fickle mush-heads
[flist: please ignore, ranting at nation]
They're telling Dick Smith to stay out of politics.
I guess reasoned argument has no place in politics,
just like facts have no place in organised religion.
Is it just me,
or is this election campaign particularly stupid?
I mean, I know, catering, as they do
to the fleeting, skittish moods of the swinging voter,
they generally are. Stupid.
But this...
the relentless repetition of focus-grouped keywords
to the point of gibberish,
the figurehead obsession,
the mind-numbing fear ads,
the insistent pro-money media cant,
and so on, all turned up to 11,
unrelieved at any point by even a moment of soul.
We kneejerk our way to the polling booth,
presented with a surreally irrelevant selection of issues:
1. Backstabbing Bitch
Was Rudd stabbed in the back
by Gillard and the Numbers Boys,
or was he stabbed in the front
by the Mining Barons?
Come on. You all saw it.
And it only cost them $7 million -
we was bought cheap.
2. Stop the Boats
There's an invasion! But don't worry,
Abbot'll get on a flak vest and a Steyr,
and just go and sort of sort out
all those wars and famines and whatnot,
so everyone can go back home.
Labor's tack is just as daft.
What difference does it make where we detain refugees?
We're still detaining them,
which costs us money and reputation,
them dignity, not to mention a piece of their life,
and everyone some productivity.
The major parties court xenophobia
to distract from the plain fact that
the impulse behind high immigration
is corporations poaching skilled labour
from poorer and/or more troubled countries,
to dilute wages and avoid training costs.
Those fuckers are driving us into global peasantry,
but the voters should be worried about boats and burqas?
Tsunami warning:
A sizeable chunk of those economic migrants were from the US.
The world is changing rapidly.
Current levels of human migration
will seem like the good old days.
3. Greenishness
This would be relevant if we could get beyond
the stream-of-consciousness buzzword babble -
sustainable, sensible, renewable, economically viable...
The words are there, but when it comes to action,
it's maniana maniana like there's gonna be a tomorrow.
Copenhagen summed it up:
carbon emissions shall be reduced at about the same rate
as the availability of fossil fuels is predicted to fall.
The population, meanwhile, seems to be growing vaguely aware
that it is likely to fall in similar fashion -
the Greens are still finding votes
even without the money to get a word in edgewise.
4. Gender and Such
Yay team!
When facing global depression and world war,
our top priority should be to choose the right figurehead!
Forget policies, who can spin the most comforting lies?
This red-headed muppet, or that chimp in a suit?
Helpfully, corporations (notably the mining and tobacco industries)
have spared no expense to let us know:
"chimp" is the correct answer.
To read the papers, the election's already over.
For fuck's sake Australia!
We may not have much of a culture,
but it at least used to involve
a deep-seated suspicion of power and wealth.
Perhaps I was mistaken.
Nowadays, people seem to be lapping up bullshit
as fast as the PR firms are paid to shovel it out.
I'm appalled at how easily opinions can be modified,
rationality not required.
The corporate plan is to make the world more like Indonesia,
and hardly anyone seems interested.
Economics is too boring, apparently,
even if it does pull the strings on everything else.
.
They're telling Dick Smith to stay out of politics.
I guess reasoned argument has no place in politics,
just like facts have no place in organised religion.
Is it just me,
or is this election campaign particularly stupid?
I mean, I know, catering, as they do
to the fleeting, skittish moods of the swinging voter,
they generally are. Stupid.
But this...
the relentless repetition of focus-grouped keywords
to the point of gibberish,
the figurehead obsession,
the mind-numbing fear ads,
the insistent pro-money media cant,
and so on, all turned up to 11,
unrelieved at any point by even a moment of soul.
We kneejerk our way to the polling booth,
presented with a surreally irrelevant selection of issues:
1. Backstabbing Bitch
Was Rudd stabbed in the back
by Gillard and the Numbers Boys,
or was he stabbed in the front
by the Mining Barons?
Come on. You all saw it.
And it only cost them $7 million -
we was bought cheap.
2. Stop the Boats
There's an invasion! But don't worry,
Abbot'll get on a flak vest and a Steyr,
and just go and sort of sort out
all those wars and famines and whatnot,
so everyone can go back home.
Labor's tack is just as daft.
What difference does it make where we detain refugees?
We're still detaining them,
which costs us money and reputation,
them dignity, not to mention a piece of their life,
and everyone some productivity.
The major parties court xenophobia
to distract from the plain fact that
the impulse behind high immigration
is corporations poaching skilled labour
from poorer and/or more troubled countries,
to dilute wages and avoid training costs.
Those fuckers are driving us into global peasantry,
but the voters should be worried about boats and burqas?
Tsunami warning:
A sizeable chunk of those economic migrants were from the US.
The world is changing rapidly.
Current levels of human migration
will seem like the good old days.
3. Greenishness
This would be relevant if we could get beyond
the stream-of-consciousness buzzword babble -
sustainable, sensible, renewable, economically viable...
The words are there, but when it comes to action,
it's maniana maniana like there's gonna be a tomorrow.
Copenhagen summed it up:
carbon emissions shall be reduced at about the same rate
as the availability of fossil fuels is predicted to fall.
The population, meanwhile, seems to be growing vaguely aware
that it is likely to fall in similar fashion -
the Greens are still finding votes
even without the money to get a word in edgewise.
4. Gender and Such
Yay team!
When facing global depression and world war,
our top priority should be to choose the right figurehead!
Forget policies, who can spin the most comforting lies?
This red-headed muppet, or that chimp in a suit?
Helpfully, corporations (notably the mining and tobacco industries)
have spared no expense to let us know:
"chimp" is the correct answer.
To read the papers, the election's already over.
For fuck's sake Australia!
We may not have much of a culture,
but it at least used to involve
a deep-seated suspicion of power and wealth.
Perhaps I was mistaken.
Nowadays, people seem to be lapping up bullshit
as fast as the PR firms are paid to shovel it out.
I'm appalled at how easily opinions can be modified,
rationality not required.
The corporate plan is to make the world more like Indonesia,
and hardly anyone seems interested.
Economics is too boring, apparently,
even if it does pull the strings on everything else.
.