Come on Australia, what are you so afraid of?
Australia is scared – scared of debt, scared of unemployment, scared of carbon pricing, scared there won’t be enough to go around when they get old, scared of tax reform. They have even gotten themselves scared about a few thousand asylum seekers.
For some reason they have also decided to now be scared about the never-ending war in the Middle East.
AIMN contributor mars08 very clearly showed how wrong we are to be afraid by reminding us of the words of Osama bin Laden, 2004:
“All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qa’ida in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits to their private companies.”
What are we so afraid of? A mentally deranged man who, despite all the warning signals, was ignored until it was too late? One sick teenager who attacked two policemen? A few kids who talk tough on Facebook? A video?
So much for the much vaunted ANZAC bravery. We aren’t even under attack and we are cowering – they are coming to get us.
We are being played. We are spending a fortune for what gain? Our token involvement only adds to the propaganda for IS. Every bomb we drop breeds resentment.
If IS did pose an “existential threat” to Australia, as Julie Bishop would have us believe, then sending a few planes and a few hundred non-combat troops is a piss-weak response. But getting Tony all worked up means you can make him promise to buy your planes and submarines in exchange for the free trade agreements he so covets.
Someone is using social media to collect a few thousand vulnerable kids from around the world and they have given them trucks and big guns to rampage around the country terrorising people. If anyone seriously believes a 21st century nation can be built by beheading people they are deluded. This is a strategic move to undermine the US and their sidekicks and we fell for it again.
But far worse, our kids are falling for it, heading over there to become cannon fodder and suicide bombers or sex slaves. Those who quickly realise they have made a mistake are stuck with no help from home – with no home to even return to for some.
Our nation did everything in its power to help two convicted drug traffickers and grieved when they were not shown mercy, but no such mercy will be shown to our children seduced by these manipulators even if they have done nothing other than to talk to someone or travel somewhere.
If we truly wanted to address terrorism and human rights abuses abroad we would increase foreign aid, we would help lift people out of poverty, we would educate and empower women, and we would use our defence forces to help build nations.
If we wanted to protect ourselves at home we would address domestic violence, we would invest in education, we would create jobs, we would fund community groups, we would have youth support programs, we would be investing in mental health initiatives, we would encourage young artists and musicians, we would mentor those who needed help, and we would embrace our diversity. We would respect each other.
Prevention is so much more productive than inadequately dealing with, or even aggravating, symptoms.
Tony is fond of telling us that you can’t tax your way to prosperity. Can you shoot your way to any sort of meaningful peace? Can you punish your way to co-operation? Can you vilify your way to cohesion?
Jimmy Barnes has sent a message to anti-Islam rallies who play his music: stop.
“I only want to say the Australia I belong to and love is a tolerant Australia. A place that is open and giving. It is a place that embraces all sorts of different people, in fact it is made stronger by the diversity of its people. If you look at my family you can see we are a multicultural family. Australia needs to stand up for Love and Tolerance in these modern times.
“None of these people represent me and I do not support them.”
Our artists and musicians, our scientists and aid workers, our doctors and teachers, our grandparents and children – so many in our society are fighting the fear our Prime Minister is working so hard to promote.
Come on, Australia, what are you so afraid of? It’s only Tony talk.
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37 comments
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gronk -
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Kaye Lee -
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Anomander -
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Harquebus -
Kaye Lee
Return to home page“Fear is the mind-killer.”
Sadly the bloke who ‘shouted’ his way into the PM’s job is still spewing forth dangerous talk!
Great article Kaye … thank you.
……….
The ‘insignificant one’ is indeed still spewing fear and mayhem, yet he was oddly very quiet about the punch-ups that called themselves ‘rallies’ in the major cities of Australia over last weekend. …
Now I wonder – just wonder – why that might have been ? ….
When googling two words – “silence is “, many links came up to explain simply or in detail that ‘silence is consent’ …. and I think one might go with that, in this instance. There was ‘silence is deafening’ and ‘silence is golden’ of course, but the first one rang more than a few bells.
Rather think the ‘rabids’ silence on the issues, did infer his consent – not to mention his obviously tacit agreement with that hulking big MP – Christensen, speaking at one of the rallies held in Queensland.
Frankly, none of it surprised me, especially what was NOT said by the ‘leader’. !!!
The ONLY thing the public should be scared of is this Liberal party,with it’s non-stop lying,fear mongering and pandering to the big end of town at the expense of the rest of us.Plus,of course the Libs MSM – Just an undemocratic and biased promotional wing of the Liberal party.
You hit the nail on the head. Thank you Kaye. Sharing.
A typical Tory response is to try to instill fear in the population so we see the exaggeration and even the creation of this fear where there is no real basis for it.
Kaye Lee, you amaze me the way you keep coming up with ideas for an article. And great ideas at that. You are a rare talent.
Did you, like me, wonder what the Reclaim Australia rallies were all about and why George Christensen a coalition politician would address what appeared to be racist groups and why the Prime Minister didn’t tell him to back off.
Strange that a Prime Ministerial fiat forbids the coalition front bench from appearing on ABC’s Q&A yet there is absolute silence about Christensen.
John safran explains about the rally he attended : http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/john-safran-reports-from-the-reclaim-australia-rally-where-things-were-even-scarier-than-he-expected/story-fnu2q5nu-1227451292484
Could have done without the collective maligning of those who oppose the imposition of criminal penalties, particularly capital punishment for victimless crimes.
Maligning? In what way? Comparing the mercy shown to young people who have made a mistake was my aim.
Every border that demarcates the edge of the muslim world is a conflict zone. Where ever muslims come up against non-muslims – its a conflict zone. Australian governments have admitted large numbers of muslims and are then forced to make the POLICE STATE in order to control or keep a lid on things. quite probably they have been deliberately brought here so as to prove the justification for the POLICE STATE.
Even the greens loudly proclaim that bringing vast numbers of muslims to Australia is a great thing – therefore even the Greens favour the introduction of the POLICE STATE
To paraphrase Patrick White on Australia
~ blue sky and grey minds~
I want a ” Don’t be scared. It is only Tony talk” T-shirt.
Yep, joining others in saying you nailed it again Kaye Lee. The big question is how do we get to the sheeple who actually believe the crap Tony and Julie spew about the existential threat to them? Another t-shirt… I’m more afraid of Abbott than IS ?
Kaye, the general public need to be scared that the multimillionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share of taxation, added to that the multinational corporations who make a fortune out of us who are guilty of the same actions need to be pulled into line but instead of that the LNP are suggesting raising the GST by 50% to 15% a great big new tax on everything?
Sadly… the insecurity, jingoism, racism, and bedwetting is given added credibility when the Federal opposition pushes the same pathetic barrow…
Feigning success by using words, like ‘racism’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘debt’ as convenient methods of avoiding scrutiny has been ingrained in the Australian psyche, by this amoral dangerous man.
Each interview affords the chance for the rabbutt to reinforce his destructive successes. He has taken every opportunity to trumpet the desperately urgent need for security ensuring that we act like Pavlov’s dogs to the bell of ‘fear’. The result is now we believe in and react to that fear with every ring of the terror bell, by the rabbutt.
The belief makes any rational response to this man’s tactics as subversive, heretical and ultimately as a weakness not worthy of consideration.
Do Australians believe that muslims are a direct threat to secular society and fear the consequences of immigration?
Do Australians believe that men and women are not equal in the eyes of their god and his church and accept the consequences of sexism?
Do Australians believe that Aboriginal people do not have the right to be treated as individuals and accept the validity of intervention?
Personally, I have never given a rodents rear about religious beliefs because all religions embody fear as its roots but this amoral religiously schooled catholic leads a parliament full of equally indoctrinated private schooled elitists who believe that the poorest 75% of us should lift the load for the rich 25%, by advocating a 50% increase of the GST and a tax cut, is fair?
Fear is the only weapon this government has – to cover up its total lack of social policy, its inaction on unemployment, its inability to control the budget, and to cover up the litany of lies and broken promises.
If they can keep the electorate hiding under their beds, they won’t be able to see what’s happening to the country.
Brilliantly said, Kaye!
Why anyone is listening to Abbott, a man who cannot even manage to sort his household rubbish into three bins without being confused, is beyond my comprehension.
Having English as our national language is a blessing and a curse.
The language opens us up to the fear and hysteria spewing from the American right and the British skinhead types. The language also prevents us from understanding and empathising with the “foreign” victims of violence and natural disasters. A car bomb explodes in Yemen or a building collapses in India… and all we hear are second-hand perspectives from English speaking reporters. We can never hear an account from those who actually suffered. We never get to hear their anguish. They are reduced to extras in their own story…
Australia is scared of me because i am not allowed to post.
It is Australia’s law enforcement and security services that scare me the most. They have the goods on everyone of any importance and will soon have the same on the rest of us.
I think you will find Neil, that if you actually discuss something current that has to do with the thread you will be allowed to post. It isn’t fear of opinion that causes your comments to be moderated – it is a grinding boredom with the same old stuff. Howard good – Gillard and Rudd evil. When you catch up to the present we may have something to discuss.
Australia is not scared of you, Neil. What a childish comment.
It’s more like Australia is bored with you. Bored about hearing – to add what Kaye said – the number of children that were in detention under Howard.
One day I might do a Google search of your comments to actually see how many times you’ve mentioned it. Yes, I admit it’s a childish excersise, but it might amuse me all the same.
At a rough guess I reckon my search will return 1,458 examples on this site alone.
I’m the guilty one for letting Neil’s comment through. My bad.
Great article.
Fear is paralysing the nation.
Hey, how much fear did Zaky Mallah strike into the hearts of the conservatives? Comical wasn’t it?
And while we’re on about fear, how about the terror that rises at election time that forces those totally disillusioned with the LNP and Labour (just about all of us) to still vote for the major parties. You can smell the fear of Green or Independent at every polling booth.
Pingback: Australia: What are you so afraid of? | The shrinkinglobe
Something that should be required viewing for every high school student….
About 10 years ago the BBC released a three part documentary “The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear” I strongly advise everyone commenting on this thread to watch it. The series is available for viewing online.
Here is a quote from the opening minutes of the doco….
“Narrator: In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed and today people have lost faith in ideologies.
Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life, but now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism, a powerful and sinister network with sleeper cells in countries across the world, a threat that needs to be fought by a War on Terror.
But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians.
It’s a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media…”
There’s a saying…. “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves”
No Christian who is serious about their faith could do any thing but say ” absolutely! ” I am filled with respect and admiration for your insights .
Unfortunately I suffer from vexiphobia.
Thanks mars08. I must watch that doco – sounds fascinating.
Funny, I saw this image the other day in a news article and what struck me was the countries farthest away from the middle east are the ones most fearful of ISIS. Seriously?!?
http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/0-survey-1437039076.jpg
Several Western countries, and one essentially Muslim country – Indonesia …. give in to the fear !
Interesting map there, Anomander. ….
,,,,
While here, I do not – simply CANNOT understand why anybody is afraid … or could possibly listen to the fear-mongering from the big-wigs in Canberra. … I just don’t get it.
@ gronk …. ” Every border that demarcates the edge of the muslim world is a conflict zone.”
and you then go on to describe that, a little more …. I cannot see this – not in my neck of the woods anyway .. however, your comments about a ‘police state’ being cultured, might well be on the mark. … It would not, however, come from Muslim / anti-Muslim uproars ( there are 2.09% of Muslims – – of the population ) … it would come from the current government wanting more and more control of the people, to their own ends. … This ideology has begun with the fear-mongering tactics being thrown around …
If it is repeated often enough, it just might be believed ?? … Yes ? – – NO.
To that end, I totally agree with Neil Harris … to print yet another T-shirt … and make a mockery of this rabble in government … turn our backs on them, laugh in their faces – at their ridiculous attempts to undermine the fabric of our society, with ‘fearsome’ threats. …. it is, in my opinion, the only way to defeat their rotten intent.
It seems to me that some people will go out of their way to be frightened…. even when they have the opportunity to see through the hysteria and fear-mongering…
Is it because they can use the bogus horror stories to justify their bigotry?
Kaye Lee, if you ever wonder whether any or all your written words have any effect on the consciousness of Australian society, I can say that it most certainly does. You put into words what so many people think and this can only help those with the same morals to feel part of something worthwhile. It is quite obvious that politicians in Australia live by different laws and rules to those they represent.
Your words have helped me to step up action to protest against politicians that have no vision or desire to act and improve the lives of their constituents and I am sure that people I share your articles with also will be positively affected to act against the continuation of politics as usual.
Thanks again for doing what you do.
H
Politicians may be the biggest cowards. Fear of losing corporate endorsement.
“Men like Cameron, Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper won’t engage in generational struggles with real existential threats – climate breakdown first among them – for fear of alienating their sponsors.”
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/07/21/danger-mice/
Hannibal,
Thanks for your kind words. Sometimes I wonder if pecking away at my keyboard (while neglecting my housework and the taxation office) is purely an indulgence. My family certainly appreciate me having another outlet rather than greeting them every day with “You won’t believe what they did today!”
I started doing this because I really hate being lied to. I hate being manipulated. I hate that our politicians have become populists and that ill-informed focus groups determine policy based on the front page of the Telegraph. I figure the more we share what we know, the more we support others who believe in social justice, the more suggestions we can make to wrest back our country from vested interests, that we can make a difference. Talk to your parents. Talk to your children and your colleagues. There are some people who will always vote conservative but surely they can see that Abbott is a different prospect. Every person that we can awake from their apathy is one more soldier to defend our way of life.