When I was a student.... (sigh, what a way to start a blog post... that was such a long time ago in real-time, but in some ways.... I feel like it was just yesterday!).

... anyway, starting again...

When I was younger,I would always have a book or a newspaper with me... that was back in the days when mobiles phones were still new, and they were used for telephone and SMS conversations only. I would have jackets that would have a book stuffed in one pocket, and I would always have the daily newspaper tucked under my arm or stashed in a back. I was a pretty nerdy guy (still am...), and I loved reading and learning about things... anything really!

Of course, there was the usual topics... the Physics and Mathematics, that I would enjoy reading and thinking about. That was always an interesting time... where you would just read, reflect, and ponder... and before you knew it, most of the day had passed.

However... I was always keen to stay on top of politics and world affairs... not because I was interested in politics at all, but the geopolitics angle of every decision was something that was crazily interesting to me... like a giant puzzle, a great-power game of chess, where the aim was to be winning... but not so much that the opponents were crushed and decided to play a different, less desirable game.

It was also an interesting excercise in learning how nation states would have to act in the international area... how they would have to relate to each other through ebbs and peaks of local, regional, and strategic power. The idea that despite having relatively supreme power or dominance didn't mean that you could just do whatever the hell you wanted without consequence.

It was also a great time to be reading newspapers... it was a time before everything had turned shrill and partisan. I was slightly (still am...) left-leaning in most things (so, to translate that for our American friends... slightly left leaning in the rest of the world is apparently far left in the US!).... but I would read the national newspaper, which was considered slightly right-leaning. I always enjoyed having a counter-balance to my instinctual reactions... but I have noticed that it isn't something that is possible anymore. I have tried reading all the newspapers... and all of them are stupidly shrill and polemical at best... no exceptions, all the newspapers from both the centre right and left are just straw-manning pretty much all the time and preaching to their "natural" constituencies. That is something that needs to return back to where it came from..

Anyway... it has been quite a long time since I have had journals or newspapers sitting in my pocket... reading things online just isn't quite the same. And if we are going to be perfectly honest with ourselves, it just doesn't end up happening. Meanwhile, if you have a journal in your side pocket... you pull it out when you are on the train or just sitting around waiting.

My wife has noticed that I read much less... and so, for a recent birthday, she subscribed me to one of the world quarterlies... a great publication that I used to read and that I still sometimes read online! The Quarterly Essay is packed with essays and writing from leading thinkers in the strategic and policy spheres... with an Australian perspective. I LOVE IT!

It is currently sitting in my side pocket... I'm looking forward to be being a policy nerd again!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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