My piece on the incoherence of US and Australian policy in the Middle East, suggesting that we should leave the people of the region to sort out their own problems, attracted a fair bit of interest, including a discussion on the BBC. You can listen to it here (about 31:55) for the next few days. I’ll try to replace this with a permanent podcast link.
@kevin1
Shark jump.
We really live in a Murdochracy (and that sadly includes his ABC, SBS and most other establishment media).
How else to explain the ON/OFF/ON/OFF/ON…..OFF “boots on the ground fixation and the determination to stick it all down the memory hole?
A few weeks ago our rulers/media (same thing) trumpeted that we were off to war. Then it was mentioned that there was just a bit of paperwork that had to be finalised. Then several times we were told that War PM Abbott was about to announce Boots On The Ground.
That fizzed, but Abbott said we (Aus) had written to them (Iraq) and they had written back, and we were considering their response. Ludicrous.
Then Bishop popped into Iraq to twist arms but got no luck. So on Saturday we were told that we never wanted to go there anyway, and the Iraqis hadn’t asked us to.
Then today we get told it’s a done deal and we’re off to war with Boots On The Ground.
FFS!!
This is from a few hours ago:
kevin and Frankis, please disengage from discussion with each other
Gregory Paul argues that there is evidence that societies which exhibit high levels of dysfunction are stressful and religion provides relief from this stress. This would also apply to the US, which has high levels of stress coming from lack of universal healthcare, competitive economic conditions and inequality between income groups.
The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions
Click to access EP07398441_c.pdf
@abcnews: STORY: The family of former prime minister Gough Whitlam says he has died this morning
http://t.co/gQ8VWEXaOD
A sad day …
@rog
Pew’s 2009 The Global Middle Class paper confirms greater religiosity by lower class for most of the 13 countries polled, but at p17 of full report says that the middle class who say religion is important to their life is still high in India 60% (72% lower income), Malaysia, 60 (86), Brazil 73 (78), Egypt 63 (64), South Africa 78 (79). Interesting that Chile, Venezuela, Argentina much lower than Brazil.
@John Quiggin
– that feels like cruel and unusual punishment Prof, you really know how to hurt a guy.
But tnx anyway.
@rog
I had a look at Paul and read Abstract and Conclusions closely but it is content-rich and I may not have interpreted it correctly, so pls tell me if I am wrong. It concentrates on first world countries so its comment “The antagonistic relationship between better socioeconomic conditions and intense popular faith may prevent the existence of nations that combine the two factors” seems a stretch. The “revolution of rising expectations” in the context of anti-imperialism in the “improving” world may have a different effect on religiosity. Of course, various countries in Asia and the Arab world are on different trajectories, not all improvement.
For Indonesia, as a muslim majority country of great importance to Australia, it is my impression that religious adherence is not on the wane, but that doesn’t mean it has becomed “hardened.” The lowyinterpreter.org article “Meet Indonesia’s middle class (part 4): Where fashion meets religion” suggests an accommodation between religious and consumerist values, which keeps upwardly mobile segments in the religious “tent”. Despite internal conflicts, it has a high degree of non-fractious pluralism. It needs to be added that everyone is obligated to have a formal religious adherence, but I doubt that is a strong determinant of religiosity.