Pessimism
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Condition, Terminal? Notes Toward and Against a Concept of National Pessimism
I have intended for some time to write this piece, to formalize ideas which have swirled in the æther since I started my first clumsy attempts at writing for a public audience. Some have been abandoned, others changed in form… Continue reading
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The Dream Is Over, But The Task Remains
Some time ago I wrote a piece entitled Is It Over? as I grappled with the possibly bleak implications of my research. I fretted that everyone was running blind towards a brick wall, or worse that they’d struck it full… Continue reading
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Choosing to Forget
There is an ANZAC Day we could have, that occasionally peaks through the one we do have. It’s a day where pithy remarks like ‘Lest We Forget’ and ‘A Day of Remembrance’ have a meaning beyond uncritically elevating the soldiers… Continue reading
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To Jettison the ‘Pragmatists’
I’ve been meaning to put my thoughts on the role of intellectualism, education, and independent media for New Zealand socialists for a while now. Folk who know me well know I tread an awkward position denouncing both the barren anti-intellectualism… Continue reading
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Drowning in a Shallow Cesspit
What a thoroughly abhorrent swamp the parliamentary left presently is. Nothing, it would seem, is safe from opportunistic reaction (though to be fair I never really doubted this to be the case). Over the past few weeks a certain level… Continue reading
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Reflecting on the Spectacle of ANZAC
Now that another years’ concentrated spectacle is a month or so passed, I thought I’d throw up a short reflection on ANZAC Day while I work on other projects. This year was the first I didn’t go to any services,… Continue reading
Notes South from Nowhere 