Copyright © 2008 Corrupt Australia
hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes! Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.

Boast as you will of your mateship now - crippled and mean and sly - The lines of suspicion on friendship's brow were traced since the days gone by. There was room in the long, free lines of the van to fight for it side by side - There was beating-room for the heart of a man in the days when the world was wide.

With its dull, brown days of a-shilling-an-hour the dreary year drags round: Is this the result of Old England's power? - the bourne of the Outward Bound? Is this the sequel of Westward Ho! - of the days of Whate'er Betide? The heart of the rebel makes answer "No! We'll fight till the world grows wide!"

The world shall yet be a wider world - for the tokens are manifest; East and North shall the wrongs be hurled that followed us South and West. The march of Freedom is North by the Dawn! Follow, whate'er betide! Sons of the Exiles, march! March on! March till the world grows wide!

~ Henry Lawson

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21 November 2008

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World Philosophy Day was yesterday

"Despite continually proclaiming the importance of educating young Australians, our political leaders all seem to have overlooked the fact that today is World Philosophy Day. It is a day we should not allow to pass unmarked.

Given Prime Minister Rudd's call for a responsible and egalitarian future, what is our Labor Government doing to promote World Philosophy Day and the importance of philosophy in the lives of every Australian?

I think we've reached a critical mass. My suggestion is that today, our political leaders, and indeed all Australians, should read the UNESCO study, Philosophy: A School of Freedom, and make an immediate long term commitment to encouraging our children to be curious and to think critically."

::View Article::

We live in a democracy and we pride ourselves on being a young and, most importantly, 'free' nation. But surely 'freedom' entails the ability to be able to think critically and objectively.

True freedom is considering all the alternatives for oneself and then decide upon a course of action as an autonomous agent. It's not simply doing what everyone else does because everyone else is doing it. It's not voting a certain way simply because one's parents do it. It's not leading a certain life simply because it's glorified by television and marketing empires. All these are not examples of freedom because the motivations are coming more from outside rather than from within.

Philosophy is not simply theology or the study of different ideologies. It is the study of the logic and the reasons behind different assertions and it helps one develop the ability to analyse other people's arguments, consider different modes of society, and generally be more of a 'free' agent in the world. Used tags:
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