What I reckon... By Ross Carroll. The current Coalition are Anti Australian...here’s why; There are many similarities between Australian Culture and that of our cousins in the USA. But one difference, that the Liberal and National Party’s Coalition is attempting to accelerate, is the destruction of the core of who we are as a people and what we once celebrated with pride. It’s our sense of egalitarianism and `Mateship’. Weary Dunlop noted during his time in the Japanese Camps as a POW that out of the British, Americans and Australians as POW internees, it was the Australians who had the greater number of survivors at the end of the war. He saw that the British held to their class system and the Americans to their individuality. The Australians though, looked out for each other - strong and weak, and maintained a higher number of Soldiers to return home. We’ve always done that. It’s what we celebrate at the heart of Gallipoli and the spirit of the ANZAC tradition. Our system has always been a good mix of Capitalism and Socialism. We’ve tended to neither go too far to the left or too far to the right. Everyone asks Malcolm Fraser nowadays why he’s gone so far to the left. He replies that he hasn’t changed - it’s his party that’s left him for the far right. And he’s correct. The ALP aren’t blameless either with their move to the right in their misguided attempts to stay relevant and in power (for the sake of it). Rather than retake the Australian political narrative they’ve timidly forsaken it. The Greens and Palmer United are poaching those who are disillusioned with the two major parties. Though Palmer is to the right - I think he speaks to those who are a bit more to the left of those in the Coalition. That’s in no way an endorsement of Palmer - Like many Australians I’m still very suspicious of the mans motives. America is divided politically at the moment and I believe it’s due, some time in the very near future, for a civil revolution. It’s not unheard of or unexpected. Thomas Jefferson encouraged it and felt that a revolution every few generations would be essential for the Republic’s longer term survival. What separates Australians from Americans though, is that we are being encouraged to follow the American rights flawed mindset of individuality at the expense of the wider good. America’s justice system has been corrupted by the money of private prisons so that the companies who run the prisons pay lawmakers to change the laws to send more prisoners to them and keep a hell of a lot incarcerated. The trouble with this is that it’s the `state’ run by taxes that pays them. But the right don’t like paying taxes because they believe `big government goes against what they believe is an American’s right of individuality. They demand lower taxes, their politicians are eager to win their vote so they lower the tax rate. They encourage privatisation of services, such as the prison system, to make it more competitive. The business that comes from privatising the prisons have only one customer - the state. The state find they still have to pay to incarcerate their crime breakers but they have less money to do so because they’ve lowered taxes and so they go bankrupt. This is madness and it’s the same kind of system that the right in Australia want us to adopt. This craziness extends across the whole spectrum of American society. It’s education system has been corrupted by private tertiary education to the point that generations of Americans are being forced into huge long term debt to pay for an education so they can work. They spend so much of their lives working they don’t live. If you don’t live you don’t spend and so the wider economy suffers. It’s Banking system has been corrupted with almost complete deregulation. Banks are allowed to speculate with their investors money like gamblers with an unlimited credit line. The 2008 GFC came about when this unsustainable system was `played and lost. When President Obama tried to set up a system to bail ordinary Americans out of the mess and fix it - the right blocked him because to their mind `Losers shouldn’t be supported by money from the winners’. Huh? Want to know why the Republicans block every single law the man has tried to pass? It’s a strategy born from a meeting of Republicans in Washington on the day of Obama’s Inauguration. The Republicans are willing to sink the entire nation so they can rebuild it in their own image rather than let anyone else run the country and destroy their profit margin. It’s sadly as simple as that and they unashamedly admit it. Americans now are celebrating their energy independence via coal seam fracking. Sorry America - but I personally think this is going to be the end of your country - no ground water, an excess of sodium in your soil and an unstable and cracked geology that will let any rain water just trickle through to nothing. Look at the Sahaha desert - that’s Americas future. This is the system the Coalition want us to follow. An unsustainable and selfish vision that will ultimately ruin a once great nation. But we have a chance to avoid this. We have to reinstate Science and Education, not to where it once was but at the forefront of where it should be - as an investment in our country - not a cost. From a well educated and employed community we will reap the benefits of lesser social discord and greater prosperity as a people. We have to build an economy where renewable energy and the industries that will grow from it are at the base of it. Imagine how our economy will thrive if energy is almost free? We have to stop digging up our farm land for coal and gas and destroying our precious water tables - we live on the worlds driest continent for gods sake, how on earth can we possibly justify this? Our current living generations are allowing the Great Barrier Reef to die from our own short sighted mining greed. Why aren’t we more outraged?! It’s the Great Barrier Reef WERE killing!! I’m an optimist. I believe the future will be a mixture of high tech and low tech - The Jetsons mixed with some Flintstones. Plastics and other technology such as batteries made from Hemp and oil made from algae. (No really! This is real technology). Fish, seaweed and algae farming off shore, Animals, fruit and veg and grains onshore. Our future internet and computers will work and be connected and powered from light. Algorithms will intelligently work in the background within software systems to allocate power and resources where they are needed and not wasted. People will buy and sell products and produce at local and connected markets. Our homes will be powered by free Solar energy and our industry from Thermal Solar Plants. Money could be earned for our nation and destructive mining replaced by supplying base load energy from Solar Thermal Plants to Energy hungry Asian economies. But we have to stop the corruption now if we’re going to survive. We have to stop our politics at all levels from accepting money from wealthy individuals and corporations. We shouldn’t be demonising the payment of taxes. Yes we should demand we get more value for money but having a larger and more efficient, transparent & accountable Government should not be a bad thing. Business should be encouraged to pay more tax so that it makes more sense to invest profits within a business in it’s people and growth as a business rather than the current system of any profits being drained into the pockets of the CEO’s, Directors and Shareholders. Never forget - WE”RE the ones with the power. NOT THEM. We have to remember that our country gained it’s unique character as a bunch of society’s outcasts - sent away to the other side of the planet from all civilisation to fend for ourselves. We did it. We’ve lasted now and thrived and grown as a society because we came together and looked out for each other as a people - for the most part - Sorry Aborigine’s. Now as a way of us all moving forward - will you forgive us? But back to the point. The Coalition are trying to divide us as a people and a people divided are easily conquered. Look at the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, The Sunni’s and Shiite’s in Iraq. The Palestinian’s and Jews in Israel. We cannot as a people become like them. Don’t let Tony Abbott and his divisive politics divide the Australian people further for the short term gains of a very small minority of wealthy corporations and individuals. Take on what I’ve written here - build on it and write to your local MP or repost it. But don’t let them get off so easy and don’t give up. Thanks for reading Ross Carroll. Newcastle, NSW.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:23:21 +0000
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