In addition to teaching and research, academics always had a duty to engage in wider community activities. The way in which they want to do that is up to them. James McConvill obviously likes to write about legal issues. Maybe an other lecturer in law would prefer to use his knowledge by giving legal advice to some organisation. Another issue is of course that blogging for a social scientist is different than for 'hard' scientists, although there are plenty of blogs available that are written by scholars in physics, math or biology.

That said, I think it is a very useful thing to do for an academic, and especially for social scientists. Since I started a weblog (see the link below) I became more motivated to keep up with actual developments in my field of expertise (higher education and science policies) by checking a wide range of news sources on a regular basis. It also forced me to look at the news in a more critical and analytical way because I don't just want to repeat news in my blog (although that is what many blogs still do), but also want to give my opinion about what is written.

So, even though you are not damned if you don't start blogging, for many social scientists it would be a good idea to do so.

Don't know whether this is Blog or not. But here's a go.

Blairist Bulldust

Blair’s Australian visit is just a big act pushing what he wishes he had not begun such as backing Bush, but now obliged to use his natural charm - and spin - to assure us Australians that whatever the resultant mess in Iraq right now, America, Britain and Australia did the right thing.

One point Blair made a mistake by pushing, was that we must see this war to the end as we did against Germany and Japan in WW2. Surely, Mr Blair, you might get away with that to the great Australian moron, naturally always ready to back the big league, believing Big Power will always win in the long run, especially when the other ones are not allowed to have the capacity - such as armanents - to win.

But Mr Blair you could be underrating many Australians, thinking their mental capacities are only suitable for those who came down in the last shower, as indeed it looks like too many Aussies could be at present.

Remember there are those, Mr Blair, whom you can’t bulldust that the war in the Middle East, is like fighting the planes, tanks and subs as the Germans and Japs. had against us.

First to remember, Mr Blair, is that both Germany and Japan were first into attack, not like the so-called enemy like when your Bush buddies illegally missiled the Iraqis, finding that the enemy had not much more than their own bodies to carry the explosives, with US bomber pilots getting top awards and not an enemy fighter plane to oppose them. Wonder they can sleep at night

Don’t you know, yet, Mr Blair, that you and the other two Anglopholics, Bush and Howard, are really committing what Mubarek of Egypt has been saying for so long, that the main problem in the ME, and always has been, is American and British intrusion and injustice, and the only thing that might stop it, could be a replacement for underground oil, getting fuel from crops, etc, as even the Nazis did early in WW2, easily taking France running their planes and tanks mostly on potato ethanol.

Let’s hope we soon take a lesson from Brazil, 90% of their fuel being manufactured from agricultural crops. Let’s hope the end of undeground fuel breaks many of the big oil barons restoring agriculture once again to its rightfull place in society, as well as we say once again, the end of earthy oil will be the end of trouble in the ME. Oh, goodness me, we forgot about dear sweet little Israel with all its nuclear rockets laying there wasted.

Eric B

"In addition to teaching and research, academics always had a duty to engage in wider community activities."

The trend towards commercialisation of academic research has had the effect of tying many research projects up in confidentiality agreements, where research results are embargoed until after the project is completed. Some prevent any discussion of work-in-progress.

More generally, academics *have* to engage their community - that is the source and the audience for their work. So-called 'Pure Research' has become increasingly marginalised in many disciplines, to the point where it is more of a pejorative - to have your work labelled as 'pure research' pretty much means 'mere research' now. To everyone's detriment.

I wonder if some academics now talk more about their work because to actually engage in *doing* it is either too hard, too messy, or too unpopular?

Part One

Not so bloggy.

Just read an article from Google called "The Nine Paths of Global Citizenship" edited by Doug McGill. Though it does give impressions concerning the Paths to Reason, Faith, Democracy. Humanity, Ecology, Free Trade, Feminism, Corporatism, and Perennialism, it seems Reason and Faith are the pair to which the rest are linked.

It is so interesting that McGill chooses Socrates as the patron saint of reason, and Albert Schweitzer the Patron Saint of Faith.

But the chosen pair are so far apart in history that Socrates should be the choice. Why, because though he never ever wrote a word, his talks or teachings came from deep within, as quoted by Plutarch. And so fitting regarding our political and globally social problems of today, because Socrates talked about one world, as we might talk about globalisation and one system of democratic thought.

It is also critical that among his Socratic reasoners, McGill chooses Immanuel Kant, who in opposition to his later German contemporary, Wilhem Hegel, chose peaceful negotiation as a social cleanser while Hegel chose war as the cleanser of the soul.

Part Two

As the above Socratic theorem leans much towards democracy, it is so important that McGill chooses an American, Woodrow Wilson, who is said to be the original founder of the League of Nations. However, McGill who groups Socratic reasoners together when he brings in Woodrow Wilson as the founder of the League of Nations, fails to mention Immanuel Kant, who was grouped earlier among McGill's Socratic reasoners.

Indeed, Immanuel Kant is so important historically, being well known as the one so disgusted with Napoleon breaking the Enlightenment code of Liberty Equality and Fraternity, that he wrote a thesis on a Perpetual Peace achieved through a Federation of Nations, the idea from which both the League of Nations and the United Nations were actually devised according to most historians.

Further, in relation to the above, in his Path to Democracy, McGill quotes Jonathen Schell, who argues in his “Unconquerable World” that the string of non-violent revolutions that occurred in the late 20th century in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, South Korea and other countries is evidence that America’s present very active seemingly imperialistic military dominance as the way to democratise problem nations like Iraq, goes against the grain of the obvious successes of modern people power.

Finally, it also must be emphasised, that the strength of such people power, as proven, is not generally related to the ballot, but similar to the 1688 Glorious Revolution in Britain, which behind the scenes was strongly influenced by the English philosopher John Locke, still a very popular historical figure in the US of A.

George C, WA - Bushbred