I started a long parable, but it lost its clarity so I decided to reduce it to a couple of paragraphs.

In essence, we still have a slight class war going on. Even though the Labor Party has moved from a left-wing party to the centre, they still have a tendency to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.

So when the Liberals get re-elected, they attack this redistribution, saying that they believe in small government. That Labor shouldn’t be interfering with the economy because that’s not a government’s job.

Labor then get apologetic and when re-elected say that they aren’t interested in class warfare and that they’re really, really sorry but perhaps you billionaires wouldn’t miss a million or so. At which point the class war begins, with only one side firing shots.

Of course, the Liberals – like all generals in a war – have foot soldiers who go into battle. In this case, it’s often the people on a “good” income who are prepared to back the Liberals because of their nice house and their nice car and the fact that they have to work the sort of hours that mean that they don’t have decent relationships with anyone apart from people at their workplace so they don’t notice that they don’t have a real life.

And if someone suggests that there may be more to life than making money, they say that’s loser talk.

Until their company lays them off.

Then it’s Labor’s fault for not interfering with the economy.

P.S. For anyone wondering, the title of this blog was to do with the parable I intended to write about house slaves who – because they were inside and cosy – didn’t realise they were slaves and looked down their noses at the outside slaves.

Of course, every now and then one of the house slaves would be banished to the outside, but this was never the fault of the master; always, it was either the outside slaves who weren’t working hard enough or the slave himself who was blamed.

If one were unkind, one might suggest that politicians are merely the head slaves who are even more deluded than the others.