. Nostalgia seems a universal human delusion, but who are or were these progressives who yearned for the pastures of yore? I’m not familiar with them, unless you mean the Amish?
“In its most extreme forms it [progressivism] opposes all the things that make modern Australian life so great”
Here is the essence of neoliberal ideology (egotism) in a nutshell that bespeaks an utterly selfish, indeed hedonistic (if it were not for the Catholic overtones) celebration of gross disparities—the shadenfreude of Predestination. One appreciates the sensuous Catholic love of ritual, but surely the pagan saturnalia of modern capitalism is beyond the Catholic palate?
But what is this extreme form of progressivism “that opposes all the things that make modern Australian life so great”? Protestantism? Or something more sinister? I would say Matt Ridley, but he’s on your side.
And what is so great about modern Australian life? God-given resource wealth? Morbid obesity? Great mental healthcare facilities?
Can you be more specific, Graham? Who are these “true conservative progressives” you allude to?
Posted by Squeers, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 3:33:23 PM
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Daffy Duck

this comment "Meanwhile Graham you consistently feature posts by right-wing or conservative Christians who specialize in telling people what they can and cant do. And who, if they had the political power, would do so." reflects very badly on you.

Even a glance at the site shows that it runs a wide range of opinion, right from the looney left through to the rabid right.. and part of the fun is to shoot down both ends of the spectrum.. my own impression is that there are more looney left articles than the other side.. there a natural bias towards the left in most publications. But to say that OLO favours right wing commentators is clearly absurd..
Posted by Curmudgeon, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 4:27:00 PM
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How absolutely typical. Here we have Squeers attacking people who have a totally sensible desire to protect their country, & kids future, with a sensible, organised immigration policy.

He calls these people intolerant & bigoted because they are more interested in their kids future, than what some foreign academic thinks of them, or what some fool lefty who wants to give away their birthright, thinks. Arrogance gets a look in, but rank stupidity is a better description for those of this mind set.

The worst thing about it all, is that thousands of this type pick up their pay from the work of those they would disinherit.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 4:30:36 PM
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Australian academics are centrist or right wing? Ha! A horse-laugh to that. Of course Squeers thinks so: being an unreconstructed Marxist, from his point of view everyone else seems "right wing".
Posted by Peter Hume, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 6:42:11 PM
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