Joe to answer your questions, 1. probably not. Roger was a classic liberal who valued voices that weren't his own. I was brought up with these values but now I look like a mastodon. 2. definitely electronic, that's the way of the world. I love the notion of it being typeset on scungy paper, like the strangely moving Civil Rights material in the Freedom Museum, Derry, 50-60 years ago. But that's being mastodonnish again!
An intelligent piece about an intelligent man who left us too soon, a lot more to the left than me but a very necessary voice in a democracy and who often nailed it. I remember with affection reading regular commentary in the Metro 30 years ago by Jesson, Owen McShane and CK Stead - with any luck articles too by my friend Nicola Leggat. They were out there and for all to enjoy (or otherwise!) What a refreshing contrast to these tribalised times when Liam Hehir himself complains about his devotees who really hate The Spinoff...
Thanks Mark :) One thing I do ponder is if a voice like Jesson's would appear in the mainstream media today - as I understand it Jesson only got the Metro column because he impressed the editor Warwick Roger, but Jesson disappeared as soon as the editorship changed. Another thing I ponder - if the Republican was set up these days would it be a print magazine or something like a substack?
Kia ora Joe. In 2007 I set up a website which I named "the republican" (republican.co.nz) in tribute to Bruce Jesson. I have continued posting sporadically over the past 17 years, though over the past few months I have been posting through other sites and have yet to update "the republican" with recent writings. I would say that I have been faithful to Bruce's nationalist ideals over that time, though of course Bruce might disagree with me about specific issues if we were so fortunate to have him around today. If he had lived another twenty years, as by rights he should have, I believe that he would have had an even more profound influence upon the political progress of Aotearoa.
Great article and photo, thanks.
Joe to answer your questions, 1. probably not. Roger was a classic liberal who valued voices that weren't his own. I was brought up with these values but now I look like a mastodon. 2. definitely electronic, that's the way of the world. I love the notion of it being typeset on scungy paper, like the strangely moving Civil Rights material in the Freedom Museum, Derry, 50-60 years ago. But that's being mastodonnish again!
An intelligent piece about an intelligent man who left us too soon, a lot more to the left than me but a very necessary voice in a democracy and who often nailed it. I remember with affection reading regular commentary in the Metro 30 years ago by Jesson, Owen McShane and CK Stead - with any luck articles too by my friend Nicola Leggat. They were out there and for all to enjoy (or otherwise!) What a refreshing contrast to these tribalised times when Liam Hehir himself complains about his devotees who really hate The Spinoff...
Thanks Mark :) One thing I do ponder is if a voice like Jesson's would appear in the mainstream media today - as I understand it Jesson only got the Metro column because he impressed the editor Warwick Roger, but Jesson disappeared as soon as the editorship changed. Another thing I ponder - if the Republican was set up these days would it be a print magazine or something like a substack?
Kia ora Joe. In 2007 I set up a website which I named "the republican" (republican.co.nz) in tribute to Bruce Jesson. I have continued posting sporadically over the past 17 years, though over the past few months I have been posting through other sites and have yet to update "the republican" with recent writings. I would say that I have been faithful to Bruce's nationalist ideals over that time, though of course Bruce might disagree with me about specific issues if we were so fortunate to have him around today. If he had lived another twenty years, as by rights he should have, I believe that he would have had an even more profound influence upon the political progress of Aotearoa.
Ngā mihi Geoff - The Jesson bibliography on your site is a useful resource - I might have used it to check references from time to time. Cheers!