A place to stay, Enough to eat. Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street. Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears, And what’s more, No one ever disappears, You never hear their standard issue kicking in the door. - Pink Floyd. The Final Cut. 1983.
Good heavens, imagine if they have to give the vote to 16 and 17 year olds like they now have to look at in New Zealand due to the recent High Court Case. 10 years is old enough to be a criminal but 16 is too young to make a choice for your future.
This is the tune I've been singing since Howard's anti-union legislation, which I see as enabling the laws leading to the anti-protest travesty of justice:
Dec 9, 2022·edited Dec 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham
I haven't used a Murdoch rag to wrap my morning poo until my misguided master bought the suspiciously thin Melbourne Cup edition this November past. I convinced him that fifty bucks in Birmo's account is far more meaningful contribution to truth in journalism than paying 4 fucking dollars to The Dark Lord for a tawdry broadsheet that doesn't even provide a form guide on the day that race that stops the nation is run. Rupe old boy, Satan is waiting in the wings and rubbing his scaly hands in anticipation for the inevitable day that your reptilian heart finally calls time.
There are a lot of thinky/ranty pieces along these lines, and maybe there's something to them but you have to remember that probably 99% of the population aren't ever going to read them. So it's not as important as all that, I think.
Here's a different take, for what it's worth: It's possible that conservative government is, in a sense, the natural state of government, because most people don't want things to change. They have lives to get on with and don't want to think about it. That suits the conservative parties fine, of course, but in reality, not changing things, not reacting to problems and crises as they arise, tends to wind up leaving you in the shit. As we just saw after a nine year run of total ineffectuality. At that point the public is so annoyed that they put Labor into government so that they can tidy up the mess and get things working properly again. Happens in cycles.
Don't you remember, in the aftermath of the last election, that _everyone's_ primary reaction was the enormous sense of relief that at last there was a room full of serious adults back in charge? They were getting on with it and fixing things, and so people could comfortably go back to whatever it was they were doing, knowing that the place was in steady hands.
It'll take a while, but eventually the party of progress and getting things done will start to get up peoples noses too, because they won't be able to leave working things alone. Not all change is for the better, for everyone. Eventually the people will call for time-out from change, a rest, and reinstall the conservatives.
I do like the image of "howling wastelands of super-maximum derpitude" as where our national conversations happen. That is a pearler worth the price of admission. Thanks.
I used to teach sustainability to the kiddies (now 20-somethings) who are thoroughly fed up with the bullshit they were forced to live with for the past decade. Somehow I had wrangled a way to make it MY JOB to explain how fucked over we all are by the broken System to people who actively wanted to know the details.
While doing this job I couldn't escape the thought that it is astounding what people will put up with - having their money outright stolen and given to the rich (who don't need it); their country's resources handed to rich foreigners with narry a tax dollar reaped, leading to disappearing social services and a decaying social contract; the environment that sustains them continually degraded and debased. And yet Australians kept voting for it.
Finally, the change came, but as you rightly state, Labor are so timid, and the structural problems so deeply ingrained and difficult to unravel (not to mention Labor benefits from many of them), that it's only a matter of time before people become dissatisfied with so-called progressives who achieve little progress, and vote again for the Authoritarians for Corpocracy.
As HST would say, seyla. Now I'm going back to my G&T to watch the world burn...
Gross inequality seems fair and reasonable if you believe that the rich deserve to be rich because they're better people. The richer the better, so to speak. Meritocracy innit? But as a bitter old man once said, right before he pulled the trigger, "deservin's got nuthin to do with it". (Well, maybe a bit, but not much.) Most every other sonofabitch has an equal claim to the good life, and if them what's got won't share, them what's not will shake things up a bit. Tax being the price we pay for civilisation.
8%. The number of Victorians that actually hated Dan. Sure, more than that were rusted on LNP voters. But only 8% actually hated him. That's the News Ltd market.
Good heavens, imagine if they have to give the vote to 16 and 17 year olds like they now have to look at in New Zealand due to the recent High Court Case. 10 years is old enough to be a criminal but 16 is too young to make a choice for your future.
Right on the knocker again, John.
This is the tune I've been singing since Howard's anti-union legislation, which I see as enabling the laws leading to the anti-protest travesty of justice:
"Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!"
(Does that make me a woke neo-Marxist?)
I haven't used a Murdoch rag to wrap my morning poo until my misguided master bought the suspiciously thin Melbourne Cup edition this November past. I convinced him that fifty bucks in Birmo's account is far more meaningful contribution to truth in journalism than paying 4 fucking dollars to The Dark Lord for a tawdry broadsheet that doesn't even provide a form guide on the day that race that stops the nation is run. Rupe old boy, Satan is waiting in the wings and rubbing his scaly hands in anticipation for the inevitable day that your reptilian heart finally calls time.
There are a lot of thinky/ranty pieces along these lines, and maybe there's something to them but you have to remember that probably 99% of the population aren't ever going to read them. So it's not as important as all that, I think.
Here's a different take, for what it's worth: It's possible that conservative government is, in a sense, the natural state of government, because most people don't want things to change. They have lives to get on with and don't want to think about it. That suits the conservative parties fine, of course, but in reality, not changing things, not reacting to problems and crises as they arise, tends to wind up leaving you in the shit. As we just saw after a nine year run of total ineffectuality. At that point the public is so annoyed that they put Labor into government so that they can tidy up the mess and get things working properly again. Happens in cycles.
Don't you remember, in the aftermath of the last election, that _everyone's_ primary reaction was the enormous sense of relief that at last there was a room full of serious adults back in charge? They were getting on with it and fixing things, and so people could comfortably go back to whatever it was they were doing, knowing that the place was in steady hands.
It'll take a while, but eventually the party of progress and getting things done will start to get up peoples noses too, because they won't be able to leave working things alone. Not all change is for the better, for everyone. Eventually the people will call for time-out from change, a rest, and reinstall the conservatives.
It has always been thus.
I do like the image of "howling wastelands of super-maximum derpitude" as where our national conversations happen. That is a pearler worth the price of admission. Thanks.
I used to teach sustainability to the kiddies (now 20-somethings) who are thoroughly fed up with the bullshit they were forced to live with for the past decade. Somehow I had wrangled a way to make it MY JOB to explain how fucked over we all are by the broken System to people who actively wanted to know the details.
While doing this job I couldn't escape the thought that it is astounding what people will put up with - having their money outright stolen and given to the rich (who don't need it); their country's resources handed to rich foreigners with narry a tax dollar reaped, leading to disappearing social services and a decaying social contract; the environment that sustains them continually degraded and debased. And yet Australians kept voting for it.
Finally, the change came, but as you rightly state, Labor are so timid, and the structural problems so deeply ingrained and difficult to unravel (not to mention Labor benefits from many of them), that it's only a matter of time before people become dissatisfied with so-called progressives who achieve little progress, and vote again for the Authoritarians for Corpocracy.
As HST would say, seyla. Now I'm going back to my G&T to watch the world burn...
Gross inequality seems fair and reasonable if you believe that the rich deserve to be rich because they're better people. The richer the better, so to speak. Meritocracy innit? But as a bitter old man once said, right before he pulled the trigger, "deservin's got nuthin to do with it". (Well, maybe a bit, but not much.) Most every other sonofabitch has an equal claim to the good life, and if them what's got won't share, them what's not will shake things up a bit. Tax being the price we pay for civilisation.
Don’t maintain the rag. I haven’t bought one of Rupert’s toilet papers since about… oh! 11 March 1996
8%. The number of Victorians that actually hated Dan. Sure, more than that were rusted on LNP voters. But only 8% actually hated him. That's the News Ltd market.
It’s almost like Rupert Murdoch et al fucked about and are now finding out.
I doubt Paul Kelly thinks of much at all John. His op-eds are all the same, he just rearranges the words.
Oh god you mean he’s not dead yet? Bugger.
Good piece, and funny how similar forces are at play in a land 9200 miles to the north.
<Metallic scrapping sounds> as Rik continues sharpening the guillotine, mumbling "Gonna be a lot of heads, a lot of heads."
Yeah.
Goodo JB.
Words are escaping me. Did good writing.
(Ill, not drunk. Quit in August.)
This one’s a scorcher