Wednesday 24 August 2005

Hey ho, hey ho, it's the ratbag brigade, come to destroy my life's work!!!

Slight exaggeration, maybe. But not total exaggeration. Listening to Radio National in the car this evening it does seem after a few false starts that we are indeed in for a semi-serious version of the Intelligent Design shitfight in this country. And that means I am going have to rearm quite a large portion of my dissertation: without going into unneccessary detail, two chapters talk about the way we analogise film adaptation with biological adaptation in terms of the issue of how much the "changes" are the product of conscious intention.....So, thanks very much, Dr. Nelson, you gibbering ape. Thanks also Jenny Macklin, for copping out in the most lame and pathetic way, before anything's even kicked off: she actually told the press that she agreed in principle with the idea that schoolchildren ought to know about a range of religions. (That would include the Flying Spaghetti Monster cult, I take it.)
Why this ridiculous notion is even on the table in Australia I cannot understand. This is a secular society. We are not in the habit of carrying on theological disputes in the parliamentary-political arena, let alone in government schools. Or am I just out of touch: should I have been paying more attention to Hillsong and its ilk?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This nonsense, while strongest in the U.S., has adherents in the U.K. and Canada. I should also take the time to remind you of David Stove, Australia's greatest philosopher of biology and feminist.

Scrivener said...

I blame Karl Rove. Sorry about him.

elaine said...

I'm just worried about the first graph:
http://www.venganza.org/

Declining numbers of pirates and now we're being blamed for global warming!

lucy tartan said...

yes, it's most scurvy, arrr. Although, presumably pirates endorse global warming since they're so fond of being black-hearted dogs upon the high seas. What say you, Elaine?

gentlemen, I hasten to point out that nobody here is blaming the US for passing Australia the ID virus. I actually wonder why it hasn't come up here before now.

Phantom Scribbler said...

I hope you are soon Touched by His Noodly Appendage.

Scrivener said...

Oh, I wasn't saying you blame the US. I'm just saying that I do. I mean, why not blame Rove?

genevieve said...

It's a shame you feel your work must be tweaked to take account of this fashion - I wouldn't bother taking any of the stuff that's been making headlines seriously at this point in time if I were you. How many Hillsongers are academics anyway? How many angels...
What alarms me more is the relentless nationalistic hogwash and Muslim bashing that the government is engaging in at present. THey are either hiding something creepy they're about to do (perhaps something they have already done in their anti-terrorist legislation), or trying to engineer a change of mood in the public before they swing through the IR changes. I think the ID kerfuffle has a bit to do with them Hansonising themselves before going into battle with the Nationals and Family First over the IR bill.
(To Hansonise - To identify the narrow-minded sector in your electorate and pander to it before a maverick does).