A Hamlet in FNQ

Driving through one of the many little agricultural hamlets in Far North Queensland last weekend my wife drew my attention to the notice board of a little junior school adjoining the highway. In bold letters, it starkly interrogated motorists: Where does the sky start?

We were moved by the sheer innocent exuberance of this totally unexpected piece of philosophical juvenilia and the artless profundity of the teacher of this undoubtedly one-teacher school in sharing the simple and refreshing curiosity of childhood with the world-weary speedsters-by. 

Thereafter I was lost in my thoughts awhile considering the hubris of philosophy and science in the modern world. I looked back to an age of what might be described as certain uncertainties – when that which could not be explained was ascribed to God or the capriciousness of nature. The 18th century ‘Enlightenment’, handmaiden to the philosophic-diktat of ‘Reason’ and undertaker to the world of superstition and magic, has in some respects much to answer for.

Although the apotheosis of Reason into the preferred deity of modernity has undeniably lengthened and enriched our lives, it has come at cost. Our new deity has proved to be a soulless chimera presiding over a society rich in material blessings but much depleted in spirit. 

The ubiquitous hand of science and its brother in indifference, technology, have successfully combined to destroy the wonder and magic of our daily world. We now have ‘an’ answer for everything and access to things perhaps we really have no business knowing.

I am therefore grateful indeed to the teacher in that small rural community for reminding me that we all need a little more wonder and magic in our world. So – where does the sky start?

No, don’t tell me – I really don’t want to know.

……

Testing

This is a test only.

But what am I testing?

Your humour? Your patience? My ability to use this website?

Or perhaps I am testing absolutely nothing becuase to test implies a critical examination or putting to the proof. Thus, not knowing what you know that I can put to the proof, I am obliged to cancel this test.

Dung Heaps and Revolutions!

Just remember, you don't actually have to live in the dung heap to know that doing so is unpleasant.

Long Live the Revolution! Long Live the Aspidistra! Long Live the Liver!

Comrades!

There is a Spectre Haunting the Lycra-Legged, Latte-Sipping, reconstructed, post-modern bourgeoisie - that Spectre is Mordechai Brown - champion of, inter alia, instant coffee!

"Latte sippers of the world, you may as well unite, you have nothing left to lose but your grains."

Question: Is the Western world being governed by latte sippers? If not, why not? If so, is this a good thing? DISCUSS.

Comments