Monday 29th of April 2024
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the value of opinion .....

Paul Sheehan’s opinion piece, Cloud Over Politics Is Pouring Scorn, Herald, December 26, must rank as one of the most superficial pieces of journalism in 2005. 

 

Sheehan opines as his central thesis that ‘Australians receive better leadership than we deserve’. But where’s the evidence to support his claim? 

 

We are offered unsubstantiated assertions such as: ‘Carr and Egan did a good job’, whilst we are expected to accept that ‘Australia has had good political leadership for a long time’ simply on the basis that our economy has grown on average 4% per annum over the past 14 years.  

 

And if that doesn’t get us excited, we are reminded that the current visionary leadership at a federal level has given us the Future Fund & eliminated $100 billion in foreign debt. 

 

Based on this slim justification, Sheehan castigates those who can’t accept the brilliant leadership that he alleges our country has enjoyed. But he’s still not done. 

 

The icing on Sheehan’s cake is to quote the prime minister, lauding the success of our democracy & by imputation, his own political leadership, on the basis that it is one of the few that has been around for 100 years. 

 

If Sheehan had claimed that Australians receive better politicians than we deserve, I might be in agreement with him. After all, our singular disinterest in public affairs is only exceeded by our thoroughly documented & well-founded cynicism towards our politicians.  

 

On that basis, why would Australian voters be surprised that their elected representatives are only concerned with their own self-interest & that of their sectional sponsors? Based on the level of our expectations, we would surely be amazed if they showed an interest in the health of the wider community & all the citizens in our ‘commonwealth’. 

 

Ask any passer-by whether they think Carr & Egan ‘did a good job’ & they might have something to say about the state of our hospitals, our schools or public transport system. They might also voice strong doubts about the propriety of government entering into secret contracts with private sector?  

 

They might be dubious about the quality of the NSW government’s planning system or the efficacy of political donations by private sector organizations to political parties & what that might mean for the health of our democracy. 

 

They might harbour real doubts about the integrity of many of our politicians & senior bureaucrats who, one day, are allegedly acting on behalf of government & the taxpayers’ best interests in negotiations with the private sector, whilst the next, popping-up ‘across the street’ as highly paid servants of those same interests. 

 

Ask the same passer-by why they are not excited by the Future Fund & they might just explain that it was the persistent failure of politicians of all persuasions to responsibly manage the funding of public sector superannuation liabilities over the years that has created the need for such a fund, thereby ensuring that large slices of resource must be diverted to urgently & finally stem the fiscal bleeding: resource that might otherwise have been available to invest in critical infrastructure today. 

 

They might also render a view on the value of tipping the public’s remaining equity in Telstra into such a vehicle, both from the point of view of its doubtful future value to the Fund & the political expediency that such a move would clearly represent. 

 

And ask them about fiscal management & they may well shrug their shoulders in response to the reduction in foreign debt, whilst being just a little more concerned about the institutionalised nature of our trade deficits & the embarrassing reminder they offer to our inability to innovate & add value, simply because it’s easy enough to get rich in Australia by just digging stuff up & giving it away. 

 

Ask them about our greatest treasurer, ‘cossie’ Costello, & his latest Budget surplus & some might just have a view about the excessive amounts of money that our federal government seems to be collecting through the GST & windfall fuel excise revenues or, alternatively, its unwillingness to use such surpluses to invest in critical infrastructure: better to hang onto it & hand it back to us as a tax cut at election time, thereby ‘buying’ our cheap political loyalty. 

 

And of course, when it comes to the health of our democracy, only John Howard & Paul Sheehan would measure its success by the number of years that it has allegedly served us. No room for qualitative measures here. 

 

Let’s not confuse ‘the battlers’ with any kind of rigorous analysis as to the true state of our institutions: our Courts, our pseudo corporate regulators, our industrial relations system, our universities, our health & education systems, the strength & diversity of our media, our stewardship of the environment, the strength & independence of our justice system or the condition of our so-called democratic organs of government, including the opposition. 

 

We wouldn’t want to bring distress to the average punter by reminding them about the success of our political leaders in feathering their own nests & those of the sectional interests they truly represent.  

 

Nothing to be gained whatsoever by focusing attention on the prime minister’s leadership credentials, as evidenced by his unique superannuation arrangements or his generosity in dispersing taxpayers’ funds to secure his ongoing privileged comforts. 

 

There is certainly no mileage to be had in reminding the punters of the brilliant leadership required to launch 8 rescue packages for QLD cane-growers in the past 9 years; just as it would be cruel & unhelpful to remind them of the iniquitous nature of the taxation system or the robust health enjoyed by protected sectional interests, including farmers, pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, developers, media magnates & the occasional comedian or box-maker.  

 

There is nothing to be gained by reminding the average voter that his democratic freedoms are being ruthlessly negated: it must be someone-else who will get pulled over by NSW Police, questioned, searched - phone & car potentially confiscated - detained & incarcerated on suspicion rather than prima facie evidence, whilst potentially denied legal representation & perhaps even the opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law in front of a jury. 

 

And if NSW doesn’t get you, the feds might with their ‘quaint’ sedition laws: another indicator as to the health our increasingly anachronistic democracy. 

 

Meanwhile, whilst Sheehan’s thesis professes to be about ‘leadership’, he actually doesn’t talk about what that means: what are leadership behaviours & do our political ‘leaders’ evidence such attributes? 

 

Outstanding ‘leaders’ must be able to inspire. They must be able to articulate a vision: a collective direction for the community for the future.  

 

Effective leadership must be inclusive & not divisive. Successful leaders act in the collective interest of their constituents: not sectional interests & not by playing one group off against another.  

 

True leaders follow a set of immutable principles & it is their consistent adherence to such principles that earns them the trust, confidence & support of the electorate.   

 

The policy void that characterizes all levels of government in Australia is ample evidence of the paucity of true political leadership in our democracy. Our politicians, no matter what their hue, are consumed with only one imperative: to acquire & retain political power, so as to access the trappings of office & bestow rewards to their loyal supporters. 

 

Contrary to Sheehan’s claim, there is little evidence that any of today’s crop of politicians possesses true leadership qualities. And any who might possess such attributes are careful to conceal them, in order to satisfy the over-arching dictates of the machines & to ensure their personal survival.

 

Contrary to Sheehan’s contention that we receive better leadership than we deserve, I would argue that we have exactly the quality of politicians we deserve, whilst there is little evidence of the existence of true political leadership nor sadly, little chance that the genuine political leaders required to secure the future prosperity & health of our democracy will emerge any time soon.

the real value of diplomacy .....

‘More than a year after the former US ambassador said his goodbyes to Australia, the top diplomatic post remains vacant in Canberra, reflecting a casualness that has the typically laid-back Aussies getting a little anxious.’  

 

Please, sir, may we have an ambassador?

Democracy dying

Like his commander-in-chief the American president, Tony Blair, PM of his majesty's realm is a fantastic spruiker but with a slightly different technique. The president uses the famous bumbling idiot routine while pushing his agenda with an ease beyond belief. With Tony, whatever happens, like for most spruiker, nothing bad is ever his fault because he's doing the "best" in the circumstances. Most bad things that happened never happened and those events where morality and the law has been officially raped are perfectly legitimate if you, I mean" us" study the small print... The art of selling whatever shonky has never been so obvious in these last decade with Johnnee — a master shifter —, of Blair and Bush... But these puppets on stage are only the little front-men for a purposeful system being solidly constructed, assembled and implemented from the back rooms of power... in which the rich will mostly prosper faster and the poor will have to do much harder yards, while most will be comfortable if one does not ask questions or wishes something truer.

You will eat your porridge..

Whatever Blair, Bush, Howard and many other leaders in the World — who are participating in this gigantic heist: the French and most of the European nations — do, mostly turn to runny philosophical crap. But they keep promising us paradise at the end of the smelly dunny as long as we maintain faith in the stock exchange and various other snake-oil potions. We buy the medicine because we're scared that if we rock the boat, we'll be pushed or we'll be the one who falls over... We're in that uneasy position... We hope things cannot go worse... But they do. Our moral and ethical fibre is singed... er... Dear reader, here, where I write WE, I mean the majority of people in which "we" (the your democracy people) may be a sizeable dissident minority but will never get a proper voice streamlined in the media.

Since Blair, Bush and Johnnee's full-of-porkies foray in Iraq, many people have died and more will do, but these guys, Tony, Johnnee and Bushee are the ultimate bullshit artists... Always blaming the "enemy" for their lack of planning — which is very much part of the grand plan to weaken others...

I could describe in detail, the exact crappy crafty framed-wording they use to con us, but I will only refer to the latest carpet-spew from Napoleon-Tony, in front of a Murdoch assembled crowd as reported by the Guardian:
-----------------------------------------

"""""""""""'Cross-dressing' on political policy is here to stay, says PM
· Era of rivalry between left and right 'is over'
· News Corp executives told of need for boldness

The era of tribal political leadership is over in Britain with "rampant cross-dressing" on policy set to become a permanent feature of modern politics, Tony Blair told News Corp executives in conclave in the Californian resort of Pebble Beach yesterday.
In an elegiac survey of his nine-year leadership, Mr Blair claimed the true divisions opening up across the world were now not between left and right, but between advocates of modern, open societies and closed, traditional ones.""""""""""

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Basically what this elegant spruiker is telling us is that whoever we vote for, anytime anywhere, we're going to get the same person in various disguise, doing the same fiddles with barely a small variation of flavour... No left no right. Das Fascist Kapital is here to stay and will dictate what the world is going to look like for centuries... It follows to the letter the motto of the US:

"New order for centuries to come"...

And sadly El Tony is right because the great "Bible" that only inspires these leaders is extremely watertight and has been written in secrecy for yonks by the never-seen priests to the nations of the G8, to the World Bank and to the WTO, — all working below the surface as a cabal to shape the world's future according to the supreme Doodah...

Democracy?
The choice is irrelevant. What you'll get from now on is the junk food of politics — the fast crap you'll be "necessarily" swallowing to sustain your unfortunate and annoying to them "ideals" with your vote. But whatever you get is not manufactured on the premises... It is a world wide corporation conspiracy in a back factory that is making your meal... and whether you get a Mac-right or a Kentucky-left, the ingredients are grown and blended the same way over by a conglomerate.

""""""The era of tribal political leadership is over." The prime minister insisted: "I am loyal to and proud of the Labour party as any Conservative leader is of his party. But across a range of issues, there is no longer a neat filing of policy to the left or the right."
He admitted the new divisions confused natural supporters and as a result the resistance was very strong, from the left and the right.
"In these conditions political leaders have to back their instinct and lead. The media climate will often be harsh. NGOs and pressure groups with single causes can be benevolent, but also can exercise a kind of malign tyranny over public debate.""""""

Tony has let the cat out of the bag.

In a show of big brother leadership he's basically saying that there is no way one can give an inch to NGOs he puts in the same bags as "terrorists" or give a bum s'hair to pressure groups outside this Fascist Kapital global recipe — even if they are not "dangerous". Some people in NGOs may have serious claims but they musn't be given in to, because that would undo the strength of what we (him, "you and me" cleverly included) aspire to...

In fact, in the whatever "open, modern" societies we are developing in, the ground rule is getting simpler: the greedier you are, the more you are entitled to the loot, as long as you're not seen (caught) by-passing a few illusionary laws that are there to give an air of fairness to the system. Illusions, sure... but that's life, isn't it? Pinch me...

No matter your taste, you are going to eat that GM food, and swallow the unified political system, that has been decided for you... the choice is clear. Sure you can vote till you get blue in the face, there will be no choice. Eat what we dish out or live under those who do not give you any kind of freedom... There is no more middle ground... No room for social justice or understanding. If you fall, you might die and if you don't you might be taken care by a second rate charitable tier from which you should never get out of. Once fallen, unless you display that eager greed grafted on a killer instinct again, you may as well vaporise or work your knuckles out to survive... Welcome to the fast politic outlet in which your little lunch box is ready, as long as you press the right button otherwise you starve.

Yes, """"""Tony raised the primacy of modern foreign policy, including the battle to combat climate change and help Africa, and the need not to relapse into passivism over the Middle East. But he argued these battles are integral to the fight to defeat terrorism.""""""""""

Well, ell... there it is, the ubiquitous magic word: "terrorism", always used for effect at a key point like an underline on a text that says you better do as I say or else... read the line again until so.

According to the Guardian, """"In a marked difference of tone from some American hawks, this prime minister said: "My concern is that we cannot win this struggle by military means or security measures alone, or even principally by them. We have to put up our ideas against theirs. But our cause will only triumph if people see it is based on evenhandedness, on fairness, on a deep and genuine passion to help others.""""""

If one can see any difference between Tony's crap and that of El Bushee, please count the commas in the speech, turn around three times, raise your right leg and your right arm and say: "Different way to make us eat the same muck!" three times.

So far, from Tony we have not seen much of that desire to properly help, except on "our" terms with a heavy loaded contract for payback... Yes, the words are there but the actions reek of hypocrisy, and the bombs cannot be shipped fast enough...

Big Brother (not that crappy show on the box, but the real Das Fascist Kapitalist) is flexing its steroid... to let us know who is boss... and it ain't us...

Do Tony and these people talk a lot of s%$&*#@t!!!!

Cry for your democracy... It is becoming a thing of the past as the political message sold to us from the media outlets is getting monochrome... We are truly becoming a fully fledged "culture": the civilisation of morons, unless we wake up the dead... It may come to that.