Being in the Colonies Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:39:27 -0400 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2636442 en-au © 2026 Being in the Colonies yes Singapore f3023395-b5a4-50af-8b89-a826bb8b9038 Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania episodic false In Being in the Colonies: Singapore, Western Australia & Tasmania philosopher Dr Rohan Price follows the ontological fortunes of three British possessions throughout key moments in their history.


The formula applied across the empire is simple. Violence = freedom and convenience. Prevailing in convenience = Being. Proportional violence = operating within Fate and retaining Being. Excessive violence = a fall from Fate and a loss of Being. Resistance challenges convenience and can transform into Being, too. 


To resist is great but to hold Being is Divine! Well, as close as we can get to divinity...


Rohan reads six pages of his new book per episode.


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]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Ontology, being, colonialism, nietzsche, heidegger, colonial violence, atrocity, trauma, Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania https://storage.buzzsprout.com/bzzj36ar51v2lsz6e458xnravu8f?.jpg Being in the Colonies https://www.buzzsprout.com/2636442 12. Being and Survival in the Fall of Singapore Part 2 (Good Doctors) 12. Being and Survival in the Fall of Singapore Part 2 (Good Doctors) The experiences of a group of doctors who survived the Sook Ching massacre in Singapore (1942) are used to explore the difference between existing and Being in conditions of enemy occupation. Caught somewhere in the middle, were doctors survivors, resisters or Being-holders?  Sartre is given descriptive credit for an idea of Being that met colonial conditions.

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]]> The experiences of a group of doctors who survived the Sook Ching massacre in Singapore (1942) are used to explore the difference between existing and Being in conditions of enemy occupation. Caught somewhere in the middle, were doctors survivors, resisters or Being-holders?  Sartre is given descriptive credit for an idea of Being that met colonial conditions.

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]]> Buzzsprout-19727097 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0800 1928 2 2 full false 11. Being and Survival in the Fall of Singapore (Defend Thy Honour?) 11. Being and Survival in the Fall of Singapore (Defend Thy Honour?) The fall of Singapore occasioned the death of 5, 000-6, 000 Chinese civilian men who were shot by the Japanese Imperial Army in the Sook Ching massacre to prevent ongoing resistance in the former British colonial island state as Japanese forces surged southward. The question raised here: did the subsequent survival of the civilian population amount to Being or mere untroubling existence? Does Being expect ongoing resistance and did the Japanese forces jeopardise their Being through the scale of their civilian reprisal? 

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]]> The fall of Singapore occasioned the death of 5, 000-6, 000 Chinese civilian men who were shot by the Japanese Imperial Army in the Sook Ching massacre to prevent ongoing resistance in the former British colonial island state as Japanese forces surged southward. The question raised here: did the subsequent survival of the civilian population amount to Being or mere untroubling existence? Does Being expect ongoing resistance and did the Japanese forces jeopardise their Being through the scale of their civilian reprisal? 

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Buzzsprout-19697492 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0800 1888 2 1 full false 10. The Extraordinary Ord? Western Australia Part 2 10. The Extraordinary Ord? Western Australia Part 2 This episode gets to grips with the rudiments of Being in the colonies: contest, convenience, and Fate in white settler and Indigenous experiences in WA. Amor Fati is rejected and the illusion of free will within a determinist schema is given further explanation. 

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]]> This episode gets to grips with the rudiments of Being in the colonies: contest, convenience, and Fate in white settler and Indigenous experiences in WA. Amor Fati is rejected and the illusion of free will within a determinist schema is given further explanation. 

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]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19690700 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0800 1874 1 10 full true 9. Weekend SPECIAL: Colonial Being and the God Question 9. Weekend SPECIAL: Colonial Being and the God Question This shortish episode ponders how God belief and God-talk formed part of the free will and determinist explanations of Being in the Colonies. 

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]]> This shortish episode ponders how God belief and God-talk formed part of the free will and determinist explanations of Being in the Colonies. 

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]]> Buzzsprout-19684062 Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0800 1459 1 9 full false 8. The Extraordinary Ord? Western Australia example 8. The Extraordinary Ord? Western Australia example This episode begins with a brief recap of theories of Being. It then proceeds to an example drawn from the turn of the century cattle theft policing of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. 

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]]> This episode begins with a brief recap of theories of Being. It then proceeds to an example drawn from the turn of the century cattle theft policing of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. 

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19679487 Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0800 1944 1 8 full false 7. Conditions (Being as a colonial issue) 7. Conditions (Being as a colonial issue) The specifically colonial conditions as a backdrop to Being won by convenience. The post-colonial wash-up of old battles for Being. Camus and his renunciation of violence as a driver of history. The empirical claim of Being won through competition. 

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]]> The specifically colonial conditions as a backdrop to Being won by convenience. The post-colonial wash-up of old battles for Being. Camus and his renunciation of violence as a driver of history. The empirical claim of Being won through competition. 

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]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19673690 Thu, 20 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0800 1741 full false 6. Conditions (Theorists both kindred and kindling) 6. Conditions (Theorists both kindred and kindling) Being and cases for determinism and the theories of violence of Breazu and Deleuze. The cases against Collingwood and Eurocentrism led by Heidegger. 

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]]> Being and cases for determinism and the theories of violence of Breazu and Deleuze. The cases against Collingwood and Eurocentrism led by Heidegger. 

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]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19668301 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0800 1773 full false 5. Conditions (Testing Being) 5. Conditions (Testing Being) This reading begins the first chapter of the book by asking a range of questions about contemporary ideas of Being. It also seeks to justify the idea of Being pursued on the book of convenience pursued by violence. It frames the questions used as an inquiry throughout the book: who is enjoying convenience, who can sustain convenience through aggressive action, when did a group retreat from conflict to pursue survival instead and was the price of convenience too big for the exoneration of Fate?

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]]> This reading begins the first chapter of the book by asking a range of questions about contemporary ideas of Being. It also seeks to justify the idea of Being pursued on the book of convenience pursued by violence. It frames the questions used as an inquiry throughout the book: who is enjoying convenience, who can sustain convenience through aggressive action, when did a group retreat from conflict to pursue survival instead and was the price of convenience too big for the exoneration of Fate?

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]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19663255 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0800 1802 full false 4. Imagining Being (Tasmania and Western Australia) 4. Imagining Being (Tasmania and Western Australia) This episode concludes the reading of the introductory chapter. The exploration of convenience begins. Colonial Tasmania is depicted as a neurotic tussle against Palawa inhabitants who pursued their own idea of convenience and fought effectively for it. Western Australian settlers complained that there was too much red tape involved in the apprehension of Indigenous cattle thieves. Being is likened to membership of a gangster in-crowd. Polite and social until the moment violence is necessary. 

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]]> This episode concludes the reading of the introductory chapter. The exploration of convenience begins. Colonial Tasmania is depicted as a neurotic tussle against Palawa inhabitants who pursued their own idea of convenience and fought effectively for it. Western Australian settlers complained that there was too much red tape involved in the apprehension of Indigenous cattle thieves. Being is likened to membership of a gangster in-crowd. Polite and social until the moment violence is necessary. 

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19645074 Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0800 1798 1 4 full false 3. Imagining Being (Singapore 1942) 3. Imagining Being (Singapore 1942) This episode briefly considers the challenge for making a reading of Being as a historical enterprise. Then we make our first assessment of the events after the fall of Singapore as a lesson in Being. It was a triumphal moment for the Japanese Imperial Army and then an excessive one. The question of whether Chinese survival without resistance constitutes Being is raised.  

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]]> This episode briefly considers the challenge for making a reading of Being as a historical enterprise. Then we make our first assessment of the events after the fall of Singapore as a lesson in Being. It was a triumphal moment for the Japanese Imperial Army and then an excessive one. The question of whether Chinese survival without resistance constitutes Being is raised.  

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Buzzsprout-19640294 Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0800 1820 full false 2. Imagining Being (Part 2) 2. Imagining Being (Part 2)

This episode expands on the qualities of Being evident in a colonial context. It makes a case for a determinist reading of history turning on expected individual ontic force given limits by fate by those who holding presumptive Being. The question motivating the whole book is revealed: can a gross imbalance in the violence done to win Being in an ontic domain actually endanger it by leaving no source of comparison from a fellow striver. Thus, there is a tension. Absolutist acts of will destroy Being when a ruler does not respond to resistance proportionately.

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]]>

This episode expands on the qualities of Being evident in a colonial context. It makes a case for a determinist reading of history turning on expected individual ontic force given limits by fate by those who holding presumptive Being. The question motivating the whole book is revealed: can a gross imbalance in the violence done to win Being in an ontic domain actually endanger it by leaving no source of comparison from a fellow striver. Thus, there is a tension. Absolutist acts of will destroy Being when a ruler does not respond to resistance proportionately.

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19634789 Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0800 1795 1 2 full false 1. Imagining Being (Part 1) 1. Imagining Being (Part 1) This episode introduces concepts including Being as a conscious pursuit of (1) convenience through violence at the expense of others, (2) in order to and because I can as modes of action in conscious pursuit of Being and (3) Fate as a roadblock on Being for those who act in the mode of because I can too often. There is brief analysis of Phusis - the unanalysed spontaneity in which Being occurs but which consciousness produces. Being is not ego/super ego/id, Geist, anima, essence, psyche, spirit or soul. Being is a temporary relationship to convenience and freedom within the constraint of Fate. The discussion ends on the true meaning of eigentlichkeit not as authenticity but as properness to an individual.


 https://substack.com/@rohee70?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7ggb33

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> This episode introduces concepts including Being as a conscious pursuit of (1) convenience through violence at the expense of others, (2) in order to and because I can as modes of action in conscious pursuit of Being and (3) Fate as a roadblock on Being for those who act in the mode of because I can too often. There is brief analysis of Phusis - the unanalysed spontaneity in which Being occurs but which consciousness produces. Being is not ego/super ego/id, Geist, anima, essence, psyche, spirit or soul. Being is a temporary relationship to convenience and freedom within the constraint of Fate. The discussion ends on the true meaning of eigentlichkeit not as authenticity but as properness to an individual.


 https://substack.com/@rohee70?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7ggb33

Send us Fan Mail

Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

]]> Dr Rohan Price, University of Tasmania Buzzsprout-19629450 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0800 1680 full false