In the 1980s Jesse Jackson helped banish “Western Civ” from Stanford with a silly chant. Many colleges and universities that had not already done so followed suit.
But in the classical counterrevolution of the 21st century, Western civilization is back. The Great Books, long thought a relic of Mortimer Adler’s Cold War-era salesmanship, now guide the curriculum at many of the over 1,000 classical schools that have been founded over the past few decades, dozens of which are publicly funded charter schools. A new Great Books college sprouts up every year or so. Dead languages like Latin seem to be very much alive again.
Whether it is humanism, the medieval liberal arts, or even just memes about the Roman Empire, it turns out that Western Civ did indeed have to go—big.
The 21st-century classical counterrevolutionaries should not get high on their own supply, though. If their project ends up being a retread of the Mortimer Adler-Robert Hutchins show, they may be greeted by an even deeper abyss of failure than the ostracism Western Civ faced in the name of diversity that occurred with the rise of racial and gender studies.
Publisher’s note (Nathan Tankus):A while ago I got the permission of my friends at Bloomberg Oddlots to clean up and publish transcripts of episodes that they didn’t have the time or inclination to produce (Incidentally, you can check out the New York Times profile of Oddlots published yesterday). One episode that I thought was particularly important was their April 30th episode with former BLS Commissioner Bill Beach.
A cut in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 75 per cent below 2005 levels would broadly align with the science – and strengthen Australia’s bid to host the 2026 United Nations climate conference.
Announcing a bigger number is one thing, though. How the government reaches it is another.
Australia’s current target under the international treaty on climate change, the Paris Agreement, is a 43 per cent cut in emissions by 2030. Progress is tracked through a set of climate accounts called the “inventory” and reported annually. Emissions from across the economy – including energy, transport, industry and land – are recorded, added up, and presented as a single figure.
The Australian government claims emissions for the year to December 2024 were 27 per cent below 2005 levels. But Australia’s emissions inventory is riddled with loopholes and unverifiable modelling that paints a misleading picture of progress. Just this week, United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell urged Australia not to settle for the bare minimum as it prepares to announce its 2035 target. “Bog standard is beneath you,” he said. “Don’t settle for what’s easy. Go for what’s smart by going big.” But bog standard would be an improvement on what’s happening now.
The profit motive is a great thing in the right industry.
But long ago we worked out that education wasn’t one of those industries. There is no profit motive driving school education in Australia.
Private schools in Australia are non-profit. They are run by school boards that are supposed to be focused on providing the best education for their students.
How does the government keep the for-profit sector out of school education? A for-profit school is ineligible for government funding.
We need to do the same for childcare.
The only priority of childcare providers should be the children in their care. They should not be distracted by the idea of keeping their shareholders happy.
The government is rushing its childcare changes through Parliament. It will use threats of funding cuts to ensure improvements to safety standards.
It’s a good move. Money talks in this industry.
But the heartbreaking stories out of Melbourne in recent weeks, which are driving these changes, could be a catalyst for significant long-term change.
Australia’s childcare industry is dominated by for-profit providers. They make up 70 per cent of the childcare industry, and 95 per cent of the growth in the industry is in the for-profit centres.
The expansion of government subsidies means that a childcare centre in the right urban location is a licence to print money.
In the 2025 federal election, Labor won a landslide victory. That victory reflects the strong preference Australians had for the Labor Government over the Liberal–National Opposition. In 100 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, most voters preferred the Labor candidate to the Liberal or National one.
However, while Labor was preferred on preferences, only about 35% of Australians gave the party their first preference. Despite this, Labor won 62% of the seats. In other words, about five million of the fifteen million votes cast were “1 Labor”, but the party won 94 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.
Major parties win more seats than their share of the vote because only one member of Parliament (MP) represents each seat.
Other countries have similarly distorted results. For example, in the 2024 United Kingdom election the Labour Government won 34% of the vote and 63% of the seats. Significantly, the United Kingdom does not use preferential voting but rather first-past-the-post. If anything, Australia’s full preferential voting system reduces distortions.
An alternative to “winner takes all” is proportional representation, where parties and candidates win seats based on their share of the vote. Proportional representation allows for more diverse representation of parties and interests – as in the Australian Senate or the New Zealand Parliament.
At least on paper, DEI in the federal government is dead. On the very first day of his second presidency, Donald Trump issued a presidential action, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” ending all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility “mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.” Employees in DEI-specific positions were fired; DEI positions and offices were dismantled; and DEI training programs, newsletters, and promotion criteria were scrapped.
But it would be beyond naive to think that just because federal agencies are not currently promoting DEI that their workforces do not still widely hold the opinions they were encouraged to hold. Thousands of current federal employees participated in or supported DEI programs. Even those who might disagree were coerced to back DEI if they wanted to keep their jobs.
That for a party’s election campaign to be a success, the leaders would need to kiss the ring, and then News Corp’s coverage would decide the outcome of the campaign.
It was never true, but it was a truism for years.
In reality, News Corp would just see which way the wind was blowing and then back in the party that was already ahead, retconning its support as having MADE the government instead of just following the trend.
The strategy worked – for decades those in the political sphere would tell you of News Corp’s power in deciding elections and how the company, no matter how heinous or one-sided its coverage became, could not be ignored.
It became obvious that News Corp only ever had the perception of influence – rather than influence itself – once it switched its editorial position to campaigning for the conservatives, no matter what.
There have been countless state and federal elections where News Corp has thrown as much muck at Labor as possible and the full weight of its media influence at supporting the losers – the Coalition – and not moved the dial.
But the myth remains in many circles. News Corp cannot be ignored. Why? Because you have to make a play to be a player, even when the result is already known. Especially when it is already known.
Except for the US, which is its own basket case of mutable positions, Australia’s major allies will recognise Palestine when the United Nations General Assembly next meets in September.
On this special crossover episode of Follow the Money and After America, Dr Emma Shortis joins Glenn Connley to discuss the Australian protests calling for more action to protect Palestinians, the momentum against the troubled AUKUS submarine pact, and Trump’s decision to fire his chief of labour statistics after job growth slowed.
This discussion was recorded on Monday 4 August 2025.
You can sign our petition calling on the Australian Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry into AUKUS.
Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us by Richard Denniss is available for pre-order now via the Australia Institute website.
Guest: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis
Host: Glenn Connley, Senior Media Advisor, the Australia Institute // @glennconnley
What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & Regional Victoria: Aug 4-10, 2025 With thanks to the dedicated activists at Friends of the Earth Melbourne! . . See also these Palestine events listings from around the country: 9397
National housing campaign Everybody’s Home said pressure is mounting on the federal government to reform unfair investor tax breaks, as the union movement adds to growing national support.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has today called for the winding back of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount as the government prepares to hold its economic reform roundtable this month.
The union’s call adds to mounting pressure from politicians, economists, think tanks, housing advocates and other organisations and experts demanding housing tax reform.
Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said ending property investor tax concessions is good for housing affordability, wealth equality and productivity.
“The union movement is showing real leadership by calling for property tax breaks to be wound back. Workers across Australia are being priced out by investor breaks, so the union’s push for reform makes perfect sense,” Ms Azize said.
“These tax breaks most benefit those who don’t need it, while the majority of hardworking Australians pay the price. Billions of taxpayer dollars are lost every year to these tax breaks that are making housing more expensive for everyone – and making inequality worse
Women are from Portland, men are from Oklahoma City
Men and women perceive cities differently: Women like some cities much more than men do; and vice-versa
A new survey of net favorability ratings of cities show Portland and handful of other cities are perceived much more positively by women than men.
Gender differences in perceived favorability of cities vary geographically; overall, women regard Western cities more favorably than men; men regard cities in the South, and especially Texas, more favorably than do women.
A relative handful of cities are regarded similarly by both men and women.
Women view Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco most favorably, relative to men’s view of the same cities. Nationally, women were about 30 percentage points more likely to rate Portland favorably compared to men; the other four cities had more than 20 percent higher net favorable ratings among women than men. Men had higher net favorability ratings for some cities than women, notably cities in Texas and Oklahoma. The following chart shows the highest and lowest cities for net favorability for women compared to men.
What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & Regional Victoria: July 28-Aug 3, 2025 With thanks to the dedicated activists at Friends of the Earth Melbourne! . . See also these Palestine events listings from around the country: 9378
This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible's list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor
ODOT”s big lie about transportation spending. ODOT’s claim that Oregon spends less on roads than neighboring states was a key talking point in trying to sell a higher transportation tax in the 2025 Legislature.
Based on ODOT”s data, legislators repeatedly claimed that Oregon spends less on roads than other Western states.
The trouble is it’s not true. The biggest source of the apparent difference is state sales taxes on cars–which Oregon doesn’t have. Other states do charge sales taxes on car sales, but this money goes to general funds, not to road construction and repair.
Independent national comparisons prepared by the widely respected Brookings Institution, using Census Bureau data from all 50 states shows Oregon spends almost the same on roads as neighboring states, about $630 per capita in 2021.
Introduction In 2017 the 1forEquality campaign was launched. The campaign seeks the effective commencement, implementation and enforcement of Section 1 the Equality Act – the socio-economic duty – across Great Britain in order to improve the fulfilment and protection of everyday rights, and reduce inequality. This response has been developed by members of the campaign […]
If there is one thing you can bank on, it is that conservative governments know how to use power.
They never shy away from it.
If a conservative government wants to change something, it will, and it won’t worry about who it is annoying, or the pushback, or whether or not it is the smart move. It will do it, knowing that it will very quickly become the new normal and people, more likely than not, will move on.
John Howard did it for 11 years. Howard changed this country more in the last three decades than almost any other modern politician. While he eventually pushed the electorate too far with Work Choices, he would probably say it was worth it – because many of the changes he went to the wall for still exist today. Why?
Because the left never uses power the same way. And conservatives know it.
President Donald Trump unveiled his AI Action Plan last week, an ambitious and strategically framed document that signals artificial intelligence is no longer a niche issue for technocrats. It has become the defining arena of great-power competition.
As AI has become more deeply embedded in governance, a critical question has emerged: Will this revolutionary technology tip the scales in favor of authoritarian regimes or empower democracies? History offers no easy answers. Past innovations have demonstrated both emancipatory and repressive potential. Theoretically, AI could enhance transparency, participation, and accountability.
Theory, however, is conjecture. There are underlying authoritarian advantages at a cognitive and structural level that cannot be wished away.
AI competition is not merely a race for innovation—it is a contest of governance models.
Autocracies—particularly China—are poised to benefit disproportionately from AI’s capabilities: pervasive surveillance, granular social control, and predictive state planning. It is time the United States openly acknowledges this truth.
PM slams Israel over Gaza starvation The Age (& SMH) | Paul Sakkai | 30 July 2025 https://edition.theage.com.au/shortcode/THE965/edition/45ce0617-fd09-6671-fd2b-9054e572af46?page=39414d02-f749-50f4-bf3a-5baf9bafaf23& Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has signalled he believes Gaza will be freed from Hamas’ rule, paving the way for recognition of a Palestinian state, as he slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that Gazans were not […]
Two leading Israeli human rights groups accuse their country of committing genocide in Gaza ABC | Matthew Doran | 29 July 2025 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-29/israeli-orgs-label-gaza-situation-genocide/105584184 Two Israeli human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have labelled the country’s actions in Gaza as “genocide”. B’Tselem compiled testimony as well as details of mass killings, destruction […]
Donald Trump says Hamas doesn’t want Gaza ceasefire deal and will be ‘hunted down’ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-26/netanyahu-trump-appear-to-abandon-gaza-ceasefire-negotiations/105575888 Donald Trump spoke to reporters about Gaza ceasefire talks as he prepared to leave Washington for the UK. (Reuters: Kent Nishimura) In short: US President Donald Trump has said Hamas does not want to make a Gaza ceasefire deal and […]
17 July 2025: Free Palestine Melbourne is deeply concerned by the Australian government’s silence regarding the Freedom Flotilla vessel Handala, carrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the besieged, brutalised people of the Gaza Strip.
It’s pleasing to see a real competition emerging for government in Tasmania the state election a fortnight ago. The Labor Party is finally off the bench and in the game – making a play for crossbench support to form government after refusing the last two opportunities to do so.
So far, negotiations are focusing on procedural changes. But if the numbers in the House of Assembly pan out as expected, it will take more than a conflict resolution process to win over the crossbenchers needed for stable government.
Tasmanians have elected a power-sharing government for the second time in a row. They clearly no longer want Liberal or Labor to act as if they are in majority. Former Premier David Bartlett said recently that he doesn’t think there will be another majority government in his lifetime.
Tasmanian parliamentarians need to get on with making power-sharing government work. A conflict resolution process is necessary, but it’s small beer. Crossbench members know their worth and will likely demand more in exchange for their support.
Both re-elected and new Green and independent crossbenchers have fought to gain traction on issues that matter to their constituents. At least some of them will hold the balance of power, and influence not just who forms government but also what issues will be addressed by Tasmania’s 52nd Parliament.
When crossbenchers and major parties struck successful power-sharing agreements in other Australian parliaments, they covered policy as well as procedure.
Given the heated back-and-forth over the Trump Administration’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and continued support for Ukraine, it is clear that matters of foreign policy will be a major factor in defining the character of American conservatism moving forward.
There is bound to be disagreement over the relative geopolitical merits of supporting Ukraine or Israel, as well as the appropriate level of support. However, one principle is undeniable: an advocate of a given course of action must demonstrate its connection to the interests of the people of the United States alone. That doesn’t mean it can’t be mutually beneficial for an international partner. But the very purpose of statesmanship is to navigate events and relationships in a manner that maximizes the advantage accruing to one’s own nation. Absent a clear definition of the specific interests served by an existing alliance, there will always be a danger of the tail wagging the dog.
The first order of business is therefore to establish such a definition. What do we gain by a given course of action in service of a foreign nation? This is as much a question of theory as of practice: What are we fighting for, and what are the best means to obtain it? As so often tends to be the case, the best place to look for an illustration of the principles that can help guide our thinking is the American Founding—although perhaps not in the way it is normally considered.
A great question we have been asked a few times is, “Are ‘dynamic capabilities’ just ‘public sector innovation’ with a different name?”. The simple answer is that they are very closely connected, but they are not the same. Dynamic capabilities are the engine that enables an organisation to move from one-off innovation efforts to innovating and adapting repeatedly as standard. These are the must-have capabilities that no city government can choose to ignore.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has a target to keep headline inflation between 2% and 3%. By any reasonable measure it has completely failed on this over the last decade.
The June quarter released this week shows that inflation has been within the band for the last four consecutive quarters. This is the first time we have seen four consecutive quarters in the RBA target band since 2014.
Since the end of 2014 there have been just eight quarters where inflation has been in the target band and half of those are the four most recent ones. That means just eight of the last 43 quarters have been in the band. How can that be judged as anything but a complete failure?
Most recently, the inflation rate has been higher than 3%, but for most of the past decade, it has been outside the band because it has been below 2%.
In the 43 quarters since December 2014, inflation has been too high for 12 quarters, but too low for 23 quarters.
You might think that inflation is bad, and so having inflation below 2% is a good thing. But there is a reason that the RBA inflation target has a lower limit.
Low inflation comes with sluggish economic growth and higher unemployment. The 2022 RBA review actually rebuked the RBA for not doing enough to increase inflation in the years before the pandemic. They said that the RBA had kept interest rates too high for too long when inflation was below 2% which resulted in more people being unemployed.
Summary To improve productivity Australia needs to shift taxes off work and enterprise and onto the economic rents from land, natural resources, and monopolies. This principle should be at the heart of any economic reform agenda. Income tax should be rebalanced to favour productive effort over unearned gains, beginning by scrapping CGT concessions. States should […]
By contrast, in 1903 there were just 25,000 voters per MP (this being the first election where most women could vote).
In the intervening 122 years, the federal parliament has significantly expanded twice: from 74 to 121 seats in 1949, and from 125 to 148 in 1984. Both times, the number of people per seat sat at a then record high: 64,000 and 75,000 respectively.
Voting rights have also expanded: women’s suffrage came in 1903 (though not for all women), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voting rights took until 1963, and the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1974.
But while there are nine times as many registered voters today as in 1903, the number of electorates has only doubled.
And the more voters there are in an electorate, the larger a campaign needs to be to make any difference to the result, giving communities less power to kick out an unrepresentative or under-performing MP.
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor unpack how the latest inflation figures only make it more obvious the RBA should have cut interest rates at their last meeting, and why some people who are unemployed are not looking for work (and it’s not because they’re ‘dole bludgers’).
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 31 July 2025 and things may have changed since recording.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek
The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.
ODOT’s claim that Oregon spends less on roads than neighboring states was a key talking point in trying to sell a higher transportation tax in the 2025 Legislature
Based on ODOT”s data, legislators repeatedly claimed that Oregon spends less on roads than other Western states
The trouble is it’s not true. Big state sales taxes on cars warp the comparison. Other states do charge sales taxes on car sales, but this money goes to general funds, not to road construction and repair
Independent national comparisons prepared by the widely respected Brookings Institution, using Census Bureau data from all 50 states shows Oregon spends almost the same on roads as neighboring states, about $630 per capita in 2021.
ODOT’s numbers are a bogus and deceptive sales technique, not an objective analysis
ODOT’s Big Lie: Oregon spends less on roads than other states
The idea that Oregon’s taxes for transportation are much lower than neighboring states has become a widely repeated talking point in the State Capitol.
Today in the AFR, the head of the private health insurance lobby group “PrivateHealth Australia” showed the industry is very worried by suggestions by The Australia Instituteand others that private health insurance fees should be subject to GST.
When the GST was introduced, John Howard ensured private health insurance fees were not subject to GST, and at essentially the same time, he introduced the “Lifetime Health Cover”, which meant if you did not join private health insurance by the time you were 30 you would have to pay higher fees were you to join it later.
The problem is that even with this virtual forcing of people onto health insurance, most people take out the minimum health insurance they need to qualify for the lifetime health cover, and usually this means lots of things are excluded from the cover, and also you have to pay a lot of excess payments should you actually need to use it. It is not health insurance in any true sense, but it is wonderful for private health insurers.
Fame and fortune are often corrupting forces, ones that beget power and comfort. To stand with the afflicted requires sacrificing this privilege and few embody that sacrifice more profoundly than the legendary musician of Pink Floyd Roger Waters.
For years, through his music and political action, Waters has amplified the voices of the oppressed. He has championed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, defended attorney Steven Donziger, demanded the closure of Guantánamo Bay, has long stood against the apartheid state of Israel and now unwaveringly against the genocide of Palestinians.
