Nonsense from the House of Cards
And thus it begins....
With an election on the way, John Howard is once again pulling out the 'good ole faithful' card.
His approach to 'uniting' Australia is to confirm that divisions exist and to play on those divisions.
It's clear, isn't it? Or am I being paranoid?
It goes without saying that many politicians are more interested in politics than the future of their people.
Such is life....
With an election on the way, John Howard is once again pulling out the 'good ole faithful' card.
His approach to 'uniting' Australia is to confirm that divisions exist and to play on those divisions.
It's clear, isn't it? Or am I being paranoid?
It goes without saying that many politicians are more interested in politics than the future of their people.
Such is life....
posted by sleiman @ 12:17 PM
5 Comments:
At 2:34 PM, December 13, 2006,
Chidori Ashi Kun said…
I wonder if a test of Australian history would include how in 2001 the Howard government and the media lapdogs who do their bidding manufactured the “children overboard affair” a month before an election for the purpose of turning the population into raving fundamentalist xenophobes. Or perhaps the test might include how at school we inculcated with enthusiasm how the Anzacs were bravely slaughtered by the Ottomans in WW1, of which a significant proportion were in fact child soldiers and who were coerced to fight for a rapacious imperial power attempting to invade a foreign territory. When enemy countries do this we condemn it, claiming they have an underdeveloped sense of morality, but when we do it, we celebrate it!
At 3:58 PM, December 13, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Err... okay.
That's all good and well, but if your house is in order, then nothing can intrude. When I pointed out that article, yes, I wanted to say that Howard is a sap but more importantly, I wanted to say that if you can recognise the games being played, you can choose not to psychologically participate.
Once you enter that mental free space, then you are safe, no matter what is going on around you.
In my opinion, there's no use in fighting the power if you don't understand what that power is. Can you change human nature?
Good luck.
You can, I believe, change how that human nature is funneled but really, in the end, the same story is being repeated over and over again.
Howard (and by extension all populist polticians) only ride human weaknesses into power. You can't whip up a people and turn them into "raving fundamentalist xenophobes" if there is nothing to stir up in the first place.
Look at Lebanon right now...
The problem is that fine words are designed to brainwash so Danny is right, you can't build a 'cohesive, intergrated' society through brainwashing.
It's called rhetoric...
At 1:53 PM, December 14, 2006,
Chidori Ashi Kun said…
The ‘games being played’ which you referred to are far more complex than both you and Danny choose to accept. A commonly held doctrine is that we tend to flagellate ourselves about various aspects of our policies and actions that we disapprove of. I guess this is what you meant by rhetoric. Of course the reality is rather different.
The prevailing pattern is one of indignant outrage over enemy crimes with much self-congratulatory appeal to high principle, combined with a remarkable ability “not to see” in the case of crimes where we bear responsibility. In the West, there is ample literature, much of it fraudulent, scornfully denouncing apologists of third world victims of US interventions but little about the behaviour that is the norm: silence and apologetics about the crimes of one’s own state and its clients, when a willingness simply to face the facts might make substantial difference in limiting or terminating these abuses.
Not much sensible discussion going on in this forum. Have a nice life guys.
At 4:43 PM, December 14, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Hmm, that's not what I meant by rhetoric.
Choosing to accept the complexity behind situations doesn't necessarily lead to known responses and attitudes. Perhaps what is most stable and consistent is human nature.
Sensibility is not necessarily related to what one thinks one knows (even if what one knows is correct).
You seem to be agitating for specific results and specific actions which is fine but there is benefit in understanding the human condition.
People respond to various pressures and these pressures come in various guises. Some of them are obvious and some of them not so.
It is quite easy to point out the obvious. I'd suggest that revolution of thought and spirit lie in the spaces and without an appreication of those spaces, real change becomes, in my opinion, illusionary or at best, temporary.
As they say, "The revolution will not be televised."
At 1:39 PM, December 15, 2006,
Anonymous said…
I just wanted to add one more thing (or maybe to clarify it instead).
The conclusions that you've come Chidori-kun are not at all something that I would take offence at or disagree with.
My contention is that they are nothing new. I don't know how old you are but when I was at university, I was agitating in pretty much the same manner as you have.
I'm STILL agitating against it.
Nonetheless, any reasonable person would have to come to the conclusion that it is not enough to simply 'agitate'. After all, nothing really has changed. History continues to play itself out, over and over and over again...
I don't think it's enough either to say that 'if only people would...' because quite plainly, people DON'T.
Surely this reveals something intrinsic about human nature? It is at this point, this revelation if you will, that a real understanding of what progress is, begins.
I truly hesitate to use this next line given the originator but I'm going to anyway:
"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change."
This is not some pop-psychological ploy or some lovey-dovey, feel-good new-age spiritualism.
It means, to me, that if you can't find joy within the scams and lies and politics, then you are not offering anything in return.
Honestly, I thank Chuck D (that one was for you Kim, hehe) for opening my eyes to a reality different to the mainstream. Chomsky too, I simply cannot find fault with, yet it's time to go beyond these guys.
Anger, frustration, incredulation and yes, intellectualism can only take one so far.
Time to smile and find joy.
Post a Comment
<< Home