By Christian Marx
How did it come to this? I am writing this article on the eve of a potential leadership challenge. It is Sunday 8th April, and next week will be D Day for Turnbull. A potential leadership challenge will take place sometime within the next week. This will be our 6th leadership change in less than a decade. Something is rotten in the heart of Canberra.
One important factor which has changed the political landscape is the weakening of the gatekeeper’s narrative. Every miscalculation, every lie, and every clumsy manoeuvre is now available to any budding citizen journalist via digital media. Privacy is now gone, and the populace know far more than ever before (well, many of us do). However, there are still some dinosaurs who cling to the old propaganda of the mainstream media and their sanitized misinformation. This can only be a good thing …
However, while many are slowly waking up, the country remains in dire straights. Politicians themselves have become increasingly beholden to the narrow self-interested paradigm of Neoliberalism: the zombie, economic voodoo cult which seeks to abolish all that was gained via grassroots militancy. Think of every major gain for the collective good and society as a whole: affordable, universal healthcare, public infrastructure, public education, cheap housing, health and safety laws and regulations, and the affordable upkeep and running of all our utilities via government ownership. All either gone or in the process of being severely weakened.
The bottom line is that there are no independent thinkers in Parliament. No bold visionaries who will stand up for the benefit of the majority, rather than the greedy self-interest of the parasitic few who own and control both sides of government. What Australia needs badly is a real progressive statesperson. A man or woman with the courage to agitate for real and lasting change. A leader who will go against the wealthy establishment and enact a real and radical change. The past 40 years have been a train wreck in slow motion. Australia now has 3 million on or below the poverty line.
Coupled with this is our extraordinary media ownership laws. Our media is one of the most monopolised in the world. A handful of moguls own Australia’s media. All of them filthy rich capitalists who push their hard-right laissez faire economic dogma and narrow world view onto the populace. These propagandists will use racism, smear-campaigns and superficial distractions to throw the spotlight away from their economic bastardry. People are slowly waking up, but it has taken a a long time, and Australia is fast running out of time.
Australia is far from unique in this situation. Both the U.S. and the U.K. have the same problems and one could argue that their problems are even more advanced than in Australia. Even the so-called BBC has blatantly gone out of its way to destroy Jeremy Corbyn. Much like our own sister channel, the ABC, it has been gutted of independent editors and journalists and stacked with a bevy of hardcore, ultra right-wing, economic rationalists devoted to the cult of Austrian economics and Ayn Rand type philosophies. This makes for a very dystopian future.
Which brings us to the point of a potential Fascist taking the reigns of government. 30 years ago this would have been unthinkable … Today it is a possibility. While the weakening of the mainstream media has shone a light into the corrupt crevices and the machinations of Canberra, it has not been enough to destabilise the hard-right Machiavellian nature within the LNP. Unfortunately, mainstream media still has a very powerful hold on many, especially the over 50s.
While Neoliberalism is able to go unchecked and the dominant media is owned and controlled by the extreme-right, it may take another decade before the majority finally wake up to a scenario not dissimilar to 1973 Chile. My Chilean friend who fought against Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s, thinks Dutton is disturbingly like Pinochet and can now see the pre-Fascist shift toward a Fascist Australia. If he is worried, then so should you be! One man in control of a super ministry always spells bad news. Time is running out. Get militant!
[textblock style=”6″]
Christian Marx is a political and social activist interested in making the world a fairer place. He has a Bachelor of Social Science and has a keen interest in sociology, politics and history. He was one of the organizers of the March in March rallies in Melbourne and is the founder of the progressive news and information page, “Don`t Look At This Page”, and is also a co-founder of “The Global Revolution” website.
[/textblock]
[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 gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
