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Day: December 30, 2016
Will Australia become a republic soon?
As Richard Farnsworth said, republicans are waiting for an unpopular and unfamiliar monarch to raise the question again. OTOH the celebrity appeal of Kate & Wills (which is driving the millennials’ affection for the monarchy) could still see it stick around. Part of the problem is that republicanism doesn’t have the emotional vigour it did […]
What is the purpose of a university education? Is it primarily to learn or to acquire credentials for a future job?
Habib le toubib, how do you manage to keep breaking my heart so with your questions? (Ah, by sending A2A’s that I leave in the too hard basket for weeks.) I admire and love the ideal of liberal arts education. I do. Really. It makes you a better person. But we live in an age […]
If Satan had Quora, what questions would he ask?
Michael Masiello: what are your views on theodicy? (“Fuck you” is not an adequate answer) Am I also Shaytan? Am I also Kali? Am I also Angra Mainyu? Am I also the Demiurge? If God is Good is He also God? If God is God is He also Good? Should pronouns referring to Satan be […]
How would you define your personal culture? How does it differ from the general culture of your place of residence?
Unsurprising that this question of yours, Habib le toubib, is attracting a lot of attention from migrants and diasporans. And it would: migrants and diasporans have a personal culture that hybridises their upbringing and their environment, so it will be perceptibly different to that of their local mainstream. It’s a big brushstrokes kind of personal […]
How do you feel when a foreigner knows much more about your country than you do?
Nikos Tsiforos was a Greek humorist, who wrote a series of humour pieces covering all of Greek Mythology. I’ve cited his collection here a couple of times. At the end of the 640 pp book, he wrote this. Few of us Greeks know Greek Mythology well. (Before I started studying it to write it up, […]