The Metaphysics of Utopia and Ideology

  Towards a General Understanding of Digital Currencies This post is the first in a series in which I hope to explore the nature of digital currencies. In this post I will provide a general overview of digital currencies. In future posts I hope to explore central bank digital currencies and the economic, governance and social consequences resulting from central banks and financial systems adopting these currencies. The Brookings Institute published a post on May 21, 2018. The Title is : UP FRONT Digital currencies: Five big implications for central banks. The article was written by Vivien Lee and David Wessel. Lee and Wessel open their discussion with the observation that digital currencies are increasingly playing a role in the financial system. Potentially digital currencies can have profound impacts on these systems and the way central banks operate. In the light of this phenomena Lee and Wessel pose the following questions: “Will paper currency finally become obsolete...

Observations on a Critique of Extending the Franchise On May 15, 2023 the Daily Mail published a commentary entitled : Labour's sinister plot to rig our elections. The piece was ascribed to DAILY MAIL COMMENT (henceforth DAILY MAIL). This commentary is a vigorous attack on the United Kingdom (UK) Labour Party’s Plan to extend the franchise to 16-year-olds and European Union (EU) expatriates (expats) to vote in UK elections and referenda. DAILY MAIL sets out to demonstrate to the reader that the Labour Party’s sinister Plan is to implement an undemocratic gerrymander that will cement this party’s grip on the levers of power.   DAILY MAIL bolsters this case by guiding the reader through a sequence of logical gymnastics based on a set of unjustified assumptions. In doing so, DAILY MAIL only succeeds in demonstrating the biases, shallowness and fallacies inherent in this commentary. The piece fails to convince. What follows is an explanation as to why I believe this to be the c...

Volatile Fault Lines The state funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ABC News had published, on May 6 2023 on its news web site a video entitled: The Coronation: A discussion about the Monarchy in 2023. This video is an abridged version of the live broadcast which aired on ABC TV that commenced hours before the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III. The ABC on-line declared the goal of the video as follows: “As we approach the Coronation of King Charles, we look at the role and relevancy of the Monarchy for Australia and the Commonwealth.” The ABC’s coverage of the Coronation that evening included two hosts, the journalists Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez, and included nine guests. The panel guests included Liberal MP and Monarchist Julian Leeser, Journalist Stan Grant, Australian Republic Movement co-chair Craig Foster, monarchist and writer Kathy Lette, lawyer Teela Reid, 2023 Australian Local Hero of the Year Amar Singh, youth advocate Angelica Ojinnaka, constitutiona...

The Word ‘Fascism’ and its Associations. On April 28, 2023 the reader-funded Guardian published an article written by Jason Stanley entitled: Tucker Carlson is not an anti-war populist rebel. He is a fascist. Let me say at the very outset the heading of this article is telling us as readers what we are to believe as true, namely that Tucker Carlson is a ‘fascist’. According to Mr. Stanley, Mr. Carlson is a fascist for the following: ·          Claiming the real enemies of America are internal – racial minorities, doctors and politicians, professors and educators, and large corporations who shift jobs to other countries. ·          Resolution against US support for Ukraine like America’s pro-fascist parties opposed US intervention on the side of its allies against Nazi Germany. ·          Spreading tropes central to neo-Nazi propaganda; White replacement theory. · ...