13 replies to this topic

[brucecamblzchin]

Hello Objectivism Online.

I am a teacher in Tasmania, Australia and have over the last year or so been reading Ayn Rand's books and about Objectivism more widely. I have for a while been reading about philosophy and politics - I would love to have been studying it for longer but that is water under the bridge now.

Reading and understanding Objectivism has been like finding all my own thoughts and feelings written down and fully fleshed out to their logical conclusion. What I mean to say is; before I read Ayn Rand's books I thought, mostly, along the same lines but I didn't know why. Now I am beginning to know why.

I hope to get involved in debates here.

Thanks.

[JASKN]

Welcome!

[bluecherry]

Hey, welcome to the forum. What do you teach?

[brucecamblzchin]

Thank you!

I teach English as a second language to people who have recently immigrated to Australia - most are former refugees. All of them are grateful to be in a country that is more free than their first one.

[bluecherry]

Ah, neat. Which language or languages are these people starting with that you need to teach English to?

[brucecamblzchin]

Acholi, Tikrinya, Creole, Pidgin, Amharic, Arabic, Karen, Thai.

Many students are illiterate in their first language. It's tough going at times.

[whYNOT]

Welcome to OO, Charlie!

I like your "more free" comment - that about says it all about the world, don't you think?

My daughter - and her new baby - will be settling in Sydney with her Australian
fiance very soon.
But i guess Sydney is about as different as chalk and cheese compared with Hobart.
I get the impression of creeping nanny-Statism in Australia: would you say that's accurate?

Edited by whYNOT, 14 March 2012 - 06:12 AM.

[brucecamblzchin]

Sydney is certainly a lot bigger, the CBD itself is quite nicely put together around the harbour.

Nanny is well and truly in effect in Australia and people know it - a new proposal from government will be met with contempt - but they seem to lack the ability to articulate why it upsets them so much, they just know that it does. Recent examples would be govt departments set up by our previous Labour govt (centre left) called 'grocery watch' and 'fuel watch' ostensibly set up to 'watch' the prices on these items and make sure they don't go too high. They have no control on the prices of these things, you could see from the moment it was proposed it was going to be pointless and wasteful and yet they went ahead and did it anyway.

Very frustrating.

[bluecherry]

Pointless and wasteful, making it easier to get it put into place for seeming like it doesn't do much, but later on I'd bet money they will then use the argument that they've got this department that can't do anything with the money being spent on it so they need to give it enforcement powers. The previous "watching" will then be used as an argument for why they need this power too. "See?! Look at these prices going on while we can't do anything! The horror! You need to give us more power so we can stop this!"

What place speaks a language called Karen? Never heard of that one before.

[Nicky]

Bruce Campbell rules. That is all. Oh and welcome.

[brucecamblzchin]

What place speaks a language called Karen? Never heard of that one before.

A language spoken by a group of displaced people from Burma. There is apparently an ongoing civil war but I admit I know very little about it.

Bruce Campbell rules. That is all. Oh and welcome.

I agree. I choose the name originally because that's how many characters fit into an Xbox live gamer tag and I find it amusing that people see 'you were killed by brucecamblzchin' when I get them in halo.

[brucecamblzchin]

I must say I dig the multi quote system on this board, I'm on an iPad and it's easy as pie to use.

[Boris Rarden]

I don't know much about Australia, except these things
1) it is very beautiful, the beaches are amazing clean -- it is really a paradise (I spend three months there)
2) people are friendly and love sport.
3) Australia was the only country that was able to kick out Sharia
4) it is kind of socialist, like Canada

Is my estimation correct ? How are points 1,2,3 achieved if as you mention that Govt treats the population as babies / sheep ?
Why it is so nice there that it makes people happy ?

[Robin Craig]

Hi. Australia is not exactly a hotbed of Objectivism and given its size, Tasmania isn't likely to have many options! There are groups in Sydney and Brisbane (and we run philosophy events here on the Gold Coast) but you will probably find more joy in a place like this :-)

You can also link to many Objectivists on Facebook where you can also have some useful conversations and information.