Jeremy Griffiths

According to a 2020 article 'The fury of the left, explained' in The Spectator Australia by Griffith, ‘honest biological thinking’ can explain why the ideology of the political Left represents a threat to human progress: ‘the Left has given in to the temptation of relief-hunting and abandoned that all-important search [for understanding of the human condition]’. When interviewed by Alan Jones and Graham Richardson on their Richo & Jones Sky News Australia television program, Griffith said “my article in The Spectator last week was all about how we can bring rationale, understanding to the danger of the Left, reason versus dogma.” This characterization of left leaning political orientations lacking a tendency to search for understanding does not comport with demographic studies of the psychology of political preference. For example, in his Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior, Jeffrey Mondak provides evidence that at the population level liberal (or left wing) voters tend to have higher levels of trait openness than conservative or right wing voters. Significantly, trait openness is associated with cognitive flexibility, creativity, curiosity and a desire to seek out novel and new forms of experience and knowledge. This suggests Griffith's assertion of a correlation between right wing political orientations and a desire for knowledge and understanding, with those on the left lacking such qualities, may not be as robust a characterization of political psychology as he claims.

The Templeton Prize winner and biologist Charles Birch, the New Zealand zoologist John Morton, the former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association Harry Prosen, and the Australian Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape have been long-standing proponents of Griffith’s ideas. Morton publicly defended Griffith when he and his ideas were attacked in the mid-1990s. Griffith’s ideas have been criticised based on perceived problems with the empirical veracity of his anthropological writings, an objection that highlights his reliance on the writings of the African novelist Sir Laurens van der Post, and also the work of anthropologist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.

Griffith’s biological analysis of the dangers of eucalypts in light of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, published in The Spectator Australia under the heading ‘The science of bushfires’, was described by Alan Jones as “an outstanding piece…what’s never been said before” during Griffith’s appearance on Jones’ 2GB radio program and by Graham Richardson as “brilliantly written, really good prose” on the Richo & Jones Sky News Australia television program, in which Jones called Griffith “a star”. Griffith’s analysis also generated interest in Australia and the UK.

In 1995, Griffith, Macartney-Snape and the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood (the World Transformation Movement name at the time) were the subject of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation Four Corners program and a Sydney Morning Herald newspaper article, in which it was alleged that Macartney-Snape used speaking appearances at schools to promote the Foundation, which was described as a cult. The publications became the subject of defamation actions in the NSW Supreme Court . In 2007, the ABC was ordered to pay Macartney-Snape almost $500,000 in damages, and with costs the payout was expected to exceed $1 million. The proceedings against the Herald were resolved when it published an apology to the Foundation in 2009. Although Griffith was not awarded damages in relation to the Four Corners broadcast, on appeal in 2010 the NSW Court of Appeal found what was said of him was untrue.

The World Transformation Movement was founded by Griffith in 1983, as the Centre for Humanity’s Adulthood, an organisation dedicated to developing and promoting understanding of the human condition. It was incorporated in 1990 with Griffith and his colleague mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape among its founding directors and became a registered charity in New South Wales in 1990, known as the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood. In 2009, the name changed to World Transformation Movement.

Griffith began writing on the human condition in 1975, publishing the first of his six books on the subject in 1988. A Species In Denial (2003) became a bestseller in Australia and New Zealand. His writing is known for allowing readers to access the thoughts of many famous philosophers, thinkers and religious sources.

Jeremy Griffith (born 1945) is an Australian biologist and author. He first came to public attention for his attempts to find the Tasmanian tiger. He later became noted for his writings on the human condition and theories about human progress. He founded the World Transformation Movement to advance his ideas in 1983.

He first became known for his search for surviving Tasmanian tigers or thylacines, the last known specimen of which died in captivity in 1936. The search conducted from 1967 to 1973, included exhaustive surveys along Tasmania's west coast; installation of automatic camera stations; prompt investigations of claimed sightings; and, in 1972, the creation of the Thylacine Expeditionary Research Team with Bob Brown, which concluded without finding any evidence of the animal's continuing existence.