Someone had to say it! Long-time and popular blogger Archie has said what we all think.
Australia has been moved
Moved from extreme concern about the First Hockey Budget to extreme concern about the Islamic terrorist threat.
This coincided with a fall in the polling for the Abbott Government. The result has been a slight return from extreme unpopularity to mild unpopularity in that polling.
News Ltd and consequently all journalists who hope one day to be within that august stable of fearless reporters and commentators have wiped the Budget not only from the front page but also from all the inside pages of our newspapers.
Our televisions and radios have so much news on terrorism, ISIL/ISIL/Non-Islamic Non-State that there is little time left for the other overseas news. The news of the Abbott attack on Russia, his poking of the Bear, and just an occasional mention of the massive invasion of refugees we are suffering daily. Of course, suddenly all those refugees have turned magically into Muslims, who will not be targeted except by dog whistles.
No time, no space for that most unpopular budget
It no longer exists. It is as extinct as the Norwegian Blue of Monty Python fame. Except that the worms escaping from its body are still eating away at what is left of our society.
Yet still the polls are not swinging wildly in Abbott’s favour. The latest polling averages out to around 47.5% to the Government. Enough to put a touch of fear into the backrooms of the Party faithful planning the next election. Enough to rule out a much needed early double dissolution.
As a consequence, in further attempts to terrify the populace into supporting Abbott and his insanities, we are losing freedoms every day. Now all our cyber activities are available to Senator Brandis at the stroke of a single pen on a single sheet of paper. We no longer have freedom of movement around the world. Our civil rights are being eroded with every sitting of our Parliament.
Our Attorney General, George Brandis explained that there is nothing unusual in all this curtailing of freedom. That the common man has spent most of his existence in servitude. That this Government is simply restoring the natural order of things.
Which is a coded message for, “Support us in the polls or we will take the next step”.
What is that next step?
Well, it seems there is little room left to move.
After practising secrecy with the Department of Torture and disappearances Border Protection It seems that the secrecy surrounding ASIO is to be beefed up with journalists being put on notice that they are not to even look at the ASIO building upon pain of incarceration and banishment from the Murdoch Press.
Which leaves just one fearsome act possible in a danger filled country filling with unreasoned fear. Fear created and danger carefully orchestrated by this Government under the auspices of tony Abbott’s landlord, the AFP and their bedfellows, ASIO.
An Australia under martial law
No elections.
No need for any more annoying polls.
No more Parliament for that will be suspended because of the emergency.
No discussion about the rights or wrongs.
No more civil liberties for they will become treasonous.
Bloggers, tweeters and the Fifth Estate will be arrested.
The 3am knock on the door will be coming to a home near you!
Those people under thirty who need welfare will get their work for the dole – IN UNIFORM!
Soldiers with automatic weapons on every street corner.
Tony Abbott as Prime Minister for life.
Sometime during 2015 it will be . . .
“WELCOME TO ABBOTT’S BRAVE NEW AUSTRALIA”
The Democratic Commonwealth of Australia.
This article was first posted on Archie’s blog at archiearchive.wordpress.com and has been reproduced with permission.
Every time I see a picture of that Queensland tosspot attorney general I think of Mr Magoo.
Poor Mr Magoo.
Important to explore possibilities like this article does. Even pieces written partly in jest may have a hint of futures. Look also at more straitlaced pieces like http://honesthistory.net.au/wp/cannon-paul-fascism-characteristics-and-australia/ and http://honesthistory.net.au/wp/broinowski-alison-fascism-and-fraser/ and the sources linked therefrom. In (allegedly) stressful times all options are on the table, especially if opinion polls owned by an ally don’t come up trumps.
Forget about Abbott. The ASIO bill passed with Labor’s complete support.
Now is the time, almost a thousand years after the event. Now is the time, for the Christian world to reflect on the last almost one thousand years of carnage that has dogged the human race in the name of religion and loving gods.
When Pope Urban urged Holy war he spoke in these words:
“O race of Franks! Race beloved and chosen of God… From the confines of Jerusalem and from Constantinople a grievous report has gone forth that an accursed race, wholly alienated from God, has violently invaded the lands of these Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire… Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from a wicked race, and subject it to yourselves.”
In his call to war, he promised that the sins of crusading soldiers would be wiped out “by the power of God vested in me.” His strongest enticement was the promise of plunder and rapine: a new territory was being presented to be carved up, to the glory of god.
Along the road to Palestine, the crusader mob burned Jews alive in their houses and temples, forced them to baptism at sword point, raped and committed other atrocities against young and old. In Prague alone they murdered several thousands Jews. [Poliakov I, 42-45] They did their blood work to a fearsome cry: Hep! Hep! This shout has a clerical origin, abbreviating the Latin phrase: Hierosalyma est perdita, “Jerusalem is lost.” It survived as a pogrom chant into the 20th century across Russia and Europe
The Crusaders battle cry of Hep, Hep, was added to as they moved through Hungary. In Hungary they saw executioners taking off heads by having the victims kneeling, hands tied behind their backs with head up. So when the sword came horizontally from behind, the heads would pop up in the air leaving a geyser of blood to leap momentarily into the air.
The executioner dispatched his victim with a cry of “To Paradise” which sounded like ‘Hooraah’.
When Jerusalem fell to the Christian armies, the crusaders slaughtered the city’s inhabitants: Muslims, Jews and Christians, men, women and children. The Franks’ own chroniclers admitted to killing 10,000, the mounted knights splattered in blood up to their hips. One wrote, “We slaughtered without regard for age or sex.” [Gontard, 250] Muslim sources wrote that the crusaders killed 100,000 people. Their violence shocked the Muslims, who had peaceably allowed Christian pilgrims to visit Palestine for several centuries.
And to this day, we celebrate happy times, by crying “Hip, Hip Hooray” and throwing our hats into the air to simulate heads flying into the air.
We still don’t seem to understand how Muslims might find this hateful? Or why the ISIL call our troops in Iraq Crusaders? These are tribal peoples, who hold grudges for thousands of years and follow “an eye for an eye” culture of vengeance.
Finally, from Palestinian poet and eyewitness Mosaffer Allah Werdis, a survivor of the 1120’s equivalent of our 9/11:
We have mingled our blood and our tears
None of us remains who has strength enough to beat off these oppressors;
Oh, that so much blood has to flow,
that so many women were left with nothing save their bare hands to protect their modesty!
Amid the fearful clashing of swords and lances, the faces of the children grow white with horror.”
Will we ever learn a peaceful way, to live together?
John Ward
johnlward010@gmail.com
62921211
20 Grosse Road
Gordon
7150
We are all diminished by the violation of humanity, whether we are silently complicit, choose not to know as citizens, or fail to inform and disclose the truth as the media or the Government.
For those who say, it’s too complicated and I don’t have time for politics, they leave their own rights and the freedoms of all unguarded. It seems many would pay more attention to buying a car, or house insurance, or a trip, than in selecting a Government.
We could aspire to be more like the Danes, who saved most of their 7,000 or so Jews. So, how were the Jews of Denmark saved, when they were readily rounded up in other parts of Europe? When other countries such as France’s Vichy regime literally handed Jews over for deportation. Why did the Danes embark on non-collaboration with the Nazis in the rounding up of the Jews for Deportation? Is there a lesson to be learned here.
This question is examined by Bo Lidegaard in his book Countrymen.
He concludes that for the Danes there was no us and them — there was just us.
@Leigh Hegg
That’s the really terrifying bit.
We know that this guvmint is rotten beyond belief: we hope that it might totter … but who will emerge from under its carcase ?
I’ve already reached the point of despair.
Labor until Bill Shorten is crap. The Greens are not sufficiently sane across the board. Maybe we could make the Big X a party on his own, now that he’s over the stunts …?
Let’s face it: the reason these total bastards aren’t sunk in the polls is that they have no competition. We’re all doomed.
This is moving beyond conspiracy into idiotic paranoia. Goodbye, weirdos.
Actually, all that is too close to truth to be funny…. :O
What is the opposition doing about it?
the rabbott has his avoidance strategy all under control. at the bbqx labor is the negative force opposing everything and the rabbott is positive. little billy and torpid tanya are left with only one course of action and that is to force the rabbott into the media by exposing his character flaws. Sadly it appears that the middle names of the labor pollies are philby, burgess and maclean with little billy as blunt
Awww…. Oi dunno whats youse al wingiing bout. Toni’s stopped the boots and made ektricity cheap and and hes stoped that waisty super thing and gives us more in the pocket.. and hes told those Muslins a thing or to and if Brandys want to look at my inteenet he wood probly have as much fun as I doo. Youse al thimk to mucch!!!!!
Someone had to say it! Long-time and popular blogger Archie has said what we all think.
For think I would suggest feel. I wonder if Archie believes we’ll all be micro chipped in the coming few years. I think we can do without this kind of hysterical thinking – though I can appreciate Archie’s frustration and alarm. This, I reckon, is not the way to go given the crap that’s currently going down. We need to recognise that our fears are being poked and exploited, possibly deliberately for political purposes – and that what many of us feel are real feelings.
(As one of Freud’s contemporary’s said: The only part of a dream that is real is the feeling. The rest is made up to rationalize the feeling – or words to that effect.)
Best to get a grip and become more cortical and rational about all this – like we hopefully do when we freak out about a snake, get out of the way, and then a little time later, decide what to do. This is the situation. Now what do we do about it. That kind of approach.
@johnward154
Your material about the mentality of those Christians involved in the Crusades way back then was well expressed. Ta.
Democracy isn’t a driving force, money is, ideology is, fear, hate and love and moral superiority are driving forces for action, but generally Democracy is just a noble principle that most people don’t really understand but have been culturally conditioned to revere.
All in all, Democracy isn’t that great, on its own it is majority rule, yet if we had a society based on majority rule then we would do some strange things, mostly because people have no real concept of balancing practicality and morality; in a true Democracy we would currently be building a Star Wars style Death Star in orbit, because people are ridiculously ridiculous like that. In a majority rule society minorities would be at a huge disadvantage.
Capitalism is the idea that if you do something society benefits from then you earn reward relative to that contribution, Capitalism is ultimately a socialist tool; it is supposed to take the inherent self centred/preserving nature of the typical citizen and use it to focus that ambition on actions that all of society are progressed by. We don’t really see that; mostly an economy best serves those in the position to exploit its strengths, because they can and who wouldn’t prefer the fruits of a successful industry to be focused on their own personal comfort and privilege? Well maybe really nice people wouldn’t but nice people seldom have the ruthless ambition it takes to scale the corporate ladder.
So government, The Republic, is basically a tool that is supposed to balance Capitalist economic interests with the Democratic social interests, but as wealth is the driving force, while the People are only what is driven, then the wealth stands out in acquiring itself prioritisation in the whole mess. Wealth has the “extortion” capability of refusing to invest in any kind of action if it isn’t happy with the return, so it blackmails the Republic into progressive disproportion in its favour, at a cost to social welfare.
Democracy has a lot of the blame to shoulder in this because Democracy is a big part of the “politicisation” of the Republic; because we elect Representatives into the Republic they are more inclined to do what is popular with us rather than what is in our best interests, so the People are fed pacifiers while the Republic pays dues to the private sector. What we need is to elect authorities that make sure the Republic serves the People, not elect the Republic itself. Plato never intended the Republic to be filled based on the popularity platform, he intended experts and our finest academics to take the lead, that each issue would have those who stand out in relevant fields and they should be appointed legal teams to advocate their findings, instead we have the opposite of that; most politicians are lawyers or the like and experts only stand to serve their whims, and largely in a limited capacity if those politicians do not like the findings.
So I say the Republic should look more like that; each issue appointing relevant experts, those experts could set up social networking platforms where other citizens, amateur or professional, can contribute to the debate and formulation of options, so that ultimately anyone could possibly contribute to the direction of the community/society/humanity if their ideas are workable, and to make sure the Republic keeps a valid window between practicality and morality that will suit the Capitalists yet still be in the best interests of the People, we should elect notable investigators to head up their own anti-corruption watchdog teams, who can independently roam and analyse the integrity of both the experts and the process.
So I’d say the Empire doesn’t need devolution, it needs to be a Democratic Capitalist Republic, it just needs to be done right, and we will find when we actually get it right then all these basket case regions in the world will for once have a solid blueprint to build a workable system on, and all those extremist movement will have no real disproportion to base their ideological aggression on.
@ Ray Butler – thanks for that thoughtful commentary. Your ideas offer some positive direction out of the current impasse. Its refreshing to read a new take on these age old issues.
I don’t think I have ever before been more embarrassed or annoyed when I hear this Prime Minister speaking to the United Nations, telling them what a great compassionate and humanitarian nation we are and what fine global citizens we are.
This from a man who dodged the climate summit the previous day because his government has no policies on climate change and who today is bribing the Cambodian dictator, Hun Sen , to assume our responsibilities for our asylum seekers and refugees.
Is this really what we want for Australia ?
When driving along the western freeway in Brisbane the other morning I saw four armoured personnel carriers fully armed. I thought then that Abbott had taken the next step.
@Phil; thanks, I’m a huge fan of all 3 principles (Democracy, The Republic, and even Capitalism) notably because I have a profound respect for Plato and Adam Smith’s insights, knowing they were good men at heart and what they envisioned was a reflection of themselves, just unfortunately the inclinations of lesser men tend to erode even the finest idea over time. Democracy is something different now to what it originally was, the old majority rule idea is largely debunked and mostly people accept that, but it does have an important place as a social emblem for the People, and the People are the real heart of the matter. So I just aim to give whatever perspective I can and hope people can build a real direction out of it, yet knowing the dangers of messing with such a complex arrangement, I really think it is already being messed with and by the wrong people, the more narcissistic of nature rather than the insightful.
Great history lesson, thank you.
So that’s why soldiers still march to ‘hep hep.’
Not that I’ve heard any marching calls other than in US war films I was forced to attend with my brothers.
@johnward154, @Ray Butler Fascinating comments. My research tells me anything less than a total departure from fiat currency, in favour of a “Resource Based Economy”, will only continue to present the same problems of excessive poverty for civilians and perpetually sprawling inexorable militarism.
Critical content below!
thevenusproject.com/