David Harvey: Two Tribes, One Argument - Salmond, Dutta, and the Grammar of Progressive Polemic

An analysis of two recent New Zealand opinion pieces, their shared themes, intellectual methods, and rhetorical weaknesses

Bryce Edwards of the Democracy Project runs an excellent daily news briefing as part of the Democracy Project. The briefing consists of news stories organized by topic and with links. The bias is towards legacy media (a term in intend to use when I am being polite about Mainstream Media. I use the later term when I am being critical) but alternative media features as well. Half of the site is free to all. The other half is for paid subscribers. It is well worth the subscription.

Insights From Social Media: Dame Anne Salmond.....

Dame Anne Salmond - Leading the Charge of New Zealand Romantic Thinking - by Colinxy

The Romantic Cloak

Few figures embody the Romantic impulse in New Zealand’s intellectual life more vividly than Dame Anne Salmond. Her writings, media appearances, and social media engagements reveal a deep commitment to cultural relativism and poststructuralist thought. She venerates the theorists of fragmentation and ambiguity, and in doing so, positions herself as a defender of what is known as the “Noble Savage.” Within this framework, behaviours that might otherwise be condemned are excused if they emerge from her preferred cultural narrative, while anything associated with European ancestry is treated with suspicion—except, of course, when it comes to herself and her academic circle.

Gary Judd KC: Bondi, Tarrant, victimhood, faith, the primitive, relativism, cultural boundaries of knowledge

The attack on members of Sydney’s Jewish community by the father and son one writer has dubbed the Bondi Barbarians is a shockingly horrific event. It is emerging that the shooters were devotees of ISIS who had just returned from Mindanao, a Muslim outpost in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is supposed they may have gone there to be trained for the terrorist acts committed just days after their return to Sydney. Reports indicate possession of ISIS regalia and association with known ISIS members in Sydney.

Professor Kendall Clements, Dr Michael Johnston: The Irony Of Relativism

When new evidence emerges, scientists update their theories, sometimes radically. Good scientists actively seek evidence that could disconfirm their theories.

Scientific uncertainty owes a lot to cross-cultural encounters. For example, when Jesuit missionaries visited China in the 16th and 17th centuries, they were fascinated by Chinese astronomical records.

Roger Partridge: The Open Mind and the Closed University

Last month, Dame Anne Salmond issued a public challenge to the very idea of reason – the commitment to shared standards of inquiry that has delivered unprecedented human flourishing over the past three centuries.

Salmond is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated public intellectuals. She was writing in Newsroom on 18 November – the same day legislation requiring universities to protect open debate and remain “institutionally neutral” received royal assent. Salmond opposes the reform. For her, neutrality is a fiction: there is no common ground – only competing worldviews.

Kevin: Another One Who Doesn’t Get Freedom of Speech

Anne Salmond.

Newsroom’s series of articles on the Free Speech Union has been illuminating.

Perhaps the most entertaining was David Williams’ account of their AGM in Christchurch, which featured the Wizard of Christchurch, Brian Tamaki and ‘prominent conspiracy influencer’ Chantelle Baker as well as Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers’ Union and Eric Crampton from the New Zealand Initiative.

Note the subtle put down of using the word entertaining.

Insights From Social Media

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > Māori Unemployment? Let’s Stop Blaming Everyone Else

Here we go again. Another report telling us that Māori unemployment is 8.4% nearly double the national average. And of course, out roll the usual explanations: structural inequality, systemic racism, not enough government funding, not enough iwi investment, not enough jobs in the regions... not enough of something that isn’t personal responsibility.

Let’s just be honest for once: maybe it’s time to stop blaming everyone else and look in the mirror.

Richard Prebble: Misunderstandings and the Treaty

Arguments about the meaning of words is causing the message of the Treaty to be lost

Dame Anne Salmond says that anyone who does not speak te reo who opines on the Treaty of Waitangi should be regarded as “a lunatic or a fool”.

Professor Sir Hugh Kawhāru has translated the te reo version of the Treaty back into English.

Article Three translates as:

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Inability to understand te reo Māori does not prevent people from asking questions about race relations in New Zealand

Dame Anne Salmond recently wrote a column on Newsroom berating people for having views on the Treaty of Waitangi when they cannot even read the Māori version of the treaty.

So, what she is saying is that even when customs, laws or treaties impinge on your daily life, you cannot hold any views on these matters if you are unable to read the relevant documents in their original form.

Ani O'Brien: Richard Prebble is not an extremist

After a mere handful of months on the Waitangi Tribunal, former Labour Minister and Act Party Leader Richard Prebble CBE has resigned. His appointment was controversial to say the least with Radio New Zealand reporting that Labour’s Willie Jackson described Prebble’s appointment as "unbelievable" and "a kick in the guts" for Māori.

Prebble’s resignation was announced via his New Zealand Herald column in sensational fashion and clearly in an attempt to create impact he felt he couldn’t achieve on the Tribunal.

Dr Michael Bassett: Academic arrogance

In Newsroom on 6 March Dame Anne Salmond made a fool of herself when she lectured Richard Prebble about the two versions of the Treaty of Waitangi. She grandly informed him that Maori signed the version written in Maori, and proceeded to give us her take on what those words meant when translated into English.

Dr James Kierstead: Hayek's real bastards

In Hayek’s Bastards, the distinguished historian Dame Anne Salmond takes issue with Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill, which she sees as the attempt of a fringe party to impose its ideologies and which she thinks would “elevate individual rights and private property above all other considerations in law-making” and thus undermine democracy.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Why does Dame Professor Anne Salmond Defend the Treaty by Attacking Liberty?

Why does Dame Professor Anne Salmond Defend the Treaty by Attacking Liberty? Don't we all, Māori and non-Māori, want to be free & our property rights protected?

The defining brilliance of the US Declaration of Independence was its ideal of a government whose existence could be justified only if it was there to serve the people; to protect their freedoms & liberties. The awful alternative is a government that exists to force people to serve its own interests - by getting them to fight wars to enrich its political leaders - and by getting them to work hard, only for those leaders to steal what the people build.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Is New Zealand in danger of lurching towards constitutional impropriety?

Lately, I am seeing a lot of articles that accuse the current government of imperiling New Zealand’s democracy. One of the more recent entries is by former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer arguing in Newsroom that “New Zealand is in danger of lurching towards constitutional impropriety.” He also writes that he is “concerned that our democracy is being weakened by the methods this Government is using to achieve its goals.”