Issue 6:
FUTURES POSSIBLE
Introducing Demos issue 6: the editors take a look into what it means to imagine the future.
Archaeologies of the Future: Visions of the Future in Blockbuster Science Fiction Films, 1980 – 2016
Growing up, I was obsessed with science fiction. For one glorious, youthful summer I read nothing but science fiction from the 1960s. I’ve seen Starship Troopers at least 18 times by now, and hearing the opening fanfare to Star Wars will always make my skin tingle....
Yurt
In the aftermath of the 2009 Urumqi Riots in Xinjiang, I realised at the age of 10 what the Chinese label of the event meant; merely four simple characters: ‘hit, smash, snatch, burn’. Yet I could not fathom what would possess Uyghurs, my people, to harm...
On a remark of Wittgenstein’s
“If I had planned it, I should never have made the sun at all… And if there were only the moon there would be no reading and writing.” A metaphor is a sign of weakness she says the language showing its limits going out to the edge and tipping over conceding I have no...
Dissent and Disengagement: Canberra Student Protest Against the Vietnam War
Photo: Robert Hall The 1960s, student activism and the Vietnam War conjure images of protest, change and radicalism. At the time, radical Australian students were referred to by politicians as ‘political bikies who pack-rape democracy’ (Billy Snedden, 1970) and have...
Bringing Up Tomorrow
Julianne Schultz and Brendan Gleeson (eds), 2016. Griffith Review 52: Imagining the Future, Text Publishing, Melbourne. Available online: https://griffithreview.com/editions/imagining-the-future/ Every day, we shape our tomorrows by discussing the future. To shape a...
Waiting for Now
Most relationships are not without conflict or worry, and navigating these issues is entirely normal and healthy. That said, some factors may be beyond the control of those within the relationship, and as such can impose a burden within that space that makes them feel...
A Way Out of Capitalism
Increasingly, in the books I’m reading and the conversations I’m having—about climate change, about automation and the future of work, about the many current and coming crises—the conversation keeps spiraling back to ‘capitalism is the problem’. And most of the time,...
Give Me Beauty or Give Me Death: Understanding Trump’s Nostalgia Through La La Land and Jackie
This is the text of a talk given in Canberra on 15 February 2017 for a ‘Philosophy in the Pub’ event at Smith’s Alternative. The brief for tonight’s event was to talk about philosophy, and post-truth and populist politics. Well, what is there to say and what do I have...
Wake Up Call: Fighting the Neoliberal Global Order in Latin America
“Shame on you!” That was one of the many slogans yelled and used often over the past few years at protests held by thousands of people in Washington against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (Jones, 2000). In the last decades the world has seen...
Oscillating Futures: Visions of Apocalypse Amongst Climate Activists
– Claire Gardner interviewed by Odette Shenfield Claire Gardner is a recent graduate from the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. She spent her Honours year researching visions of the apocalypse amongst climate activists with 350.org. We sat down to...
People ask me what’s it like living in New Zealand
It’s a beautiful place a lot of Americans are eyeing like the Martians in War of the Worlds, to layer over with silos; end of the world condominiums where lighting is utmost to combat depression, where the prairies play on an endless loop in windowless rooms, where...
On Moral Obligations to Future Generations
What obligations, if any, do we owe future generations? This question lies at heart of some of the most important debates in contemporary society. What are we to do about climate change? Should we protect natural resources or prioritise present economic development?...
Broken Hand Series
Broken Hand Series is a collection of photos by Chloe Tredrea, which explore the daily routine of her father, Terry. Unable to work after a cycling injury, Chloe’s photos attempt to investigate her father adapting to an idler lifestyle.. The images are captured solely...
Make Postmodernism Great Again: On the Ills of Blaming Theory for Trump
With the election of Donald Trump, the vote for Brexit and the rise of right wing populism, we have supposedly entered the post-truth era. Truth is not only under suspicion, it is irrelevant. For many who hold such a view of recent events, the culprit responsible for...
Letters to a Law Student Who Cares About Justice
The following notes respond to a prompt asking legal academics at ANU to write a short message to law students who chose to study law because they cared about justice. For such students, law school can be a disillusioning and alienating place. The intention of these...
Religion and Borrowing in the New Age
New Age spirituality is a sociological mystery, and as a subject of academic enquiry, incredibly difficult to analyse. Participants engage with a variety of practises that originate from many different cultural sources. Most individuals aim, in one way or another, to...Past Issues
