Busted Flat in Barton Rouge or How I became a Word Addict

Introduction -

    I am addicted to words, my friends.  I confess.  I am addicted to words.  I cannot survive a day without writing a few lines, be it a paragraph of an essay, a stanza of a poem, a letter to a friend.  I need words to breathe.  I am a word-addict, indeed.  And this is how it came about.

A Poetry Editor's Passion

Introduction -

    Collective passions?  Innuendo, or insider's pun?  I fear that my passion for verse is not largely shared.  So I'm properly grateful for space it's given in these venerable pages.  And I'd never dream of claiming that the rest of Social Alternatives is just a filler to allow me to publish poetry.  What if the rest of the Collective believed me?

Scales of Passions - on Music, Politics and the Death of Football

Introduction -

    The following essay contains dialogue between an editor and the author which may offend some people.  It is almost entirely fictional and it is simple a lame literacy device.  Any resemblance to real dialogue either from the past or in the future is merely coincidental and, frankly, bloody amazing!

Australian Political Satire: Camilla Nelson's Perverse Acts

Introduction -

    My passion is political fiction/political satire.  In this article I analyse political satire in Camilla Nelson's Perverse Acts (1998a), arguing that Nelson successfully uses traditional satirical devises to humorously expose the procedures and policies of recent Australian federal politics.  Although Australian authors have produce satire that deals broadly with Australian political culture and its "post-colonial" nature, there is little Australian satire that focus specifically on formal political institutions.  Perverse Acts is an exception.  In addition, it is politically well informed and topical, and its lively style set it apart from other recent examples of the genre.  The context is a growing perception by Australians of a failure of political leadership and an increasingly isolated and self-centred political elite (Fletcher and Whip 1997).

A Passion for Planning

Introduction -

    Planning.  It's so very logical, sensible and rational.  Is it possible to be passionate about it?  After all, the word "passion" had connotations of emotionality and spontaneity, almost opposite to the usual image of planning.

    Well, I spend a lot of time planning.  Certainly I'm committed to it,  enthusiastic about it and enjoy doing it.  So you could call it a passion.

Wisdom, Learning and Other Useless Commodities

Introduction -

    I have a positive passion and a negative one that I want to share.  My positive passion is to see my students mastering difficult knowledge and coming to a mature understanding of something that formerly they knew nothing about.  My negative passion is that we are making that experience almost impossible to achieve.  Although my solution may sound reactionary, please bear with me and my paradoxical reasoning.

The Problem of Distribution

Introduction -

    There are many issues that could claim primacy as the focus of concern for the future of humanity.  Some of these are sensible and genuine, while others may be quite unjustified.  Fear of invaders from outer space and collision with a giant meteor are among the latter.  The former type of issues - the sensible ones - probably go beyond those presented here, but the ones presented here tend to be agreed major concerns.  These are overpopulation, pollution and distribution.

"Merit" and the Political Representation of Women

Introduction -

    "Merit" seems to be a comparatively recent additional to political discourse, its advent apparently coinciding with women's increasing pursuit of positions of influence within the public sphere.  It is often used to justify the outcomes of preselection contests, particularly those that go against women contestants, but with little if any indication of the precise meaning of the term.  In the context of the generally recognised need to increase the number of women in legislative bodies, this article considers the possible impact of the concept of merit on women's parliamentary representation.  It begins by noting the two opposing views of how the numbers of women in parliament should have increased and then presents some examples of the use of "merit" in political discourse over the last decade.  It then addresses the issue of how "merit" is defined and argues that current understandings of the term are detrimental to women's entry into the political arena.

The Last Frontier in Democratic Theory: The Declaring of War

Introduction -

    Most critiques of modern representative democracy are directed at the issue of participation.  For one reason or another, the critique runs; participation in the political process is less then optimal.  Marginalized groups are not represented; voices and opinions are not heard.  This leads to suggestions of how participation might be increased, on how the excluded might be included.  Participation, or lack of it, is certainly a continuing problem in all democracies. 

Passion Over Papal Bull

Introduction -

    'We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world had been accomplished without passion.' - Georg Wilhelm F

    My passions are many, far too many.  Where to begin?  Which to write about?  They're all so interwoven.  They share a common thread, though.  They all relate in some way to people - in the singular, the plural or the abstract.  They invariably deal with questions of peace: in eliminating all forms of violence (negative peace) and in creating structures and values designed to meet everyone's basic needs (positive peace).  Such an agenda is all encompassing.  It not only is directed towards issues of social justice, but covers the broader need for humans to see themselves as a part of nature and sensitive to tis ecological rhythms.

"Fair go" for asylum-seekers

Introduction -

    Where does passion come from?  Is everyone capable of it?  Is there passion gene?  Is it racially or culturally inherited?  Passion is an immensely powerful emotion that can be fleeting or lifelong.  It can result in sublimely strong feelings that may obsess, drive, and envelop all one's actions.  Thinking about passion in my own life, there has been plenty around me with a mother who was tirelessly passionate about the health and welfare of her children, a father passionately obsessed with gemstones, a cousin who would sacrifice her life for the natural environment and the creatures within it, and another cousin who lives for competitive horse riding.