Author Archives: andrew

Policy debates – celebrities should know better

Posted on June 27, 2011 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban It is generally desirable to have everyone participate in democracy in some way, to maker it truly deliberative, whether by direct contact with local members, letters to the media, active membership in parties and organisations, election … Continue reading →

Posted in Should Know Better | Leave a comment

Democracy and freedom of speech

Posted on June 27, 2011 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban Democracy is a complex system of governing, unavoidably full of compromises and contradictions. Amongst other things it guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. One can feed into the other. The media can report … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotidian | Leave a comment

The greatest moral challenge of our time … is not climate change

Posted on June 27, 2011 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban The uncomfortable truth is that Al Gore got it wrong. His urgent call for action on global warming (now it’s called climate change) was turbo-charged with the political slogan that tackling it was the greatest moral … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotidian | Leave a comment

Orwell, newspeak and democracy today

Posted on June 27, 2011 by andrew

In George Orwell’s 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, ‘newspeak’ was one of the key tools of the totalitarian State, used to diminish the range of words, hence thoughts, by the citizens. A propagandist language, it is characterised by euphemism, circumlocution and … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotidian | Leave a comment