Apathy in a shit world
NATIONAL
"The prime minister did say where proper arguments exist for the removal of discrimination, we will do so," a joint parties spokesman said.
"But he did say that we believe there are some fundamental institutions of society and one of those is marriage."
In other words discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, which I thought was illegal (but I suspect I'm wrong), is a fundamental institution of Australian society.
I can see "fundamental institution" becoming this year's "non-core election commitment." Our oldest and newest immigrants being treated as an inferior, even subhuman, class by those who arrived in between would have to qualify as an FI. A distorted version of Christianity having greater validity than any other faith must be another. Disregard for international obligations? No problem, it's a fundamental institution in our society.
This is even worse than the last round of excuses I saw - that it's not discrimination because the law allows anyone, whether gay or straight or neither, to marry someone legally recognised as the opposite sex.
It makes me want to twist Ruddock's head off.
(Note to ASIO - I don't intend to, it's just how I feel)
STATE
It's pretty much an inevitable characteristic of our political system that the big organisations with the big spending power will tend to favour the same one of the two major parties.
In the face of saturation election advertising and campaign budgets growing out of control, the poorer party suggested that each party be allocated a limited campaign budget to prevent excessive privately funded campaigns. The idea went down fairly well but was defeated by the ruling party in parliament.
After a change of government, the issue is back on the agenda. Our sole daily paper announced the news with one-third of the front page covered by a pigs-in-trough cartoon, in colour. The greedy pollies now want the poor petrol-starved, mortgage-broken taxpayer to pay for their electioneering as well!
That's not journalism. It's not reporting facts or events and it's not analysis or political commentary. It's a political campaign masquerading as an information service.
SUMMARY SO FAR
These two examples illustrate the way small-minded individuals abuse their small piece of power with potentially broad consequences.
In this tiny, barely significant part of the world there's enough injustice to drive one to despair.
I don't keep anywhere near well enough aware of current affairs. Partly because I'm bloody lazy, and partly because there's only so much of The West Australian, Howard, Barnett, Downer etc that I can take. I try to read a newspaper and it just pisses me the hell off, so I stop. But it's nothing compared to...
INTERNATIONAL
I subscribe to New Internationalist to get access to information about issues that aren't widely reported here, and to feel a little better about myself by proving that I know NI exists. The journalism seldom annoys me, but I still can't bring myself to read very much of it - or perhaps I should say to think very much about what it says.
Every issue describes unimaginable numbers of people suffering in unimaginable conditions. I admire people like MSF who give up their comfort and safety to help other people, but I could never become one of them. I can't make a difference if I can't even handle facing the problem.
It makes my daily routine of whinging about inconsequential acts of stupidity look so ridiculous, but I continue.
I planned to sleep early tonight, but then LJ happened.
Thanks to girliejones for reminding me, quite some time ago, to speak out against stuff. Admittedly I'm speaking to a very small group of people, but it's a start.