Podcast interview with Leighton Smith

My interview on the Leighton Smith Podcast, New Zealand

 

Leighton Smith Podcast #276 - March 19th 2025 - Michael De Percy

March 19, 2025 • 100 mins

Dr Michael De Percy is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canberra. He graduated from both the Australian National University and the Royal Military College, Duntroon.  

He was also appointed to the Australian Research Council’s College of Experts in 2022. 

Sound interesting? I can only say that if he’d been my lecturer at ANU, I might well have chosen a different career path. Listen below.

The Menzies Ascendency: Australia in the Atomic Age

Keith Rigg (R) with Sir Robert Menzies signing a bat, circa 1950 [Rigg Family Album CC BY 3.0]

I will present my final paper for the Robert Menzies Institute's Third Annual Conference, 'The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains, 1954-1961' on Friday 24th November 2023. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the University of Canberra's  Faculty of Business, Government and Law Seminar Series in May 2023.

The slides and abstract from my final presentation are below, along with a podcast episode with Georgina Downer, CEO of the Robert Menzies Institute:

Abstract

Menzies embraced the atomic age rather more enthusiastically than many other Australians. He envisaged Australia’s substantial uranium and thorium reserves providing Australia with a source of clean, reliable, and affordable energy that would ultimately replace fossil fuels. But he also knew that “what is best advertised tends to be more popularly understood”. Despite the opening of a nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in 1958 to “test materials for their suitability in use in future power reactors”, the purpose of Australia’s first nuclear reactor was gradually reduced to producing medical radioisotopes and conducting research. Menzies faced similar concerns about the safety of nuclear reactors, the propensity for conflating nuclear industries with nuclear weapons, and storing nuclear waste to those concerns political leaders face today. But with Australia’s strategic defence capabilities enhanced by nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS agreement, and the absence of a ‘Plan B’ for a carbon-neutral future, the unrealised potential of Australia’s atomic age has manifested into the very lack of skills Menzies was concerned about in 1962. The Lucas Heights facility was more than just a case of hubris, or “what are they doing here that can't be better done elsewhere?” It provided opportunities for training Australian scientists and sharing and transferring nuclear-related research and knowledge. At the same time, recently declassified documents suggest that Menzies aimed to develop Australia’s nuclear capability amid eleven years of atomic weapons tests conducted by Britain in Australia. While much has been written about “nuclear colonialism” following the Royal Commission into the tests, very little attention has been given to the unrealised potential of Australia’s nuclear industry envisaged during the atomic age. This paper, then, traces the development and subsequent stagnation of the nuclear industry in Australia, with a focus on Menzies’ legacy and its influence on energy and defence policy today.

Developing our own capability: Australia’s Nuclear Journey

Michael de Percy with Georgina Downer, Afternoon Light Podcast, Robert Menzies Institute

It was under Robert Menzies that Australia entered the nuclear age with the opening of the Lucas Heights Reactor in 1958. 65 years on, what looked to be the first step in a much bigger story remains practically the only step Australia has taken towards harnessing the potency of the atom to power our nation. As nuclear energy once again appears on the political radar, it is worth taking a look back and seeing what potential Australians once saw in nuclear and what could have been. 

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Michael de Percy about how Menzies represents Australia’s unrealised nuclear potential. 

Dr Michael de Percy FRSA FCILT is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canberra. His qualifications include a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) from the University of Canberra, and a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he received the Royal Australian Artillery prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and Vice-Chair of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter, Vice President of the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc - Australia's oldest learned society), Public Policy Editor of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. He was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts in 2022.

The podcast is available on YouTube or Spotify:

Year in Review: 2022

Donald the Silver Laced Wyandotte Rooster, Keswick, 15th December 2022

This year has been so hectic I barely recall what happened. The last time I felt like this was in 1993 after I graduated from the Royal Military College Duntroon. It was the same year my first son was born (the day before First Class started in July 1993) and the entire time was a blur. Ending this year with COVID has been a real downer, and instead of celebrating Christmas, I am fighting lethargy as the left-over work builds up yet again to ensure there is no year-end downtime.

I began the year with jury duty which was disturbing due to the nature of the case and annoying because the nature of my employment means that anything that disrupts my work, like leave or jury duty, just means that the weeks of work back up until I return. Beginning and ending the year this way really sucks. But there have been some major highlights that make it a successful year overall.

One thing that was an important driver for an improved life was taking a hearing test. I discovered that I have suffered critical hearing loss in my left ear, and severe hearing loss in my right ear. The suburban shopping mall hearing test centre wanted to charge me some $12,000 for state-of-the-art hearing aids. The hearing aids were so good when I trialled them that I didn't want to take them off. Alas, the price was a rip-off and I found Specsavers Audiology had a similar product that, when combined with my Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) rebate and my Defence Health rebate, the top product was around $1,350 out of pocket. It has been life-changing.

Returning to the defence fold was life-changing, too. I didn't know that there is such a thing as the Australian Defence Veteran's Covenant and the veteran's pension supplement as part of the DVA White Card that all former serving ADF members are now eligible for - this has been around for years. I had walked out of the military when I became an academic, determined to pursue a different life. But the Army has always been a big part of my family. In the New Year, I will continue to put forward claims from the injuries I sustained during my service. As I age, these are becoming more pronounced and will only get worse.

My experience in the last few weeks of my regular army service was pretty sad. Come to think of it, it replicates many of the same events that happened mid-career as an academic. I played the lieutenant too well and after a leadership change, my previous loyalties were detrimental to my future. A combination of ego and pride didn't help. So there's a huge lesson already to reflect upon.

But a major change was returning to the RSL and becoming the representative for the Gunning Chapter of the Yass Sub-Branch. I renewed my membership and helped out with ANZAC Day 2022 where I led the march, read In Flanders Fields, and then did the same again for Remembrance Day 2022. I feel connected to the community of veterans here in Gunning and, along with playing snooker when we weren't in COVID lockdowns or impacted by the flooding, that has been a highlight.

I was assigned jury duty in the first half of the year although this was not a highlight. I ended up being excused after a cock-up by the legal parties, but it took two weeks out of my work that I then had to catch up on. This led to some rather unfair consequences for me and I railed against the injustice. But rather than carry on like a dick, the experience led me to return to politics in a way I had not done since becoming an academic. It has been a rewarding experience and I hope I can make an impactful contribution in that space next year.

I also joined the Royal Automobile Club of Australia, a long-held desire, and I have taken advantage of the Club on numerous occasions to either stay, park the car, or have a drink or coffee before and after events I have attended in Sydney. Regrettably, I missed two of the most desirable events in the last part of the year due to COVID. It really sucked but I have been Stoic about it - I can't control my body or its illness so there is no use carrying on about it.

In the early part of the year, I was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts. This has been a privilege and I have learnt so much already. It provides the added advantage of enabling me to conduct research using the consulting fees I receive as research funding. On top of this, I was awarded a bonus for my research output in 2021, so I had funding to travel to Korea and Perth for research and a keynote address. Two weeks in Korea was a highlight of the year, and there are so many opportunities there for future visits. It is a lovely place and I cannot wait to explore it in more detail.

By mid-year, we had finished work on our book, COVID-19 and Foreign Aid: Nationalism and Global Development in a New World Order. It was quite the effort but we got there in the end. Along with the book, I wrote one chapter and co-authored two more.

During the winter, we travelled to Cairns and met my partner's mother and two of my three grandchildren. COVID lockdowns were particularly sad times for weddings and welcoming in new family members. And Cairns was unseasonably cool so despite staying in the faded grandeur of the Kewarra Beach Resort, there was no suitable weather for swimming. 

Then we took an actual holiday and went to Singapore as soon as the borders were open. We had a great time at the Regent Hotel and enjoyed some fine dining, some great bars and local food, and generally had a great time. Although I have been to Singapore many times, it was good to explore some of the finer things and not have to be working. Nevertheless, I was contacted by work via Facebook asking if I was teaching the next day - someone forget to mention the changed timetable - this sucked and it set me up for an even greater backlog before returning to work. Leave has often been not a break from work, it is a pause where your work backs up for however long you are away. That will be different next year. Leave will be a time when I do not work and I have a relaxing time and when I return, I begin new work with no backlog.

There have been several sad events this year. My best good little man Pablo died in my arms after a long period of liver failure. He is still in my dreams every night and I miss him terribly. Our buff Sussex rooster also died but we have a new rooster, Donald, who is full of character and will hopefully be big enough soon to not only protect himself but protect the flock. Lenny the cat has hyperthyroidism and needs daily medication and little Frida the mini-foxie is also on her last legs with heart failure imminent. Frankie has her moments with Addison's Disease. Desi the indestructible cat with a case of an incurable cherry eye due to his skin fragility syndrome still has a death wish but is now over five years of age, defying the usual outcome of being euthanised at 12 months of age. Joseph the Vet retiring and moving away was a sad end to a rewarding relationship, but the new vets at Gundaroo are keeping me happy.

Thankfully, our other cats Karl and Valentine remain blissfully healthy. We are down to six chickens plus Donald the rooster. We still have an ongoing supply of eggs despite the girls pushing five years now. While having so many pets around the same age can be quite tragic as they pass, without their little souls around my feet, I doubt life would be quite as enriched as they make it.

Creating opportunities for internships has been a highlight, with two successful interns this year, one leading to a journal article in the closing weeks of December. I was elected as the Vice President of TelSoc after spending the previous year as a board member, and I was re-elected to the Vice Chair position with the ACT & Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA. I was also granted full membership to the Australian Nuclear Association and my aim to conduct research work in the three main areas of networked infrastructure policy, telecommunications, transport, and energy, now has a practical element and an industry focus as I learn from my various networks and the events that have been inspiring this year.

I have tried to focus on politics as a contest of ideas and, rather than sit on the sidelines as Le Flaneur Politique, I changed my focus from being non-partisan to "remaining aloof from the groupthink of the contemporary academy". With the change in government, the "wokerati" have taken every advantage and are hell-bent on destroying the way we live. It has become increasingly obvious that free speech and academic freedom are being curtailed. I am a big believer in "use it or lose it", so I took a few opportunities, and made a few mistakes, but managed to get there in the end.

I also participated in numerous events, conferences, technical site visits, webinars, seminars, and so on. Here is a comprehensive list of events I attended or participated in: Recent Events Roundup: August to December 2022. 

But my change of heart really began when I read an article in the Lowy Institute's The Interpreter, where someone was arguing that our energy security depended on even more renewables. I have watched the Cullerin Wind Farm nearby with its 15 turbines sitting idle for weeks now. One thing that is becoming clear is that these turbines require maintenance, and their lifespan is not as long as originally thought. How these "renewable" infrastructure items provide energy "security" is beyond me. So I penned an article with a colleague on the need for nuclear energy to be on the table. Let's just say that there was an issue with academic freedom.

Those who not only celebrated Labor's election win but who then celebrated the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and went on a tirade about decolonising everything and "acknowledging country" as a performative measure of morality are plain wrong. Our economic situation and Labor's over-the-top socialism will prove that in due course.

Then there was the focus on "toxic masculinity" in my professional body. If you are woke, you can say whatever you like no matter how wrong and this leads to accolades and celebrations. If you do not celebrate the stupidity that is leading us down the garden path to economic ruin and social fracturing which is a security threat in itself, then you run the risk of being ostracised or labelled with a number of woke insults that stick like mud to the proverbial blanket. These situations led me to delete my Twitter account and not renew my membership in this professional body gone woke. Leaving Twitter had nothing to do with Elon Musk, but rather that it had become a cesspool of wokeness that was driving me to despair. Leaving my professional association means I no longer write to an audience that hates what I write and actively aims to destroy the way I live, but it also means I can focus on things that are important to me. 

After watching the news media go after the Coalition, especially The Guardian and the ABC, and watching what my woke friends on Facebook were debating, and then seeing what the Albanese Government has already done to threaten our freedoms, way of life, and the rule of law, I decided to take sides. The jobs and skills summit set me off. I'd been writing a few articles and submitting these to a variety of places but to no avail. There was nowhere for my ideas. I had experienced this with a journal the year before where I wrote a controversies piece. The article was rejected with the two reviewers writing responses longer than my piece to debate what I had said before rejecting it. Obviously, the article had the desired effect but the wokerati have taken over the academy in strength.

I looked at how The Guardian had infiltrated Australia, and I remembered writing an article for The Punch when it appeared briefly in Australia many years ago. I miss The Bulletin, that Australian weekly magazine, and The Monthly and The New Statesman and a bunch of other old-school mastheads were so woke I couldn't bear it - the left-wing orthodoxy has infiltrated everywhere. Except for The Spectator. 

For the last few weeks of the year, I decided to write my ideas in a space where they would not be shut down by the wokerati. Even The Conversation went so woke as to censor people's comments for things the editors did not agree with - this is completely against the liberal ideal and I will not contribute to it. To date, I have written ten articles for The Spectator and it has been a highlight. As I found my own voice and I am learning not to self-censor (as opposed to completely removing my filter!), I have found other outlets.

I wrote a submission into the Morrison's Multiple Ministries saga that was cited but rejected by the Inquiry. My article on Rewiring the Nation versus nuclear led to a television interview with Fred Pawle. I had some success began quoted in the media on transport-related topics, and I was a keynote speaker on three occasions at the CILT World Congress (hydrogen), the Goulburn Soldiers Club (nuclear), and the 8th Bienniel ACSPRI Methodology Conference (using historical constitutionalism as method). I missed two great events in late December due to illness, but hopefully, the opportunities will be there next year.

What to do next year? I will continue to write as my research and ideas dictate, but I will focus on an audience that is interested in my ideas. Writing for woke audiences would be easy - I could write on woke topics and be published, but it would be a form of manipulation that smacks of intellectual laziness and I cannot be so untrue to myself.

I want to get my podcast happening regularly and start writing books (I have two editors waiting on proposals). I have a pipeline of journal articles now but I will not focus on A* nonsense journals that do not engage with industry or reflect the importance of research for Australia. I also hope to make inroads into public policy in NSW and Australia more generally and will continue to contribute submissions to public inquiries when I can. I hope to continue to develop internships for the best and brightest of my students and I hope to continue to contribute to The Spectator. To have one of my articles in the print edition would be great.

These are scary times for Australia. After years of living in Canberra and being part of the academic bubble, I am so glad I moved to Gunning and became part of the federation again. Listening to the opinions of the forgotten people has been refreshing. Writing for The Spectator has given me a taste for free speech like I have never had before. I will use it and not lose it.

It has been a long, hard road this year. But like all years, I have lived up to my credo - my guiding principles are Love, Liberty, and Learning. On reflection, I have been successful on these three fronts this year.

Nuclear Energy in Australia: From Barriers to Benefits

"Greenflation" is one of the many uncertainties in Australia's energy future [CC0]

Here are the notes from my presentation on nuclear energy at the Goulburn Soldiers Club on 3rd November 2022. 

The presentation focused on the policy aspects of nuclear and addressed the following issues:

• Why nuclear?
• The policy landscape and nuclear
• Arguments against nuclear
• The wind and sunshine gap, Victoria 2019
• Greenflation?
• Rewiring the Nation
• Policy impacts

Below is a list of supporting materials for my presentation at the Goulburn Soldiers Club, 3rd November 2022.

Supporting materials:

Allen, L. (2022, 3 October). Bill introduced to remove nuclear energy ban in Australia. Small Caps.

Australian Nuclear Association (2022). Teaming with Canada for Australia’s Nuclear Energy Future: Report on a recent trip by the speakers to USA and Canada.

Australian Electricity Market Operator (2022). Data Dashboard.

Davasse, G. and Merle, C. (2022, 3 Jun). Greenflation, the new normal? Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking.

De Percy, M.A. (2021). Models of Government-Business Relations: Industry Policy Preferences versus Pragmatism in Andrew Podger, Michael de Percy, and Sam Vincent (Eds.) Politics, Policy and Public Administration in Theory and Practice: Essays in honour of Professor John Wanna. Canberra: ANU Press.

De Percy, M.A. (2021). Policy Legacies from Early Australian Telecommunications: A Private Sector Perspective. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 9 (3).

De Percy, M.A. (2022). Institutional exhaustion and foreign aid in the time of COVID-19. In Jakupec, V., Kelly, M., and de Percy, M.A. (Eds.) COVID-19 and Foreign Aid: Nationalism and Global Development in a New World Order. London: Routledge.

De Percy, M.A. and Batainah, H.S. (2021). Identifying historical policy regimes in the Canadian and Australian communications industries using a model of path dependent, punctuated equilibrium, Policy Studies, 42 (1), pp. 42-59. DOI: 10.1080/01442872.2019.1581161.

Madsen, A. and de Percy, M.A. (2020) Telecommunications Infrastructure in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 55 (2), pp. 218-238. DOI: 10.1002/ajs4.121.

De Percy, M.A. and Poljak, J. (2022, 5 May). Energy security: Embracing technological neutrality. The Interpreter. The Lowy Institute. 

De Percy, M.A. (2022, 19 October). Old habits die hard: Labor’s uncosted infrastructure. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2022, 1 November). Victorian Labor: Waste and Rorts. 

De Percy, M.A. (2022). What are the possibilities for hydrogen? Presentation at the CILT World Congress, Hyatt Regency Perth, 25th October.

Dubner, S.J. (2022, 22 September). Nuclear power isn't perfect. Is it good enough? Freakonomics Radio [Podcast].

GE Gas Power (2022). Cutting Carbon [Podcast].

International Atomic Energy Agency (2022). Nuclear Explained [Podcast].

Keefer, C. (2022). Decouple [Podcast].

Natural Resources Canada (2022). Uranium and nuclear power facts.

Platt, G. (2018, 27 February). 'Baseload' power and what it means for the future of renewables. CSIRO. ECOS, Iss. 240.

Poljak, J. (2022, 11 May). Hydrogen versus LNG: Choices for Europe. Illuminem.

Poljak, J. (2022). keynumbers.

Shakil, I. (2022, 26 October). Canada commits C$970 million to new nuclear power technology. Reuters.

Shepherd, A.F. (2007). Stumbling towards nation-building: impediments to progress. In John Butcher (Ed.) Australia Under Construction: Nation building past, present and future. Canberra: ANU E Press.

Tomago Aluminium (2022). Tomago Keeps The Lights On Across The State.

Victorian Energy Policy Centre (2022). Australian NEM Data Dashboard.

WSJ Podcasts (2022). Is nuclear poised for a comeback? The Journal [Podcast].

World Nuclear Association (2022). Chernobyl Accident 1986.

World Nuclear Association (2022). Fukushima Daiichi Accident.

World Nuclear Association (2022). Nuclear Power in Canada.

World Nuclear Association (2022). Three Mile Island Accident.

Developing a Professional Narrative: One of My Own

Lake Pejar, Upper Lachlan Shire, NSW, 13 March 2021.

My point here is to demonstrate to my students why I think a personal narrative is so important. While I don't pretend to have achieved any notable measure of success, I can say faithfully that I have achieved everything I dreamt I would. But like Lily Tomlin:

All my life I always wanted to be someone. I see now I should have been more specific.

But my own journey has provided enough lessons that I am confident I can convey those lessons to my students in a way that is either meaningful now or at some 'aha!' moment in the future. At least I can hope. Oh, wait, the Stoics were not big fans of hope... but I digress.

Keswick, Gunning NSW. Built by the Caldwell brothers in 1926.

I always wanted to work in Canberra as an academic. But first, I wanted to be a fighter pilot (I became an army officer and qualified as an air contact officer - so close!); to be some kind of member of the clergy to study theology (I became a local officer in a Salvation Army corps - deputy bandmaster and Songsters leader - my family has a long history with the Salvos dating back to the 1890s in Guyra); to be a senator (I decided a long time ago that I do not have the wherewithal to be a politician); and to be a political scientist. But I was more specific. I wanted to be a political scientist in Canberra but live in the NSW regions somewhere around Canberra. In a federation house (my great-grandparents' federation house in Haberfield was amazing).

And now that's exactly what I do. I measure my level of satisfaction y the way I wake up in the morning. If I leap out of bed ready to tackle the day's challenges, it's all good. But I vowed never to keep doing the same old thing if I woke up thinking 'By God, I cannot stand this job!' I had that experience when I was 19 and I took a chance and resigned that day. I joined the Army Reserve and did all sorts of casual jobs and, two attempts later, I marched into Duntroon.

Air Contact Officer course 1996, RAAF Base Williamtown just before calling in F/A-18 ground attack missions marked by my artillery battery at Singleton Military Area.

My point is not to suggest that I am any model of success - far from it - but that I wrote down what I wanted years ago and it has slowly materialised. Not necessarily easily or through good management, but it has all transpired. I remember sitting in the scrub at Shoalwater Bay Training Area imagining I was doing my PhD at ANU, being supervised by Professor John Wanna, who was one of the authors of my textbook, Davis, G., J. Wanna, J. Warhurst and P. Weller. (1993). Public Policy in Australia. Second Edition. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 

I liked John's writing style and in 2013, I graduated with a PhD in Political Science from ANU with John as my supervisor. The key point is not that it happened, but that it was a part of my narrative, my story.

My 1993 policy studies textbook at Deakin Uni in 1994 with my signed copy of John's first edition.

To cut a long story short (and to reserve a few things that are for me!), below is a recent narrative I wrote about why I was applying for a committee role - and who I am, and what I stand for - which is what I am asking my students to do this semester.

Description of the candidate and their reasons for nominating:

Description of the Candidate

Dr Michael de Percy FCILT is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) from the University of Canberra, and a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he received the Royal Australian Artillery prize. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and he is an editor of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy. Michael’s research focuses on the scholar-practitioner nexus in the disciplines of transport and telecommunications policy, comparative politics, historical institutionalism, government-business relations, and leadership. His recent publications include Politics, Policy and Public Administration in Theory and Practice: Essays in honour of Professor John Wanna, ANU Press, 2021 (with Andrew Podger and Sam Vincent); Populism and a New World Order (in Viktor Jakupec et. al. Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid, Routledge 2020); and Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead, ANU Press 2018 (with John Wanna). Michael's research articles have been published in Policy Studies, the Australian Journal of Social Issues, the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, the Australasian Transport and Research Forum, and Public Administration Today. His expert commentary has been published in The Australian, ABC's The Drum, The Canberra Times, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations Public Policy Journal, and The Conversation, and he has also appeared on numerous television and radio news programs. Michael teaches government-business relations, political leadership, and professional development subjects for social scientists in a Bachelor of Politics and International Relations degree, and he also teaches leadership in MBA programs in Australia and overseas. Michael's blog Le Flâneur Politique (ISSN 2652-8851) and podcast on his research, teaching, and community engagement activities are available at www.politicalscience.com.au and you can follow him on twitter @madepercy.

Reasons for Nominating

Following a career change in my early thirties, I fulfilled a long-held wish to become a political scientist. Political science has fascinated me since primary school after winning a politics competition and missing class to attend a local council meeting. I have been hooked ever since. I have political party committee and campaigning experience at the local, state, and federal levels. I attended my first APSA conference in 2004 as an honours student and I have remained involved in APSA as much as I have been financially able over the years. As my career has progressed, I have become more involved in conferences and other activities, including the APSA Teaching and Learning Group and contributing to the APSA-inspired Australian Politics and Policy project through Sydney University Press. I am now at a stage in my career where I can give back to my profession, and I am putting myself forward as a candidate for the position of Ordinary Member on the APSA Executive Committee. I bring to the committee over thirty years' experience in committee work, leadership, and strategic planning and I have a strong desire to see political science in Australia continue to increase its relevancy to citizens, governments, and businesses, and also to promote the study of politics by potential students at all levels. My pedagogical approach is based on my experience as a first-in-family university degree recipient, and I see the study of political science not only as a way to learn more about the world that we live in, but also to develop oneself in the liberal arts tradition, learning not only to become more aware of our own calling but also to become more vigilant and enlightened citizens. I am now in a position to represent the discipline and the Australian Political Studies Association faithfully, and I offer my service to you.@madepercy.

The Outcome?

I lost. I doubt our 'narratives' were the compelling reasons people voted for their preferred candidate. But the reflective aspect remains useful, in that we can create our story and live it.

Sun Tzu said:

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all that I can?

Or consider the (allegedly) Harley Davidson advertisement:

When Writing The Story Of Your Life, Don’t Let Anyone Else Hold The Pen

The point is that it is up to you. And if you don't like your story, you have the power to re-write it.

Professional Orientation: The Journey Continues

The journey of a modern hero, to the island of Elba [Public Domain]

 Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is a University of Canberra philosopher in democracy studies. As a senior lecturer in the School of Politics, Economics, and Society he delivers subjects, with colleagues, on politics, public policy, philosophy and professional orientation. E: jean-paul.gagnon@canberra.edu.au. 

In this podcast, Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon and Dr Michael de Percy discuss their approach to teaching Professional Orientation, a first-year professional development unit in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, and its relationship to Professional Evidence, the capstone unit for professional development for third-year students.

Professional Orientation: The Journey

Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Canberra

Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is a University of Canberra philosopher in democracy studies. As a senior lecturer in the School of Politics, Economics, and Society he delivers subjects, with colleagues, on politics, public policy, philosophy and professional orientation. E: jean-paul.gagnon@canberra.edu.au. 

In this podcast, Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon and Dr Michael de Percy discuss their approach to teaching Professional Orientation, a first-year professional development unit in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society.

On the Beach: The most disturbing novel I have ever read

Remnants of Chernobyl [Photo: CC0]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Spoiler Alert: This novel is about how to die. Forget the reviews that wonder how people could conduct themselves so serenely and not go off like crazed rats. If I had the knowledge that I - and everyone else - would be extinct in a matter of weeks, how would I want the end to be?

I finished reading this novel last night with a powerful rush of emotion followed by involuntary tears and a horrible feeling of powerlessness. I tried to shake this off with a start on some absurd Nabokov (Despair) but it didn't work. All night I dreamt about how I would die in this situation.

In the first dream, everyone was scrambling into a cave. I was following a loved one. Deeper and deeper into the earth we burrowed. I wanted to stop and go back but I also wanted to be with the one I love. They went on. The effects of radiation began to tell on me and I wanted to be near my loved one but not in the dark, buried under ground. We died there and I felt so disappointed that I hadn't gone my own way. I awoke in a state, realised it was the novel and a dream.

My subconscious wasn't satisfied, so back into the dream state I go and the dream runs again. And again. And again. Finally, I wake and realise that life is not so serious. Dying well is more important than running on the rollercoaster of others' ideas. Trust the process. And off into the deepest sleep I go.

No art has ever affected me so. Arriving at this novel and discovering such powerful emotions was a fortunate accident of circumstance. Dilectio Libertas et Doctrina. Love, Freedom, and Learning. Such a powerful way to live.

My choice of books is often a result of random events that open an entirely new world of thought. On a recent road trip, my girlfriend selected the podcast The Cold War Vault, and we listened to the episodes about the Net Evaluation Subcommittee and how it painted an increasingly gloomy picture of the United States' ability to win a nuclear war in the late 1950s.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was President at the time, and Nevil Shute's novel was published in 1957, followed by the 1959 film starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, and Fred Astaire. The novel and the film painted a bleak picture that almost materialised during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. By then, Robert McNamara's strategy of "mutual assured destruction" (MAD) was gearing up, and the Net Evaluation Subcommittee had made itself obsolete. 

In 1983, Carl Sagan's warnings of a nuclear winter following even a limited nuclear war would ramp up the scientific debate about the end of the world. But Nevil Shute, a Brit-turned-Aussie (and author of A Town Like Alice and Beyond the Black Stump), had set it out already in On the Beach.

I had no idea about Nevil Shute. The connection to Australia came out in the Cold War Vault podcast, which referred to the film and "Anthony Perkins' non-existent Australian accent". I was intrigued and the next thing I notice, the book is staring at me in Elizabeth's Bookshop in Newtown.

These random connections in my various readings are wonderful. Even while writing this up, I looked for a link to Nabokov's Despair and discovered that it, too, had been made into a film starring Dirk Bogarde. Much like Shute, I knew nothing of Bogarde until I read Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and watched the 1971 film. I've since read several of Bogarde's autobiographical stories, opening up another world of French gardens and country living.

Back to On the Beach. Unlike the horror of dying from radiation exposure as thousands of people did after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Shute tells of the various approaches to death taken by the characters left in Melbourne as nuclear fallout following the short World War III in the northern hemisphere slowly engulfs the rest of the planet.

The hopelessness of it all is symbolised by a trip in a nuclear submarine to test an optimistic theory that radiation levels are decreasing closer to the north pole and to investigate the origin of random morse code transmissions from near Seattle. Yeoman Swain escapes the submarine off the coast of his hometown and is later seen in his boat with an outboard motor fishing. He refuses to die in a strange land in a few weeks' time, preferring to die in a few days at home. It's the individual choices that make this story so vividly disturbing.

One character decides to remain faithful to his dead wife (unlike Gregory Peck in the movie version!). Another buys a Ferrari race car and pushes himself to the limit in scenes where several drivers die brutally in an ad hoc Australian Grand Prix. He takes his prescribed suicide tablets (provided free by the local pharmacy) while sitting, victoriously, in his well-preserved car.

A couple and their daughter decide to just get it over with. A farmer worries about his cattle and makes sure they have enough feed. The naval officer goes down with his ship outside of territorial waters, and Ava Gardner's character gets sloshed and takes her suicide pills just as Gregory Peck's character (she doesn't shag him in the novel) sails off into the sunset and before diarrhea strikes her again. She's on the beach. Hence the name.

This novel demonstrates how stupid it all is - going through the motions because we don't know how to live, let alone die. I am still disturbed when I think about the novel, but differently than in my first nightmare last night.

Much like my literary idol Professor Harold Bloom said, as we age we read against the clock. But we might also prepare to die well. That starts now. And that, I believe, is what Nevil Shute was trying to say.

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Vonnegut: Nothing to see here, moving right along...

Folly in the Mist, Hann. Münden, Germany. Photo by Michael de Percy.

I was on my way to Germany to visit Berlin, Dresden, and Hann. Münden. Kurt Vonnegut, a second generation American of German descent seemed a good choice for the flight. I usually find it easy to knock over a Penguin paperback on a long-haul flight, but not this time. I've been struggling to read deeply since a major life event early last year shifted the focus of my spare time. 

So I didn't manage to finish the book until some months later. I found Vonnegut's work to be interesting but a little far-fetched - it smacked of a Woody Allen style of science fiction (see the trailer for "The Sleeper" below) that was somehow banal yet allegorical in a mildly interesting way.

    

Much of the social commentary was lost on me. I suppose for a conservative reader of the early 1960s the foot-touching free love may have been a bit out there, but for me it was all old hat. I had the feeling of the 'thirteen days' and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. 

Usually I am a fan of history but Vonnegut is rather economical with his contextual elements - an Animal Farm kind of focus on the sociological order rather than the 'iceberg' cerebral development approach. It was interesting today that I listened to a podcast on Jack London's literary style.

This sent me on a quest to look back at some of my previous readings of several of London's works. One thing I found was that I have been critical of London's racism (poignant in the wake of the Black Lives Matters protests beginning in the US and now happening in solidarity but focused on Indigenous deaths in custody here in Australia). 

But I was also pleased to note that I had picked up on a key theme of the overall problem (from Jack London's To Build a Fire):

The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.

That's how I felt about Vonnegut's work. Until the meaning of the title came to my attention. The cat's cradle:

It's a child's illusion. It requires one's imagination. One flick of the hands and the cradle is gone. It doesn't exist.

I am usually way off but occasionally, like with Jack London, I am on the mark. 

I found in Cat's Cradle the Stoic technique of the "bird's eye view". Once we view the world from above, we realise two things. 

First, the insignificance of our petty existence. The arguments of today, the angry idiot tailgating me on the Hume highway last night, flashing his lights and sounding his horn. All nothing. I remember noting too, with flying, that once you are above the clouds it is always a perfect day. It is all a matter of perspective.

Second, we are all in this together.  I am currently reading Ryan Holiday's Stillness is the Key. He mentions Edgar Mitchell's famous words upon viewing the world from space:

You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look at that, you son of a bitch.’

It is interesting that just this week, Mitchell's words have resurfaced in what has been called the world's first political protest in near space, but targeted at Donald Trump.

In the above musings, and almost two months after I finished reading Cat's Cradle, I realised Vonnegut's genius. It is all an illusion. There are hands, there is string, there is imagination. The cat's cradle is made up of reality and intangibles. Neither works without the other.

Fake news, The Guardian versus The Australian and all of the left versus right is more of the same nonsense. It is not imagination, it is not creative. It is dogmatic, divisive, and dodgy. Yet the people believe.

This is what I get from Vonnegut. It is not the illusion, but that we make sense out of the world through our "bounded rationality" combined with our sense of  imagination. Not fake or make-believe, but creative and expressive and from the depths of our intellect.

Regrettably, Kurt Vonnegut reminds us that without imagination (the creative as opposed to the conspiratorial kind), we are doomed to an inevitable end. Like London's "everyman" in To Build a Fire, we are not reflecting on our mortality in the face of nature, but rather imagining ourselves to be something more significant while smacking of hubris. For London:

The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.

But London, too, was a fan of eugenics. He was human and he, too, was wrong.

Vonnegut was subtler, less egotistical, more realistic. If I had to sum up Cat's Cradle, I would say that London had too much imagination, whereas Vonnegut is the Goldilocks' little bear version of "just right".

P.S. It's a shame that The Three Bears was originally written by Robert Southey and not the Grimm Brothers to fit my German theme. And the original Goldilocks was an old woman and the three bears were bachelors. But you can use your imagination! I visited the Grimm Brothers Museum in Kassel, Germany, on 3rd December 2019.

Outside the Grimm Brothers' Museum, Kassel, Germany.
Photo by Michael de Percy.

T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land": Pound for Pound

Gunning Golf Course, 4th December 2018.

The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, the title of which is derived from T.S. Eliot's modernist poem, The Waste Land, I was compelled to read the poem and to learn more about Eliot. Up until today, my knowledge of Eliot was limited to what I had gleaned from Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

I have read all around Eliot, including Djuna Barnes (whom Eliot admired)¹, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Andersen, Ford Madox Ford, and Virginia Woolf. But I have shied away from poetry until only recently.

After reading the poem, I listened to the BBC's In Our Time podcast episode, "The Waste Land and Modernity". There was much interesting discussion about the original book version of Eliot's poem. Apparently, the poem itself was too short to be a book and the publisher asked Eliot to pad it out.

Eliot added a bunch of notes to the poem, many of which turned out to be superfluous. The poem had also been cut down considerably by Ezra Pound, which took away the various signals of the several stories that emerge in the poem.

I listened to a reading of the poem on YouTube (below), partly read by Eliot. In the In Our Time discussion, they mentioned that the poem was published at the same time BBC Radio began, so in many ways the poem lends itself to a radio reading. It is interesting how listening to the poem being read makes the different voices more obvious, whereas this is somewhat obscured in a first reading (to oneself).

In sum, an issue that constantly strikes me is that the more I read, the less I know. And in many ways, based on my reading around The Waste Land, and from the discussions on the In Our Time podcast, Eliot meant to show how we don't or can't know everything; indeed, we may not need to know everything.

Even the different interpretations by American versus English critics revealed different interpretations of common English sayings highlighted in the poem. And of course, there are many references to the classics and so on which I hope to discover by obtaining a copy of the original (pre-Pound) version of the poem, and also the published version with the superfluous notes added by Eliot.

The poem apparently took Eliot one year to write, and he was quite upset by the paltry sum first offered to him for its publication. Yet it is now regarded as the most influential poems of the twentieth century.

Like all great works, the poem deserves several readings. But if you want to really hear the different voices, the recital of the poem will bring this to the fore.

Notes:

1. Fleischer, G. (1998). Djuna Barnes and T.S. Eliot: The Politics and Poetics of "Nightwood". Studies in the Novel, 30(3), 405-437. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29533280.


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