So Smells Defeat.

In a “fantastical” essay , circa 1940, American composer and sometime author; George Antheil describes a frightening scenario of social collapse, economic despair and human misery evolving from a unspecified military defeat. It works through the various stages and locales in city and country of acts of desperation and eventual poverty-driven decadence and crime, culminating in the rise of a authoritarian political philosophy led by power-mania and vengeance upon those opportunistically seen to be oppressing the nation. He implies that this nation could very well be America in another age, but concludes that it ; “…may be America. It was Germany; 1918 – 1934…So smells defeat.”

Some of the decadence described may or may not have been so visibly dramatic, but there are horrifying glimpses describing our society at this point in time..particularly those about the wealthy and their political stooges riding high on the corruption of their nation’s decayed social conditions. These types of parasites exist in every society since the beginnings of the trappings of organised governance, unfortunately they bloom most visibly in times of social and worker distress..in a time of economic uncertainty and lopsided wealth distribution…We are seeing it in these times with too many corporate personalities leaning to the right-wing of governance rubbing shoulders with favoured politicians, seeking taxpayer monies to fund infrastructure projects most beneficial to their speculative enterprises..while much needed education, communication and social programs get defunded..and the wages of those most needed to produce the wealth of the nation get cut or reduced to help grow the profits of individual or corporation.

There is a dangerous (to the working class) level of political “cross-pollination” between the vested interests most keen for govt’ lobby representation and the recruitment of the “retired” politician. This is unfortunately NOW a regular occurrence across all political parties. I don’t know if the attraction of a tidy little nest-egg above their even now quite generous retirement income and superannuation pool is the driving motive, or perhaps just the addiction of keeping one’s personality in the “game” of political action. Whatever the attraction, I would have hoped those “retirees” of the left could restrain themselves or at least to confine their extra-political employment to activities more in keeping to the political philosophies most embraced and most rewarding personally during their role of public representative!

Was watching the ABC “The Drum” (fuck knows why) and there was this ex-politician, the ex LNP , NSW state govt’ treasurer who informed us that he was now high up in the Industry Super Fund Administration…WTF!!??…ok so he may be qualified for the task, but I ask you ; Does he have the ticker and the loyalty for the fund?..or will he be playing a waiting-game for his political sympathisers, ready to drop the whole enterprise snugly into the waiting hands of Big Bank capital speculation and thereby putting the retirement prospects of many workers at risk?..it has to be asked..in all fairness, it has to be asked, as these same individuals may at some time been the biggest ideological opponents of the very funds they now represent.

And then we have Anna Blight doing something for some bastard speculative mob..oh yes ; the banking lobby.. and a number of other retired from politics people working for the “opposite side”, making hay while their sun still shines!..not to mention that bastard of bastards Marty Ferguson working for the fucking mining lobby!…I mean..: who do you trust?..and there are others whose unmemorable achievements I forget…there’s some one now employed as a consultant now for the gambling crowd and so on it goes…I expect a retiring cardinal that we are all familiar with soon to hang out his shingle as agent for a brothel or two!

With the election to Secretary of the ACTU , the workers representative body adopting a new attitude that has drawn a line under this right-wing methodology of using the lowest paid members of society to fund the tax-haven hoards of the wealthiest members and corporations..many of them foreign controlled and run, there is an imperative for us to declare our loyalty to the citizen union body and be prepared to defend our national interest from unrestrained plunder in every quarter by these opportunists and venture capitalists.

The Right-wing of the political parties of Australia must be confronted…it MUST be, as we always suspected it would have to be one day, as their modus operandi has through all time been one of an un-intelligent continuity of take-take-take until there is nothing more to grasp and then it’s onto the oppression until there is nothing more to oppress and then the killing starts…it’s not just some paranoia talking, you can read it it in even the most cursory glance over history..and if one doesn’t learn from history…The Right-wing has no grasp nor interest in social contracts for running either an economy or society..their method of seeking “the good life” through the “door of opportunity” is the use of blunt instruments…to ram the door down and shatter it to bits in the hope of the instant wealth they have convinced everyone is just there behind the door…not for them the precision of an economic scalpel, nor the social conciliation of all-embracing inclusion..no..it’s just a dumb smash and grab venture and the devil take the hindermost!

We of the educated working classes must step up to take a more leading role in the governance of the nation. We can no longer trust an indolent private-school educated middle-class to “manage” our society..they have neither the “outrage of injustice” we witness against our fellow citizens, nor the experience of a “humiliation of poverty” to motivate them to strike or stage “physical protest” to protect our families and way of life.. For too long have the working class deffered to those seen as “more qualified” to speak on our behalf, to represent our needs and aspirations..when all the while, in many cases as written above, they were always only interested in the part of the negotiations that stopped at the gross net income more in keeping for the life they have become accustomed to!

I will leave the last words to George Antheil to describe what could possibly await those who do not subscribe to community ideals and ethics..to those who are more inclined to forgo the collective bargaining tools for individual opportunity..:

“…But a new type of crime will spring into being, it will be the crime of desperation, inhibition and inability to cope with the new life dictated by national defeat and the consequent new economic conditions. Their crimes will be the crimes of those who were never intended to be criminals, they will be stupid, ridiculous and terribly ineffectual crimes…” ……George Antheil .

So smells defeat.