About Me

My photo
Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Monday, March 12, 2012

Boston!

This is a beautiful city, as I knew it would be. What I didn't know - why had no one told me this? - is that one of its most prominent features is an endless supply of very cute puppydogs. I'm more a cat person, but Boston could almost turn me. Everywhere I look there are well-groomed, (usually) well-behaved puppies taking their humans for walks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Need some photos.

Russell Blackford said...

If I were less shy about these things I suppose I could go up to people and ask to photograph their dogs.

Mike said...

It has a lot to do with social policy about dogs in public places.

If you have good access then it seems to raise the bar for owners training and integrating their dogs. So you see in cities or countries that allow dogs on public transport or in shopping malls is that no one blinks an eye because the dogs are quiet, used to being handled and unfazed by the distractions of street life.

Australia is quite different as there is very little access despite our high ownership rates. So too many dogs are penned into yards and abandoned through the day.

You can draw comparisons with how older people or teenagers are shaped by our public spaces.