ANNOUNCING QUAD COUNTERQUAD

 

This is a brand new blog, making its debut to the blogosphere at large. I join this announcement with another: that of my original (till proven otherwise) brand-new theory of blog dynamics.

A blogger is in much the same position as the preacher of a fundamentalist Calathumpian church. He or she needs a faithful congregation, and one which expresses and agrees with the ideology being put up for all and sundry to consider and adopt, or otherwise. Commenters are generally encouraged on blogs, but only if they give support to the vendor's ideology. This is only reasonable, otherwise the blogger finds theirself in the position of a preacher of the said Calathumpian fundamentalist church whose regular attendees include a Catholic, the preacher of a rival non-Calathumpian fundamentalism, an atheist, and just for good measure, a Hindu.

Sometimes they sit apart; sometimes all together on the same pew. Sometimes, they remain respectfully silent, but more often they incline to interject loudly throughout the sermon (going by his epistles, St Paul had much the same problem of the unruly congregation until the custom took hold of respectful silence during the service.)

Blogs aim for ideological agreement, and when this proves impossible to obtain, they observe the time-honoured religious tradition, and undergo schism. For a spectacular example of this sort of ideological fission, I recommend a perusal and study of Freethought Blogs. ( https://freethoughtblogs.com/ ). Its history has been something of a battleground. 

Thus, no ideologue or vendor of any political or religious doctrine old or new should be ignorant of the history of the Christian Church. Isaac Deutscher, the distinguished biographer of Stalin and Trotsky, stressed the importance of this to all and sundry. I agree, and have gained a great deal from the study of it.

For a period of my life I also identified as a Christian, and still do in many important ways. But I was never an Evangelical, and hold that what St Paul was flogging to all and sundry was Christianity lite. The most powerful verses of the NewTestament in my opinion is Luke 20-21: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

That is pure Buddhism. It also accords with Taoism. Elements of both creeds could well have made their way down the ancient Great Silk Road to the Middle East from China, where Yeshua bar Joseph aka Jesus Christ got to hear of them. Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace wrote a dissertation appropriately titled The Kingdom of God is Within You.

I happen also to be a musician (holder of a Whitlam governnent Music Board Fellowship in 1974) and am a singer-songwriter, within the traditional Australian idiom. (I have set a deal of Henry Lawson's immortal work to music; see The Never-Never Land; Sandstock Music, SSM-014).  

And so it came to pass in search of poetry to set to music, that I happened one day upon the poetry of Suzanne Edgar, to my way of thinking the finest poet presently writing in Australia. (Disclosure: I kept company in my university days with both the late Clive James and the late Les Murray. James' work showed a lot of meticulous self-discipline, while Murray was no more IMHO than a vendor of 'chopped-up prose' - the phrase of AD Hope. Neither of them could be set too easily to music; unlike the said Sue Edgar.)

Sue publishes her work at Quadrant ( https://quadrant.org.au/ ) where Les happened to be Poetry Editor, and I went there looking for more. And so it came to pass that I discovered the work of the in-house right-wing writers. I agreed 100% with everything they wrote about Islamism, but found their veneration of  former Liberal Prime Minister Tony 'climate change is crap' Abbott just one stop short of incredible. But then it became totally understandable once I saw Quadrant for what it is: a pack of shills for the fossil-carbon and coal industries. (My favourite: Coal, There's Just No Alternative — quadrant.org.au/opinion/tony-thomas/2014/.../coal-theres-just-alternative... ) But there is more where that came from: much, much more. Watch this space.

So naturally, as a supporter of the mainstream science, as endorsed at last count by 198 scientific organisations worldwide, including Britain's Royal Society, Australia's CSIRO and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). I found myself bound to take frequent issue with the Quad's unholy congregation of shills, and over the course of a couple of years. But then one day, though I had paid my subscription and was financially in the black there, I was  unceremoniously chucked out by the 'liberal' site's editor, Roger Underwood.

So this blog is my way of getting to comment on the articles to be found at Quadrant Online, which can until further notice be taken as the authoritative voice of the Abbottonian troglodyte right wing of the Liberal Party. (Once again: https://quadrant.org.au/ ) It is also for my record of the errors and dubious assumptions, in all their glorious profundity, that Quadrant Online flogs to all who are prone to the belief that business-as-usual must take priority over everything; from concern about stopping an encroaching pandemic of Covid-19 to NOT giving the benefit of any doubt on climate change to the only planet we can ever have. (h/t Margaret Thatcher.) 

The Perseverence Rover landing on Mars has been a technical triumph of the first order, but I assume that Martian real estate prices will remain in the doldrums for ages to come. A maximum temperature of 20 degrees C at the Martian equator, going down to -153 degrees C at the poles is not exactly enticing, given the lack of both firewood on Mars and oxygen to burn it with: never mind stoves and fireplaces. (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/with-mars-methane-mystery-unsolved-curiosity-serves-scientists-a-new-one-oxygen ) 

Though that there is any oxygen at all in the Martian atmosphere is interesting.

NB: The blog's title is inspired by Aldous Huxley's Point Counterpoint.

My other blog is Noah's Rainbow Serpent,  at https://noahsarc.wordpress.com/