Charting a course for a new Australia

When I play chess, I find that if I start off on the defensive, thats where I stay. I spend the whole game trying to stop my opponent from winning instead of winning myself.

This is where I see the left in politics. We have been put on the defensive by the right, they have the position of power while we are forced to constantly justify our ideas. I think we need to clearly articulate our vision for society and implement it. But first we have to figure out exactly what that vision is...

This article is not about the vision, it is about a few of the reasons we don't have a clear one. The right has been in power in Australia (at a Federal level) for the past decade and a lot longer globally. Those of us on the left are on the back foot, scrambling for a toehold in the societal agenda; and while we seek legitimacy we race for the centre. While all this is happening, the right has moved the centre further to their side and now to the ordinary Australian the two parties look the same.
So why are we weak and how did they get so strong? well for a start how often do you see the right fight among each other? Apart from a few incidents, they present a strong united front and share the same values and vision. There has not been a leadership challenge in the Liberal party since they took power, even though everyone knows that Costello wants the job, and why? They understand that if they subordinate their own egotistical aspirations in the name of unity they can acheive far more in Government than in opposition, second place in Government is better than first place in opposition. Leadership struggles destroy a party. Its happened to the Labor party countless times as well as the Liberal party but the most telling indication of what a leadership struggle can do to a party is the near demise of the Democrats, a party that had the ear of the new generation of voters in Australia is now a smouldering wreck because they tried to fix something that wasn't broken. There were many other elements involved of course, but most people attribute it to the "gang of four" incident, it's all been downhill from there.

Factions also contribute to the instability of the party in the public eye, I'm not saying we should get rid of factions, I have found them a useful tool for seeing where particular members stand on the ideological spectrum, I just think they should learn to get along. It's not just the Labor party that has this problem, I was a member of the Socialist Alliance for awhile and they can't agree on anything; first of all you have the two basic camps - the reformers and the revolutionaries - that basically refuse to have anything to do with one another. Then those that do speak to each other argue who is more right, in the end it all degenerates into name calling such as Trotskyist, Maoist, Leninist, Stalinist there's plenty more too. The one thing they are united on is that the right has conspired to keep them from gaining power while in fact they do a pretty fair job of destroying their own chances.
People complain that the Labor party has moved to the right over the years and it is my opinion that it is because the people on the left keep leaving to form new parties. The reality is that if you want to make a difference in Australian politics you need to be a member of one of the two parties and unless you like to torture small animals, the Liberal Party is out. If you don't like the Labor party's direction, join it and help the rest of us that are trying to steer a new course crew the ship, because its our best hope of a fairer society.

The search for truth

I've been reading Francis Fukuyama's book The end of history and the last man. He makes the point that basically, we have tried different sytems of Government such as Socialism, Communism and Fascism but ultimately we have settled on liberal democracy. Fukuyama sees liberal democracy as the one system that while inequalities may exist it is because of the implementation of the ideology and not through a fundamental flaw in the ideal. He believes that any problems and inequalities that arise can be worked out, as opposed to other ideologies which are not as flexible as liberal democracy. This is something that I have given a bit of thought to lately. One of the major things that gnawed away at me with socialism was the fact that there will always be capitalists and a socialist society would see them as oppressors trying to gain a foothold and overthrow the socialist "order". In a socialist society these people would need to be suppressed "for the good of the people"; but this is a contradiction of a free and democratic society and a denial of some of our basic human rights. On further reflection I think that a liberal democracy is both a form of government that ensures the protection of basic human rights for the greatest number of people and a system that is remarkably adaptable and pluralistic. For example, it is possible for a collective lifestyle to exist within liberal democracy while a capitalist system could not exist within a socialist one. Now this is not to say that everything about socialism should be rejected; socialism is theoretically sound on a number of points and many of its initiatives need to be implemented in order to have a fair and equitable society. It is hard to criticise an ideology that I have held dear to and defended for years but I guess this is the job of a political scientist, it is also the reason I started this blog and now that I have adapted my views it has made the blog more interesting.

Well finally, I'm going to continue my discussion about racism in Australia. So why did I hate the Cronulla riots so much (as well as the subsequent aftermath). You see it's the excuses and the non thinking that gets me the most. I've been told "oh, they deserved it, these Lebanese guys have been raping women and bashing people", This wasn't motivated by race people say, Australia isn't a racist country is their defence. Well bullshit to that I say. Australia has been a racist country since the British came here and decided that the country was uninhabited, except of course for the millions of Indigenous people living here - but hey, they weren't human now were they! we were scared of other cultures from the start, hell Albany was built so the French wouldn't get any of Australia. Then came the White Australia Policy, Australia's version of Apartheid, our fear of
anyone that wasn't white and subsequent generations of protection against the "yellow peril". I'm not sure about the WW1 era but following the WW2 era we hated the Germans and the Japanese, the Greeks and the Italians. Later we had the Hanson era and we were back to hating Asians and Aboriginals, followed closely by the Tampa affair and finally september 11 and the Iraq war - all three of which helped us to hate Muslims. There you have it 218 years of racism, some of it enshrined in Government policy, and people have the Audacity to say Australia isn't racist. Racism simmers right there under the surface, it's ingrained in all of us, even if we don't see it much. I'm not perfect, I was even quite racist at one point in my life, growing up on a farm in Tassie will do that to you, and at times I catch the odd bigoted thought coming through, but I have made a concious effort to address and eradicate any racist perspectives that I may have. I think I may annoy some people doing it but this involves taking every oppotunity to learn a little about someone elses culture every time I meet someone new and even perhaps participate in it. I had the pleasure of doing some Greek dancing at an engagement last week and I had a ball. What I am basically saying here is that my life is richer for it and I am a better person for having made the effort, too often we let language and cultural differences stop us from communicating as we really are... Humans.

Now a note on the resurgence of Nationalism in Australia. We have some core values as a nation: egalitarianism, a tendency to help out your mates and a certain pride in where we live and what we have. These values, on one hand, are extremely positive and help to make us a great nation; but on the other hand they are an extremely easy set of values to slightly skew and turn us against one another. I believe right wing populist parties such as One Nation and in particular, Australia First, have bastardised these values and played on people's feelings of discontent and insecurity, as well as that underlying racial tension, to get people to behave the way they did at cronulla. I have spent many years researching politics and improving both my political conciousness and improving my community but yet in one foul swoop these morons have undone alot of the work I have done, ridiculed my beliefs and won public support, all without an inch of political reasoning or independent thought. Can't these people see that history is repeating here, this same sort of thing happened in Nazi Germany, racism, scapegoating and nationalism were practically the pillars that the Third Reich were built on. I've heard people justify their actions recently with the gem "my Grandfather fought for this in World War Two"; ohh really moron would that have been the one where he was fighting against ummm, racism, scapegoating and nationalism Learn your history idiot, your grandfather is probably rolling in his grave right now.

We need to wake up to ourselves as a nation and as people. Right now we are moving backwards. we need to move forwards and realise we are all on this big rock together so we might as well make it easier for us and have a bit of fun.

The name change

Readers (yes all three of you) may be wondering about the name change. When I first started studying politics I decided to never be confined to one ideology; I failed to see how one could be superior to another in every way, all one has to do is look at the state of the world as a result of religion behaving the same way. Somewhere along the line I lost that and realising that many of my beliefs and political views corresponded closely with those of socialism I started calling myself a socialist, which meant I started blocking out all other ideology as wrong and having minimal merit. Now don't get me wrong, I still see Socialist ideology as a valuable contribution to many aspects of our society, especially in social policy and I think it has a significant role to play in balancing our current thinking which places faith solely in the primacy of the economy. I also see a few contradictions in just how socialism could be implemented in contemporary without comprimising the freedom of all stakeholders in society and I think it is this that has caused alot of the human rights violations apparent in many socialist countries such as China and Cuba (Particulary censorship, freedom of the press and the silencing of dissent). So it is my hope that I can present a more balanced view of issues by drawing on a variety of ideological perspectivesa and above all, applying an ethical dimension to all thoughts. Now for a quick ethics lesson this is part of Kant's categorical imperitive:

1. Find the agent's maxim. The maxim is an action paired with its motivation. Example: "I will lie for personal benefit." Lying is the action, the motivation is to get what you desire. Paired together they form the maxim.
2. Imagine a possible world in which everyone in a similar position to the real-world agent followed that maxim.
3. Decide whether any contradictions or irrationalities arise in the possible world as a result of following the maxim.
4. If a contradiction or irrationality arises, acting on that maxim is not allowed in the real world.
5. If there is no contradiction, then acting on that maxim is permissible, and in some instances required. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant)

Thats what I mean by ethical dimension and I feel that we should all live by this with our thoughts and actions.

The day I wished I was not Australian

I'm so proud of my countrymen (in a non-gender specific way), today they decided that "we're full" and it was time to show those wogs and lebs that they aren't welcome. The above comment is, of course, pure sarcasm. I am not proud of what these idiots did in Sydney today, in fact I do not believe I have ever been so ashamed to be Australian in my life! What racist, simple minded bullshit. I'm really tired right now so I will continue a discussion on this later.

Multiculturalism does work, we are just to lazy to make it work

Simplicity

Maybe a person's time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food. ~Frank A. Clark.

This quote really struck a chord with me and it's something I've been giving some thought to lately. I grew up on a farm and I spent many years of my adolescence hating farming, mainly because I wanted to live in the city (a move I have regretted in my later years!). I was at a mates place on the weekend and we spent Saturday bottling home brew beer and watering his garden and it really reaffirmed my belief in the wisdom of the above quote. We are taught, or at least grow up to believe, that we need to buy certain things such as fruit and vegetables and an increasing array of pre-packaged processed food. What's more we seem to be under the impression that the best place to shop is the big retailers such as Woolworths and Coles, the massive buying power means cheaper prices for customers they say. This doesn't seem to be the case. I have recently started buying all my weekly shopping at a fruit and vege "barn" that has a butcher in it as well; I don't know if it is because I'm not walking past endless shelves of assorted crap or not but I am saving $40 - $50 a week. There are a few added bonuses to shopping at a small, locally owned retailer too - I get this cool rewards card that gets stamped every time I spend over $10 and after 10 visits I get $10 of free veges (its not much but imagine coles giving away $10 worth of food), there are specials each week, usually fruit, vege and herbs that are a bit damaged but I got about 5 kilo's of tomatoes for $2 last week! And I'm getting to know the staff and owners so it has a real community feel. The point is, you don't need all that new processed stuff, learn how to cook a little bit and you can:

1. Eat healthier
2. Save Money
3. Support local businesses and producers
4. Get to know your community

Further to this line of thought (and back to my original point) is what the quote at the start of the post describes. Why don't many people grow their own fruit and vegetables at home in the backyard any more? You don't need that much land (styrofoam boxes are good enough!) and the rewards are numerous, for example:

1. It tastes better
2. It saves heaps of money
3. It gives you some exercise
4. It helps reduce stress
5. More money= less work
6. It is healthier plus you know what chemicals were used on the food you eat (if any)
7. The whole family can be involved

All these factors together would practically solve half the problems of contemporary society. If you are healthy and relaxed you won't get sick as often and that relieves the stress on the health care system. If you are spending a little less time at work and more with your family there is going to be less family breakdown.

So go on, stop being a slave to advertising, buy your shopping from local businesses and grow your own food, if you live in a unit or somewhere without a garden area go and find a community garden. After all your health and the very future of society depend on it.

Dictators???

What is happening to democracy in this country?
I listened to the introduction of the Workplace Relations Amendment, work Choices Bill 2005 today and the actions of our government were a disgrace. Here's just a few of the things that I saw as a breach of the democratic principles on which Parliament is supposedly based upon:

• The Government refused a parliamentary inquiry into major legislation that will affect Australian people.
• Any questioning of the introduction of the bill or call for adjournment were met with a gag order (motion that the member no longer be heard)
• When an Opposition member raised a point of order regarding a standing order which indicated that members of the house should be supplied with a copy of a bill before it proceeds directly to a second reading he was also silenced with the above motion.
• Julia Gillard made the point that the house was given 24 hours between the reading of the bill and the debate. Fishery and public transport bills are given 14 days, yet something this big is given 1 day.
• The Government flatly refuses to present the bill for acsension in any other form that what it is at present.
• The so called impartial speaker continually took the Governments side.
  

All this basically means that the Howard Government are abusing their power and pushing legislation through without debate. This is not democracy, at all. You cannot enforce laws, especially of this magnitude, without debate; I hope these pricks lose the next election

I hate spam

I finally got a comment the other day. Blogger's surely know the feeling of exitement, that sense of knowing that perhaps, just perhaps, someone actually found your blog and liked it. I was stoked and clicked to see what it said, christ, I was like a teenager opening a love note. Then I found out it was spam...FUCKING SPAM. Now can someone please tell me what makes someone think that a blog about Socialism needs ads. Did they read my blog at all? If they did they may have seen that I hate consumerism. What's more, and I haven't yet made this clear, I hate people trying to sell me stuff. If I want to buy something I will find it and buy it myself, please don't chase me. I equate sales to manipulation and there is nothing I hate more than manipulation, I feel like I have been molested when someone tries to hard sell me and I think such people should be held in as much regard as child molesters. So there you have it, I think my feelings are quite clear now, Don't evre spam me again.