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Author: Barry Gittins

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Don Watson's elegy for an imperfect union

    • Barry Gittins
    • 22 November 2024

    Before the U.S. election, Don Watson predicted the electoral victory of Trump in his essay High Noon, an exploration of a divided America teetering on the edge. Dissecting the economic, racial, and cultural forces that led to a Republican landslide reveals an imperfect union at its most vulnerable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'I will stand with you'

    • Barry Gittins
    • 30 October 2024

    In 1968, Peter Norman won Olympic silver, but his lasting legacy was a stance for justice on the podium alongside Tommie Smith and John Carlos, where he wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity. Yet his quiet protest led to lifelong exclusion at home, recognition arriving only posthumously.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Finding gratitude in winter's long shadow

    • Barry Gittins
    • 16 October 2024

    As winter’s chill stubbornly lingers and spring arrives in fits and starts, the weight of the long cold months still presses on many of us. Yet in the midst of this darkness, thinkers like Carl Jung remind us of the power of gratitude to shift our perspective.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Before Hollywood, there was the Salvation Army

    • Barry Gittins
    • 29 August 2024

    In the early 20th century, the Salvation Army emerged as a dominant player in the nascent film industry. From pioneering filmmaking techniques to navigating the first moral dilemmas around film censorship, their cinematic journey is a fascinating, often-forgotten chapter in film history.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A history of violence

    • Barry Gittins
    • 20 August 2024

    Emma's story offers an unflinching glimpse into the brutality of colonial Australia. While it’s worth celebrating the undeniable social progress made since Emma braved the voyage to Australia, we must resist the temptation to see our history of violence as consigned to the past.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When a friend writes a controversial post, how should you respond?

    • Barry Gittins
    • 10 July 2024

    How do you respond, when members of your own tribe share their distaste towards those who rub them up the wrong way? Do you ‘unfollow’? Do you engage? And if you vent against those who who offend with their own dearth of tolerance, are you guilty of doing the same?  

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Punisher

    • Barry Gittins
    • 24 May 2024

    In the latest Quarterly Essay profile of Peter Dutton, author Lech Blaine may well describe his work as character delineation, rather than character assassination. But we seem to be at an impasse in Australian market of ideas, and scorn gives greater bang for the buck than dialogue.

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  • RELIGION

    How Jung turned grief into a philosophy of life

    • Barry Gittins
    • 21 May 2024

    When friends faced a heartbreaking loss, they found solace in Carl Jung's writings, granting them permission to grieve and hope. Given his life of contradictions, how should we evaluate Jung's contributions and his complex relationship with religious faith?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Here we are now, entertain us

    • Barry Gittins
    • 01 May 2024

    The raw power of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ blasted Nirvana past the mainstream and into the realm of music immortality. So what was it about Cobain’s music that resonated with young people in the early 90s and continues to find vast audiences 30 years later?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Lest we regret

    • Barry Gittins
    • 21 March 2024
    4 Comments

    Considering how whistleblowers were punished for reporting the misdeeds of our warriors alongside the judicial exposure of war crimes, we've experienced something of a cultural about-face when it comes to celebrating the Anzac mythos. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When hope is not enough: Preparing for the next Black Saturday

    • Barry Gittins
    • 26 February 2024

    February marks 15 years since the Black Saturday fires in Victoria when some 400 fires raced through 78 locations, taking 173 lives, injuring hundreds more, destroying more than 2,020 homes and the entire township of Marysville. In a warming climate, that reality of loss is likely to be repeated ad infinitum.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Projections and predictions for the year ahead

    • Barry Gittins
    • 18 January 2024
    1 Comment

    It’s that time of year when futurists and prophets play fast and loose, projecting visions rife with both promise and peril, weighing the possible against the improbable. As we contemplate competing pictures of the future, although every forecast risks missing the mark, one thing is certain: 2024 won’t be a year for the faint-hearted.

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