Clive Hamilton

Richard Denniss

The Western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in human history. We aspire to the life-styles of the rich and famous at the cost of family, friends and personal fulfilment. Rates of stress, depression and obesity are up as we wrestle with the emptiness and endless disappointments of the consumer life. 'Affluenza' pulls no punches, claiming our whole society is addicted to over-consumption. It tracks how much Australians overwork, the growing mountains of stuff we throw out, the drugs we take to 'self-medicate' and the real meaning of 'choice'. Fortunately there is a cure.

When Too Much is Never Enough

Affluenza

In 2008 Clive Hamilton was at Parliament House in Canberra when the Beijing Olympic torch relay passed through. He watched in bewilderment as a small pro-Tibet protest was overrun by thousands of angry Chinese students. Where did they come from? Why were they so aggressive? And what gave them the right to shut down others exercising their democratic right to protest? The authorities did nothing about it, and what he saw stayed with him. In 2016 it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party had become the largest donors to both major political parties. Hamilton realised something big was happening, and decided to investigate the Chinese government’s influence in Australia. What he found shocked him. From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in our primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australia. Sophisticated influence operations target Australia’s elites, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy. It’s no exaggeration to say the Chinese Communist Party and Australian democracy are on a collision course. The CCP is determined to win, while Australia looks the other way. Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, Silent Invasionis a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to our economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is our sovereignty as a nation worth? ‘Anyone keen to understand how China draws other countries into its sphere of influence should start with Silent Invasion. This is an important book for the future of Australia. But tug on the threads of China’s influence networks in Australia and its global network of influence operations starts to unravel.’ –Professor John Fitzgerald, author of Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia

China's influence in Australia

Silent Invasion

C.S. Lewis

Published under the pseudonym, Clive Hamilton, Spirits in Bondage was C. S. Lewis' first book, released in 1919. Most of the poems appear to have been written between 1915 and 1918, a period during which Lewis was a student under W. T. Kirkpatrick, a military trainee at Oxford, and a soldier serving in the trenches of World War I. Their outlook varies from Romantic expressions of love for the beauty and simplicity of nature to cynical statements about the presence of evil in this world.

Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics

Clive Hamilton is the executive director of the Australia Institute and a leading authority on the economics and politics of climate change. His books include the bestsellers Scorcher, Growth Fetish, Affluenza (as co-author), What's Left? (Quarterly Essay 21) and Silencing Dissent (as co-editor and contributor).

The Dirty Politics of Climate Change

Scorcher

"Why is it so many of us lack contentment, despite all the wealth and freedoms we enjoy? The past two centuries delivered individual and political freedoms that promised unprecedented opportunities for personal fulfilment. Yet citizens of affluent countries are encouraged to pursue lives of consumerism, endless choice and the pleasures of the body. The paradox of modern consumer life is that we are deprived of our inner freedom by our very pursuit of our own desires. The author turns to metaphysics to find a source of transformation that lies beyond the cultural, political and social philosophies that form the bedrock of contemporary western thought. His search takes him to an unexpected conclusion: that we cannot be truly free unless we commit ourselves to a moral life"--Provided by publisher.

towards a post-secular ethics

The freedom paradox

Accessible critique of Western society under capitalism by leading scholar.

Growth Fetish

Mareike Ohlberg

The Chinese Communist Party is determined to reshape the world in its image. The party is not interested in democracy. It sees only a bitter ideological struggle with the West, dividing the world into those who can be won over, and enemies. Many political and business elites have already been lured to their corner; others are weighing up a devil’s bargain. Through its enormous economic power and covert influence operations, China is now weakening global institutions, aggressively targeting individual corporations, and threatening freedom of expression from the arts to academia. At the same time, Western security services are increasingly worried about incursions into our communications infrastructure. In a landmark study combining meticulous research with unique insights, Hidden Hand exposes the Chinese Communist Party’s global program of subversion, and the threat it poses to democracy. We have already missed too many warning signs – now it is time to wake up.

Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World

Hidden Hand

According to Clive Hamilton the author of two recent Australian bestsellers, Growth Fetishand Affluenza- Australia needs a completely new politics built on the world as we find it. In his provocative new essay, he throws out a challenge to the party of social democracy, the Labor Party - to both its true believers on the left and its right-wing machine men. What s Left?shows how the world today has little in common with the world that spawned social democracy. We no longer have social classes in the same way, we are ever more individualistic, and the locus of power and of cultural change has shifted to the consumption sphere.Yet social democracy and the Labor Party in particular, operates in large part in a mental space that has failed to acknowledge these changes. Modern left and right are so alike because they both accept that the principal objective of politics is to stoke the economy and look after the interests of the wealth creators.

The Death of Social Democracy

What's Left?

the dirty politics of climate change

Looks at Australians who 'downshift' - that is, make a voluntary, long-term lifestyle change that involves accepting less income and consuming less in pursuit of a more balanced, fulfilled life.

A Sea-change in the Pursuit of Happiness

Downshifting in Australia

Mark Diesendorf

Comprehensive coverage of the subject, specifically written and designed as an ideal 'required reading' text

Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future

Human Ecology, Human Economy

Sarah Maddison

For over a decade, the Howard government has found ways to silence its critics, one by one. Like the proverbial frog in boiling water, Australians have become accustomed to repeated attacks on respected individuals and organizations. For a government which claims to support freedom of speech and freedom of choice, only certain kinds of speech and choices appear to be acceptable. Silencing Dissent uncovers the tactics used by John Howard and his colleagues to undermine dissenting and independent opinion. Bullying, intimidation, public denigration, threats of withdrawal of fundi.

How the Australian government is controlling public opinion and stifling debate

Silencing Dissent

Headline: The Globe and Mail: Legal challenge halts Canadian, U.S. and U.K. release of book critical of Chinese Communist Party by Robert Fife That said it all. The hands of the Chinese Communist Party were going on the offence. The 48 Group Club a China friendly group of former UK ambassadors and Prime Ministers were embarrassed by their connections to a Club founded by key members of the Chinese Communist Party of Britain who's chair Stephen Perry suggested that China's approach to world order and rule was superior to democracy and the UK should embrace them. Asked if he believed the lawsuit was an effort by the Chinese government to stop the publication of his book, Mr. Hamilton said: “I have no evidence of that, although it should be noted that the Chinese government has used lawfare in the past.” Lawfare is the use of legal action as part of a campaign against a target. Governments around the world are in the early stages of a repositioning of power, as China rises and the United States is drawn into direct competition. However, some are beginning to wonder whether, for all of the economic benefits, engaging with China carries unseen dangers. The Chinese Communist Party is now determined to reshape the world in its image. The party is not interested in democracy. It divides the world into those who can be won over and enemies. They have already lured many leaders to their corner; others are weighing up a devil's bargain. Through its exercise of ‘sharp power,’ the party is weakening global institutions, aggressively targeting individual corporations, and threatening freedom of expression from the arts to academia. At the same time, security services are increasingly worried about incursions into our communications infrastructure. Indeed, the vaunted Great Firewall is a temporary measure, only necessary until the party has transformed the global conversation. In December 2019, the CCP's obsession with social control led it to suppress expert warnings about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Most alarming for the West was the active collaboration of the WHO in spreading the CCP's version of events. It was a shocking example of the widespread co-optation of global institutions by the CCP, as described in Hidden Hand. As soon as Beijing thought it had the virus under control, it began a global propaganda blitz, presenting China's authoritarian system as a model for the rest of the world. Western media and pundits soon began echoing the Party line. Hidden Hand is a detailed and devastating expose of Chinese Communist Party influence in the West, including Canada. It could not arrive at a better time in Canada, with relations between Ottawa and Beijing reaching breaking point after two years of mounting tension. China's bullying behaviour, and the mobilising of people loyal to the Chinese Communist Party on the streets of Canada's cities, has caused deep disquiet among Canadians. But the government seems paralyzed. Hidden Hand shows how Canada's political, business, academic and cultural elites have over many years been co-opted by the Chinese Communist Party and its agencies. They are confused about what is in Canada's national interests and frequently do Beijing's bidding. Hidden Hand shows how the Chinese Communist Party represents a profound threat to Western democracy. It's vital reading for Canadians who want to understand what is really happening, and points to a way of carving out a new diplomatic course with China. But the question remains: Does the government have the will to stand up to Beijing and its proxies in Canada or is it too late?

Il Partito Comunista Cinese è determinato a rimodellare il mondo a sua immagine e somiglianza. Esso ha un solo obiettivo: vincere quella che considera una feroce guerra ideologica contro l’Occidente. Ai suoi occhi il mondo si divide tra coloro che possono essere conquistati e i nemici. Pezzi importanti dell’élite economica e politica occidentale sono già stati cooptati; molti altri, proprio in questo momento, stanno valutando se stringere o meno un “patto col diavolo”. Attraverso il suo enorme potere economico e le sue operazioni segrete “di influenza”, la Cina sta lentamente ma inesorabilmente indebolendo le istituzioni globali, prendendo di mira in modo aggressivo le singole imprese e minacciando la libertà di espressione nei campi delle arti, della cultura e del mondo accademico. Allo stesso tempo, i servizi di sicurezza occidentali sono sempre più preoccupati per le incursioni cinesi nella nostra infrastruttura di telecomunicazioni. La mano invisibile, frutto di un lavoro meticoloso durato anni, espone il programma globale di sovversione del Partito Comunista Cinese e la minaccia che rappresenta per la democrazia. Combinando una ricerca scrupolosa con una prosa avvincente, Clive Hamilton e Mareike Ohlberg mettono a nudo la natura e la portata delle operazioni del Partito in tutto il mondo occidentale, portando alla luce le minacce alle libertà democratiche e alla sovranità nazionale in Europa e nel Nordamerica, e mostrano come possiamo respingere la pressione autocratica cinese. «La mano invisibile è straordinariamente documentato, ben scritto e profondamente scioccante». «The Times» «Un libro straordinario che vi farà rabbrividire». «The Guardian»

La mano invisibile

A radical reconsideration of the meaning of freedom and morality in the modern world.

Towards a Post-Secular Ethics

Freedom Paradox

C. Lewis

As its original appearance in 1926, Dymer, like many better books, found some good reviews and almost no readers. The idea of disturbing its repose in the grave now comes from its publishers, not from me, but I have a reason for wishing to be present at the exhumation. Nearly a quarter of a century has gone since I wrote it, and in that time things have changed both within me and round me; my old poem might be misunderstood by those who now read it for the first time. I am told that the Persian poets draw a distinction between poetry which they have 'found' and poetry which they have 'brought': if you like, between the given and the invented, though they wisely refuse to identify this with the distinction between good and bad. Their terminology applies with unusual clarity to my poem. What I 'found', what simply 'came to me', was the story of a man who, on some mysterious bride, begets a monster: which monster, as soon as it has killed its father, becomes a god. This story arrived, complete, in my mind somewhere about my seventeenth year. To the best of my knowledge I did not consciously or voluntarily invent it, nor was it, in the plain sense of that word, a dream. All I know it is that there was a time when it was not there, and then presently a time when it was. Every one may allegorise it or psychoanalyse it as he pleases: and if I did so myself my interpretations would have no more authority than anyone else's.

Dymer

Juliet B. Schor

Henry David Thoreau

Duane Elgin

John de Graaf

Philip Cafaro

Jim Merkel

Mark Alan Burch

Amatai Etzioni

Jerome Segal

Alan Durning

Richard Gregg

Arnold Mitchell

Eric Freyfogle

Mary Grigsby

David Shi

Intended as an invitation to an alternative way of life, this anthology, released by Wanganui publishers Stead and Daughters, brings together some of the most important literature on the post-consumerist living strategy known as 'voluntary simplicity.' By examining afresh our relationship with money, material possessions, the planet, ourselves and each other, the simple life of voluntary simplicity is about discovering the freedom and contentment that comes with knowing how much consumption is truly enough. And this might be a theme that has something to say to everyone, especially those of us who are everyday bombarded with thousands of cultural messages insisting that 'more is always better.' Voluntary simplicity is an art of living that is aglow with the insight that 'just enough is plenty.' The contributors to this anthology - all leading figures in the voluntary simplicity movement - are highly distinguished scholars, activists, educators, and artists. Brought together so comprehensively for the first time, the result is a collection of the very best writing on one of today's most important but neglected ideas. This progressive book is essential reading for the thoughtful non-conformist.

The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture

Voluntary Simplicity

Climate change on a global scale has been described as 'the mother of all environmental issues', with many scientists warning of the dire consequences already facing us, even if remedial action is undertaken immediately. It is almost certainly the largest, most difficult environmental challenge the world now faces. And it has also provided the Australian federal government with one of its most awkward political issues - with the nation being transformed in the eyes of many from a world environmental leader into an international pariah. Running from the Storm is a timely book from one of Australia's most prominent commentator on the issue. It provides a lively, comprehensive and provocative account of the key issues that affect climate change policy in Australia. It details the many policy failures, the murky politics of climate change, the corruption of the policy process, the influence of the fossil-fuel industries on our politicians and policy makers, and the ethical issues that underpin the public debate. All of these are discussed in the context of the momentous international developments before and after the landmark Kyoto Protocol in December 1997.

The Development of Climate Change Policy in Australia

Running from the Storm

Christophe Bonneuil

François Gemenne

The Anthropocene, in which humankind has become a geological force, is a major scientific proposal; but it also means that the conceptions of the natural and social worlds on which sociology, political science, history, law, economics and philosophy rest are called into question. The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis captures some of the radical new thinking prompted by the arrival of the Anthropocene and opens up the social sciences and humanities to the profound meaning of the new geological epoch, the ‘Age of Humans’. Drawing on the expertise of world-recognised scholars and thought-provoking intellectuals, the book explores the challenges and difficult questions posed by the convergence of geological and human history to the foundational ideas of modern social science. If in the Anthropocene humans have become a force of nature, changing the functioning of the Earth system as volcanism and glacial cycles do, then it means the end of the idea of nature as no more than the inert backdrop to the drama of human affairs. It means the end of the ‘social-only’ understanding of human history and agency. These pillars of modernity are now destabilised. The scale and pace of the shifts occurring on Earth are beyond human experience and expose the anachronisms of ‘Holocene thinking’. The book explores what kinds of narratives are emerging around the scientific idea of the new geological epoch, and what it means for the ‘politics of unsustainability’.

Rethinking modernity in a new epoch

The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis

To some, the term encompasses innovation, change and commitment to the future and to others it means preservation, conservativism and a watchful eye on the future.City Fightsfollows on from the symposium "Energy and Urban Strategies", which bro

Clive Hamilton

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