Daily Dialectic

Complicit in terrorism and celebrating territorial aggression, perpetrator of torture, crimes against humanity and cultural genocide, documented serial violator of human rights and international law, and persecutor on the basis of race and religion. All these accusations, and more like them, have recently been made by serious commentators, academics and official bodies. Of whom do I speak? Australia, of course.

In this presentation, I will suggest that the sum total of such relentlessly negative claims contribute to a cultural milieu where the morally relevant differences between countries like Australia and those like ISIS are systematically obscured, and that we should think seriously about the potential social and political fallout from this result.

UPDATE: This Dialectic has now been published in The Conversation