Australia: the complacent country & the republic

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Australia: the complacent country & the republic

I want you to travel somewhere in the world, but not anywhere, I want you to go to the cruelly cold cities of London and New York, where for a Sydneysider it will seem like life is on steroids. Things are going to move quicker, people are going to do more and the cities will never seem to sleep. And then just to sting our reputation as a great drinking and partying nation the people will go out harder than us, for longer and on more substances. How embarrassing.

But really this is just the beginning. You’ll start to notice how complacent Australia as a country is, and how much we love to rest on our very mediocre laurels. There just isn’t a sense of urgency with Australians. All of us seem content to live the Australian dream, basically a state of life as it sounds, achieved nearly asleep, with the smallest possible level of consciousness required to avoid dropping down dead.- by Sean Maguire

For anyone who’s reached this point, who's not in a coma and not standing up in their flannelettes trying to work out why the computer is offending them; I’m sure you’ve felt this. I’m sure you've thought this was just the human condition and that you were doomed to be the one person that ‘got it’ while everyone else floundered about. I’m sure you thought this right up until you walked into a bar in London and heard people talking about the future of the Labour Party and ‘why, okay I suppose Britain may need a written constitution’.

And then you got an absolutely tremendous sense of futility about Australia, you started to realise that in education, politics, art (and pretty much everything else other than sport or business) to try to succeed is to be different; and to be different in Australia isn’t difficult but it definitely is demoralising.

For instance, in education you study hard all your young life often avoiding the temptations of the body and the soul while your retarded friends get high on inhalant. Then after years you finally get a PhD, a degree and title so reputable that in any other country you’d be a respected member of the community and possibly a community leader because your PhD represents a life’s work and expertise that can be used to better whatever field you specialise in.

In Australia though, prepare to get ridiculed because you’re an intellectual now and you’re suspicious because we all know you do nothing in those ivory towers but wank off into golden tissues. By the way if you are wearing still reading and wearing that flannelette don’t pretend you weren’t happy when Howard came in and made that world you could never enter seem to be one full of boffins out of touch with reality.

So to continue, are you somebody who has any sense of justice and any aspiration to make this a place of greater equality?

Well don’t bother because you’ll end up getting voted out by the bigots you’re trying to help- probably for a leader who will only oppress them more.

I was now going to write something about art in Australia, but the people who love art know what the problems are and the people who hate art are probably watching motorsports and can’t read; so I won’t bother.

So to go onto some of the idiots that make Australia complacent I’ll start with Monarchists. If you’re a monarchist you’re an idiot.

If you believe a rich old woman that lives 4000 miles away is our best representative- you (and I will repeat) truly are an idiot.

But onto monarchism, how dare this fat stupid country turn its back on a Republic when it was served up so easily on a platter. How dare this country refuse what India, the Irish, and every other country ruled by the British fought so hard to have. Through blood and iron these nations were forged and there would be few who would say their sense of pride and value of what freedom means will ever be forgotten.

But Australia the ‘lucky cunt-ry’ avoided all that and instead we’ve had probably the most gradual decolonisation process in history. No blood, just signing a few documents, a few ACTS and hey presto we’re free.

God, the embarrassment.

And another thing to take from this the 10 year anniversary of that referendum is that if you’ve ever used the mantra ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ you’re an idiot and a strong part of the reason why this country is stagnating in stupidity.

Forget that the constant pursuit of perfection is the only way that anything can be bettered, forget that in any other country saying something is working alright (so don’t bother trying to make it better) would probably result in stoning in the street. No, we should always be that conservative and stupid country that never sees what’s right and socially just until after everybody else has done it.

An ETS?

Let Europe try it first.

Gay marriage?

Let California and England try it, because we’re too worried about faggots deriding our precious institutions

You know what that is like, it’s like when the media writes about young Australian actors making it in Hollywood or that Rudd has been written about by ‘the Rolling Stone’ and we get that peculiar sense of pride. We get that feeling just like our big brother is noticing what we’ve done and mightn’t think we’re as much of a loser as we always thought.

That's it!

We are the perennial little brother constantly assuming that we won’t be able to match it with the big boys, or as the Simpson’s so perfectly put it, we seem ‘born to runner up’.

So how can we possibly have got so complacent in our mediocrity?

God knows. But I know I’m not smart enough to change it so I won’t bother.

But I do know that this sense of absolute stinking stupidity that I feel daily makes me want to run around and break things. All I want to do is open the floodgates and let in all the refugees that deserve to live in a place free from violence. All I want to do is slap someone and say that letting gays marry won’t end the world and neither will pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

We both know there’s no point though.

So to bring this together how do all these seemingly unrelated points come together?

Well it’s this. On this day, the anniversary of when Howard broke our heart's we should remember that Australia is a racist, bigoted, stupid mass of people that are happy with what we've got, who will add no new ideas to the world because new ideas mean change and change is scary for a country happy to wallow in perpetual mediocrity.

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2 nov | Australia's decision to reduce its intake of the endangered southern bluefin tuna has outraged the industry. The global fishing industry is unsustainable, and fishing is second only to climate change as the greatest environmental threat to marine ecosystems- by Sarah Burnside . . read more

The Writing’s On The (Great) Wall – From The Outsider

13 feb | Of my ten predictions for the year 2008, seven were spot on (Brendan Nelson was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull; No Country for Old Men won the best picture Oscar; oil went through US$120 a barrel ; The U.S. went into recession; property prices fell in Australia; avian flu outbreaks occurred in Europe; it did rain until June). Two were wrong (Hilary Clinton did not become President; News did not flog MySpace) and the last - that China will create its first trans-national corporation (TNC), is turning out to be true just 6 weeks after 2008 died.

In its search to reduce debt, Rio Tinto is planning to sell about 20% of its equity to Chinalco - China's nascent TNC and mining giant. This flourish occurs just as Western democracies are dusting themselves down following the failure of free market capitalsim to deliver fairness and security to their citizens and the thumping discrediting of credit.

The whiff of protectionism is in the air as governments bail out the banks and launch stimuli to ‘save' their national economies. How can these new policies which are re-shaping the public interest be reconciled with the private behaviours of the TNC boardrooms which have no interest -public or private- in national boundaries?

If the Australian government allows this acquisition to go through it will invite the Chinese Dragon inside the Australian economy. And when that happens, the writing will truly be on the (great) wall.

Kill it, now, Kevin, or it will kill you.

. . read more

Towards A Sustainable Future - From 2020 Summit Climate Change Group

20 apr | Our aspiration is that by 2020 Australia is the world’s leading green and sustainable economy. That we will set time bound targets and be on track to dramatically decrease our ecological footprint while continuing to grow our economy and improve our quality of life. Through our creativity and skills, we will have harnessed the full potential of our natural assets and human resources to turn the challenge of climate change to our advantage.

By 2020 Australia will be making a major contribution to a comprehensive global response to climate change, including working with our partners on clean energy. Australia will have dramatically reduced our emissions, and communities, regions and business will be actively assisted to adopt the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

Environmental considerations will be fully integrated into economic decision making in Australia, at the household, business and government levels. We will have resilient and innovative water systems that reduce our dependency on climate-sensitive water resources in our towns and cities.

A robust emissions trading system and a suite of complementary measures will be driving a low carbon revolution with Government taking the lead working in partnership with business and the community. Climate and sustainability policy will also incorporate the needs of disadvantaged and low-income Australians. A new dialogue will have been established with our indigenous peoples on our response to climate change, water and sustainability challenges. . . read more

A New Partnership in Nuclear Diplomacy

13 nov | It may appear ambitious, but a diplomatic partnership with India in the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament agenda is of strategic importance for Australia, writes Kurt Winter. . . read more

Where The Bloody Hell Are We? - From The Outsider

28 may | I am one of many Australians who choose to be here in preference to their country of origin. But for how much longer? Do I want to live in a country hell-bent on taking its citizens back to the middle ages, in recreating a time when bigotry and blind prejudice are running the show?

The spectre of the thought police pulling down Bill Henson’s show in Sydney is now followed by the red necked council of Camden in Sydney’s south rejecting the creation of a 1200 student Islamic school ‘based on concerns surrounding the impact on traffic flows, loss of agricultural land, highlighted in the planners report and not on religious grounds.’ Oh yeh!

Our hopes for a more progressive Australia following the heinous Howard regime have been seriously dented in just 5 days. Where is the leadership promised by the Australia 2020 summit? It is certainly absent from the mealy-mouthed Front Bench.

Attention now shifts ironically to the Opposition where shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull is the lone progressive voice in a sea of mediocrity. He has the guts to point out the precious nature of our artistic freedoms which are being sorely pressed by political ratbags and the citizens of Middle Earth. . . read more

Sidney Nolan - From The Outsider

30 dec | The retrospective exhibition of the work of Sidney Nolan confirms him as one of Australia's major artists and better than you thought he was likely to be. Sitting in the room which is dedicated to his 18 frame evocation of the Goulburn River and Valley from his childhood, you are struck by his capacity to have created a Ned Kelly icon which however small infiltrates the bush and transforms it to a different place. A mythological place where a landscape largely devoid of western memory is re-interpreted and comes alive with its own Australian fantasy.

This is the challenge which we face right now. To see the world around us with new eyes and to create a story which changes the anonymity we are so used to with a new personality, perhaps one that draws on our indigenous history and the diversity of our people. . . read more

The Battle of Ideas - From Kevin Rudd

26 oct | Right now this country is engaged in a battle of ideas for Australia’s future. On the one side of this battle we have a vision for Australia’s future which says that, when it comes to economic prosperity, you cannot have economic prosperity and social justice — that these are incompatible.

There is another view, another vision — and it is our vision — which says that this nation and this people are at their best when we are a people and a nation committed to building a prosperous nation while at the same time not jettisoning our vision for a fair Australia and a fair society. In an absolute nutshell that is the divide between us — a view of the world which says it is about me, myself and I, and an alternative view which says that we are about an Australia which, sure, recognises that individual hard work, achievement and success are to be encouraged and rewarded but, at the same time, that we cannot turn a blind eye to the interests of our fellow human beings who are not doing well.

That has been the divide between us for a century and remains the divide between us today. Ideas in politics are important. They in fact affect everything that we do. They shape our vision of what is possible for the government to do for the nation. . . read more

Coalition Conundrum on Climate Change Policy

7 oct | The conundrum that is now rearing its ugly head within the Coalition would make for a fascinating drama, were it not for the importance of the issue at stake. The Coalition is little more than a marriage of convenience than one of true love and Barnaby Joyce (who more people think is the Nationals’ leader than Warren Truss) is making every attempt to let the world know this-by Shaun Lambert . . read more

The Growth of Media-ocrity- by Sean Maguire

21 oct | In the age of the internet, what the media landscape will look like in 50 years and who will be its king-makers are questions that remain unresolved.

The fact is that nobody has the foggiest.

But, whatever we read/watch/or listen to, we must pray that the journalistic essentials of constant inquiry, analysis, and fact-checking remain.

So as the Murdochs and Mark Scotts of this world battle for our attention, look back to Edmund Burke, an 18th Century Irish parliamentarian in Westminster who said:

'There were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important by far than them all'

An ideal and an institution that will disappear when the news is provided by everyone, for everyone.

. . read more

Howard's Lost Decade - From Richard Flanagan

30 nov | John Howard famously said the times were his, and for more than a decade it seemed they were. Australia experienced the greatest and most sustained boom in its history. Yet at its end Australia's indigenous population was in a ruinous state, its extraordinary environment was threatened on numerous fronts, and its people were beginning to ask where the wealth had gone: public schools and public health were in crisis, social welfare was straitened, housing was unaffordable for many, and wages and conditions were being cut under Howard's industrial reforms...

In the wake of his defeat the attacks on Howard's legacy will turn ferocious, but at their heart will be an unease, a ritual exorcism of something deeper that Australians would perhaps rather not admit. For a decade Howard's power had resided in his ability to speak directly and powerfully to the great negativity at the core of the Australian soul - its timidity, its conformity, its fear of other people and new ideas, its colonial desire to ape rather than lead, its shame that sometimes seems close to a terror of the uniqueness of its land and people.

At the end of his concession speech, Howard claimed to have left Australia prouder, stronger and more prosperous. But it didn't feel that way. It felt like it had been a lost decade. It felt like the country was frightened, unsure of what it now is, unready for the great changes it must make, and ill-fitted for the robust debates it must have. There was a strange sense that Australia, which had seemed so often to sleepwalk, mesmerised, through the past 11 years, had suddenly woken up. But where it might go and what it might do and be, no one any longer knew.

From The Guardian. Richard Flanagan is a novelist. . . read more

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President goes up in gas?- by Sean Maguire

So the very unknown Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy, has been elected as EU President- taking up a position that could be instrumental in the future of the region and global international relations in general.

Only a day later, on the opposite and non-EU side of Europe, Russian and Ukrainian officials met, with Putin announcing that he would be easing gas supply terms to a neighbour that is crucial for Russia's European pipelines.

Is it too cynical to think this isn't it a coincidence?

Is it unreasonable to think that as Putin spins a tighter trade web with Former Soviet Republics that this could be his attempt to stand tall and unthreatened by a stronger EU?

Turning Chinese-by Sean Maguire

So Obama is on a whirlwind tour through Asia, espousing the message of 'Pacific' solidarity. On his trip he's been preaching that "the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations" and that the US "does not seek to contain" China's rise as a big player on the world stage.

Yet what other choice does the US and Obama have?

The political realities of today tell us that the world and its international institutions will soon be distorted as another lumbering giant enters the fray. It's also a reality that for any successful tomorrow China will have to feature prominently; something that due to inherent cultural and governmental differences will cause friction with the established Western/Free Market model so deeply ingrained in today's thinking.

So how seriously can we believe Obama? Well really we'll just have to wait and see, but if history tells us anything, the rise of China will be anything but 'pacific'.

Bytes of Bites- From The Outsider

Lance Kavanaugh, Senior Product Counsel for YouTube, explained at a meeting in Sydney, that every minute of every day, YouTube uploads 20 hours of videos. So for you to review just one day’s content will take you three years!

Uploads are limited to 10 minutes. YouTube is, thus, doing for video media what tabloids did for news media. Little bits of stuff. Lots of them. Not too taxing on the brain cells and who cares about what’s missing!

It strikes me that Tweets present a similar dynamic. Max 140 characters – including spaces. Frame on.

It’s small wonder cigarettes, McDonalds and iTunes are so popular.

The Weekday Walk of Shame- by Dr Rubber Glove

Another day, another shambling trip home hung-over. The day, like every other post-drunk night was a blur; like cotton-wool had covered my brain, sounds were softer and every movement was an exercise in pain and regret.

And it was all the worse that it was a Thursday afternoon.

School kids were on excursions, young mums pushed prams, and bright happy people looked bright happy and healthy. I though walked through them like I was walking through mud and to cap it off I looked like something that had crawled out from under a slimy rock.

If it was a Saturday or Sunday then this feeling would be oddly exhilarating. I would know that everybody tut-tutting me was really just jealous and that they were looking back wistfully to a time where a couple of days a week could be written off to doing nothing.

A Thursday though is different, nobody looked at me with envy, nobody really even looked at me at all. I was a solid shadow that people tried to look through and it made me feel all the worse for it.

Energy agency warns of 'irreparable' damage- by Jim Giles

Take all the power stations in the United States. Together, they produce almost 1000 gigawatts of electricity - enough to boil several billion kettles simultaneously.

Now imagine building another five power stations for every one that already exists in the United States. That is about the amount of electricity generation that the world is on track to add over the next 20 years.

And three-quarters of the new stations will use fossil fuels. These startling figures were released today by the International Energy Agency. The agency predicts that between a quarter and a third of the new capacity will be built in China, which generates over 40 per cent of its electricity from coal. This will lead to huge increases in carbon dioxide emissions.

The agency has previously said that the current recession has helped rein in emissions, but that effect will not last. The report predicts that 40 billion tonnes of CO2 will be emitted worldwide in 2030, around twice the figure for 1990.

That would put us on a path towards a future in which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels top 1000 parts per million and average global temperature rise by up to 6 °C. Many scientists think that that our goal should be a maximum rise of 2 °C and that 4 °C would cause severe flooding and drought.

The agency describes our current trajectory as almost certain to cause "irreparable" damage to the planet. We are not, of course, locked into this future. The agency's calculation come from a modelling exercise in which we continue on the path we are on now, rather than switch to low-carbon technologies like solar power.

Many governments have already committed to changes, albeit limited ones, so the most dire aspects of the agency's predictions will not come to pass. But they are a useful reminder of just how wrong things will go if we do not take action.

Originally published at New Scientist, click view for more information

Viral app has jail broken iPhones Rick Rolled- by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon

The viral 'Rickrolling' campaign, that inadvertently tricked people into playing Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Going to Give you Up" has recently hit Australian iPhones, leaving users in a panic as so far, there is no antidote. Researchers are saying this attack is the world's first iPhone worm, which targets jail broken iPhones (which for the layman are phones that have been unlocked from the service provider).

For the layman as well, when a user jailbreaks an iPhone they are able to access the thousands of applications that didn't conform to the apple guidelines (i.e porn), however it makes the iPhone vulnerable as the terms of the warranty are automatically void.

The worm, aware of this fact, operates by showing a picture of Rick Astley, with the wall paper displaying the message "ikee is never going to give you up". Users who tried to delete the image, found they were unsuccessful when they rebooted their phone.

The hacker 'ikee' who has claimed responsibility for the worm, said that he wanted to bring awareness to the danger of failing to change the iPhones root password, which is a step that is so often forgotten by users.

So far the worm is only in Australia, however now that the idea has surfaced I feel there will be a lot of copycat hackers. So, if you do jailbreak your iPhone make sure to change the root password to avoid these nasty complications.

Graffiti Laws by Sebastien Miller

Nathan Rees recently implemented harsh new laws regarding graffiti and street art. The disgruntled Premier of NSW believes the possession of a can of spray-paint is worth a maximum of six months imprisonment for youth, provided they can’t justify themselves. Along with the introduction of these laws, Rees has announced his plans for an annual graffiti clean-up day, an event that doesn’t share the same promise (but certainly the same scaffolding) as Clean up Australia Day.

Six months is substantial amount of time for the possession of a can of paint, especially considering the leniency of the police and courts regarding drug possession charges. When did spray-paint overtake smack in the great race of illegal possessions? Not to mention these laws are directed mainly at minors; is it really worth locking kids up over something as trivial as this?

What we are lacking is street-art with class. The Premier does live in Western Sydney, and it’s no secret that things are done a little differently out that way, so maybe he’s getting the wrong impression of DIY urban decoration. But how is it graffiti manages to look so fucking cool all over the world, except in the glorious City of Sydney? Riddle me that.

Go Banksy, go!

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7 jul

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Re: Commoditisation of aboriginal art

dear jack do you know anything about the history of Aboriginal 'art'??? Your speculation seems based on complete ignorance of the fact that Aboriginal art was invented for white buyers - the Aborigines themselves having survived 40,000 years without needing to give their lore and laws, myths and legends and rules for survival in a hostile climate any permanent form. It was only our attempts to assimilate them into our 'society' that drove the link to canvas - though the money we paid for their art was a nice bonus, and shouldn't be ignored as a continuing motive for painting. cheers - jeremy

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Re: Farmers and ETS

Thank you for your commentary about farmers in a world of changing climate. Here in the Pacific NW we are not as aware of it as some other places. Our Transition Town group hosted author William Catton last night, who wrote a prophetic book called "Overshoot" back in 1980. During the discussion, a local fish biologist pointed out that of all industries, farmers are the only ones constantly limited by nature. The rest of the world ( with a few exceptions like fishermen or foresters) really do not seem to make their living in a world of limited by forces beyond their control--- or so they imagine. There is a fundamental sanity in these other ways of life that our culture is unwilling to hear. It runs away from the voice of limitation. I think farmers have a lot to teach the world. We always thought there was something wholesome about farming and I think this is exactly it; a lack of hubris. How many slaps in the face will it take before people come to their senses? - Anna Willis

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Re: Turning Chinese

Obama is just a puppet of the Corporate elites.He has not recinded the Patriot Act,Bushes' presidential orders nor habius corpus.Presently ,we have corporate facism. - Ross

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Re: Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

it seems that your whole point and discussion is aimed at christianity. what you state is pretty thought provoking and maybe true but one thing that i have to say is that maybe the whole religion thing has just been corrupted by people and that maybe god does exist.... nomatter all the scientific bull that you and other people can come up with, there are still things that you and scientist just cant explain. ie youe exsistance and the fact that you as a human have suchbrain capacity to do what you do today, and why there is such an order in nature "ofcoures humans always fuck up the order" everything on earth is one complex puzzle that works and you and everyone found it working. not only earth but even beyond to space and shit. now you can say that all this came from a bang and what ever but even if you believe that, what created the platform for that bang and why this place and stuff. just too many things dont add up to just say there is no god. and i think most of these motherfuckers miss the point of this religious shit anyway. because god is not a religion but a spiritual bond. dont be fooled by sensationalism and think that god does not exist cos he does. at least for me. the only problem with this now is that humans have sensationalised everything to make thier shit the best and in part have missed the whole point of god. every human bieng needs something to hold on to. even you and weather it is the image of god that people have painted or not is irrelevent. there is something that you believe in.. you might not go to church and get on your knees but its just part of human nature to associate yourself with something. it could be a superstition or eating chocolate coated roaches whatever you like fact is some things are just bigger than our rational. hope to get a responce from you - esco

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Re: Safran sure to offend, but who cares?

It is an interesting question to pursue "And, is there a ratio that exists where the amount of people offended compared to those that weren't makes something objectively racist?" I suppose the most right answer to whether something is racist or not can only come about democratically. By asking people if they find it racist. Even then (in this currently impossible world where people who want to vote on everything) who gets to vote? Hopefully I do. How do I cast my vote? At the moment I abstain. - Joshua Genner

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Re: The Pointless Question of "What is Art?"

You're article serves as a blatant example of people's lack of knowledge/interest in the contemporary art scene. Some of the most profound and revealing conversations stem from dicussions of art, politics and religion so why label them taboo subject matter? why not let the idiots add in their artistic two cents, because who knows what could happen? a change of opinion... an education... a flash of interest? Perhaps you and your friends to venture down to the COFA 09 annual exhibit and see some 200 fresh sydney artists emerge onto the art scene, unless it's too boring/inane. - Kara

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Re: The Pointless Question of "What is Art?"

I dare say the question is not pointless but rather is made pointless by overcomplications of academia and peripherals of market and status, in which Sean appears to have gotten bogged down notwithstanding the word limit. One of the things we do know about art for a fact is that we humans appear to have always had it around from the caves (who can forget the fetching bison from Alta Mira!) So the issue is cutting through the baggage of history as old as humanity to get back to the fundamentals. It took me about 35 years of research but does not take 100 words. It is this: "Art is something that is designed to communicate thoughts and feelings and to influence our thoughts and feeling through one or more of our senses."(25 words) Since we have space, a rider: "The particular art form is qualified by the particular senses involved in production and reception of that communication. If Sound then Music, If body then Dance. If we use eyes to perceive colour and shape we call it Visual art." How you work the item in question is the matter of objectivity after all some of us eat fruit raw and others make jam. If you choose to make art an investment go for it, if you choose to make it a status symbol you won't be the first. However, in my book, art is really the best at being art and in the immortal words of one Oscar Wilde, for any other purpose "All art is quite useless" - Valerie (Co-incidental author of "Why Art? The Pocket Art Expert)

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Re: John Safran ready for when skit hits the fan

The only aspect of "multiculturalism" we (or any western society)have accepted, revolves around food: sweet and sour chicken or donner kebab..nothing else is relevent, interesting or in anyway beneficial to us. The Cronulla riots were seen as well overdue by most people abroad, we should be proud of standing up to and rejecting ethnic gangs from our pure shores - "Peter Piper"

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Re: Brassed off about creationism- by Andy Coghlan

This is why we need change in Texas and why I'm running for State Board of Education. - Rebecca Bell-Metereau (www.voterebecca.com)

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Re: The Rape Tunnel

It astonishes and intrigues me this 'shock art' Being a over zealous muscled ex con looking for love, where could one find Richard Whitehursts hole?

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Re: ETS Voted Down: Rudd Proves Himself An Evil Genius

Nice to see such an insightful article, despite the snide comments.. Did you read the Quarterly Essay by Guy Pearse in writing the first 5 paragraphs- not that that's a bad thing really. Nice of you to widen your vision beyond the road ahead and take in some history- but I would add one thing- that as it stands (in the senate, especially with Steve Fielding) we won't have a real, meaningful ETS passed. The bummer is that even with a double dissolution election and the resultant simultaneous sitting of both houses of parliament (which as you point out, the greens/minor parties and labor would benefit from) would still not change the ETS from it's current configuration- not unless the Greens tripled their vote. Silly that it all came down to labor preferences to a little known party led by a little know bloke named Steve Fielding and Family First- not that that should be the reason we're in this predicament... - Shaun Lambert

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Re: Evil Capitalists

In response to the "100 Words" on Psychotic Capitalism: The statement, "only psychotics fail to distinguish right from wrong," has a semantic problem. What makes a person psychotic is the inability to recognize that, theoretically, actions or behavior can be right and wrong. A psychologically normal person can do this by age 5. But well- intentioned people constantly disagree about which actions are right and wrong in particular situations. This evening my husband and I re- watched "Zeitgeist--- Addendum" on youtube. We had to restrain ourselves from a festival of paranoia, anger and frustration at what appears to be an evil plot to enslave us all, to bleed us like pods in The Matrix. I cannot argue against the idea that Capitalism--- looked at as a planetary movement--- seems heartlessly destructive, yet there is no single person or even group of Illuminati to blame --- we are willing participants in this plot to rule the world, exploit the human race, rape Mother Earth. All of us are not psychotic, rather we are doing what seems right, and we are following norms set by our culture and community. I personally do my best to support those lawmakers who help us define right at wrong at the transpersonal level--- where this kind of crime being committed, with vast and ultimately very personal consequences. Indeed people can be stupider and meaner in groups than singly --- but whatever the right word is for that, it is not psychotic. Our real problem is that we seem incapable of seeing consequences beyond the local and immediate, we are selfish and shortsighted. But the writer is right: stupid, mean, selfish, shortsighted --- these terms trivialize the unfathomable crimes of Capitalists and their sheep-like dupes. - Anna Willis

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Re: Ethics Implicit?

There is one place where ethics is not "implicit everywhere" and that is television and the media generally - the only ethic is win the audience. This is the toxic environment "informing" students. - Terry McGee

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Re: Australia's Swine Flu vaccination plan

The word "pandemic" has absolutely nothing to do with a deadly disease taking over the planet. The definition of "Pandemic" is simply about the SPREAD of a disease. Any disease. It could be a relatively harmless disease like the Swine Flu, to maybe a more harmful type (like normal seasonal influenza). Nothing to do with how bad or how good it is to your health ... just how WIDESPREAD it is. That is the interpretation of "Pandemic". A word that is nothing to be scared about, but just a measure of the SPREAD of any disease (harmful or relatively harmless) around the globe. The original "Spanish Flu" in 1819 killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide. Swine Flu deaths to date? 2,800 or so. Compare this to up to 500,000 deaths worldwide from our ongoing "Seasonal Flu". People need to see things in perspective. Swine Flu is a mild flu. No need for risky & possibly dangerous vaccinations. No need to be scared. In fact NO NEED TO DO ANYTHING. Just stay cool and take whatever vitamins & health supplements that are appropriate. Good luck & stay informed. - Tim

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Re: Kabul-shit

A nice puncture of the ADF's mad illusions. Shooting civvies in another land used to be called murder, now we pretend its nation building. It must have struck a chord. General Jim Molan, the butcher of Fallujah, who used white phosphorous & put snipers on hospital rooftops, raves in today's SMH about staying true to the mission. What is it with these guys? Untold deaths in Iraq, bombs still exploding, millions of refugees ... and this guy thinks he's a genius. - Tina G

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Re: Why we shouldn't care about he loneliness of the University Liberal

While you have managed to approach, with a complete lack of understanding and sensitivity, the complaints of the many people who feel alienated by the overtly leftist university agenda, I also think that you have failed to address the concerns of an increasingly disenfranchised leftist populace. The article was concerning the Left Handed bigots, not the personal politics of either of the 4 people mentioned. Their concern was not with, as you pointlessly attacked, their political beliefs, but rather with their freedom to express their beliefs and how they were treated on campus because of them. I write this as a disenfranchised leftist. Apparently, freedom of speech on campus somehow took a backseat to the far left's bigotry, however well intentioned they thought it was originally. I'm not right; I'm not left. But fuck anybody that tries to censure me and revoke my right to freedom of speech, merely for believing in a political party. Anyone that thinks that's OK, well simply look up the definition of fascist. - I Swing My Vote

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12 sep

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