Other books that might interest you

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  21st-Century Virtues

  Lucinda Holdforth

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  Authenticity. Vulnerability. Humility. Transparency. These are some of the 21st-century virtues proselytised by mindset gurus, paraded (if not practised) by big corporations, and lauded by professionals on LinkedIn. The quest for authenticity, for example, is central to progressive campaigns for greater diversity and inclusion, while our political and business leaders are highest praised if they appear to be humble. But are Australia’s newest virtues fit for purpose?In this provocative book, Lucinda Holdforth questions the new orthodoxy. She suggests that these virtues are not only unhelpfully subjective and self-referential but also, in the absence of broader civic values, fail to serve our democracy. This matters when experience around the world, especially in the United States, shows us that no democracy is guaranteed.Holdforth reminds us that arguments for transparency and authenticity are routinely used by totalitarian regimes to justify ultra-nationalism, artistic censorship and population surveillance. Vulnerability may be a facet of the human condition but that is surely no reason to make it an aspiration. Well-meaning people may talk about the power of ‘my’ truth, but if pushed too far this risks a dissolution of agreed facts and shared reality, breaking down the decision-making processes essential to effective democracy.If we agree that Australia needs confident, rational, optimistic and outward-looking citizens to shape our future, then Holdforth challenges us to reconsider the contemporary virtues shaping our society.

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  Real Enemies - Conspiracy...

  Kathryn S. Olmsted

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  Many Americans believe that their own government is guilty of shocking crimes. Government agents shot the president. They faked the moon landing. They stood by and allowed the murders of 2,400 servicemen in Hawaii. Although paranoia has been a feature of the American scene since the birth of the Republic, in Real Enemies Kathryn Olmsted shows that it was only in the twentieth century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics. In particular, she posits World War I as a critical turning point and shows that as the federal bureaucracy expanded, Americans grew more fearful of the government itself—the military, the intelligence community, and even the President. Analyzing the wide-spread suspicions surrounding such events as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and 9/11, Olmsted sheds light on why so many Americans believe that their government conspires against them, why more people believe these theories over time, and how real conspiracies—such as the infamous Northwoods plan—have fueled our paranoia about the governments we ourselves elect.

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  MLK: A Dream Remembered

  PBS NewsHour

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  A panel of historians and activists reflect on the historic 1963 March on Washington and the enduring significance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s rousing "I Have a Dream" speech.

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  Desperate migrants share horror...

  PBS NewsHour

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  The sea route from Libya to Italy is dangerous, even deadly, for African migrants and refugees who are desperate to cross. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from a Doctors Without Borders rescue ship that’s attempting to save people victimized in Libya from then dying at sea.

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  End of an Era - How China's...

  Carl Minzner

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  China's reform era is ending. Core factors that characterized it—political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth—are unraveling. 
  Since the 1990s, Beijing's leaders have firmly rejected any fundamental reform of their authoritarian one-party political system, even as a decades-long boom has reshaped China's economy and society. On the surface, their efforts have been a success. Political turmoil has toppled former Communist East bloc regimes, internal unrest overtaken Middle East nations, and populist movements risen to challenge established Western democracies. China, in contrast, has appeared a relative haven of stability and growth. 
  But as Carl Minzner shows, a closer look at China's reform era reveals a different truth. Over the past three decades, a frozen political system has fueled both the rise of entrenched interests within the Communist Party itself, and the systematic underdevelopment of institutions of governance among state and society at large. Economic cleavages have widened. Social unrest has worsened. Ideological polarization has deepened. 
  Now, to address these looming problems, China's leaders are progressively cannibalizing institutional norms and practices that have formed the bedrock of the regime's stability in the reform era.

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  Terror Attack Brighton - Blowing...

  Kieran Hughes

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  The Brighton bombing in 1984 was the most audacious terrorist attack ever on the British Government. Certainly it was the most ambitious since the Gunpowder plot of 1605. The Provisional I.R.A. detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel on 12th October 1984. Most of the Government were staying at the hotel at the time. The Conservative party was holding its annual conference in the town. Five people were killed in the explosion, and more than thirty were injured. It came very close to wiping out most of the Government, including the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The I.R.A.'s Patrick Magee had booked into the Grand Hotel under the false name of Roy Walsh, about a month before. He planted a bomb with a long-delay timer, hidden under a bath in one of the rooms. He was given eight life sentences for the crime, but released from prison in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement. He served just fourteen years behind bars.It was one of two IRA bombs aimed directly at the collective Government of the day. The other was in February 1991when, at the height of the Gulf War security alert, the I.R.A. fired a mortar bomb directly at Downing Street. The War Cabinet was in session to discuss the threat from Saddam Hussein. The bomb was only yards from hitting the Prime Minister and his senior colleagues. The Grand Hotel bombing and the Downing Street bombing were 'different' to the IRA's other attacks. They were aimed directly at the heart of the democratically elected Government of the day, particularly the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Other IRA bombings either caused greater loss of life, resulted in more injuries or were of a far greater financial cost. For example, attacks at Omagh in 1998 killed twenty-eight, the explosion in the City in London in 1993 cost one billion pounds and the Manchester Shopping Centre bomb in 1996 saw two-hundred people hurt. Devastating as these attacks were, it can be argued that they were aimed at getting attention, disrupting democracy, costing the country money and bullying their way to the political decision making process.

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