The Anzac cult
A New Opium
By Don Watson
Of all believers who might have debated Richard Dawkins on the ABC earlier this year, Cardinal George Pell was surely among the more unlikely. There is no doubting the depth of the Archbishop’s faith or sincerity, of course; there can be no doubt about Rupert Murdoch’s faith in freedom of the press, either. That the Cardinal’s public demeanour does not immediately bring to mind the auth
Wim Delvoye at MONA
The Art of Ideas
By Amanda Lohrey
The phenomenon that is Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is a Plato’s cave of multi-layered subterranean space where shadows of the real in the form of artworks are installed within vaults of Triassic sandstone. Since the museum’s opening in January 2011 it has lured a staggering 400,000 visitors, of whom it is estimated 5% are of international origin, 57% local and 38% from int
Recent books about religion
Letter to a Young Friend on God and the Question of a Good Lunch
By Amanda Lohrey
Dear Virginia,It's good to hear from you again, and I'm delighted to learn that you have decided to enrol in Cultural Studies 101. In light of this you might be interested in some books that have come my way recently on the subject of religion. There has, as you know, been a great deal of talk over the past decade about a religious revival, but religion is always with us and revivals are often more apparent than real. What is true is th
