Time to tick a few boxes on MSM treason.

Time to tick a few boxes and consider future action.

I have railed long and loud on blog sites with accusations of treason leveled at certain members of the Main-Stream Media. I have been deadly serious about these claims and I do believe action must be taken against the most egregious culprits who sought to demoralize and destroy the Gillard govt’ in the eyes of the public. I am still serious about the action needed to bring these culprits to a court of law to plead their case. Others have been more reticent, some to the point of dismissing such a charge as delusional or frivolous. I hope to argue the case here for due consideration to action for the future security of our democratic country.

As for the legal definition of treason in Aust’..Google : “ Treason: Defunct
Or
Dormant?
ADAM
REYNOLDS*

There being so many loop-holes that a whale could swim through, let us take the common accepted meaning, ie: “An act of betrayal to a foreign interest against the interests of the nation and it’s peoples” as accepted and argue the rhetoric. Of course, there is “High Treason” in a time of war and what I see as “common treason” in a time of relative peace. I am not interested in seeing those MSM. Journos’ charged being hung-drawn-and quartered and their carcasses being strewn to the four corners of the country for “High Treason”…pollution is already a major problem! But, there will come a time after Labor regain office, which I expect them to next election, unless of course and I fully expect, some sort of election delay tactic from the present incumbents, after all, when has it ever been otherwise that a swarm of locusts or a plague of vermin do not proceed to the “hardwire” instructions in their DNA.?..It is a truth of historical experience that certain personality types should not be left in charge of a bladed letter opener, let alone the ship of state!…but THAT is topic for another article. I expect no less than a judicial inquiry must adjudicate on the behaviour of members of the fourth estate in the time of the Gillard govt’..AND continues to this day…This MUST be done.

Let us proceed..: I doubt very much that a law could be found anywhere to convict a foreign national operating in their country of citizenship to use what ever tools at their control to demonise, disrupt or bring down a foreign government. If there were, many oligarchs would by now be languishing in extradition prisons or worse all over the world. The actions of individuals and corporations toward the Sth American nations are a familiar example…In the same breath, I would have to doubt there is ANY NATION that DOESN’T have laws against it’s own nationals using the tools and finance of a foreign national or corporation to demonise, disrupt or bring down their own democratically elected government…for if there were no laws against such sedition, there would never be any sort of stable government at all..

So considering the blind-freddy logic of the above, I want someone to tell me the behaviour by certain members of the MSM. Toward the elected govt’ of Julia Gillard leading up to AND including the “Rudd reincarnation”, was NOT an act of treason against both the state and it’s people. I want someone to tell me that receiving payment from, acting with instructions and tactics from, in a wholly owned media platform from and at the behest of a foreign national , in the personal interests of that foreign national, for the vested interests of that foreign national for the sole purpose of profit for that foreign national..AGAINST THE INTERESTS AND WELL-BEING OF THEIR OWN NATION..is not treason?..It’s not so hard, it’s as simple as that!…take away the offended spluttering, the cautious coughing, the old school tie loyalty and the “drinking mate” camaraderie and you have the nub of the charge….; treason, pure and simple.

Sure, there are those journalists who are now singing a different tune..seeking to evade the charge of “cowardice under fire”…and didn’t Judas first accept the offer of silver before planting the kiss of betrayal?…They will claim in defence that they too acted as they did because they believed the same principles as their paymaster…nothing to do with it..nothing at all…I am certain “Lord Haw Haw” felt similar toward HIS paymasters..Any of us could claim sympathy with a foreign power, and with levied moneys from that power set up and promoted the overthrow of our democracy…Many of us do have sympathy with different politics or ideologies. THAT, is the beauty of maintaining our democracy..so we can express our beliefs without fear or favour…but we do not have the right to inflict personal bigotry or ideological preferences upon at least half the population, to the detriment of the population by using a mainstream media platform AND the public broadcaster to demoralize, plain lie and collude to bring down that democracy. We do not!..not ANY of us have that right!..

And if they did have a legitimate barrow to push, why not, like so many more of us, take to blogging on social media..start your own blog-page account, it’s free!..bring those valued opinions that they so treasure to the general public so we can all comment upon them…no…no..too cowardly..better to hide behind the litigious bullying of a cashed-up criminal and with dribbling spittle sing the praises of “M’lord”.

If those journalists were the “innocents abroad” that they like to portray themselves as, we could forgive them..indeed, some are nothing but bumbling buffoons armed with a thesaurus and a vocabulary. but of the others…no..Well we remember the “curled lip” of scorn in their commentary, as equal in vicious drop the sourness of their personalities…well we remember the repetitive mockery and obfuscation of the serial liar in their “on-air” voices and well we recall that soul-less “mark of Cain” in their eyes as they sunk to the depths of depravity requested to please their paymaster and instructor…cowards who feared more the ‘woe betide” repercussions of their slave-master than the metered justice of their fellow citizens!

So the bringing to court and making those members of the MSM. who worked for , received payment from and colluded with that foreign national, whilst sheltering under the protection of their own national passport, explain their actions to their fellow citizens is an imperative for the next Labor government. The free-press commentary, indeed the entire fourth and fifth estate depends upon it , for with this shadow of fear of media harassment, false accusation and condemnation way beyond the bounds of reasonable criticism, the nation will ever be at the mercy of any grudging mogul and his obsequious employees, seeking to destroy any govt’ not personally approved and no nation can nor should operate under such a tyranny.

Let the scales of a justice “that must be seen to be done” weigh their actions.

Sedan Aspirations and Goals.

Now, anyone here who has lived in a small country town will recognize the situation I am about to describe. There is a familiarity with both the pettiness of complaint and the seriousness of the minutiae of desire for redress that runs like “Orteses Thread” through the fabric of the community..and like all these little communities, a heady mix of “rumour, envy and shadenfreude” sustains all it’s members!

Into this community, there came the CEO. of the local council to address the citizens in a “Community Aspirations and Goals meeting at the Sedan Memorial Hall, all invited w/ coffee and cake provided”. Now right there, from the start, any local could’ve told him that he could’a doubled his attendance if’n he’d offered ‘mini-savs’ on the menu! As it was , a goodly group turned up to ‘sus out’ the new CEO. I was one of that group…I had a couple of ‘goals’ of my own to suggest at that meeting!….

It went like this.

The new CEO came from the Sth East…Mt Gambier , to be precise..There is a lot of water down that end of the state..and maybe they are more used to partaking of THAT liquid rather that the Sedan locals..to whom beer and the like are no strangers! So it was as no surprise that several “known” members of the local public came to the meeting straight from the front bar of the Sedan Hotel..and I did notice that one such, with the nickname ; “Pull-through” (I won’t go into the reasons for these designations, it could be too tedious and convoluted…some though, give a hint!), skinny as he is, found the doorway a tad too narrow as he ricocheted off the jambs!

“ Now I don’t want to be sitting back in my office in Mannum dictating to the community what it will have”..the CEO began. “I want YOU..the community to tell me what are YOUR aspirations and goals for Sedan…” and here he paused for effect to thrust his pointer at several headings written on a large piece of butchers paper blu-tacked on the wall…he swept his black-rimmed bespectacled and wide-eyed gaze accusatively around the room….feet shuffled..a sign of expected comment.

“How about a ramp in the gutter there outside the pub..there on the footpath” ‘Banger’ was first off the rank…the CEO raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, so ..a ‘disabled ramp’ in the kerbing?” he suggested.

“Well…” ‘Banger’ drawled “Not so much ‘disabled’…well not going IN..coming out maybe!..” this got a few laughs..” But you can make a miss-step there and do your self some damage on a Friday night”..a good deal of nodding and cross-chatter affirmed this point

“…broke six bottles the other week!…”was heard in one camp.

“Yes, yes..I see…mark that down Mr. Parker. “ the CEO addressed his clerk. “Some more please”.

Of course, Banger’s first foray into the pond unleashed a tirade of ideas…from the problem with puddles outside the post-office (when it DID rain), painted house numbers on the kerbs (only a small portion of the town has kerbing) to a scenic car-park on the top of Sedan Hill for the visitors to the district (this last drew a muffled gasp from the crowd for it’s audaciousness…a pet project of Mrs. Auricht) ..several more trite complaints followed. The poor CEO, expecting more in the line of aspirations than desperations was becoming impatient at the somewhat pettiness of the requests..

“Yes, yes..but I was hoping for…for…” his eyes swept the room..he saw not the least sympathy….he understood..”…NO!..put those down, Mr. Parker..put those..those ideas in that ledger of yours….ok..any more?”

I was waiting for my moment..After a short silence and the turning of heads toward each-other negatively, I put up my hand.

“ I have an idea “ I volunteered. A disapproving murmur pulsated through the crowd..my reputation had preceded me!..

” A fountain!” I exclaimed boldly..” In the centre of the ‘square’ there…we move that cement obelisk..after all it is only a street sign, not a memorial..and we put a fountain in the centre of the town..as a mark of beauty and a testament to the resilience of this community living in a dry country…I envisage (yes..I spoke like that!..I had rehearsed) a low, brimming bowl with the water lapping over a polished, curved lip..within this bowl is a tryptich sculpture of panels..three sandstone panels carved in relief with representations of (in the centre) ; The Ubiquitous Mallee Tree..flanked by on one side representations of the Indigenous peoples and on the other ; the Pioneers of the district..(There was silence in the room as I spoke..more now, I realise , from shock than from politeness!)…the entire fountain surrounded by beds of native flora….so that visitors driving into the town from any direction, will immediately see this amazing display in the middle of dryness and say ; “WOW!”…” I finished my little spiel with a flourish of my arms.

There was silence in the room..a full seven seconds silence…the record for Sedan is ten seconds!..then , like bursting through the surface of water after a deep dive, the cacophony of the world around came crashing in…a veritable HOWL of derision and outrage was flung in my direction…everybody moved away from me..of the dissenters, “Groper” was most red-faced ..on his feet straight up..

“ Move the obelisk!..” he raged, “..move the fuckin’ obelisk !!..my dad helped build that fuckin’ obelisk…it’s..it’s a treasure..almost sacred!…no!..no !…we don’t move the fuckin’ obelisk!..no, ferget it!” nodding heads and cries of support for ‘Groper’ were thick on the ground , so that the CEO. gave a shake of his head to his clerk and then decided to wrap up the meeting. I quickly made my escape.

It was about a month before some folk would talk to me in the street after such blasphemy. But I do hold second place (I believe) in the ‘Sound of Silence’ record in the community..There are some small moments to treasure with the experience of living in small country towns…I’ll tell you about them someday!

The Horror!…The Horror!…

“Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State, in the heart of Africa, by the story’s narrator Marlow. Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames, London, England. This setting provides the frame for Marlow’s story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between London and Africa as places of darkness.
Central to Conrad’s work is the idea that there is little difference between so-called civilised people and those described as savages “ ( Wikipedia)

Conrad’s novella was used to very good effect as the base story for the Francis Coppola film : Apocalypse Now..but set in Vietnam..a truly memorable and frightening film…one of the greats of cinema. The opening theme and song from The Doors, an unforgettable moment…

“In the most general sense, libertarianism is a political philosophy that affirms the rights of individuals to liberty, to acquire, keep, and exchange their holdings, and considers the protection of individual rights the primary role for the state. This entry is on libertarianism in the narrower sense of the moral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things…
Libertarianism can be understood as a basic moral principle or as a derivative one…” (..Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Capitalist Extinction Theory and the God Salvation.
Was watching this chappy from the fossil fuel lobby on “Lateline” the other week extolling the benefits, nay ; DUTY, to “emerging economies” of using Australian “clean coal” to raise their peoples out of poverty with the proven technology of coal burning power stations which in turn , because of the Australian “clean coal” reduce carbon emissions accordingly..

On the same program , at the same time was the revelation of the decline of the Great Barrier Reef with bleaching and pollutants. This did not seem to be the concern of the coal lobby, as they claimed there had not been a coal spillage on the reef nor were they responsible for the run-off of waste and nutrients into the reef waters…

The next day I was embroiled on Twitter with a supposed “Professor” (a Libertarian) about the fatalistic acceptance of coral “dying and coral renewal”…because as he explained ; “…it’s the way nature works..I’ve seen it happening many times over the years”..and then went on to reveal what I believed from the start that; “ I don’t see climate change because climate change is not happening..”

And there we have it ; There is no damage to the atmosphere from burning coal and if there was , mother nature will easily adjust. There is no damage to the reef that would not happen anyway over time and if there is, it will renew itself..in short..; there is NOTHING catastrophic happening at all to the climate to the environment, to bio-diversity of species or to the interconnectivity of the above to humanity that is not a normal, natural evolution and if there was “Mother Nature” , who is bigger than all of us will fix it with a tad of adjustment. Sure, some of us on the planet will suffer..(but hey!…it sure as hell won’t be us in the first world..nudge, nudge…) and so the Libertarian juggernaut rolls on.

“ …the belief (in luck) comprises at least two distinguishable elements—which are to be taken as two different phases of the same fundamental habit of thought, or as the same psychological factor in two successive phases of its evolution. The fact that these two elements are successive phases of the same general line of growth of belief does not hinder their coexisting in the habits of thought of any given individual. The more primitive form (or the more archaic phase) is an incipient animistic belief, or an animistic sense of relations and things, that imputes a quasi-personal character to facts. To the archaic man all the obtrusive and obviously consequential objects and facts in his environment have a quasi-personal individuality. They are conceived to be possessed of volition, or rather of propensities, which enter into the complex of causes and affect events in an inscrutable manner. The sporting man’s sense of luck and chance, or of fortuitous necessity, is an inarticulate or inchoate animism. It applies to objects and situations, often in a very vague way; but it is usually so far defined as to imply the possibility of propitiating, or of deceiving and cajoling, or otherwise disturbing the holding of propensities resident in the objects which constitute the apparatus and accessories of any game of skill or chance.”..(Thorsten Veblen )

If it can’t be fixed, then adjust. If it can’t be saved, then it must be weak and doomed anyway. There is an ingrained fatalism of extinction theory in the capitalist free-market mantra backed by pseudo science and pseudo anthropology that is quite unhinged and frightening. It is a belief in keeping with economic Darwinism that any environment, species , culture, in like kind to any economic situation, that cannot survive on it’s own “bottom line” justification does not deserve to stand at all!..a kind of ; everyman for themselves world and the devil take the hindermost, as if economic rationalism can be crossed with survival rationalism and succeed!

“They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to….” (Joseph Conrad ; Heart of Darkness)

What can one say that would be persuasive enough to counter such absurd ambition? I have my doubts there is any. I doubt the cocooned persons who manage this barbarism and vandalism on our world could even hear the cries of a drowning child outside their double-glazed luxurious apartment full- height windows. Their idea of an extinction of a species or the loss of an environment as not a bad thing as it allows new ones to grow in its place is a kind of connection to the absurd monotheist principle of ; “Dying being a ‘release’ from this temporal suffering life..this vale of tears”..so one can live harmoniously, eternally under the one God in a confected, secure heaven.

“ The guiding habits of thought of a devout person move on the plane of an archaic scheme of life which has outlived much of its usefulness for the economic exigencies of the collective life of today. In so far as the economic organization fits the exigencies of the collective life of today, it has outlived the regime of status, and has no use and no place for a relation of personal subserviency. So far as concerns the economic efficiency of the community, the sentiment of personal fealty, and the general habit of mind of which that sentiment is an expression, are survivals which cumber the ground and hinder an adequate adjustment of human institutions to the existing situation. The habit of mind which best lends itself to the purposes of a peaceable, industrial community, is that matter-of-fact temper which recognizes the value of material facts simply as opaque items in the mechanical sequence. It is that frame of mind which does not instinctively impute an animistic propensity to things, nor resort to preternatural intervention as an explanation of perplexing phenomena, nor depend on an unseen hand to shape the course of events to human use. To meet the requirements of the highest economic efficiency under modern conditions, the world process must habitually be apprehended in terms of quantitative, dispassionate force and sequence.”..(Thorsten Veblen ).

This distortion of environment reality is perhaps the extension of “mother nature” fixing things. This is perhaps the capitalist great white hope of ; “God Salvation” that will redeem all things and right all wrongs..as long as one is on the ‘good side’..and if we look closely at those major venture capitalists, many..too many seem to be deeply ensconced within one or the other major religions. However, if one was to look closely at the complex arrangements of those manipulators of capitalist handles, one would be inclined to see more of a multitude of chancing of investments and the gamble of high return more in keeping with a Pagan system of worship of a multitude of gods, rather than all the eggs in the one monotheistic basket. For how can one juggle so many investments in both blue-chip and high risk across so many cultural and political borders without holding donative worship at many altars?…or is all financial speculation held in trust to the one supreme commander?…chancey stuff!

I quote :
“In this paper, I argue that the birth of monotheism was a major breakthrough in sociopolitical organization and that it had a returns to scale advantage relative to paganistic and polytheist religious traditions. That is, monotheist religions involve a strong degree of increasing returns to scale and the natural monopoly powers commensurate with it. Second, monotheistic faiths are unique in that they not only personalize the spiritual exchange relationship between the individual and the one deity, but due to the fact that this relationship extends into the afterlife as well, they also enhance individual accountability. On that basis, monotheistic faiths expand their adherents’ time horizon beyond biological life and impact the time discount between one’s lifetime and the after-life.
There are two implications of these features: First, due to the fact that institutions of monotheism possessed the ecclesiastical monopoly power to legitimize or undermine the temporal powers of the political elite, they helped produce political and ecclesiastical institutions that were powerful. In particular, the latter derived substantial Financial and political benefits from being associated with One God.” ( Monotheism.. Murat Iyigun)

The Horror…The Horror…

Barbarian Intellectualism.

“For so many in the techno-elite, even those who don’t entirely subscribe to the unlimited optimism of the Singularity (The Singularity is an artificial intelligence notion of some futurists…Google it if you wish), the notion of perpetual progress and economic growth is somehow taken for granted. As a former classicist turned technologist, I’ve always lived with the shadow of the fall of Rome, the failure of its intellectual culture, and the stasis that gripped the Western world for the better part of a thousand years. What I fear most is that we will lack the will and the foresight to face the world’s problems squarely, but will instead retreat from them into superstition and ignorance.” (Random quote from the internet.) .

In an earlier post, I questioned the presumption of what constituted an “Advanced Society”..ie; The notion of perpetual progress and economic growth is somehow taken for granted vs. the concept of creating a deliberate stable, sustainable social environment. While the former demands a “ laissez faire” economy, the latter would encourage a more “softly, softly” approach. To say that the latter would constitute a kind of “anti-intellectualism” is wrong..I would say that it is more of a “steering” of intellectual prowess toward community relevant advances, rather than toward that which enriches and can be utilized only by a wealthy elite. The barbarian idea of plunder and rapine to enrich the few rather than the most is anti-intellectualism..a degree of thought would prove that, like a garden, a sustainable harvest brings greater wealth in the long run rather than a one-off slash and burn approach..”softly, softly catchee monkey”. But that is not to say that the Barbarian class hasn’t learned by their mistakes.

I will go further and ask if a far-right-wing political party is compatible with a democratic society? The ideology of democracy being ; “Of, by and for the people”, being anathema to what the far-right has in its ambitions.. The far-right of politics is synonymous with the cult of fascism, an ideology unforgiving of social needs for the poor and vulnerable and totally unforgiving of any dissent whatever. The prime example of Barbarian intellectualism.

“a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition”. ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism)

That definition is easy to attribute to a number of ministers already with power. There is no mistaking the intent if not the evasive language they spruik. Many far-right politicians seem to be just aching to have the opportunity to flex their puny muscles via a martial policing of the State and its citizens. I would push for the far-right to be reviewed and judged by a public tribunal as worthy to hold a place in future elections as a dangerous and insane proposition for the honour of democratic governance.

In ancient times, the Scythians, a most barbaric nomadic tribe from the Steppes of Eurasia , would contract the Grecian artists and artisans to manufacture works of beauty in plundered gold for their own vanity. The barbarian hand, while being adept at wielding a weapon, seems always to lack the finesse and temperament for cultured art. One cannot sing through gritted teeth nor grip the bow of a violin with bloodied fingers!

The IPA. , considered in these days as being THE VOICE of the right-wing think tanks in Aust’, is one such example of “Barbarian Intellectualism”. Reading articles from personalities of this institution, one can visualize through the chosen jargon and clichéd phrases, them trawling through their university days learned texts with “join-the-dots” logic that is more intellectualism by rote than by inquisitive enquiry. They will reach to give ‘legitimizing cred’ to their words by quoting from even dissenting sources, as if that scenario can be used to justify their creed..and it’s nothing but insulting to have such juvenile methodology foisted upon us in our old age. Truly, many of the arguments put up by the “Barbarian intellectuals” , no matter who they quote, are little more than excuses for behaviour, rather than seeking to discover.

If there is one famous quote that could embrace the entire Barbarian intellectualism ethos and moral direction, it would have to be that ghastly logic from the Vietnam War , where one ; “…must destroy the village to save the village.” And we have seen just how far such insane logic has taken the governance of this once well-administered country . The social-suicidal implementation of the IPA / LNP “wish list” has driven both the object and the integrity of conversation in this country to a depth never before plumbed. To have to listen to the childish babbling of its creators is to give too much valued-time to too little thought. The influence of such puerile philosophy on the ministers of the govt’ demonstrates the even lower level of capable discourse amongst the front bench of that govt’. To call this govt’; “capable” is to outright lie..To call the govt’ of the day “culpable” is to be somewhere closer to reality…as to what they are “culpable” of is for a future commission to ascertain…but the least charge that can be leveled is the one of cultural “Barbarism”.

The Patience of the Predator.

Back in the days of my callous youth, when I would go hunting rabbits with my trusty .22 repeater rifle, I soon learned the basic rudiments of the predator vs. the predated. For instance, if I came to a section of bush that showed all the signs but none of the movement of quarry, instead of waltzing out to the middle of the clearing and announcing my intentions to all and sundry, I would stand dead still, and breathe quietly and listen carefully…the intent of course was to place the opportunity of mistake on to the quarry, for as long as either of us remained quiet and still, neither would be discovered..But if one moved…and with myself being in the dominant position of power… this is where the nous of the hunter is put to the test..if there is one thing the predator must have in spades, it is patience.

If you but observe the tactics of a cat…with the experienced hunter, it is usually the quarry that loses patience first..and then…

“The leisure-class canon demands strict and comprehensive futility, the instinct of workmanship demands purposeful action. The leisure-class canon of decorum acts slowly and pervasively, by a selective elimination of all substantially useful or purposeful modes of action from the accredited scheme of life; the instinct of workmanship acts impulsively and may be satisfied, provisionally, with a proximate purpose. “

The managerial middle-class has perfected the principle of the patience of the predator. The impulsive nature of the ‘producing class’, with it’s inherent imperative of need and or requirement of immediate results, lures it into rash decision and opinion making..such impulsiveness will often lead the general collective of this class into an economic or political trap..The managerial authority has , with privileged authority, via proven historical experience adopted the hunter’s prowess of seek out and destroy through a waiting game that radical or disobedient element which denies their uninterrupted governance. This is best achieved by adopting those methods learned down through the ages of strategy and cunning used in many diplomatic and military exploits, and then passed on through the filters of education to those selected out and best suited for such invidious managerial pursuits.

“As it finds expression in the life of the barbarian, prowess manifests itself in two main directions—force and fraud. In varying degrees these two forms of expression are similarly present in modern warfare, in the pecuniary occupations, and in sports and games. Both lines of aptitudes are cultivated and strengthened by the life of sport as well as by the more serious forms of emulative life. Strategy or cunning is an element invariably present in games, as also in warlike pursuits and in the chase. In all of these employments strategy tends to develop into finesse and chicanery. Chicanery, falsehood, browbeating, hold a well-secured place in the method of procedure of any athletic contest and in games generally.”

Well may it be attributed to the Upper class of England to claim that..: “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”..

Of course all this may just be passing on of trivial information except for the current political games being played by the Right-wing of the conservative LNP. to search out and control the recognizable opposition that will cause them the most bother in the years to come..They have learned the sorry way the mistake of charging out into the clearing and “spraying bullets all around” and hitting no particular quarry except perhaps their own mates..a blue on blue!..Now they wait..they are playing the long game..they are drawing out the quarry with strategy..; they propose debates with all the appearance of reasoned logic..”Why not let the people discuss?”…”Why not encourage the unemployed to help themselves?”…” What is wrong with securing our borders ?”….discuss.

With cunning they recruit marginal commentators to push their points by way of “free speech”…”the other side of the debate” “ The right of another point of view”..But these are just strategies of playing the waiting game. Waiting for the first to blink, to break-cover and panic..and then…their “dogs” in the MSM. go for the throat , selecting the one vulnerable group or person, cut them out, they marginalize them, demonize them and hold them up as example of justification for the action taken. Just like the stalking procedure of the big cats..lying in wait for their preselected victim.

“The habitual employment of an umpire, and the minute technical regulations governing the limits and details of permissible fraud and strategic advantage, sufficiently attest the fact that fraudulent practices and attempts to overreach one’s opponents are not unforeseen features of the game. In the nature of the case habituation to sports should conduce to a fuller development of the aptitude for fraud; and the prevalence in the community of that predatory temperament which inclines men to sports connotes a prevalence of sharp practice and callous disregard of the interests of others, individually and collectively. Resort to fraud, in any guise and under any legitimisation of law or custom, is an expression of a narrowly self-regarding habit of mind. “

The practice of the patience of the predator is used by the skilled managerial class throughout all walks of society as a method of control of those considered “out of control” or “unstable” ..every strata of management utilizes the “pause, wait and see” strategy to give as much time as required to destabilize and unsettle the victim..waiting for the first false move or mistake and then once off-guard, they pounce!

“The astute man, it may be remarked, is of no economic value to the community—unless it be for the purpose of sharp practice in dealings with other communities. His functioning is not a furtherance of the generic life process. At its best, in its direct economic bearing, it is a conversion of the economic substance of the collectivity to a growth alien to the collective life process—very much after the analogy of what in medicine would be called a benign tumor, with some tendency to transgress the uncertain line that divides the benign from the malign growths. The two barbarian traits, ferocity and astuteness, go to make up the predaceous temper or spiritual attitude. They are the expressions of a narrowly self-regarding habit of mind. Both are highly serviceable for individual expediency in a life looking to invidious success. Both also have a high aesthetic value. Both are fostered by the pecuniary culture. But both alike are of no use for the purposes of the collective life. “

Thankfully, they can be easily identified by their lack of real creativity or inventiveness in any given situation..They are totally predictable.
(All quotes are from Thorsten Veblen : “The Theory of the Leisure Class”..)

Death by a Thousand Cuts.

Living by a simple philosophy,,

“1983…Business ………..of Survival… With the Death of Richard, I must now manage alone, on one pension.
The house seems in good condition. No large account, only the small loan I had taken out, which finishes in June 1985. Must try not to take out anymore loans, to(sic) much drain on my low income.

I must try to live on produce from garden, with eggs to help out.

Try to cut down on weekly food bills, most of all on meat.

The animals take quite a lot (money) for food, reg, etc.

As the fowls are all getting old, must breed up some new hens. “

That quote was from an aged pensioner’s diary…sure, we know she was not going to die of hunger or homelessness..or do we?…She certainly was afraid of some vague uncertainty…and therein lies the simple truth..: “A lifetime of habit, creates a certainty of belief ..a moment of uncertainty doubts a lifetime of belief ”. For that lady, her entire life was constructed around hard work…the old-age pension that Labor and the unions put in place gave her a measure of security so she could live out her final years in dignity…that is a word well worth praising…; Dignity…..Let’s put that up there at the top of the page of Labor principles.

Dignity.
And damn if a person who applies their person to contribute toward the social betterment of their family, friends and neighbours for their working life, they are denied that most basic of respects..; Dignity ! ..and it only comes from others who have walked that same path . The speculator, always on the make..always on the lookout for the next “win”..the next “deal”, has neither wish nor capacity for dignity…he has traded it away with a Faustian deal with capital…no need to look to him for a “fair go”, his motto is ; “Opportunity”…but does he seriously believe that if HE did not exist, there would be no work to do?

Actually, the name that lady called her late husband was not quite correct…you see..his name really was ; Riccardo….he was an Italian…SHE was born in Australia of Irish / Cornish stock….now THERE’S a mix!…But you know, it is not at all uncommon..of the three sisters in that lady’s family, after the war, one married an Italian, one married a German (third generation Australian) and the third a Polish man. This idea that we are just lately become a multi-cultural nation is not true..for many years there has been intermarriage in the community…sure, the surnames may be Anglo, but there is mixed ethnic in the family somewhere..and we should be proud of this…love knows no boundaries, children know no race.

I keep hearing this catch-cry ;”What does Labor stand for?”…To my mind, Labor stands for what it was raised for..a simple measure of dignity…in work, in leisure, in the fair go for all people. I remember when I was about ten years old, with my older brother, selling newspapers at the Royal Show…The manager would allocate you so many papers for the day, you’d sell them, putting all the coins into a leather bag at your hip and at the end of the day, you’d give the bag over to that manager and he’d count out what you owed for the papers and any over (you’d get tips, but most times didn’t have the time to separate the tip from the coinage) incl’ tips he’d give back to you along with your pay….But there was this one big bastard manager one year, who’d keep back most of your tips…my older brother, being a stroppy sort of young fellow , challenged him (my brother was canny enough to keep a careful watch on his tips) and the manager got angry , saying ;”If you don’t like the way I do things , you can get off with yourself !”…and THAT included me. So a thirteen and a ten year old couple of kids get cheated by an unscrupulous manager (News Limited, by the way!)….nothing new, neither then nor now!…MacDonalds do it all the time…it’s called ; cheap labour…but to cheat kids..what sort of people are these ? Vermin….who steal the rights of their fellows…Labor with the unions, stand up for those rights..Let’s put that up on the list.

Rights.
And damn if a person applies their advantageous position to cheat even paper-boys…what sort of bastards are we up against?…and they ask what does Labor stand for?..Labor stands for what it was raised to stand for…the Rights of the everyday people to stop the vermin from ripping off the wages of ALL people and to bestow on All of us what Gough Whitlam called for and what Labor calls for now..: “A fair go”.

Labor must think carefully before they pass these new “security laws” put up by Brandis and co.…They are not to protect us from “terrorism”, but are deliberately being put in place to track and control our own citizens…it is as obvious as the nose on your face. There has to be a measure of restraint in how far we go to cower and threaten the populace. There has to be a measure of dignity and rights in our confrontation of any threat. Better we offer safe harbour to the majority of whom have been driven from their homelands in fear of their lives or livelihood, like those three men-folk above, than attempt to cower and oppress a minority for little more than their own particular culture.

Now read these comments and tell me they are irrelevant today..:

“ As rivers glisten in different colours, but a common sewer everywhere looks like itself, …so the all powerful rule of capital ruined the middle class, raised trade and corporate agriculture to the highest prosperity, and ultimately led to a – hypocritically whitewashed – moral and political corruption of the nation…”

And..

“ The leisure class lives by the industrial community rather than in it. Its relations to industry are of a financial rather than an industrial kind. Admission to the class is gained by exercise of the financial aptitudes—aptitudes for acquisition rather than for serviceability. There is, therefore, a continued selective sifting of the human material that makes up the leisure class, and this selection proceeds on the ground of fitness for financial pursuits.”

Both the above pieces are over one hundred years old..The first by Theodor Mommsen on ancient Rome, the second by Thorsten Veblen on post Victorian capitalism…yet they could both have been written today. Why is it that such rational observations go unheeded in our society?…I read such and take them in and use them (as you see here) as moral and ethical fodder in my own life. Where do we see such civilized observations used widely?…I don’t know!..I don’t hear or see it in everyday life!..Where is the scholarly debate among political higher learning in this nation?….Education abandoned..that’s where..Let’s put that word up there too..

Education.

And damn if the multitude of tomes of wisdom that have been written in the tears of humanity over millennium, get abandoned for stupid, facile , quick-fix slogans. What sort of people are these who, flaunting their higher education, claim the high ground of public debate , yet cannot or will not learn from history and will not read from the wisdom of the ages…There are those who cannot claim education beyond the third year high school, who read and revere such books…their shelves a proud display of well-thumbed volumes. And some ask what should Labor stand for?..Education…Labor stands for what it was raised for…: Education for all peoples..not the abandonment of an age of learning..but education.

The many different ethnic groups that come to these shores, from the earliest to the latest have one goal in mind…”Betterment”..of their family fortunes, their security and their children’s education…it is that simple…sure, ( and I mean no disrespect, only metaphor).. they brought their metwurst and salami and tabouli and prayers with them..that is their immediate security..we all take a bit of “home” when we go on holiday..How many Vic’s have gone on the summer holidays to the Merrimbula caravan park with a couple of dozen slabs of “Vic’ Bitter” in the boot?…When one is driven in haste and fear from one’s house..; What would YOU grab?..a piece, any piece of home?…that is what “culture “ is…a little piece of the past to carry with oneself into the future..in the worst case, it could be but a poem, a prayer, a song from the motherland….in the best case it is the family. How can one reject the call of assistance…not charity…assistance to a family in need and still shelter under the common name of humanity?

So there are the players, there are the situations…we know what the problems are today…what can be the solution.
There is a secret desire the realization of reality of a desire that is really a need for time off from work. But it can be more than that..it can be the barricade between capital demand and producer compliance..a demarcation line between demand and supply. I have never liked sacrificing my weekends for overtime, ever! Damn their work..No-one should be compelled to work on the weekend..and if they must, as in the emergency services..then they ought to be suitably..VERY SUITABLY rewarded..work will be around a long time after we are ALL dead and gone!…and there can be the solution to differentiating Labour from Capital…the inviolate weekend..the compulsory time off for R&R. . For as long as one stays healthy, one can always earn money…but time is of the essence..you will run out of time before you run out of money…take the time..screw the money..let capital know it has no price for your free-time. And they still ask what Labor stands for…Labor stands for what it was raised for…honouring the eight hour day or it’s modern equivalent, honouring “family time”..personal time ..resting time. Those who would try to reduce the vulnerable to a kind of 24hr. slavery would love to claim ownership of the whole of our weekend…bugger them!..they can’t have it!

The solution is that WE who are the producers, the consumers, the life and breath of business, take control of our working lives…We draw a demarcation line between being compelled to work and a time for life. we stop the machine for a pause in production so we can enjoy our family and friendships…I say we take back our lives and deny the vermin their pound of flesh!…it has never been the speculator who physically laid the “foundations”, never the stock-broker who mixed the “mortar” , never the wealthy who carried the “hod of bricks” to build “our house”.They don’t own it..they don’t own us..they OWE us !

THAT, is Labor policy…: Dignity..Rights..Education..and what flows automatically from those simple entitlements..Stake your ground, claim your rights and serve your people.

” The quality of mercy is not strain’d.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes “…(Bill S.)

House without love.

Such is the “House of God”..be it of the three Abrahamic faiths that most torment us in these times, or any number of deity worshipping beliefs held sacred upon altar or plinth..There has been never plague nor pestilence, tyrant or warmongering horde of barbarians of such severity that could in fear or hate set brother against brother, father against son, citizen against state till every hint of architecture or vestige of civilisation has been torn asunder and then in a final gesture of total vindictiveness ground to dust… than the scourge of fanatical religious belief that there is greater reward in a kingdom of heaven.

There is no love in the breast of organised religion, though it may profess such and even call it’s proselytisers to promote such..there is no love in the House of God…there is only blind obedience, discipline and fear. There is no sincere exchange of human devotion between devout religious lovers, lest the jealousies of a God scorned, deliver their souls to perdition. There is procreation with neither lust nor desire, charity without empathy and prayer only with a reliance on fear: “A man cannot serve two masters”.

Religion is a house without love.

“ The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans, on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the divine truth, seems to offend the reason and the humanity of the present age. 70 But the primitive church, whose faith was of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eternal torture, the far greater part of the human species. A charitable hope might perhaps be indulged in favor of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who had consulted the light of reason before that of the gospel had arisen. 71 But it was unanimously affirmed, that those who, since the birth or the death of Christ, had obstinately persisted in the worship of the daemons, neither deserved nor could expect a pardon from the irritated justice of the Deity. These rigid sentiments, which had been unknown to the ancient world, appear to have infused a spirit of bitterness into a system of love and harmony. The ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn asunder by the difference of religious faith; and the Christians, who, in this world, found themselves oppressed by the power of the Pagans, were sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual pride to delight in the prospect of their future triumph. “You are fond of spectacles,” exclaims the stern Tertullian; “expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judgment of the universe. 71b How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, so many fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in red-hot flames with their deluded scholars; so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers.”
711 But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal description, which the zealous African pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms. 72 …..(Gibbon’s Decline and Fall…Christian rel’ pt 4.)

One need not go through the separate faiths, as the above could suffice for the many..it seems a universal doctrine that one blind faith has no sympathy for the other of whatever shade of deity or doctrine. However, one has to take into consideration the times of the rise in influence of these three Abrahamic Faiths.

Judaism rose in an ad hoc series of tenets from the mists of ancient Persia and environs, pulling bits and pieces of texts and doctrine from many sources including a touch of Zoroastrian, It survived many oppressions and pogroms to finally gain state attention and legitimacy in the times of the Roman Emperor Vespasian and the “Jewish wars”..and afterwards competing for regal favour with the rising “new kid on the block”; Its own “bastard child”; Christianity.

Islam too rose from the result of war between Mohammad and his pagan relatives in Mecca..no love lost there..and STILL NONE! and the consequence of the fourth Christian crusade invading and sacking Constantinople, in lieu of payment to the Doge of Venice, on their way to the Holy Lands where they got done like a dinner by the Islam armies once again, who didn’t stop this time until they crossed the Bosphorus to take the once impregnable Constantinople, now left wide open because the brilliant strategy of the Christian Crusade destroyed the last outpost of Christianity that was a solid buffer against the oncoming tide of Islam from the east..brilliant strategy..again..no love lost there.

“There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life. The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonized, would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. The insensible and inactive disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind, as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness to the individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was not in this world, that the primitive Christians were desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful.” 871 …Gibbon ; Decline and Fall…

I call myself a ; “Rational Atheist”..the atheist part needs no explanation, neither should the “rational” bit, considering that only an irrational person would believe in a God and / or a religion to save their soul from some sort of described above “eternal damnation”. That we have a ”soul” is certain..I can sense the spirituality of the day when I go to feed the animals in these cold mornings..I step outside and at once the chill of the air touches my skin and I can feel the cool zephyr as it courses over my face as I move about..the chipped, crusty-bark of the mallee trees, the cries of strange birds, the call of the chooks in their yard give delight to my senses and focus the mind on the duties to perform….and sometimes a remembered song will enhance the mood as I sing it to the horses as I give them their morning feed..all is well with the soul.

These senses, some would say give evidence of God’s creation, yet we know through a millennia of concentrated scientific inquisitiveness where each and every one of those senses derive…science and my own observation has taught me the structure and evolution of both flora and fauna…the origin and transmission of both sound through air and fury of wind…I walk out in the morning not thinking nor philosophising upon these realities, but aware of the necessity of preparing against the extremes..so I wear warm gloves where practical, rug-up with warm clothes and pull on a beanie against those chilled, crispy ears, because I know that whatever some may declare about a “loving , caring Jesus”, a “kind and benevolent God”, there’s really only one person (I here acknowledge the caring partner who reminds one to “put a warm pair of daks on or you’ll freeze your cute arse off in that air!”) who will look to my well-being in this life..and THAT is yours “T”.

Yes..it is only the irrational person who would go to a “God” to resolve their trembling fixations..and while there could be said ; “There are no atheists in foxholes” I would rather believe that there is “Too much fear of going to meet one’s death in foxholes”..Because if you believe in a God who cannot even save the life of one sad drowning toddler washed up on a beach in Turkey..then you’ll believe in anything, because if there is one certainty in this life as in any “next”..: In the “House of God”, there is no love.

Here is a short lesson on the awakening of reason… https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/the-conversion-of-father-carravalo/

On the other, the sun is rising…

The rise and rise of Public Politics.

Now, I may not be telling many of you anything new, but I am seeing there’s a new wind on the air…no, not Tony and his onions…but seriously, a touch of something different in the political discussions. Could it be that with the rise and rise of social media and political blogs like this one, we are seeing more of a joining in political discourse by the general populace..at least those interested enough to join in..Either outraged at the delinquency of LNP politics or sneering at the public demand for greater transparency of governance..and such discussions are now more than possible with access to the tidal wave of social media.

The birth, perhaps, of “Public Politics”.

Perhaps what we are partaking in is the rebirth of “public speaking” the “Speakers Corner” of the city park, except it is more now a global park. Perhaps what we are partaking in is more than mere “I say -you say” opinion forum, because if the likes of twitter has shown us anything, is that the “direct line” to our representatives is now possible..and when you have the president of the United States of America furiously stabbing out those 280 chas’s or less every day and night, colliding with his for’s and agin’s on the ether, you got “connection”…with a capital “C”.

No longer do our politicians have to rely upon the Chinese whisper from a staffer or lobbyist to know just EXACTLY how the electorate feels about party policy..it is spread all over the internet in no uncertain terms. No longer will leaders like Tony Abbott have to rely upon the passing slander of a person in a shopping mall to know that many think of him as a dickhead..it is there in glorious photo-shopped technicolour on an #Auspol twitter feed!

It now takes but a mille-byte length of time to contradict those awful lies spittle’d from Chrissy Pyne’s lips on an angry social media site..The gross fumbling by the now confected “vox gravitas” of Josh Frydenberg (wannabe leadership material?) on the stupidity of “clean coal” is rubbished with fact and fancy from the four corners of the globe..and all the time he thought his forked tongue conversation with Bazz Cazz on “slip-insiders” would be taken as gospel…as if!…But if there is one failure of social media that must be conceded, it is the apparent incapacity to get Mathias Corman to ; please, please learn to pronounce the word “obviously” correctly..PLEASE!…there are NOT TWO “B’s” in the word.

Ah!…this social media thingo is but the start of a new democracy of the dictatorship of the citizenry, if we can have the freedom to continue the candid conversations online..after all, it must be admitted, the internet, like any other “domestic appliance” is reliant upon the continuous supply of electricity..and the patience of the powers that be to turn on or off the broadband spectrum…not that THAT is a consideration around these parts, where the signal is so weak we in this house have to watch out for eating too much carb’ in our diet lest a reckless fart cuts all forms of communication off indefinitely!

Perhaps our politicians need to be pressed to construct a “community energy source” where supply cannot be cut simply on the whim of a political or economic decision…perhaps there ought to be a new “fourth estate” of power of the unions rather than media to “keep the bastards honest”..what ever, I think we-the public- will have to secure our lines of communications to keep the conversations open and ongoing.

These public blog-sites and the creators like ‘WordPress’ need to be treasured for the tireless enthusiasm put into the running of such..I doubt (and speaking for yours T) there is any real money to be made from them, considering the time and effort put in…I’d hate to be editing one of my pieces..(the result of a shithouse catholic primary edu’)..and I am reminded of that masterly piece of mummery from Anthony Quinn in “Lawrence of Arabia” where, as the fighter ; Auda Abu Tayi , he proclaims himself as; “…yet I am poor…because..I ..am a river to my people..” Great stuff!..see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noyFiYKlFJU

I do hold one opinion on how social media is now able to “rope-in” a wider audience…we seem to have closed the distance between the reader and the teller..by “the distance”, I mean the academic discourse distance. There were many good blog-sites delivering solid, witty and in-depth articles over time over the web…but I have noticed they nearly all (the serious ones at least) “spoke” with an “educated mind”…they all talk ; “academic savvy”..even sites like “Loon pond”, though thoroughly enjoyable, still echoed the cultivated grammar and the trained eloquence of a good education. There’s nothing wrong with a good education..it’s just that many people could be over-awed by such or fall into a habit, of which I was a long-time culprit, of deferring to those who are perceived to have one and therefore perceived to be “better informed”….and as a consequence, with-holding much conversation that could be added to the general pool that would aid communication to a wider audience…after all, I would think we here are all interested in encouraging friendship (insert smiley).

But really, I have to say I have nothing but optimism at least for the delivery of good public conversation, and if those historical pics of the harassed “Speakers Corner” spruiker at The Domain is anything to go by, I say ..Let the democracy of Public Politics begin again!

On one side the night so dark…

South Australia was founded on the philosophic ideas of a degenerate, financed by the money of an opportunist, bailed out by the taxpaying British public and eventually prospered on the money of speculating aspirants..What sort of government would eventually grow from such riff-raff? Ans: An LNP govt’.

When it comes to choosing what type of person is suitable to govern a nation at election time, we are presented with a variety of choices..and if we look closely at those choices, it appears that the “preferred option” is a well educated ( as in private school / sandstone university), well spoken (as in good English) , well dressed and morally reasonable personality. A bit of a “rat-bag” (Katter) is ok, as is a “English as a second language” migrant..as long as they can get their message across..but one thing is noticeable by it’s impressionability, and that, at least amongst the males and I would imagine similar with the women ..is the “suit”.

We seem to luurrrve the “man in the suit”..be he the biggest bullshit artist in the country (Turnbull) , the biggest con-artist in the country (Turnbull) , or even the most mealy-mouth bastard in the country (Turnbull; 3 out of 3!). As long as he has “University cred” (Preferably Oxford or Cambridge…but Harvard will now suffice..for the agile aspirants!) and an inherited or self-made fortune which gives the impression that he is not in the job for the money…

BULLSHIT !!!!……complete bullshitt WITH the double “t”.

“nam dives qui fieri vult, et cito vult fieri “: … for the one who wishes to become rich wishes to become rich quickly (Juvenal).

We have fallen for this old chestnut again and again…why?…because it is the “image perfect” for the “Lady and Gentleman” we, as a nation of aspirants seem to aspire to be..: The image of success…God it’s horrible to watch..like a train wreck in slow motion…Let me tell you of the establishment of the colony of South Australia as an example..;

Edward Gibbon Wakefield…The man disgraces the first two names in his identity. The man was a disgrace all ‘round…a swindler, liar, fraud, pedophile and crook..It is of no wonder he was adopted by the aspiring men as a shining example of their class to write the formulae for the establishment of a “free enterprise” colony.

In 1829, the very year in which Thomas Peel’s colonists were being dumped down at Fremantle, West Australia, a man of thirty was busily writing in a room in Newgate Prison, in London. He was in prison because he had through a devious ruse, abducted a school-girl and “married” her at Gretna Green. But he was not treated like a convict. He could obtain books and pens and paper, as influential prisoners could in those days. He was writing a little book which was published in 1829. He called this book “A Letter from Sydney”, although he had never been near Sydney, nor out of Europe. But he wrote so well and so brightly, including little bits of goss’ and “racy tales” that many people thought his book was the work of a man who had been living in Sydney for years, and who knew a great deal about Australia.

He proposed starting a new colony built on the idea of speculation and aspiration, with the proposition that ..:
“You must never sell land in a new colony except at a fairly high price. He called it a ‘sufficient price’. And he meant a price sufficient to prevent labourers from buying it easily. This would secure a supply of labour. When any land was sold—either to labourers who had saved money, or to emigrants who possessed money—the proceeds were to be used to bring out more labourers. No more land was to be given away, or granted cheaply, as in Western Australia.”

You start to get the idea..sounds familiar doesn’t it? The object being that a labourer (and THAT title in those days included everybody who earned money for their work), if he had enough money to buy his little piece of land when he reached the colony, would not be available to work for a “Gentleman” for a measly wage, but would work his own land…and: “… his master would be left servantless. So the kind of life that an English gentleman loved—with plenty of (cheap) labour at hand—was impossible in Australia”.

This is the sort of bastard sets the example of those “born to rule”…enter; George Fife Angas.

In 1834, an Act of Parliament was passed, which carved 300,000 square miles out of New South Wales, and established the colony of South Australia. But the British Govt’ would not finance the new colony. Indeed, it might have well been a still-birth had not a wealthy financier ; George Fife Angas stepped up and was appointed to a “Board of Commissioners”..He put up a surety of 200,000 pounds and the South Australia Company was formed with a prospectus enticing investors to buy into the project.

Eventually, two shiploads of ill-informed, ill-equipted “colonists” found their way to land at Kangaroo Island..the hopelessness of THAT as a colony capital was soon established..There was absolutely no information on the location suitable for settlement save Captain Charles Sturt’s notes on his Murray River trip..The whole fiasco was a gamble..a speculation..I leave the readers imagination to create the scene upon those two ships when the “investors” started to realise just who was in charge of their lives and fortunes in this strange land.

Fortunately, Col’ William Light, the surveyor with the party, reviled by the authority ; Governor Hindmarsh, chose the present site of Adelaide as the best location to set up shop…He was chastised and challenged all along the way by those most incompetent Commissioners, and as Don Dunstan explained when he too was vilified by the “Powers that be” of also being a ;” Melanesian half-caste bastard”..but he held fast and the site was settled. Eventually after a number of conflicts, a new Governor was sent and he ; Governor Gawler, tried to organise the colony..However no sooner had land been surveyed and sold, there began a chaos of land speculation..

“ They had guarded against the lack of labour by sending out work-men, and by keeping up the price of land. (Later it was raised from 12s. to £1 per acre.) What they could not guard against was the desire of people to get rich quickly. Land was sold and the money was sent to England. More people came out and wanted to buy more land. But they wanted to buy it close to Adelaide and not far away from town. So the people who had bought land near the town sold it again for higher prices. Then began a wild rush of buying up land, not to cultivate, but to sell it again at a higher price. This is what is called speculation, or, sometimes, ‘a land boom’. We have had many outbreaks of it in Australia and nearly always it has resulted in misery and unemployment. But it is very hard to stop. With no farming going on, the immigrant labourers could get no work, and so they flocked to Adelaide and demanded food from the Governor. But food was hard to get. Very little of it was being grown in South Australia, and it had to be brought from New South Wales and Tasmania…”

Now we ARE getting into very familiar territory ; the chaos of free enterprise.

The upshot of it all was that there being no farming done to employ or sufficiently feed the labourers, Governor Gawler put the men to work on civic construction..roads and buildings..but with an empty treasury, he had to write out “promissory notes” (rubber cheques) to cover wages and goods…these notes, once presented for payment back in England were promptly dishonoured…Gawler pissed off back home and the British Government was forced to honour the nearly 300,000 pounds owing and to take control of the colony just six years after it was formed. But THAT is how entrepreneurial speculation inevitably ends..the project is a disaster and the taxpayer is forced to pick up the tab either through gross incompetence or manipulative politics.

And there is where we will leave those floundering colonists..luckily the discovery of large tracts of copper ore saved the colony from bankruptcy..the gamble paid off…an early example of the “just in time” principle of survival capitalism which is then, through sheer blind luck claimed as “well planned management”.

And here we are in the twenty-first century, with another cycle of colonisation..not by an imperial power, but by mega corporations..with an administration called; The LNP Government run by the same sort of gormless fools that ran the first..with the same principles of instead of depriving the indigenous peoples of their lands, they now are in the process of depriving ALL the citizenry of their sovereignty. It is a colonisation of a different kind with the taxpayer still picking up the tab. And you can pin epaulets on their shoulders, gold-braid and medals upon their chests..you can string a long line of letters after their names and call them “sir” or “lady”…but they are still f#ckers and dickheads!

The selection of who to represent us in Canberra must no longer be chosen from the stupid, the fraudsters, the treasonous who received their coaching from the most exclusive schools and universities, THEY have betrayed their obligations. The future leaders must be chosen from the skilled trades and practical professions like nursing and engineering etc. We cannot risk our future with unskilled fools and speculating criminals from that class of degenerates who most believe they are “born to rule”…

THEY must be sent back to be retrained for at least something useful.

On the Rim of a Far Horizon…

We are all aware of that old maxim : “ Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”..But are we here in Australia, particularly South Australia aware of just how close we stand to the sculptured pediment of ancient European history ?..I suspect not..so allow me a moment of condescension and I will tell you a tale of many lives over many years.

I will point out that this is the first or two posts I hope to do with this on the subject of competency to govern by the so called ; “Born to rule” class..This post describes the style of “management” of governance by what can be best described as the most useless, incompetent, collection of real-estate speculators that ever were put in charge of administration.The second part will point out how and why we need to change the selection process..if not the descriptive adjectives!

Given the limitations of time (on the reader’s part) and space on the length of what constitutes a “readable post” on a blog-site, I have decided to forego detailed acknowledgement of my sources and steam headlong into the guts of my thesis..If you want details, you will just have to ask.

Where I live in the Sth. Aust’ mallee, there is a massive amount of unrecorded history…NOT in the nuts and bolts of who, what and where, but in the WHY and BY-WHOM. Of population settlement in the district. For this area contains the “overflow” of the early German migrants who first came to Sth Aust’ as part of George Fife Angas’s recruitment program of cheap-labour from that pool of eastern Germans newly incorporated into the greater German Republic in the 1850’s with the annexation of the eastern states of Europe…beyond the Oder River and around the Vistula River of what is now Poland.

“Trees don’t pay taxes”..was the catch-cry of the commissioners of the South Australia Company.

Those peoples, mostly Slavic in ancestry were compelled to Germanise their names, religion and culture as part of the new Republic or suffer the consequences..hence the migration of entire villages replete with Pastor to Australia in the 1840’s onwards to the end of the century. These eastern Europeans were known mostly to themselves as Wends or Sorbs. And unlike the other two waves of Germanic migration; The persecuted Middle-class from the German cities who settled and brought culture to Adelaide and the proletariat industrial workers from the cities, who brought trade and industrial skills to the state, they held their culture and themselves to themselves and their Pastors. Hence the close-knit settlements around the Barossa Valley and Kapunda / St Kitts / Stonefield areas of Sth Aust…and right up to the late 1950’s, English in their homes was a second language.

I have noted the many unrecorded efforts of many of those families while they battled with Angas’s use of their hard labour and their dedicated to family attempts to hold onto their impossible to farm successfully; hopelessly small plots of land and were in many cases left destitute and broken by what must be a deliberate plan to use them to clear-fell those sections of the mallee most suitable for cropping. The same as happened to many “Soldier Settlers” on the Murray Plains around Pinnaroo after the 2ndWW. When they were sent into the bush with little more than axes, picks and shovels and the remnants of their khaki uniforms to carve their fortunes and fates out of the hardy mallee..and in the end only broke their backs succeeding in clear-felling their selections for the local Bush aristocrats to pick them up when they went broke or shot themselves in despair..

Bachelor Bill.
“He was a bachelor, you see.
He was a soldier-settler
Out in the mallee scrub…
And he died…
Father went through his things
But he couldn’t throw these out…”
She “thumbed” out the pockets of her breeks.
“They have his army number on them, see !
He was a lovely old man , my Uncle Bill.”
But I have seen a few “Uncle Bills”,
Spurned or turned from a woman’s embrace.
Uncertain and clumsy in affection
Toward sisters or brother’s children…
“The breeks were army issue,
Part of the “deal” for soldier-settlers…
God only knows how he struggled out there.”
A soldier-settler alone in the mallee.
“God only knows.”

“Trees don’t pay taxes”…the commissioners said.

The plots of land “leased” on a strange time payment plan to the Germans with the proviso that all produce was to be sold through Angas’s company were too small and lacked deep topsoil and water to maintain fertility past the first few years of clear felling and wind-storms that decimated a land totally unsuitable for continual farming the like of European soils. Even as soon as the early years of the twentieth century, super-phosphate was being used to fertilise the “gutless” soils, to have one of their modern-day grandson farmer confess to me that ; “We are no longer ‘dirt farmers’ but chemical farmers”…So the intrepid pioneers cleared their little plots from fence-line to fence-line trying to maximise their output…to no avail, and many had to walk away from the land and trek to distant places more fertile…places like Hamilton , Victoria, The Riverland, The Adelaide hills and such places..scattered to the winds along with the breaking up of families and culture…the untold story of lost dreams of so many vulnerable folk under the tyranny of a dominant culture and capital-based society.

https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/haunted-by-history/

When many of the East Germans arrived in the later years of the nineteenth century, many made their way north to the lower Flinders Rangers..to places like Hammond, Craddock, Gordon, Farina and others even more lost in the sands of time..

“Rain will follow the plough” they told the settlers who established themselves in those first good seasons, then the dry set in and it all went to hell…the land collapsed, the farms went dry as dust, the people walked off their properties and the towns collapsed back into rubble and then sunk back into the earth they so wearily rose from.

“Rain will follow the plough”, they said and so the Ploughs went back south ..to Stonefield, Sandelton and Sedan..hard mallee country..with a slender top-soil and below, a layer of “calcrete” so hard every vibrating crowbar strike would ring ; “Gibraltar!” and so they drained and farmed the swamps and the hilltops and the stoney flats..picking up the stones by hand and throwing them into piles from the back of the dray..they farmed them with wood and iron and steel ploughs till the tynes and shares were worn to a slither or blunt as a gibber…They farmed the wind-blown flats till their families died with the diphtheria or in harrowing births gone wrong, attended only by young girls too frightened by the ghastly complications of childbirth to do little but cry in shock of what could very soon be their own fate…or they died in fires and accidents too frequent to collate in a doctors surgery, too far from a doctors assistance and left buried in sad, lonely cemeteries, serenaded only through the fall of time by sighing sheoaks around the perimeter of the church yard.

This is how far they came from the Vistula River, from the deep soils of the Danube and the Oder..This is how far they brought the remnants of their culture..here ; to the rim of a far horizon.

“Trees don’t pay taxes”..the likes of Henry Ayers and George Fife Angas proclaimed from their seats in the new parliament.

And many left for greener pastures…more profitable trades..but the Lehmans stayed and made wine..the Saegenshnitters stayed as did the Rosenschwietzs and the Krugers and the Greatzes and the Kochs…They stayed and worked the land or in the towns and built their churches and fought amongst themselves…They stayed…but forgot just exactly where their ancestors came from…forgot why their culture mattered.

Local historian Reg Munchenberg, now deceased, wrote of the origins and the land titles held in the Stonefield and Truro areas of those hardy Germans..those Wends / Sorbs..and he told of how, when many of the third generation here had retired and desired to go back to “the old country” to find their roots, many were shocked to find they had to go into Poland..them believing they were pure German stock. When in all the time they were both reviled by the Western Germans as a people who came from the east to take their jobs or later as potential Bolsheviks who they hunted down and killed with pogroms in the industrial areas of Danzig..and then upon return to their homeland after the war to find the Polish hated them for being “German” and their ancestral graveyards and records were destroyed by an angry, vengeful people.

And so we come via a circuous route back to the Roman Empire when they fought the Venerdi / Suebi ..; The Wends and the Sorbs..back across the Danube..back into Germania, back into the future to await their next awakening here in South Australia..where once again they will become a part of a history they will not write, they will not control…for it is the victors who write the histories, we are told, and this area of the mallee, between the eastern hills and the Murray River is one fertile history that has yet to be written.