The following article was quite disturbing - in part because it shows the gullibility/lack of independence/lack of critical thinking of a concerning number (perhaps a majority, but in any case, a significant portion) of Australians, in part because it shows more of the lingering (evil, in my opinion) influence of John Howard, and in part because there doesn’t appear to be an effective response ...
“Taking tips from John Howard, Peter Dutton knows the barbecue stopper is key to shaping the national conversation” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/15/taking-tips-from-john-howard-peter-dutton-knows-the-barbecue-stopper-is-key-to-shaping-the-national-conversation
Working through those, the first thought which comes to mind is that the success of this strategy is evidence that Donald Horne’s contention six decades ago in “The Lucky Country” (goodreads, Penguin) (which I commented on here and here * ) was right: Australia as a whole seems to be (or gives a strong impression of) a nation with mediocre leadership.
But the thing about that is: why are Australians overall (this does NOT apply to all Australians) so apathetic/amathiac/easily misled that they allow that sort of incompetent leadership to continue (at all levels of society - this applies to too many businesses and community organisations as well [and even some aspects of the justice system, perhaps? - see here and here])?
This also requires consideration of the social (and psychic) soup that we all live in. My experience is that forcing newspapers to stop misleading the public is probably the most promoted solution (others experience will no doubt be different - which does NOT invalidate the fact of my experience being my experience), but the best inoculation is to make people invulnerable to it - and that requires teaching critical thinking, beginning in schools.
On the second item, I have written about Howard previously on my political blog (e.g., see here, here, and here). He did good with the gun ban, but in every other way the damage he did to Australia was, in my opinion, massive - especially on racism and landlordism.
On the lack of a response, I note that there have been good responses against, for instance, transphobes (prompt, articulate, etc), but there seems to be an attitude that when problematic attitudes/behaviour are officially or semi-officially in another party, there is a risk of political insiders writing that behaviour - and the real life harm it is actively causing - off as “normal political business/skulduggery” ... but it most definitely is not, and dealing with some backwardness early and effectively is vital - as an example of what happens when that isn’t done, consider World War (part) Two and its legacy - including a former n_ z_ who had a leading role in setting up the mass torture systems in Syria under the al-Assad regime ...
With regard to the responses themselves, they have to address the attitudes etc of voters - not the clique who are proposing any particular response, but they could and should validly include education.
OK, so what can we do?
Well first and foremost, be politically active to the extent that you can - especially around promoting both critical thought and emotional competence.
Secondly, those who do the work of this blog should continue to BPM support those who can respond, and also weaken the problems by clearing nonBPM units.
* My original mention in that post was:
“And a very noteworthy article this week is: “Australia and much of the world is on the cusp of profound change. What happens next is up to us” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/01/australia-and-much-of-the-world-is-on-the-cusp-of-profound-change-what-happens-next-is-up-to-us This article compares Australia in 1964, when Donald Horne’s book “The Lucky Country” (goodreads, Penguin) was published (and the nation-state Australia’s failure to develop a native space industry then is comparable to the nation-state Australia’s failure to become a powerhouse exporter of renewable energy over the last couple of decades - not to mention the nation-state Australia’s failure to match the innovations of the First Peoples of this island-continent, IMO - and the nation-state Australia’s follow-the-leader adoption of neoliberalism is a further example of mediocre leadership/management), with Australia now - and argued that Australia and the world globally now are on the edge of major change, but “... if it is the beginning of a period of autocracy, new methods of transformational advocacy, already modelled by the community independents, we will need to reassert the best of humanity; signing online petitions will not be enough.” Definitely some good food for thought in that article - on several matters.”
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
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Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).#PsychicABetterWorld and candles for Viva La Résistance à Tr_ mp! and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM
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