Runner, violence simply begets more violence.

I seen schools where the rod was replaced with a non violent model, and where none of the described bullying take place.
And where the biggest kids are tasked with protecting the little ones.

Even so, if those kids who use violence to intimidate/bash teachers are not only expelled, but blacklisted so they cannot attend an Australian public school, will be the ones missing the benefits of a good education.

I would however, offer the option of a boot camp before abandoning these kids to their fate and a lifetime of revolving prison doors etc; and the sort of rugged reform paradigm, that promotes, along with a new conformist attitude and self sufficiency, new and earned self esteem and gratitude for the tough love opportunity to turn their lives around.

Where to eat you must create a camp/cooking fire, by traditional methods that require some effort, rather than a box of all too convenient matches, and where all drugs, inclusive of tobacco and alcohol are simply verboten, without exception, and you carry all you need for a few months basic survival in the wilderness on your back. tent, blankets soap and a dry change. And where you learn to wash and dry your clothes in the most rudimentary of circumstances, it's no picnic.

Albeit, reapplied every few days in dry consumables like perishables flour, porridge, beans and safe drinking water!

While you dry out with just the aid of cold turkey; and where rebellion just results in increasing hunger/loss of minimal privileges or returning to your previous life is further extended.

And where the instructors are the biggest baddest entirely unsympathetic, in your face hombres you've ever seen.

And given these camp consequence camps are located on foreign soil, your survival and return from exile rests solely on your shoulders/completing the course and the recommendations of your re educators. And where physical violence is simply outlawed/made almost impossible by sheer exhaustion. Along with the imbeciles who still believe it has any positive lasting effects.
Rhrosty.

I think this author could save himself a lot of work and just say in one sentence what he wants to say...namely that the human race (particularly the 'Western Countries" ) are damned in hell unless they repent and all believe in the Christian God and religion again.
Am I right?

" Such a domestic vision of the future does not have the breadth and dynamism to give hope. It is also, unlike the kingdom of heaven, all of our own making. What happens when we tire of next gadget that promises even more control and convenience? What will our politics focus on when we do achieve a surplus in the Federal budget?"

Who doesn't have hope? I have hope for the future, so you're not speaking for me.
The 'kingdom of heaven' IS a man made notion, since no one was told about it by any actual God, as far as I am aware, so don't go imagining it is not of our own making at all.

Politicians and politics have continued to survive and move on from Federal budget surpluses before, so I really don't see the point of that statement.
Is the author suggesting that if the politicians focus on more religious matters then all will be well? The mad Tea Party members in the US have demonstrated this is far from true...

One does not have to believe in a god or religion to be a good, moral person Mr. Sells, so you needn't fret that the Western Countries are 'losing their religion'.
I would suggest we give secularism a try because the fictional bible stories and religious mumbo jumbo are not relevant for many people anymore.

Executive summary: "People these days aren't buying my particular brand of snake oil. It's obviously because they're better educated, more technologically savvy and better-connected than humans have ever been before in history, But that doesn't suit my story, so I'll manufacture some other reason to explain it. It doesn't really matter which one, since the real purpose of this article is to sell my beliefs to gullible people who are distracted or depressed, and in a month or so I'll write another one finding some entirely different reason."

And a happy new year to you too, Peter.

Peter, an interesting point of view. I hope you can read the two outpourings above in the light of J.W. Goethe’s

True, human beings may abound
Who growl at things beyond their ken,
Mocking the beautiful and good,
And all they haven't understood.

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Dear Peter,

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You wrote :

« There are traumas so great and so terrible in the lives of nations and individuals that their pull suffocates hope so that we remain stranded in the present. … The result of all this is a kind of post-traumatic stress that haunts both individuals and nations. The resultant anxiety, or more, our panic, closes down the future so that we remain stranded in the present. The forces of memory hold us captive to the past »
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Past and future are human concepts. I’m inclined to agree with Einstein when he wrote :

“Time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it.”

The present is all that there is.

Life and death is a process that takes place in the present. That is just as much a law of nature as gravity. It has nothing to do with “post traumatic stress”.

This is what the Roman poet, Horace (65 BC – 8 BC), has to say on the subject :

« Ask not—we cannot know—what end the gods have set for you, for me; nor attempt the Babylonian reckonings Leuconoë. How much better to endure whatever comes, whether Jupiter grants us additional winters or whether this is our last, which now wears out the Tuscan Sea upon the barrier of the cliffs! Be wise, strain the wine; and since life is brief, prune back far-reaching hopes! Even while we speak, envious time has passed: “carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero” (pluck the day, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow !) »

And the English poet, Robert Herrick (1591 – 1674) :

« Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying »

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(Continued ...)

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(Continued …)

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You also oppose “biblical telos” and a so-called “secular telos”.

The OED definition of secularism is :

« The principle of separation of the state from religious institutions »

The OED definition of “telos” is :

« An ultimate object or aim »

This would seem to indicate that the term “secular telos” might mean :

« The perfection or maturity of individuals and society ».

If not, would you kindly indicate what you mean by “secular telos”.

.

After noting the supposed superiority of “biblical telos” to what you refer to as “secular telos”, you add :

« While on one side of politics John Howard could talk about being captive to a "black armband view of history" that would refuse to deal with past trauma, Julia Gillard can say that "Today I seek a mandate from the Australian people to move Australia forward." Both statements demonstrate that we live in a stranded present that is closed to the past and to the future since "forward" is not a destination »

Unless I am mistaken, this appears to be a barely veiled advocacy for the establishment of a theocracy in Australia.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

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