Darragh Murray

Author: Darragh

  • On non-compulsory voting in Queensland state elections

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    The Queensland Government has opened up a discussion paper regarding electoral reform. It covers a lot of things, but one issue that has been making people take notice is the proposal to remove compulsory voting in state elections, meaning the responsibility of turning up at the ballot booth would become entirely optional. Many writers have…

  • Vale Hobsbawm

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    I was saddened to hear that British historian Eric Hobsbawm died overnight. When I was studying history, Hobsbawm’s writings were immensely important to me. Not only was he a great historian with a powerful command over historical facts, but he also was a talented writer, something very important when reading a subject that is not…

  • Adieu Rave

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    On the 26 June, Brisbane’s best street press Rave Magazine abruptly ceased publication after 21 years and 1047 print editions. I had been contributing to the magazine for almost two years, signing on as an indie reviewer in August 2009. This started off a long, meandering piece lamenting the magazine’s death, but after reading Justin…

  • Australian politics and integrity.

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    I happen to be reading Plato’s Republic, and am deep into his treatise on how democracy should work and his ideal of the philosopher king. It’s fairly interesting, though I’m not sure of its contemporary practical value and can see why some of the more psychopathic dictators of the past have been inclined to Plato’s…

  • Thinking about arguing

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    Came across this fascinating video about how one can think about arguments and prepare themselves to objectivily evaluate them. This one came via The Intepreter. In this video Julia Galef from Measure of Doubt discusses some techniques that can help you think about the true meaning behind argumentation, herself arguing that the process should be…

  • The problem of IP: SOPA, PIPA, development economics and Down Under

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    The whole world has been going a bit crazy over the issue of Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills that have been proposed for voting in US Congress. As you might know, Wikipedia and reddit closed down their sites for 24 hours and many other prominent web hubs have…