Political Psychology Series Episode 1 - Topher Field

Topher Field demands attention. Not for his own popularity - quite the opposite! In fact, he would rather the spotlight pass him by so he can quietly raise his young family in the suburbs of Melbourne.

But when the world that you are raising those children into appears darker and more authoritarian than the world we grew up in, silence becomes complicity.

For years Topher has warned us that the freedoms we enjoy may have been free to us, but they didn't come cheap. They were in fact purchased, just not by us. The choices we make today decide whether we keep them or dispose of them.

And that's why you just can't look away from Topher. The beautiful thing about this man is that when you dig into him, on the inside is not a doomsday message, but a utopian one. Somehow he remains an optimist and prosecutes the case for hope in forums like his new podcast Living Value.

It was my honour to interview the man, the myth, the legend - to find some clarity around the strange times we are living in.

Show notes:

2:37 Haircuts

3:39 The Little Government That Could

5:52 Why do we support authoritarian governments?

10:10 Failure of parenting and learning to provide

11:22 The Welfare Trap

13:05 The Malthusian Trap

14:50 Innovation pre-dated the industrial revolution

16:00 Capitalism is the default mode of mankind

18:23 The default state of humanity is poverty

21:45 The failure of Venezuela

25:30 Crony capitalism

30:10 Travelling with 680 condoms

35:04 The morality of civil disobedience

37:48 Natural law

38:40 The new religions

42:00 Do pro-lifers really care?

47:50 Jesus the solution to condemnation

50:15 Topher's revelation of fallibility

53:00 Wrong does not equal evil

54:00 Seeing behind the conservative curtain

57:00 Premier Dan Andrews has no empathy

58:50 Victoria Police is completely demoralised

1:01:00 Civil disobedience

1:03:50 Disobeying immoral orders in the military

1:06:00 Military deployed on Australian soil

1:07:40 Militarisation of police

1:08:30 The Dunning Kruger Effect

1:10:10 Victoria Police Reputation

1:12:40 ALP spill in Victoria

1:14:30 Optimism and faith in each other

1:18:00 Making a choice to show empathy