Wednesday, May 18, 2005
As we approach the Budget tomorrow, it might be worth recalling Gresham's Law: The theory that bad money drives good money out of circulation. [Coined by economist Henry Dunning Macleod in 1858 after Sir Thomas Gresham, a financial advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and founder of the Royal Exchange in London.] It is also worth observing that Albert Jay Nock expanded it to mean that bad ideas, art, etc. drive out good.
In similar vein, the Seven Sins according to Gandhi come to mind: Politics without principle; Wealth without work; Commerce without morality; Pleasure without conscience; Education without character; Science without humanity; Worship without sacrifice.
When it comes to unemployment, there are definitely lies, damned lies and statistics. What the Minister didn't tell us when he announced the other day that unemployment is now down to 83,000. According to Statistics NZ, there are actually 161,200 people "officially jobless" (the difference between the official "unemployment" figures and the "jobless figures" is that many of the people on the jobless measurement are available for work, but not actively seeking it; reasons for not actively seeking work range from people being discouraged because they lack the skills needed, or are the wrong age, or that the right work is not available in their area, or they are only looking for jobs in their newspaper). And then there are the "underemployed". According to Stats NZ, 71,200 people are employed part time but would prefer to work more hours.
If good wines need time to age properly, the same could said of speeches. This speech by John O'Sullivan on "Conservatism, Democracy and National Identity", is required reading for those interested in the relationship between Conservatism and freedom. "Conservatives need to be reintroduced to ideas which they dimly recall but whose power and authority they have forgotten. One of those ideas is Conservatism itself," he says. O'Sullivan goes on to outline brilliantly the basic tenets of Conservatism. His section on multiculturalism is particularly outstanding, and though delivered in 1999 is even more relevant today.
A Gallup poll released yesterday shows that overall, 77 percent of Americans think the country's moral values are on the decline -- a figure that has risen 10 points in three years. There is a partisan gap, however. The number stands at 82 percent among Republican respondents and 72 percent among Democrats. The biggest no-no remains the illicit affair: 93 percent of Americans find romantic dalliances between married men and women morally unacceptable. About 70 percent think the death penalty is morally acceptable, a figure has risen steadily since 2001, when it stood at 63 percent. A slim majority of Americans do not support abortion -- with 51 percent calling it morally wrong, 40 percent accepting it and 8 percent saying their opinion "depends on the situation." Four years ago, 45 percent called abortion wrong. A majority felt "homosexual relations" were unacceptable, with 52 percent of the respondents disapproving.
Do people the world over understand family to be the same as we do in the West? Is it universal? Swedish sociologist Göran Therborn has done a massive survey of family structures around the world to come up with some answers to these questions, which presents in a new book, Between Sex and Power. Therborn distinguishes five major family systems: European (including New World and Pacific settlements), East Asian, sub-Saharan African, West Asian/North African and Subcontinental, with a further two more "interstitial" ones, Southeast Asian and Creole American. Although each of the major systems is the heartland of a distinctive religious or ethical code--Christian, Confucian, Animist, Muslim, Hindu--and the interstitial ones are zones of overlapping codes, the systems themselves form many "geocultures" in which elements of a common history can override contrasts of belief within them. All traditional family systems, Therborn argues, have comprised three regimes: of patriarchy, marriage and fertility (crudely summarized--who calls the shots in the family, how people hitch up, how many kids result).
Tail-out: Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction. But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose? In a new book, Dr. Elisabeth A. Lloyd, a philosopher of science and professor of biology at Indiana University, takes on 20 leading theories and finds them wanting. The female orgasm, she argues, has no evolutionary function at all.
In similar vein, the Seven Sins according to Gandhi come to mind: Politics without principle; Wealth without work; Commerce without morality; Pleasure without conscience; Education without character; Science without humanity; Worship without sacrifice.
When it comes to unemployment, there are definitely lies, damned lies and statistics. What the Minister didn't tell us when he announced the other day that unemployment is now down to 83,000. According to Statistics NZ, there are actually 161,200 people "officially jobless" (the difference between the official "unemployment" figures and the "jobless figures" is that many of the people on the jobless measurement are available for work, but not actively seeking it; reasons for not actively seeking work range from people being discouraged because they lack the skills needed, or are the wrong age, or that the right work is not available in their area, or they are only looking for jobs in their newspaper). And then there are the "underemployed". According to Stats NZ, 71,200 people are employed part time but would prefer to work more hours.
If good wines need time to age properly, the same could said of speeches. This speech by John O'Sullivan on "Conservatism, Democracy and National Identity", is required reading for those interested in the relationship between Conservatism and freedom. "Conservatives need to be reintroduced to ideas which they dimly recall but whose power and authority they have forgotten. One of those ideas is Conservatism itself," he says. O'Sullivan goes on to outline brilliantly the basic tenets of Conservatism. His section on multiculturalism is particularly outstanding, and though delivered in 1999 is even more relevant today.
A Gallup poll released yesterday shows that overall, 77 percent of Americans think the country's moral values are on the decline -- a figure that has risen 10 points in three years. There is a partisan gap, however. The number stands at 82 percent among Republican respondents and 72 percent among Democrats. The biggest no-no remains the illicit affair: 93 percent of Americans find romantic dalliances between married men and women morally unacceptable. About 70 percent think the death penalty is morally acceptable, a figure has risen steadily since 2001, when it stood at 63 percent. A slim majority of Americans do not support abortion -- with 51 percent calling it morally wrong, 40 percent accepting it and 8 percent saying their opinion "depends on the situation." Four years ago, 45 percent called abortion wrong. A majority felt "homosexual relations" were unacceptable, with 52 percent of the respondents disapproving.
Do people the world over understand family to be the same as we do in the West? Is it universal? Swedish sociologist Göran Therborn has done a massive survey of family structures around the world to come up with some answers to these questions, which presents in a new book, Between Sex and Power. Therborn distinguishes five major family systems: European (including New World and Pacific settlements), East Asian, sub-Saharan African, West Asian/North African and Subcontinental, with a further two more "interstitial" ones, Southeast Asian and Creole American. Although each of the major systems is the heartland of a distinctive religious or ethical code--Christian, Confucian, Animist, Muslim, Hindu--and the interstitial ones are zones of overlapping codes, the systems themselves form many "geocultures" in which elements of a common history can override contrasts of belief within them. All traditional family systems, Therborn argues, have comprised three regimes: of patriarchy, marriage and fertility (crudely summarized--who calls the shots in the family, how people hitch up, how many kids result).
Tail-out: Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction. But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose? In a new book, Dr. Elisabeth A. Lloyd, a philosopher of science and professor of biology at Indiana University, takes on 20 leading theories and finds them wanting. The female orgasm, she argues, has no evolutionary function at all.
