At this rate it appears that the world will become a dictatorship- ironic given Locke's vision. Prof. Patrick Deneen talks about this in "Why Liberalism Failed".

As to Mr Opinion's comment about Ex-PM Tony Abbott and his Arts Degree-

Patrick Deneen also talks about the Liberal Arts- or "the Art of Learning to be free"- his view appears to be that the original Classical Arts programs predated "Mill" and so had a very different idea of what it meant to "be free"- being more of an "Aristotelian" interpretation of being free from enslavement to our baser natures.

This sort of dovetails with discussions through the ages as to whether man was naturally good or bad- in the Chinese Confucian tradition Mencius and Xunzi have interesting contrasts. Nietzsche has some interesting things to say in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra- but quite complex.

Liz Coleman on TED talks about the infection of the Liberal Arts with Post Modern Deconstructionism- and the power dynamic- apparently completely ignoring the complex interaction of competition and cooperation.

Personally I suspect that the Liberal Arts has become compromised and indoctrinated by pedagogy and those in a position to influence it. So it's perhaps better to read about the greats "viva voce" rather than studying it at the corrupted universities.

A degeneration a reinterpretion of the Liberal Arts into communist class warfare.

Foxy,

You are the first one to make this thread political as the only people that think this choice is baffling are left whingers and far-left whingers. That your quotes are from far-left whinge commentators is also a giveaway as only hardcore lefties believe that TA is a misogynist for starters.

That TA is getting the same treatment that 1000s of other Australians to travel is baffling to you? That TA can draw a parliamentary pension after nearly 3 decades in parliament yet still earn a living separately like any other politician also seems to tie you in knots.

That TA as a Rhodes scholar with degrees in economics and law and extensive trade negotiation experience might be a useful trade envoy seems to elude only left whingers.

Canem Malum,

I like your take on what I said about our democracy just replacing one type of ruler with a group of similar people in which power and authority over the hoi polloi is all that seems to matter.

The sad part about our democratic system is that it has contradictions. It does allow citizens to engage in government just like the Athenians (males) but power is still not fully in the hands of all the citizens to make equal choices and decisions.

So we have representatives but unfortunately a lot of those tend to be of the same types as Tony Abbott and Joh Bjelke-Petersen who I think would sell their own grandmother if they could make a buck out of it.

People are tired of the left wing bias of the Project it looks like closing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8679819/amp/Judgement-day-Project-Channel-10-asks-budget-cuts.html?fbclid=IwAR2K9CtsxRZ_K6lRHD7mgYilp7j_OXF5PcrdEF7Xgomo3WaS_gn34r0aYFM

Well the finger-pointing continues.

It seems that only the "Left-whingers" are capable of
making this discussion "political".

Seriously?

Opinions are interesting. Everyone has one.

However the facts are that the decision to appoint a
"gaffe-prone" former Australian PM as Britain's post
Brexit trade envoy has been blasted by critics on
both sides of politics. And the fact that Mr Abbott
was granted permission to break the Australian
travel ban to fly to the UK has also been questioned.

Then his qualifications for the job have also been
raised. A British parliamentarian stated:

"This is someone with no hands-on experience negotiating
trade agreements, who denies climate change, and who
clearly has no concept of the importance of Britain's
trade with the EU..."

And worse - calling Abbott an:

"offensive, aggressive, leering, gaffe-prone misogynist"...

Then there's also Abbott's student record at Oxford that
has been raised on multiple websites. Tony Abbott clearly
was no intellectual star at Oxford - scoring very low
and only just making the grade.

It's all there on Google. I believe that he did excel at
boxing though.