Really Dangerous Ideas : what does and does not matter edited by Gary Johns

Really Dangerous Ideas : what does and does not matter edited by Gary Johns 

With a foreword by Judith Sloan

ISBN: 9781922168092

Paperback, 151 pages

Price: $24.95

Published in 2013

Inspired by Gerard Henderson's Media Watch,

a book about “Really” Dangerous Ideas.

The inspiration for this book of essays came from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI). The Sydney Opera House and the St James Ethics Centre have hosted FODI for four years. Although the organisers try to canvass ideas that appeal across the political spectrum, they are about as balanced as the ABC1 television’s Q&A and as subtle as, ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’ For example, Israel is an apartheid state was a nice little starter in the 2012 Festival. Ilan Pappe an Israeli was invited to speak; he is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Who are the people who attend FODI and believe the nonsense they are fed?: those who forsake the world of markets and profit, who forsake religion, except for environmentalism, who forsake science, except in the service of climate change abatement policies. They are the people we call, and they also call, Progressives. The proposition in this book is that not much progress occurs when Progressives rule the policy roost.

These are essays, written in an opinion style, easy to digest, indeed quite dangerous and perhaps the first of many volumes. 

Gary Johns served in the House of Representatives from 1987-1996 and was Special Minister of State and Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations from 1993-1996. He served as an Associate Commissioner of the Commonwealth Productivity Commission 2002-2004. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) University of Queensland, Master of Arts (Geography) Monash University, and a Bachelor of Economics Monash University. His other books include 'Right Social Justice' and 'Aboriginal Self-Determination: The Whiteman's Dream'.