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I shouldn't have used "indoctrination" actually. My point is that there is no left wing conspiracy at work here. If there is the left-leaning culture within the education profession it arises purely from the fact that educators have tended to, for whatever reason, been ideologically left-leaning.

Of course those who choose to be academics and to teach rather than go into more lucrative career paths in private industry that ultimately yield lower positive social externalities will tend to possess a left wing 'bias'. Likewise those that tend to focus on the importance of history, politics...

Just marry a banker/doctor/lawyer and be a housewife/part time academic.

You're making the assumption that we will be a group which "fights" for rights or stands up against religions. Although that may be the preferred purpose of some within the society, it's never been mine.

I'm not interested in taking the moral high ground against religions. All we're doing is alleviating an under-representation of a large group. There are some aspects that we will never adopt from religions. This is what all societies aim to achieve - to create a community of like minded individuals.

They aren't mutually exclusive ideas. I will not go into details but the purpose of a "freethinker's club" would be closer to a philosophy or debating society, i.e. it would serve a different purpose.

Perhaps. :p I'm not absolutely clear on whether you're suggesting that religious people are religious and atheists are "freethinkers", or that we ought to all become "freethinkers". If it is the former I'd disagree. My view is that essentially religious people are on the same philosophical...

That doesn't necessarily follow, though it was well expressed. There is nothing said that I explicitly disagree with. Only, the combination of ideas that flowed from his head struck the right chord.

Good post. But its effect on the greater scheme of things is, like anything else, immaterial.

Schroe If by "you" you're referring the the individual it's unrealistic to suppose that the individual can substantially change anything. We are all given a pack of genetic and material cards to play with and we all try to play our best hand although most fail to do so. Because of the...

The dictators will be the faceless multinational corporations that everyone works for anyway.

We're gonna get socialism one way or the other. Eventually we'll all be using one product (such as the ipod) or one website (youtube or whatever dominates). Product differentiation then collapses and we'll all live happily ever after in the end of history.

Religions are definitely overrepresented in educational institutions. Take USyd for example. At O-week you will have noticed how organised and numerous the religious societies are compared to the lone newly established secular society (ok shameless plug). Then you have world youth day and...

Hosting the 2018 World Cup would be fantastic but at the same time I agree with hello2005's "don't get your hopes up" sentiment. Australia has to be less naive towards everything in world football, from gamesmanship to FIFA corruption, manager recruitment to World Cup bids.

Re: Leaders push for 'sorry' compensation Unlike in the death penalty example, the proposed compensation isn't to be awarded to the families of the victims, but to the victims themselves. Unfortunately death penalty victims are already dead and cannot be compensated. Those who were punished...

Re: Leaders push for 'sorry' compensation incentivation: What you've mentioned seems to me to be accurate. The criminal justice system does not focus on securing restitution for victims. The victim can still initiate civil proceedings against the offender. In practice it's only...

Re: Leaders push for 'sorry' compensation It's not about the current government and people being responsible for what happened. It's about upholding the ideal of compensation for victims of injustice, particularly where that injustice was aggravated by the fact that it was inflicted by the...

This is on SMH now. By the way has anyone else seen the movie "Beyond our Ken" ;)?

Re: Leaders push for 'sorry' compensation Yes people pay premiums but where does the rest of the compensation come from? I think we both know the answer.

Re: Leaders push for 'sorry' compensation How they will spend the money does not matter. Anyone who receives monetary compensation should be able to spend that however they want to. I won't use the language of "rights" and "freedom" but that's just how society works. The same principle...