Yesterday I was ignorant.
I had received, unsolicited, a YouTube video about the dangers of GMO which is in the Covid vaccinations most of us have had. My ignorance stemmed from not understanding that GMO is different that vaccination. So I spent about three minutes Googling GMO and vaccinations, and Google came up with an incredibly long list of scientific articles, peer reviewed, from respected scientific and medical journals which seemed to link the two terms together, and more than that show research which confirmed the lifesaving results of GMO vaccinations.
I had seriously dismissed all the hoo-haa conspiracy stuff that flooded the internet during the Covid days, but gee whizz, I am ignorant it seems, or could it be just not all that thrilled about living my life under the clouds of conspiracy theories that seem to occupy too many minds.
Today I am WOKE.
But from the same person, this morning I was ‘woke’, sorry, it was capitalised ‘WOKE’, and in case I didn’t understand what was meant it was ‘Willfully Overlooking Knowable Evidence’. So I could interpret that as not only being ignorant, but also dumb.
I thought perhaps I should check with Google to determine what WOKE really means, and it turns out to something quite positive.
WOKE it turns out, according to the Cambridge Dictionary means ‘aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality.’ Mmmm, that does not sound like willfully overlooking knowable evidence, but rather engaging with the knowable evidence to recognise disadvantage or discrimination when it is evident, so that attitudes can change.
I thanked the person for the complimentary label applied to me, and thanked him for giving me the motivation to write.
When I look at the world we live in and the changes which I have witnessed in my lifetime, recognising Aboriginal people as being people and including them in the population of human habitants of Australia, and giving them the right to vote, the wave of feminism which saw women achieve a degree of equality…. yes, a DEGREE of equality, to see homosexuality decriminalised, abortion rights, voluntary assisted dying for terminally ill patients, freedom to worship or not worship the god(s) of choice, the privilege of living in a wealthy country in fact, per person, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and so many more positive changes we have seen, most of which remain under the threat of being reversed.
In economic terms we have seen the assets of the family home reach such heady heights that most homeowners will die millionaires just because the home they bought when it was affordable is now out of reach for the average worker. I recall the price of the first humble home I purchased in 1970, $12,380.00. My wages were about $100 per week or $5,200 per year. I don’t know how much that house would fetch on today’s market, but at least $600,000 does not sound unrealistic. IN 1970 the house was around 2.5 times my annual income. Today it is valued at around 9 times average annual income. So it has become almost impossible to enter the market without some serious help.
The cost of buying a house has become so expensive that people are forced to rent as they try to save for the deposit of their first home, but rental costs have ballooned. Where four years ago rent on a two bedroomed home where I live was around $240 per week, now almost $500 per week. The minimum take home wage, after tax is around $600 per week.
Poverty is rife. And nothing seems to be being done about it. Being WOKE means I recognise the problem and can maybe pressure governments to do something about it… maybe. I am led to believe this is a wealthy country, but what I see is that those who have the wealth are very much committed to keeping it, even make the pot a bit larger by reducing their taxes and pressuring governments for more of their special interests to be funded, like the government contributions to private schools or any other worthy cause that would benefit those who already have the most.
Being WOKE, I refuse to live in fear.
Fear of the unknown is a great political tool, and the unknown is the danger posed by those who would board an unseaworthy vessel in Indonesia to get across to Australia, the land of milk and honey. It takes a lot to leave a homeland which has become unsafe, where persecution is rife, where difference is scorned. And so, since the pathway to Australia House or the nearest Australian Embassy is not all that accessible, other means are sought to find the desired freedom, only to find that on arrival they are immediately sent off to an offshore detention centre, never to land back in Australia.
The model of sending the unwanted off to remote places has become an example for others to follow, those despairing refugees seeking solace in Great Britain are now boarded a plane to Rwanda. We cannot allow criminals to just come whenever they feel like it. Yet when we look at the desperate people who have arrived here in the past, refugees from WW!!, boat people escaping post war Vietnam and so many others who have arrived here from war torn or intolerant places, escaping religious persecution or ethnic power struggles which have resulted in bloody civil wars or the effects of climate change which has made their homeland uninhabitable, they have made valuable contributions, socially, economically, culturally. Australia is a far better country for the diversity which such immigrants have brought. But please don’t tell anyone that, especially those who are afraid of people who look different, speak different languages, dress differently, worship differently.
And of course, those ethnically diverse migrants bring their self-righteous religious hatreds with them. Much has been made of the knife attacks in NSW in recent days, video footage of the young man attacking the preacher and the quest to find those who rioted as a result of that attack, not to mention the search for other radicalised youths who may pick up a knife and find someone else who has insulted their belief making them worthy of death.
A bit of perspective here. This year, and the year is about 20 weeks old, and 30 women have been killed by men, partners, former partners, men not known to them. Two preachers survived a knife attack, and the attacker is under arrest. The attack in the church was motivated by the firebrand preacher presenting sermons which were broadcast on the internet, available for anyone who wanted to access them, and the sermons were critical of Islam, gay rights and a number of other issues. In earlier times the only people who heard the sermons were those who were in the congregation, in the church as the sermon was delivered. The preacher wants the attack and no doubt his existing and still to come sermons to be available online so he can use his position to not only preach to his congregation but also have those vitriolic words available to anyone who happens to trip over them as they check their social media accounts.
I find that a bit problematic. The inciting of religious difference has consequences. Earlier this week Salman Rushdie was interviewed on 7:30. He has released a new book ‘Knife’, about an attack on him where he was stabbed multiple time including in his right eye. Yes, I am speculating, but about 36 years ago his book ‘Satanic Verses’ was published and since there is in it a dream sequence where one of the protagonists’ dreams of some contact with an angel, it was deemed blasphemous, and a fatwa was issued to kill Salman Rushdie. Memories are long and religious dogma includes the repeating of stories from generation to generation. So an attempt was made on Rushdie’s life in front of an audience he was scheduled to address. (I once asked a local Imam whether he had read Satanic Verses as he was telling me how evil the book was. He hadn’t read it and assured me that he definitely would not read it. What a shame. If he had read the book, he may have enjoyed a really good belly laugh as the absurdities of the plot evolved, and the insult to Islam was not found because there is no insult to Islam.)
So a young radicalised person attacks a preacher, who was possibly instrumental in his radicalisation, just as the Ayatollah Khomeini in issuing the fatwa was instrumental, 35 years later inciting the attack which almost cost Rushdie his life.
So the WOKE me looks at the issues that are around me, that in one way or another touch my life and try to do something to let humanity shine, the anti-WOKE people of the world stoke fear of difference, strive to develop an orthodoxy which marginalises difference.
I wear the WOKE label with pride.
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
