Luckiest. People. Ever.

Luckiest. People. Ever.

I caught up with a guy for a cigar last night and, as usual, we ended up talking about politics and philosophy. I mentioned that I believe Australians (well…. white Australians) are the luckiest people who have ever lived in all of human history (about 107 billion according to a recent estimate). We are one of the wealthiest countries per capita and live in a country with one of the lowest densities per capita. We have very low unemployment, very low rates of violence and pretty good political stability.

And yet… most people don’t seem to FEEL lucky. They bitch and moan constantly. They have been imbued with this sense that they don’t have enough, they should have more, they aren’t keeping up with the Joneses. It’s a sign of a sick society.

Anyhoo, the point being that we, as the luckiest people who have ever lived, have a responsibility to help out the less fortunate.

Here’s a great video that demonstrates how far we, as a species, have come in the last 200 years.

 

 

The No Illusions Podcast #56 – Wendy Bacon on Media Bias

The No Illusions Podcast #56 – Wendy Bacon on Media Bias

Wendy Bacon is a contributing editor to NewMatilda and has reported for Crikey,  the Sydney Morning Herald and The Conversation in recent times.

She is an investigative journalist with a background in social activism who worked at the University of Technology for 21 years. Although no longer teaching at UTS, Wendy is still a Professor of Journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.

In 2011 she published a report on the bias in Australian newspapers over their coverage of climate change. The results of this report BLEW MY MIND.

I chatted with Wendy yesterday about the report and the state of journalism in Australia.

You can find Wendy’s website here and her Twitter account here.