I love a good conspiracy

I’ve been dipping into the introduction to a slim book entitled Propaganda by Edward Bernays. It’s the story of a long slow con, the main text written by one of its key proponents, who cites the enormous benefits of propaganda to the politician and the corporation.

The book has me wondering about the rise of shifting shape of propaganda over the last century. I’m no expert but here are a few thoughts.

Many would agree that Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of...

My very first online author interview!! Many thanks C.A.Milson

Hi Readers and Booklovers! Today I am talking with Isobel Blackthorn. Isobel was born in London and moved to Aussie when she was 6. Isobel and her family spent around six years in and around Adelaide before they returned to London. Since then, she has travelled a fair bit between the UK and Aussie, and has had the opportunity to live in Spain and the Canary Islands.



Welcome Isobel. Please tell...

I missed out on modern history at school and confess that for decades I shied away from gaining much knowledge of the rise of fascism as it all seemed too ugly, too horrific, to delve into.

Now I’m finding it hard to put down Anna Funder’s All That I Am, a novel based on real events in the period between WWI and II, when Hitler rose to power and those on the Left, the communists and socialists of all stripes, were purged. The captured were rounded up and put in...

It has come as no surprise that women’s refuges are under corporate attack. It was only a matter of time before the ideological warriors of the new corporate regime would put in their sights frontline services catering for women fleeing domestic violence. Currently in the UK we witness the broadscale closure of women’s refuges that have been providing women and their children an essential service for decades. It also came as no surprise to read in her piece, There Is No Such Thing...

If I ruled the country the first thing I would do is sack every CEO, deny them access to their wealth and property and make them work for the dole while applying for 40 jobs a week outside of the corporate and public service sectors. With no rental history they would be couch surfing (if they find themselves with any remaining friends). And for the first six months, with no welfare at all, they would be relying on charities for handouts.

Then, when they are caught stealing...

Here's a true and very short story on bullying. I guess this might resonate with some.



I should have done something sooner. That’s what my neighbour said. Best nipped in the bud. A good hard slap across the face will shut her up. Said she never had any trouble in the playground after that. But my best friend’s husband was right about me. I’m a coward. And cowards cower. They don’t punch or slap. I found that out about myself in my old school playground. Now I was a teacher...

Just a little bit pleased to have published in e-journal On Line Opinion Building bridges: asylum seekers in rural Australia, reflecting on a recent home hospitality respite holiday for asylum seekers on bridging visas that I organised under the auspices of the Home Among the Gum Trees program run by Elaine Smith in Dandenong (Melbourne). Here are hosts Jon and Lou , who got involved in this project because they wanted to find out for themselves about refugees and provided the following feedback. ...

Hearing Obama outline his latest plan for the curtailment of ISIS it would be easy to believe that this group emerged spontaneously and entirely of its own accord out of the desert country of Syria and Iraq, filling a vacuum in the power shenanigans left when the US military pulled out of Iraq. That’s the propaganda. That is what the US and its allies would have us believe. And it isn’t true.

An elite of concentrated power bent on expansionism, such as found in Empire...

The Pope now reckons WWIII is already being fought in piecemeal fashion. Well spotted. I agree. It was always going to be fought in the Middle East.
Definition of a world war: A war involving many large nations.
I watched Anzac Girls last night (I fell asleep at the point when Uncle Sam saved the day which when I woke as the credits rolled I thought rather ironic).

Then I thought of where the battles of WWI were fought. I don’t like war and haven’t studied...

I’ll be on Ann Creber’s The Good Life this Monday (8th September) at 4.10 pm, talking about the home hospitality respite program for asylum seekers that I coordinate for the Bega Valley under the auspices of Home among the Gum Trees, Rural Australians for Refugees.

Tune in to 3MDR, 97.1FM or go to their website for live streaming. http://www.3mdr.com/program/detail/6/The-Good-Life/...