14 September

Keynes and Hayek were like chalk and cheese. But they both agreed that ideas are the heart of life. Even 'vested interests' are based in ideas - power and money derive from ideas. Australian public life is a wasteland as far as this goes, Australia finds ideas threatening. Our TV and radio is mostly games and gimmicks, or sentimental pathos and bathos. Challenge ideas in Australia and you'll usually be told to 'love it or leave'. Patriotism is one of the key indicators of an empty, dumb public life, the repeated assertion of superiority, without any content.