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Author: Julian Butler

  • INTERNATIONAL

    The end of politics as usual

    • Julian Butler
    • 11 November 2024

    As Americans confront the start of a second Trump presidency, the questions go deeper than policy. This victory, far from an anomaly, reflects deeper fractures and discontent in a polarized nation. How can a society move forward when politics seem unable to address, let alone heal, its divisions?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The US election will be won by the candidate with the strongest story

    • Julian Butler
    • 07 October 2024

    As the US election approaches, the focus has shifted from personal narratives to policy positions and voter strategies. Candidates like Trump and Harris have crafted compelling stories, but voters now seek clarity on the issues. With much of the debate settled, the question remains: how will these stories shape the outcome?

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  • RELIGION

    Gerry O'Collins: Seeking the good, true and beautiful

    • Julian Butler
    • 26 August 2024

    Gerry had a wonderful way of making people feel welcome. He wanted to see people at their best and his company allowed others to be so. Gerry’s life was peopled by some of the most significant figures in the global Church, and in political and cultural society more broadly, but he wore those connections lightly. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Violence and virtue in an age of monsters

    • Julian Butler
    • 22 July 2024

    Trump's public persona, controversial as it may be, does not in any way justify or diminish the severity of such violence. However, we must also recognize that there exists a broader culture of violence to which individuals can simultaneously contribute and fall victim. 

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  • RELIGION

    When does news become a distraction?

    • Julian Butler
    • 17 June 2024

    There's a fine line between consuming news as a numbing distraction, and engaging with news that reminds me of human community. Even with the best of intentions to be informed and engaged, too often I find myself if not despairing, then at least lost in the volume. 

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  • RELIGION

    Does Vatican II offer a blueprint for political healing?

    • Julian Butler
    • 15 May 2024

    Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. What lessons might our contemporary democratic community take from the Church over that period that might that help our common conversation? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tunes, tales and true connections

    • Julian Butler
    • 02 April 2024

    There is beauty in returning to places that experience has made so full of memory that they have become layered with meaning. Just as there is in hearing music that you have listened to at different moments of your life, and that is filled with meaning, not just for you, but even moreso for the artist standing before you and in myriad different ways for the audience with you. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Rainbow and the Blue

    • Julian Butler
    • 04 March 2024
    2 Comments

    Having first marched with the Mardi Gras Parade in 1998, the NSW Police will march this year, albeit out of uniform. This decision comes amidst community distress following a tragic double homicide, sparking calls for the police's absence. However, those seeking to keep the police out of Mardi Gras may have missed the complexity of this case and the more nuanced status of identities in our contemporary context.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Reading the places we know

    • Julian Butler
    • 29 January 2024
    2 Comments

    In fiction, place often feels secondary. But when place comes alive in writing, it is a delight. When it’s a place that has shaped you, or continues to shape you, then your own mythology expands.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eureka Street person of the year 2023

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 21 December 2023
    10 Comments

    To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team wanted to nominate who we considered to be the Eureka Street ‘person of the year’ based on this year's newsmakers.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Does cultural memory have an expiration date?

    • Julian Butler
    • 08 November 2023

    It's curious how fragments of the past linger in our minds, waiting to be unearthed. But in an era where we're bombarded with endless content and quick digital answers, one wonders: Are these shortcuts eroding our ability to remember?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Truth or dare: Australia's misinformation challenge

    • Julian Butler
    • 02 November 2023
    1 Comment

    The proposed Misinformation Bill straddles the delicate balance between freedom of speech and the rising threat of misinformation, posing a challenge that could redefine the landscape of media and public conversation. The problem goes beyond discerning the truth, but determining how a democratic society identifies it amid a sea of conflicting voices.

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