Governance by “Establishment”.

In light of the commentary flooding in from those who support “The Trump Phenomenon” and see it as the start of a “disruption” of the old establishment order of politics, I offer this humble article as an explanation of just what “Establishment” really is.

Giambattista Vico, in the age of enlightenment was seen as one of the first great “sociologists”..His cyclical theory of governance went as so: “ Vico saw history as a cyclical process — theocracy, aristocracy, democracy …” with a kind of recycling through those systems in turn…Of course, he was before the time of that other great political movement that has tremendous and long lasting repercussions into our own age…the rise and success of Communism as a governing order.

Whichever of the above are adopted by either consensus of voting or by enactment of aggression, it has to be admitted that each in its own way governs through a methodology of a central core of an “Establishment” of inner-circle power brokers and advisers. There may be an “approved face” at the “front-counter”, but all orders of governance and directives and edicts come from a caucus of faceless people.

Such has been the style of governance since the time of Augustus and the establishment of the Roman Empire and the ongoing ; “Pax Romana”..another faux ideal that covered the many oppressions of that empire.

Once Augustus (or rather his general ; Agrippa) , defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in the second civil war of the Julian period, Augustus was left in command of the entire empire with central governance at Rome…an enterprise he was absolutely incapable both intellectually and physically able to do. He was advised to encompass into an inner-circle a clique of trusted advisers to both guide and enact the new civil codes needed for this new structure of governance. You can read of this “advice” given to Augustus by a “re-construct” of the candid conversations from three of his closest friends in Cassius Dio..”The Roman History : The rein of Augustus.”

There you will read of the instructions of how to set up an “Establishment” of governance from his wife; Livia…His military General; Agrippa and his economic adviser; Gaius Cilnius Maecenas. This last fellow is the one to watch..Maecenas was the modern-day equivalent of “the faceless man”..he was from the Equestrian order, the ancient equivalence of the upper middle-class…a kind of classical “Frank Lowe”..very wealthy and a patron of the arts etc..in short, a man of “irrefutable civility” and reputation that would not (as against ; cannot) be questioned except by those of deep pocket and short careers…Maecenas WAS the “Establishment”, protected by imperial decree and a “closed-gate community” of the court of Augustus.

The upshot of such advice in those ancient times was to establish what has grown to be the most acceptable method of mass governance of “the mob”. Even in Mao’s China, there existed that “necessary core” of central power..and with approx. 1000 million of “the mob”, there had to be a severe hand in the glove of rule to maintain not only internal command, but to organise a defence force to hold and secure the nation’s borders from continual aggression by The West. Not a slight headache at all I shouldn’t wonder!

Of course, as with every clique of apparatchiks, there eventually arises a corruption of the core and a purge must be enacted to cleanse or lance the infection..What we are seeing in democracy all around the major western governments at this point in time is just that..; a kind of purging of the old established order and a ”draining of the swamp”..BUT..this “draining”, however it may appear to be chaotic or disruptive or “radical”, can really be no more than an approved in a measured way the “changing of the guard” from one “establishment” to another with as little upsetting of the core intention of governance as possible. Hence we see a person like Trump or in our case Abbott or the Margaret Thatcher of the UK prancing around the world stage like a bull in the proverbial china shop , but in the end, those central core “lever pullers” are still firmly in command.

This principle of the “Established order” has come down through the ages more or less intact.. and Vico’s theory of “cyclical order” of Theocracy, Aristocracy, Democracy became entrenched with the rule of The Popes and the rise of the “Machiavellian Princes”in the age of the Medicis etc. The well-informed nineteenth / twentieth century social economist ; Thorsten Veblen noted this “management” within the higher learning establishment..

To quote:
“So far, nothing has been said of the Maecenas function of the well-to-do, which is habitually dwelt on at some length by writers and speakers who treat of the development of culture and of social structure. This leisure-class function is not without an important bearing on the higher and on the spread of knowledge and culture. The manner and the degree in which the class furthers learning through patronage of this kind is sufficiently familiar. It has been frequently presented in affectionate and effective terms by spokesmen whose familiarity with the topic fits them to bring home to their hearers the profound significance of this cultural factor. These spokesmen, however, have presented the matter from the point of view of the cultural interest, or of the interest of reputability, rather than from that of the economic interest….By way of characterization of the Maecenas relation, it is to be noted that, considered externally, as an economic or industrial relation simply, it is a relation of status. The scholar under the patronage performs the duties of a learned life vicariously for his patron, to whom a certain repute inures after the manner of the good repute imputed to a master for whom any form of vicarious leisure is performed…”

The maintaining of influence of what Veblen calls :”The Maecenas factor” (of patronage) has to be backed , if it is to be a continuity of culture, by some very deep pockets and very serious power. It has not come down the ages intact to be let slip so easily from the vice-like grip of inherited establishment.

So brace yourselves, comrades..for if there is to be any “draining of the swamp”, and lancing of the political boil, any “new world order”…it is going to be a FUCKING MESSY AFFAIR!..and once the dust is settled, I think we will have to accept that as “The Who” sang in their classic hit..”…meet the new boss..the same as the old boss..”…because while ..I..would like to see a change of the order of governance to something more socialist in construct, I have come to accept, in the light of the rise of such stupid, gormless, absurdity as right-wing reasoning the likes of Hanson, Abbott, Murdoch , IPA and any others you may want to mention..any civil control of “the mob” OUT THERE!..has to be done from a strong ordered central command of Establishment…of whatever flavour of politics.

“Oh what wicked webs we weave…”

“Oh what wicked webs we weave
When first we practice to deceive.”

Not far away from where I live, in a bare paddock, amongst thousands of broad cropping acres, there is an abandoned cottage. It was once the home of the Schippan family, the family involved in what has become a most mysterious “unsolved” murder. It is not the original pioneer homestead of the family, but another home built after the “murder house” nearby was abandoned. It has become known as : “The Towitta Murder”…you can read about it online or in a published novel : “The Noon Lady of Towitta”.

You can hear all about it here..: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4S9Y4zTsxM

There never was a satisfactory resolution to that murder, and the only “concrete” evidence pointing to a possible killer was the death-bed confession of the father to a Lutheran pastor that HE had murdered his own daughter because she had witnessed years before, her father killing an Afghan trader and he feared she would tell someone when she grew older…so in fear of her knowledge, he took her life.

But the murder of Bertha Schippan is not what I want to discuss here, but rather what leads us to a situation where the continued delusion, denial and deceit would bring us to sacrifice, as Bertha Schippan’s father did, the life or the lives of our closest neighbours and loved ones and even easier..; those who come to us as strangers seeking help. What was the driving terror that drove a father to possibly kill his own child..and is it the same motive that drives a community to abandon, maim and in many cases even kill those most vulnerable amongst us?

When I worked and lived in the Fleurieu Peninsula as a young man, I learned the swiftness that rumour and story could spread through small communities…as many of you reading will testify from your own experiences..There was a saying in Yankalilla that; “If you farted when driving through Delemere (a tiny hamlet a small distance from “Yank’ ”) , by the time you reached Yankalilla, it had already got around that you had shit yourself!”….That’s how it is in these small communities, and I doubt it was any different back in those times in Towitta district ..The fact that we may never “prove” who was the killer of Ms Schippan, does not excuse the fact that someone knew and that someone kept quiet and there was sure to be someone who knew THAT someone and so on..and in the end the whole community kept schtoom..and so colluded in the cover-up and then became an accomplice to the crime.

We know now from recorded history that there was much vocal opposition to Hitler’s direction for Germany and the Nazi party, but in the end, the entire German peoples had to shoulder the community blame for the result and have weathered the insults and guilt for many years since. But the recent action of Angela Merkel to admit nearly one million middle-east refugees was not only a charitable and brave decision in the face of much outcry from the right-wing politicians and racists in her own country and Europe, it went a very long way to restore the spiritual healing of the German soul. And even though some will say that those refugees were “not of the same creed or cultural similarity as us”..it has to be accepted ; the refugee is of the same flesh and blood..of the same sensitivities, feeling the same despairs and hungers and fears …and in the end we have to accept ; there are never any examples of the perfect refugee…and in fact , they are merely us..in another situation, another guise.

So on this anniversary of the 1967 referendum for recognition of indigenous peoples, we too, as a community have made our first faltering steps toward the healing of the community soul, and while such as John Howard will not admit to there being any association of the current generations to the crime, and such politicians and racists as Peter Dutton would not stay to hear the apology, the cover-up of the action and the denial of the deed is the same as the staying quiet by the community of the Schippan murder, the seething guilt of the German Nazis and the lying collusion of the right-wing governments in Australia to hurt, maim, demoralise and divide our communities.

But while there are many who for avarice or hate or political gain with both will try to take our country to dark places, dismal reaches of the soul, many also..much more I am seeing now, will not allow us to be dragged guilty by association to the right-wing destruction, moral or physical of our multi-cultural society . While there are ministers like Dutton, Morrison..Prime Ministers like Howard, Abbott and Turnbull, we will have to hold close to our hearts the inherent decency passed to us by our past ancestors who DID protest and rail against the authoritarian cruelty that is so destructive..and we will have to one day remove them and those who promote their indecencies from our company.

What was it John Howard was reaching for when he stood shoulder to shoulder with Donald Rumsfeld and with that signature shit-eater grin announced that “shock and awe” would be delivered like the apocalypse angels upon a wronged people in an illegal war..what was it that delayed assistance being sent to “Siev X” and then the storming of the Tampa by SAS commandos if not just to add to the denial that these situations were the result of HIS and his associates crimes…what is the first thing a criminal does at the scene of their crime but to cover up the evidence of their guilt…The continued tormenting and persecution of refugees by the conservative govt’ is the denial of and the covering up of guilt for the original crime.

The community cannot, will not..I..will not be an accessory in this guilt..we have made our opinions felt here and elsewhere and we will not cover any more for the crimes of those who cower behind a community wall sniping at the poor, the frail, the vulnerable, because as has been written one way or another in the blood and tears of humanity over many , many millennia in every culture and creed..: “There..but for the grace of fate…go I.”

[ As an aside, I have to confess that I sometimes use a song from my young years to sustain the “mood” of the pieces I write…for example; for this piece, I had the beautiful harmonies of Peter Paul and Mary singing “In the early morning rain” …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OCnHNk2Hac ]

“Baa, baa Black Sheep…”

(Warning : This article contains words and language that may offend the LNP and the “genteel class” who claim the right to rule over us all )

This simple nursery rhyme portrays so succinctly, the relationship between the expectations of the ruling orders and the serf, the presumed rights and satisfaction of the needs of the Liege Lord and the slave. They are still there now, in this day and age, here in Australia..but now they call themselves “politicians” and they mostly live in the ivory towers of the LNP.

But it is their treatment of anyone taking refuge from war-torn places that most marks out their tyranny..their bastardry. They have claimed a presumed “ownership” of this nation which their profiteering pirate ancestors stole at gun-point from the indigenous peoples and now they claim ownership and call this part of the Earth..:
“Their Nation”.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Yes..one for “The Master” and one for “The Dame”.

I will tell you a little known piece of information from back in the 2nd world war about those internees held in camps along the Murray River in locations like Loveday in Sth Aust’. Many internees were used to cut mallee wood and burn charcoal in camps scattered around places like Blanchetown on the river. If any of you have been to “Brookfield Conservation Park” up near Blanchetown, you may have seen the signs directing you to the charcoal pits there. Those pits there were part of a large contingent of Italian men and some of their families held there as “enemy aliens”.

I know of these things, because my father was one of them..as were a couple more of my relatives. Once the war in the pacific really kicked off, there was a shortage of men to cut wood and burn the charcoal so Italians were transported there and worked in several camps in the mallee.

My mother met my father near there when she worked at Portee Station on the Murray River as a servant girl..He came to the river to get water for the camp. My mother’s parents who were Cornish / Irish and her younger siblings were also at another “charcoal” camp where my grandfather worked the machinery. My grandmother looked after and taught by correspondence her children..she was a well educated Irish woman who came to Australia in 1922 from the end of the Irish civil war in Bandon County..the “most murderous place in the British Isles” at that time in history, when the Irish rebellion was in full swing. She worked in Bandon City as a legal clerk for her father’s office, so she was very well educated and her script writing, until the end of her life in her eighties was the most beautiful flowing writing you’d ever want to see.

It was this skill and her legal expertise that came into good use out there in the mallee, when an Italian internee, brought down from the Northern Territory…came seeking help from her to write a “legal letter” in his favour.

Before the war broke out, he owned and worked a farm at Katherine with his Aboriginal wife. He had an Australian foreman and a couple of workers also. When he was interned as an “enemy alien” and transported to Loveday camp, his foreman in collusion with a local govt’ administrator sought to get control of his farm on the pusillanimous grounds of he; the Italian, being an enemy alien was not permitted to own land and his wife ; being aboriginal also was not permitted to own property and so they sought to have the ownership of the farm forfeited to them.

Evidently, my grandmother summoned all her jargon of “legalese”, constructed a “legal argument” for the distraught Italian and succeeded in scaring off the culprits. Which brings me to the point of this little missive..:

Let us ask: Just who were the real working people who built this nation?..Who in reality were the producers and strugglers who physically built this country..this country we hear the likes of Mr. Abbott or Mr. Turnbull or Mr. Dutton et al wax so lyrical about in protective terms like it was their own personal fiefdom or that of their social class or ethnic demographic?

Let us in all fairness analyse just who were the real Australians who made this nation what it is today. Because, you see…what was neglected in that little yarn about the Italian farmer and his indigenous wife was how could it come to be that an Australian man and his partner in crime could presume to claim what was not theirs..how could they presume to drive through a process to deny a fellow human being and his wife their dignity and their rights…and I’ll tell you how they could and it also shows how minister Dutton can presume on the dignity of the refugees in this time to do the same..

BECAUSE TO THEIR EYES, THAT FARMER WAS NOTHING BUT A “FUCKING DAGO”!

AND BECAUSE TO THEIR EYES, THE WIFE WAS NOTHING BUT A “FUCKING BOONG”!

AND THIS is how it still stands with the Anglo fascists of the LNP to this day!

THIS is their claim of legitimacy!

THIS is their perceived presumption!

THIS is their perceived right of ownership of the land, the country and the people of the nation!

Well..FUCK YOU..Dutton!…and YOU Mr. Turnbull and ALL YOU Anglo / ethnic fascists!..you are not worth the piss of their bladders..the shit of their bowels..you are rubbish!

It was the immigrants and working class who built this nation..from the beginning..The more “privileged” and upper middle-classes moved straight into “administration”..shorthand for “command and control”..and pretty useless at that!..No..it was the Irish, the Germans, the Greeks, the Italians, the indigenous peoples, the Baltic and Balkan nationals ..and not just a few Asian peoples who migrated here seeking a safe and better life that “built” this nation…from the ground up, with their skilled trades small business and hard work. THIS is the base truth of the story of Australia..the story of the migrants and refugees who poured their blood, sweat and tears into the earth of Australia, to be mixed with the sorrows of the indigenous peoples who built this nation to what it is today.

And then we hear bastards like Dutton pour his vile shit from his vile shitty mouth these vile shitty policies of a fucking vile putrescent LNP..it is enough to want to make one reach for a horsewhip.

Henry Lawson wrote:

“They lie those men who tell us for reasons of their own,
That want is here a stranger, that misery’s unknown…”

The first line of his “Faces in the Street” was changed by George Robertson, owner and publisher of The Bulletin…for reasons of HIS own to :

“They lie those men who tell us in a loud decisive tone…”

It was changed because it “reflected upon the authority of the day”..or words to that effect…well, the “authority of the day” has not changed its spots..it seems to be still offended by its own guilty treatment of those fellow humans.

I know of the treatment my Italian relatives received from the “administrators” I know of the treatment many ethnic groups received from the “authorities”…I know, YOU know WE ALL know and we know also who interests those “authorities “ represented…THEN and NOW.

So let us stop talking falsely and take a calming look at what must be done to rid us of these lying filth that presume to govern for the “good” of the nation. In an age gone by, a different sort of revolution would have sufficed..as we saw in the aforementioned ; Irish Rebellion..but such is very destructive to both blood and infrastructure..no..it is the ballot box for these times, but it is by a vote most decisive and most damning that will remove this vile pestilence from the governance in our lives. And we must make social media the means to promote the truth and expose the lies of the LNP. Let our anger overflow from the blog sites into the ballot boxes that decide our political future.

The Murdoch press is the main propagator of the attacks and vilification of all parties and individuals in opposition to the LNP. We cannot touch Rupert Murdoch, for he lives in another country, a foreign national of another country..but his creatures, through which he propagates his foul mind and policy are amongst us..like a festering wound whose scab is continually knocked off, they live and breathe the foul air of the Murdoch lie. These woeful scabs are the ones who most prosper from betraying our land, our nation..let THEM feel the wrath of our anger..Let them be cast out of our company..let THEM be PROSCRIBED from the security and comforts provided by us very citizens they continue to abuse and demean.

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN NOW…And not end till we are rid of this vile pestilence of a government !

“…and the painted ponies go up and down.”

I suspect many of us who post on left-wing blog-sites have run up against the shrill, irate “voice” of the RWNJ who demands to be heard and if criticised, or as I like to do ..teased to distraction, become petulantly offended and will lash out at “you leftie haters…” etc. If there is one simple identification that brands them all, it is that tinny voice of the child they once were railing at the very core of what most offends their individualistic sensibility..

“It’s not fair!”

This pathetic wail has to be the most puerile complaint ever levelled at the vicissitudes of life’s tribulations and can be claimed as the “catch-cry” of almost ALL Right-wing protest. Protest against “unfair taxation”, “the nanny state”, “too much government”, “leftie hate” and any more trivial irritations they can, like the pouting-mouth child, spit out.

So it comes as no surprise when the right-wing media roll out youths to write up commentary for them…the likes of the 17 yr. old; Caleb Bond and another who frequents the #saparli twitter stream to plead for the Liberal Party while in what looks like a school uniform. Then again we see the likes of Rowan Dean spiel out his boring rants on that tragic rag : “The Spectator”, once the playground of the now silly- giggler ABC personality; Tom Switzer. For the philosophy of The Right can easily be interpreted by the inexperienced mind of youth. Nothing is easier ,(if I can remember back that far to my young years)to the undeveloped mind than to find reason or excuse most unadorned with mature understanding for every problem that besets the childish mind…such are the politics of the right-wing.

If we look to the Howard years and his too keen attitude to join that other child-like right-wing ruler Geo.Dubbya in a crazy war of revenge on the wrong enemy..simple ; bomb, bomb, bomb…and the mad monk with his IPA wish-list of juvenile solutions that would drive even the kingdom of heaven into a spiral descent of anarchy and depression…and I will not torment the reader with the Turnbull logic of “Better , Faster , Cheaper”….”say no more” .

Even their “High Priest” celebrity commentator ; Andrew Bolt cannot seem to remove that whining “it’s SO unfair” echo from his collective dialogues against ethnicity, creed and the ABC. I won’t even go into those shock-jock screechers, venting their spleen like an ISIS crazy, spraying ammo in every direction as long as it’s toward the “lefties”..The spittle flecked lips of a babe-in-arms bawling for breast-milk would be a satisfactory analogy!

What is missing from their understanding of the social contracts that knit communities together and supply the needs and principles required of a stable, civilised society, is the mature comprehension that there are complexities inherent in every society, in every person , in every age of humanity that make governance and administration a more intricate proposition that demands greater attention to details than what can be delivered with a three or four word slogan.

Again and again on this blog and any other you could mention, there appears sooner or later in a discussion on ; refugees, the unemployed, religion, housing or whatever, a poster that claims solution to the conundrum with the simplest and simple-mindedness of a slogan or a pitch equal to the entertainment of a patent-medicine showman….usually borrowed form one of the above right-wing blubberers and paraphrased to fit the situation.

It’s tragic..and I have to say..: It’s partly our fault..us left-wing debaters and bloggers..for in the tireless seeking of patient understanding and giving voice to the less erudite and vocal of the community, we have let into the tent, along with the most deserving of the oppressed , shy and quiet-voiced people who have legitimate claims upon the dais of fair and free speech, those mean of spirit, harsh of temperament, long on slogan and short of sympathy for the very people who share their voice of “the silent majority”. We have lowered the drawbridge to let in a “Trojan Horse” of right-wing viral infection that has diseased the conversation of logic and infected the politics of reason with fear and loathing.

I could press the button of the adoption by the intellectual Left of that cursed theory (I wouldn’t legitimise such rubbish by calling it a “philosophy”!) ; “postmodernism” that led us down a dead-end lane to political and social confusion. To a builder such as myself, living and working in a life ruled by the pragmatic even concrete laws of weights and measures forever fighting the harsh reality of gravity..it always seemed to me to be utter bullshit! Thankfully, it has died a mean death only apparently to be now resurrected by the Right-wing..: “fake news”..”alt- right”, and their twisted variation of “freedom of speech”…good luck to them on that!

What can be done?…Well, the first thing is to identify those who come to these boards with less answers than they have questions…less solutions than they have problems. It is of little merit to us to play the patronising pedant to the gormless fool when the only result is a shift of ground by the “guilty party” to an alternative petulant accusation. The best that can be claimed is to have complete faith in our convictions, tighten our arguments and secure the barricades!..`because once the culprits are ejected from the “body politic” argument of the day, they will loiter around and “throw rocks through the windows” like the most sneering of delinquents.

Until there is a change of government along with a change of public direction toward patient policies of reform and funding of the many lapsed programs that allow the many who are willing and able to assist and join in with a “community attitude” that embraces the multi-cultural society that is the reality of our country, and holds the reckless and rude in abeyance, until the greater good is demonstrated toward the wary, the suspicious and the insecure in our company, we will continue to be held in a state of suspended chaos by the foolish and incompetent right-wing of politics and business. There will need to be a long period of healing convalescence to recover from this “illness”..there will need to be a long period of left-leaning policies to bring job security and social security back to the level needed to return the calm disposition once so familiar to our culture.

“Now this Telstra Plan’s a little bewdy folks…only one owner ; a little old lady who only used it on Sundays…”

No doubt to slander Turnbull!

I don’t think I am breaking new ground to you all by saying that my telco..; the “Big “T” “ is doing some very, very strange things to my communication connections bill these last few months…from exactly December 2016, to be precise, when our usage account suddenly almost doubles and our monthly bill soars to over $5oo + ..and hasn’t gone down.

Our usage habits haven’t changed from before that time, we still have days when we are not even home TO USE the internet..and this past month, my own computer was away being repaired and so I was off-line at my desk for over a week..but no difference to the bill and I am the most prolific user of the internet in our house.

Now here’s where the “strange things” come into play…

I will start at the beginning of our internet woes. Go back a couple of years, and we were on the wireless network, our modem then was one of those big “Gateway” things with the three aerials on the back..it served us well for quite a while. Then one day it suddenly stopped working..the weather was hot and we concluded (with a Telstra tech’s agreement) that it was cactus…broken..

“That’s alright” the Philippine call centre person assured “we will send you a new up-dated device that will improve your reception”…I presumed it was going to be another wireless modem and I must add , I was given no advice it would be otherwise…and so we received in the mail a new “Advance 4G.” (MOBILE BROADBAND) modem.

I still thought we were on wireless when we used that advanced 4G. why would I think otherwise?..I’m no tech-head..I had no information it was otherwise from Telstra…There’s nothing on the box says otherwise..and if there is some writing somewhere, it must be so small print, my old eyes would have mistaken it for a smudge of dirt!

And it wasn’t until the reception got so much worse, us being in a mobile black-spot, I started to go to forums like “Whirlpool” and others to find out about the problem. It was on one of these forums that I read that the “Advance 4G” was so correctly described as no more than : “A shit mobile phone with a shittier screen!”…and some went on further to describe how they got better reception hooking their Samsung smartphone up to their laptop as a modem instead and using the Advance 4G sim-card…until Telstra found out and threatened to block the service.

You see..out here in the regions..in the country..mobile reception is shocking..terrible..hopeless and up till now the only option has been Telstra.

Anyway, one day at a local govt’ meeting where two young “blades”, one from the NBN and the other from Telstra spoke at a “information and update” meeting where I learned that the wireless network had been withdrawn from the more outlying regions (ours!) to be concentrated into the larger regional towns with a NBN “fixed wireless” tower to service the town. Sooo..THAT explained the “broken Gateway modem” and the Telstra offer of the “Advanced 4G” mobile broadband…a more unstable device I have yet to use.

The upshot was that we here in the more sparsely pop’ areas were unceremoniously dumped off the wireless network in a plan conjured up between Turnbull’s govt’ and Telstra to throw us upon the mercy of Telstra’s mobile broadband network..The shit had just begun!

Back then we had a plan of 4gigs data…strangely that now was never enough..so we were moved up to a 8gig plan and it was not long after that when the “extra data usage” started to go through the roof!…and from December last year, it almost doubled and so did our bills to a point where it is now make or break time on what we can do.

I have made innumerable calls to Telstra over this extra data usage, because I just cannot work out where it is going to..Is it being “piggy-backed” from our wifi ? is it a data mistake at Telstra? Is there a continual upgrade of Windows 10 going on?..all these were looked into, without the least help from Telstra except to give a little moral support and to suggest new “plans”…Well we tried those.. Plan after plan to culminate in a new mobile modem ; the best thing since sliced bread that can deliver up to 5G broadband..The Netgear “Nighthawk 5G modem”….except it did not work out here in a black-spot area.

We ( Telstra tech dept’) tried everything to no avail..it was just a useless bit of high-class tech shit..it might just as well been a turd..it was useless and so we arranged to send it back, along with the new plan (and I will spare your patience the complexities of THAT fiasco!)..and now , we are STILL waiting to receive yet another new plan with a new sim-card for the old Advance 4G along with a postage return bag so we can return the “Nighthawk 5G” modem..

[ I tell you one strange thing I have “discovered”.. My partner’s iphone and a Samsung tablet “gifted” to us by Telstra before last Christmas as a “token of our appreciation of your loyalty”…which as an aside we are now being charged a “plan”, for which both devices have one plan each..YET, I can see that one of them, perhaps both, regardless of their own data allowance, appear to be “piggy-backing” off the “wifi hotspot” (yes, I am learning the jargon) created by the Advance 4G home mobile broadband modem..perhaps because of the mobile phone reception being so bad here. ]

We have been waiting for about three weeks..and we have now got this month’s bill…again over $500. Dollars..with 13gigs of “extra data” usage..I rang Telstra..I was given a little moral support and was told the person there on the end of the line “would speak to my supervisor”..and THAT is where it sits.

NB. I did go to forums again just now to find out about this extra data usage stuff..and I see there is a legion of customers..even on Telstra’s own “crowd support forum” that are having the same problem : Extra data usage gone somewhere but God knows where!..I don’t ..those other customers don’t..even Telstra itself doesn’t seem to know..and I believe the Telstra management think it’s all our fault!

So hands up all you other bloggers out there who are having similar problems with this fantastic example of privatisation in action?

That useless Turnbull / LNP..they betrayed us all.

(I can’t even get on the internet as I am writing this!)…

Murdoch Media “Proscribed”.

To “proscribe” a thing or person is to forbid, blacklist, deny to, and / or disallow actions or substances to be given or taken by persons or person for their use or benefit.

So here we are suggesting a methodology to “proscribe” those Murdoch media personalities, backers and supporters who continue to promote hate and to attack the citizen body and our democracy, and individuals and selected vulnerable parties, and ethnic groups as victims to persecute and abuse and vilify for reasons beneficial to their employer and the vested interests of themselves and their political supporters.

How can this be done?

First, I suggest we gather our group under a title worthy of instigating such a judgement on those criminal minds continually slinging abuse at those we hold respect for and look to as leadership ideals.

I will suggest as a starter.. ; “The Citizens Judgement Tribunal”…where we can seek from the citizen body through social media a majority decision through “a volume of voices” that arise spontaneously over social media after another of the many and predictable outrages and pogroms instigated by the Murdoch media “Journalists” against any worthy citizen or ethnic group or demographic.

Using the “Citizens Tribunal”, we can then suggest and “only suggest” through social media that those commentators or journalists so vicious in misleading information or abuse be denied services and assistance by all service industry trades and people..like for instance…plumbing / sewerage, electrical, whitegoods service, heating’air-con services, mechanical services etc..when those Murdoch media folk call for help or assistance…in effect, they are : “Proscribed” from affiliation and comforts within the citizen body of Australia.

Of course, one cannot deny vital health and / or essential health support services from these criothans, keeping in mind that even a rabid mongrel dog is worthy of some humane consideration AND..I don’t think it would be venturing TOO FAR into the realm of overt generosity to include those Murdoch creatures in such company.

However, if we go back over some history…and that “history” is VERY recent, we can read of those Murdoch people’s treatment of even an innocent question asked on a Q&A audience..( indeed, it could be YOU or ME asking the question) where he was hunted down like some cursed animal by those Murdoch dogs and vermin and even his family fortunes ( and that again..could be YOU or ME) and relationships were put on garish Front Page display by a totally unforgiving mob of the Murdoch press. And recall most recently the relentless abuse of the Muslim ABC presenter and now a respected woman past Prime Minister..the list is growing…AND THESE BASTARDS SHELTER FOR PROTECTION UNDER THEIR AUSTRALIAN PASSPORT!

So, ok..we will not deny the Murdoch media in Aust’ the right to take payment from a FOREIGN NATIONAL for their delivery of HIS agenda…from HIS media platform..to propagate HIS political allegiance to the LNP to destroy OUR infrastructure to favour HIS media sales…that is their choice..What we DO PROTEST to is their vilifying and bigoted abuse and racism toward the indigenous, the refugees and other ethnic peoples who are either born here, who seek shelter here, who work here at all hours on all days in all weathers to simply get by and raise their families..What we are protesting against is their continual ignorance and stupidity and betrayal of the Australian People!

So I am suggesting we Proscribe the Murdoch media journos and deny them the connections and services that give them comfort and security in their lives that enables them to betray those very citizens who make their lives “hassle free” so they can choose to hassle and hate us all.

And for them to learn that one vital lesson instilled in all races in all countries , in all domestic situations in all times…

“STOP SHITTING ON YOUR OWN DOORSTEP!”

Now…let us list those who we should start proscribing..I will kick it off with the “A”s..
Albretchsen.
Ackerman.

 

“…and the Loyal shut their eyes…”

Every mature adult, at some point in their relationships, reaches a moment where certain discrepancies arise in either a financial or emotional connection where a discovery of dishonesty or deceit demands an explanation from one or other of the partnership. This can be achieved either under a calm agreeable and informative meeting where a simple explanation clears the air, or it can be obfuscated with more and egregious deceit that only delays the inevitable final separation.

WE..the people of Australia have reached this moment..There is grave doubt about the financial arrangements of the LNP Govt’ toward their traditional backers and multi-national corporations that needs some explanation. There is also a need for the LNP to explain the strange relationship between their ministers and the policing arrangements of the nation. There appears to be some direct influence to place the population directly and completely under the microscope and inevitably under investigation of the various policing agents of the state…now seeming acting on the politicising of surveillance of the entire citizen body by those policing agents. This is an act more in keeping with a third-world dictatorship or is it an intention toward a dictatorship in Australia?

Now we have to ask the question of those members of the LNP who hold to be loyal to the people and the state of Australia..:

ARE you loyal to the people and the state, or ARE you loyal to the multi-national business model?

This is not an impertinent question..It needs to be answered, as the direction and intention of the LNP is apparently solidly in the corner of foreign capital and foreign favour. Where even the leader of the LNP holds a vast sum of his private wealth and who knows how much else in an overseas tax haven..How can one declare for the financial security of the nation whilst shifting his own capital and that of his family to the shelter of an overseas tax haven? How can a political party call for vast amounts of capital to be showered upon huge, profitable corporations in the manner of tax easements when those same corporations lack intention to pay their fair share of tax in the first place?

The nation is at a crossroads.. We are a so-called “first-world” wealthy nation with an enviable inheritance of natural resources and natural wonders..Yet our collective earnings from the sale of those resources be-lie the scant funding of social needs..Our natural wonders are being ransacked for profit by multi-national corporations . We look to the front bench of this LNP govt’ and we see members who, by any estimation of adult appraisal, lack a depth of political insight, led by a man with what must be one of the worst senses of political judgement seen since Alexander Downer and his “Things that batter” moment.

These criothans of politics coming up against (too savvy) international corporations whose ledgers show “bottom-line” numbers greater than the GDP of most of the “legitimate” states in the world…against media moguls whose reach is greater than ANY legitimate state in the world and can influence or corrupt (they choose the methodology) elections on three continents. against corporate executives who have the ear and purse of many leaders of powerful nations who can start or stop wars on a whim that can make or break the lives of a billion innocent people.

And then to “defend us” we have the front-bench of the LNP who believes that if they give such like a boost of around $65 billion, they will be grateful and throw Oz a few projects and a few dozen jobs off their buffet-table of delight …….?

As an analogy, we citizens are like the trusting parent or guardian who goes guarantor with their home for a risky investment which fails and we find ourselves out on the street, our home sold from under us and our personal possessions in the hands of the banks bailiff..and then worse; we are arrested outside our own ex-home by the police for loitering and / or vagrancy..

And we hear that with that intention of providing those corporations with the taxation incentive to “create more jobs”…yet in a climate of huge growth in large company profits and record low wages, we have yet to witness any of these “job creation” projects..and we now hear of the govt’ having to step in to finance and project manage a new airport for Sydney..

Where the “Agile innovation” from this marvellous “free-enterprise” sector?

In truth, the entire “free enterprise” conglomerate is nothing but an auxiliary arm of state funded development…either through research grants or requirement studies of needed public infrastructure like road / rail transport or communications or defence acquirement funding etc. Then in some cases, particularly the utilities or through outsourcing govt’ dept’s, the “private sector”, through the “mate” network, will later, down the road after all the “hard yards” of development and structure is in place, picks up a nice little “package” of highly profitable EX-govvy infrastructure for a song. So then under the “guidance” of LNP / IPA policy of economic rationalism the circle is complete . So we come back to the Question that needs to be answered by those LNP members who declare themselves loyal to the people and the state..:

ARE YOU LOYAL to the people and the state?..

Or are you just a part of that traitorous crowd being too cowered or too deep in the corrupt money cycle of investment / speculation rife in the LNP to want or demand the party change its policy direction..NOT necessarily to a decidedly Left-Wing perspective, but at least to one that reflects more honestly the needs of the people and the state?

For the title of this piece is taken from “The Histories” by Tacitus when he describes the treason of Otho against his Emperor..:

“So, as the disloyal were ready for treason and the loyal shut their eyes…”

Now…you LNP ministers and backbenchers..which ones are you?

Are YOU ready for treason, or will you continue to shut your eyes?

Five Marks on the Tablet.

Five Marks on the Tablet,
Three cuts in the Stone,
Five loaves for the masses,
Then will it all be gone…

My comrades, fellow country folk… We are in deep shit…

After a working lifetime of research and writing, after a working lifetime of total dedication to his craft, Edward Gibbon signed off on a magnum opus of extraordinary depth, breath and vision with the modest words of:

“It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.”

With these closing words, Gibbon undersigned a work (“The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire”)revealing amongst a legion of information the causes and effects both on those contemporary times and right up to his times examples of human aspiration toward a “civilising” of cultural practices (however badly executed) through the promotion of universal civil institutions ; Libraries, senate houses,etc..Universal laws and monetary stability and exchange..What was termed ; “Romanisation” of their world..All those institutions and bureaucracy we take for granted now.

What was unforeseen in this intricately archived empire, was that alongside the expansion of governance and commerce there grew an infection inherent in the human condition, not completely understood within the aristocratic politics of the “City States” of the past (at least, not in the Western sphere of influence)that along with such enormous power, keeping in mind the Roman world extended over ALL the recognised realms of then known civilisation and beyond..there grew the infection of extreme hunger for unbridled wealth..riches beyond the imagination of King Croesus..where entire provinces could be bought and indeed, even the rule of the empire itself was sold to the highest bidder..Capitalism unrestrained.

Do we see a pattern arising?

Recorded toward the end of Gibbon’s monumental work, there is a reflection on what it was caused the decline and eventual fall of that mighty “empire” that stood from go to whoa for nearly two thousand years. Putting aside continual wars and domestic conflicts, Gibbon came to the conclusion of what marks a decaying culture and although the quote below is a modern paraphrase, it can be construed as a reasonable condensation of his conclusions..:

“The five marks of the Roman decaying culture:

Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;

Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;

Art becomes outlandish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;

Widening disparity between very rich and very poor;

Increased demand and need for state subsistence.”

One can add to this list the effects of turning the Italian small, mixed-farming rural countryside into large beef-cattle estates run by slave labour with a Freed-man overseer to capitalise on the need for meat-protein to feed the enormous Roman Armies continually on the march to new frontiers and wars of conquest or defence. That in turn forced the importation of cereals and other essential food items from as far afield as Sardinia and Egypt, leaving the city of Rome itself at the mercy of weather, swindlers and profiteers. A situation not unfamiliar to many modern societies today, except it is climate change now that is creating the most havoc with cropping risk.

What we witness in the fateful display of that greed and selfishness are the symptoms of a much wider malaise..the situation of a feeling of isolation from the central core of one’s own birth nation. The lack of “connection” with the IDEA of “The State” to the notion of “every person for themselves”. Every citizen must have a sense of identity with the country into which they were born – live- work – die.

The deliberate demonising and destabilising of this or that section of society by the political right-wing politico-economists to create a competing class of job-hunters has disrupted social cohesion almost to the point of collapse. The resulting five marks of cultural decay we read above are now seemingly indelibly in-situ in our society, with an even greater risk of pushing those marginalised outside the “privilege tent” being further isolated till they can take no more.

There is nowhere to go anymore with the Conservative right-wing political forces in Australia. They have pushed their envelope of “Economic rationalism”, ‘Free-market”, “Trickle-down economics” and “Mutual obligation welfare” to beyond the limit. They have butchered our nation state with underfunded infrastructure, social and structural. The rich have got so much richer it is disgusting and unsustainable. The Workers have no longer a reliable, full-time employment situation they can use to plan for their future or the future of their children and the poor / disabled are absolutely knackered. It is totally unreasonable and unsustainable…the right-wing philosophy is unfair and unworkable..there will have to be a social revolution to change the perception of governance.

It is the imbecility of an IPA “wish-list”, the selfish greed of the mining lobby groups, the destabilising media of a foreign mogul and the bumbling obsequiousness of the LNP politics “in office” that have brought us to this horrible place. They must be removed from office at the next election, but with all the nasty deeds committed against their own citizens and those seeking refuge from other places..With so many of their members under scrutiny for corrupt practices and the rest too indolent and morally challenged to act responsibly, coupled with an oligarchy of plundering, robbing millionaires seeking to smash and grab anything of the nation’s resources not “nailed down”, the next election could be one they cannot and certainly WILL NOT afford to lose…if you get my drift?

The result?…well, if we look to the example of the once mighty Roman Empire…the rest , as they say…?

The Arpeggio of the Traitor.

An arpeggio is the playing of single notes in a rising or falling scale in music either together to form a cord or singularly like as the “do-ray-me” of the scales in music.

The political traitor will take what words are familiar to all of us (as the musician takes those basic arpeggio notes in the scale) and twist and turn them up the scale or down one at a time into a discord of reason and logic to persuade people to heed to his / her tone of betrayal. Their words then become more a comfort than a confrontation. We are ALL familiar with the honeyed words of a friend, confidant or lover who has betrayed our trust. When we look back over their language of persuasion and denial, we wonder how we could have been so taken in and the blush of foolishness colours our heart.

It is the language used that does the trick…The language..or the “harmony” of the traitor. There are those well trained in both language use and delivery of the persuasive vernacular in both media of the spoken and the printed word, relaying what was in voice , as Rebecca West states in her examination of ;”The Meaning of Treason”..:

“…a great many people had experienced that hideous novelty, for it was easy to chance on Joyce’s (Wm. Joyce ;aka ;”Lord Haw Haw”, convicted traitor in WW2) wavelength when one was tuning in on the English (radio) stations, and there was a rasping yet rich quality about his voice which made it difficult not to go on listening, and he was nearly convincing in his assurances…”

The mellifluous language of the trained BBC. Radio personality of that era is in contrast to the rasping strine of a more egalitarian Australia of today..but the intent is the same…; persuasion. Persuasion with the use of jingoistic / nationalistic “trigger words” and slogans. While the svelte-voiced BBC. Personality may reach an aspiring middle-class audience, the Aussie’ “Oi, oi , oi” shock-jock is reaching to an audience more familiarly attuned to sports broadcasting and the use of the vernacular, sprinkled with colourful colloquialisms and more than a touch of that other national pastime : racism.

It is no wonder the political hopeful with a vocabulary rivaling a grade 3 reader can reach out to many sympathisers…and while she may plead with the halting tremolo of a unconfident choir-girl, and claim to be “the voice of the people”, she is far from it…myself a mutli-generational working-class person can tell a liar and aspirational middle-class traitor when I hear one…and her faltering steps toward political recognition can be sheeted straight home to the very class of society she hungers to be a part of…but be warned, madam, while they will use you, flatter you, take you into their “house”as a claimed “friend”..it is only as a useful tool, an amusement to own like a trinket or an executive toy to show their friends, that you will be tolerated and displayed..You will NEVER be one of them…n-e-v-e-r..and betrayal is your prescribed destiny.

This is the manner of the traitor, to embrace as a friend, gain the confidence as comrade and then lead to a dark place for the coup-de-grace.

The Murdoch media is the main player at this game at the moment in Australia. You can tell that when the brand’s CEO has chosen his side, the collective members of employed servants and sycophants demonstrate quite quickly and uniformly that they too have chosen their victims. It can be as benign as an audience member of a Q&A television show, or a collective of unemployed or the suspicion of a disabled “malingerer” on a pension..it is all grist to the mill of that medias “journo’s” who set to with a passion so vicious, so targeted and so relentless across the entire media platform of their foreign master as to drive their victim to the point of suicide or even over the edge…it is of no concern to those Quislings, well housed and protected behind the pay-wall of their foreign national master…their pay-packets and “extra-base-hits” bonuses regularly paid into their bank accounts to pump-up the many investment rewards for their treason. Not for them the struggle of their fellows, nor the uncertainty of job security as long as there is a nation and its peoples to demoralise, destabilise and manufacturing and vital infrastructure to vocalise against with the aim of destroying any disadvantage to their paymaster and owner.

Again to Rebecca West..:

“The stories told (of the traitors) have behind them a second story of huge unproductive expenditure ( of their activities) , of life-long labours which do not add one single grain to the worlds resources….the grimy small fry which circulate around the likes of (Murdoch)..are maintained by the honest people who teach, doctor the sick, till the soil, work in factories or scholars and poets and scientists…”

Those working people are the productive entities of society who maintain and support those traitors so well versed in what is good for Murdoch et all is good for the nation. These vile bodies are not worthy of the spit of the people, not deserving of the protection of their Australian passport that allows them..through US to swan about cock a hoop with all the over-confidence of a swindler of the vulnerable and helpless.

Well, they say that every dog has its day, and their days are numbered and declining swiftly..we have their names and we have seen their perfidious behaviour in past elections, where the skill of deceit and slander lay comfortably on their tongues like a sweet-drop, where their bullying and coercion are worked as swiftly and confidently as an engine drivers steam whistle. It is time to turn off their supply of hot air!

There are state elections coming up in the next year, we have to be aware that the Murdoch traitors are starting even now in South Australia to search out and propagandise against the Labor govt’. These “journalists” working fist-in-glove with the Liberal Party to portray the Wetherill Govt’ as either incompetent or uncaring…the Liberal leader wheeled out in unison to any “investigative exclusive!” to put on a show of a “figure of strength and style” suitable to lead the State…but I see it as rather more like a stumbling display of a ; “Stan Laurel blinking into the camera” moment.

Federally, we have that egregious assortment of a combination of the barking shock-jocks, the harping television commentators and the blathering nonsense of the political columnists, all at the beck and call of the most degenerate media mogul that ever hungered salaciously after women half his age..A character fit only for the negative side of the ledger of human dignity.…A person declared unfit to purchase a news service in one country, unfit to retain citizenship in his birth country and unfit to gain the respect of a majority of honest people in another..THIS is the person, who with covert agents would allow the tapping of a dead girls phone and then blame his subordinates for such slimey behaviour which they must have learned at the feet of their master and owner.

These are the traitors born to our country that reap fine reward for the demonising, demoralising, destabilising of their own nation, whilst sheltering under the protection of their Australian passport. We know their names, their faces…the only thing left is for them to own their own treason before a tribunal of the law.

On Cicero / Turnbull?

This text is a direct “copy and paste” from Theodor Mommsen’s : “History of Rome”..Book 5 chapt’ 12 on Cicero ; the man and his works.

I cannot help but see a sharp reflection of our Prime Minister of the moment… An uncanny resemblance that must give pause to consider the philosophy of Buddhism and re-incarnation..

I will leave it for you to judge the veracity of both men.

On Cicero:

“ Thus oratorical authorship emancipated from politics
was naturalized in the Roman literary world by Cicero.
We have already had occasion several times to mention
this many-sided man. As a statesman without insight, idea,
or purpose, he figured successively as democrat, as aristocrat,
and as a tool of the monarchs, and was never more than
a short-sighted egotist. Where he exhibited the semblance of action,
the questions to which his action applied had, as a rule,
just reached their solution; thus he came forward in the trial
of Verres against the senatorial courts when they were already
set aside; thus he was silent at the discussion on the Gabinian,
and acted as a champion of the Manilian, law; thus he thundered
against Catilina when his departure was already settled,
and so forth. He was valiant in opposition to sham attacks,
and he knocked down many walls of pasteboard with a loud din;
no serious matter was ever, either in good or evil, decided by him,
and the execution of the Catilinarians in particular was far more
due to his acquiescence than to his instigation. In a literary
point of view we have already noticed that he was the creator
of the modern Latin prose;(34) his importance rests on his mastery
of style, and it is only as a stylist that he shows confidence
in himself. In the character of an author, on the other hand,
he stands quite as low as in that of a statesman. He essayed
the most varied tasks, sang the great deeds of Marius
and his own petty achievements in endless hexameters,
beat Demosthenes off the field with his speeches, and Plato
with his philosophic dialogues; and time alone was wanting for him
to vanquish also Thucydides. He was in fact so thoroughly a dabbler,
that it was pretty much a matter of indifference to what work
he applied his hand. By nature a journalist in the worst
sense of that term–abounding, as he himself says, in words,
poor beyond all conception in ideas–there was no department
in which he could not with the help of a few books have rapidly got up
by translation or compilation a readable essay. His correspondence
mirrors most faithfully his character. People are in the habit
of calling it interesting and clever; and it is so, as long as
it reflects the urban or villa life of the world of quality;
but where the writer is thrown on his own resources, as in exile,
in Cilicia, and after the battle of Pharsalus, it is stale
and emptyas was ever the soul of a feuilletonist banished from his
familiar circles. It is scarcely needful to add that such a statesman
and such a -litterateur- could not, as a man, exhibit aught else
than a thinly varnished superficiality and heart-lessness.
Must we still describe the orator? The great author is also a great man;
and in the great orator more especially conviction or passion
flows forth with a clearer and more impetuous stream from the depths
of the breast than in the scantily-gifted many who merely count
and are nothing. Cicero had no conviction and no passion;
he was nothing but an advocate, and not a good one. He understood
how to set forth his narrative of the case with piquancy of anecdote,
to excite, if not the feeling, at any rate the sentimentality
of his hearers, and to enliven the dry business of legal pleading
by cleverness or witticisms mostly of a personal sort;
his better orations, though they are far from coming up to the free
gracefulness and the sure point of the most excellent compositions
of this sort, for instance the Memoirs of Beaumarchais, yet form
easy and agreeable reading. But while the very advantages
just indicated will appear to the serious judge as advantages
of very dubious value, the absolute want of political discernment
in the orations on constitutional questions and of juristic deduction
in the forensic addresses, the egotism forgetful of its duty
and constantly losing sight of the cause while thinking
of the advocate, the dreadful barrenness of thought in the Ciceronian
orations must revolt every reader of feeling and judgment.

Ciceronianism

If there is anything wonderful in the case, it is in truth
not the orations, but the admiration which they excited. As to Cicero
every unbiassed person will soon make up his mind: Ciceronianism
is a problem, which in fact cannot be properly solved, but can only
be resolved into that greater mystery of human nature–language
and the effect of language on the mind. Inasmuch as the noble Latin
language, just before it perished as a national idiom, was once more
as it were comprehensively grasped by that dexterous stylist
and deposited in his copious writings, something of the power
which language exercises, and of the piety which it awakens,
was transferred to the unworthy vessel. The Romans possessed
no great Latin prose-writer; for Caesar was, like Napoleon,
only incidentally an author. Was it to be wondered at that,
in the absence of such an one, they should at least honour the genius
of the language in the great stylist? And that, like Cicero himself,
Cicero’s readers also should accustom themselves to ask not what,
but how he had written? Custom and the schoolmaster then completed
what the power of language had begun.”