On Society
This page collects my thoughts about society. I like to look under the carpet at the ‘stuff’ we pretend isn't there. I’m not prolific (i.e. annoying). I prefer to be the sort of person people say - they don’t write a lot but what they do write is worth reading.
Echo chambers
Echo chamber - an enclosed space where sound reverberates; an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.
We need grown-up thinking to beat poverty
“Without an awareness of the whole, there can be no strategy. Without strategy, there is only drift." Thomas Friedman
Two injured people - you can only take one to hospital ...
You’re driving a borrowed two-seater sports car on a remote road and come across an accident. Two people are injured – one person is moderately injured and conscious, the other person has life-threatening injuries and is unconscious. The closest hospital is half an hour’s drive away and there’s no phone reception. You can only take one person in your car.
Letter to New Zealand’s richest man
Until I googled you, I knew little about you apart from the fact that you were wealthy. You will know nothing about me – I doubt you have read my books (though I hope I’m wrong). I’m interested in why you, a wealthy individual, just gave a large chunk of cash to the major right-wing political parties in New Zealand. I’d like to understand your views and actions, not judge them.
Sportswashing
The title makes me sound like a parent tired of washing the sports clothes of their children. It’s not that!
Conservatives are a handbrake on progress
National's Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said the party as a whole did not support any lowering of the age, and would keep the voting age at 18.
Surveillance with no public debate
Whether it’s the New Zealand Police or, as in this case MBIE, the increasing use of surveillance tools with no public debate is concerning.
Why is Labour anti-labour?
The unions have presented them with the perfect opportunity to save money – considerably more than Thomas’ call to switch off lights. Don’t pass on the pay rise for six months. Better still, don’t pass it on at all.
Riley Chance questions whether AUT and Massey University really face financial challenges
Big Brother is recording
There’s a dark side to mass surveillance. Before New Zealand lurches towards becoming a surveillance society, lured by the dubious promise of safety and pulled along by the sophistication of the technology, we need to ask the question – is this the society we want to live in?
Thought leader courses
The Butterfly Effect
Chaos - the inherent unpredictability in the behaviour of a complex natural system.
Misdirection
“The action or process of directing someone to the wrong place or in the wrong direction.”
Bram Stoker and Dracula
I recently read Joseph O’Connor’s fascinating book Shadowplay which blends fact and story telling to track the lives of Bram Stoker, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving.
Understanding Marx
I have read this short, easy to read book a couple of times - Marx for Beginners by Rius.
The new Speaker’s Corner
Social media, mainstream media as well, are making money through an old fashioned concept - speaker’s corner.
Humans are resourceful, not resources
The idea that humans are resources, an idea perpetuated by business schools despite changing the title from Human Resources to People, Culture and other pleasant words, is fundamentally wrong.
ACC has $50B (of your money)
According to their 2021 Annual report, ACC has accumulated $50B through levying new Zealanders and playing the financial markets.
Roosevelt - Person (man) in the arena
I have always liked this quote of Theodore Roosevelt taken from his speech - Citizen in a Republic.
You can't run a country like a company
The HBR wisdom comes from 1996 and made sense then, before and now.