The Comedy of Terrors. (Is that a Conservative’s knife in your back?)

Well now the blood letting begins amongst the Coalition. They are rather annoyed that their day in the Sun has not come. And like a bunch of spoilt children they are accusing the 2 Amigos of being Class Traitors and worse. Of ignoring the voice of their constituents who did not vote for the ALP. Yes how dare they exercise their independence and a take a stand for the best interests of their constituents.

Yes recrimination abounds but the quote of the early morning news must go to the Liberal Christopher Pyne.

Mr Pyne the Member for Sturt has stated on ABC Radio National that Prime Minister Gillard lacks legitimacy because she has not been elected Prime Minister by the Australian people. Excuse me but this is not America, this is Australia and we operate under the Westminster System.

For Mr Pyne’s information the people of Australia vote for a political party to form Government. The party with the most seats in the House of Representatives then elects their party leader to the position of Prime Minister. If the Member for Sturt wishes to see a popularly elected Prime Minister or President for that matter, he should come forth and state his Republican credentials and propose the required referendum to amend the Constitution. Otherwise he should check the legitimacy of his facts before making public statements about the political system which he serves.

Indeed we do live in interesting times.

Its Thursday!

YES SANITY PREVAILS REJOICE THE MAD MONK DOES NOT HOLD THE REIGNS OF POWER.

Where the moralist would be filled with indignation and the tragic poet with pity and terror, mythology breaks the whole of life into a vast, horrendous Divine Comedy. Its Olympian laugh is not escapist in the least, but hard, with the hardness of life itself – which, may take it, is the hardness of God, the Creator. Mythology, in this respect, makes the tragic attitude seem somewhat hysterical, and the merely moral judgment, short-sighted. Jsohep Campbell The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

These words herald the end of absurdity. With these words sanity has been restored to the Nation. Whether the country resumes routine transmission remains to be seen.

Sanity has prevailed. I have no illusion that the Labor party if fault free if you have read any post of mine in the past few weeks you would realise that the pursuit of power for powers sake nearly destroyed the stability and ethical fabric of the nation.

The people require change, or do they? Only time will tell what will come of all this.

But for now rejoice the Mad Monk and his clique of bankrupt Neo Cons will not grab the reigns of power.

Machiavelli is alive and well and living in Canberra.

Former NSW Premier Bob Carr, has come forth with one of the most Machiavellian strategies yet in the absurdist drama which is unfolding in the nations capital. Mind you the Mad Monk is doing his best to alienate the three amigos all by himself.

Mr Carr has stated that the Liberal member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull (the Squire of Wentworth, Australia’s very own member of the House of Medici) should be made a Cabinet Minister in the next Gillard Government. This when you give it some thought is a stroke of pure genius, Machiavelli 101 in theory and practice. This is real politic in action, are you listening Sussex Street!

The only (future) conceivable threat to both the Prime Minister and the Mad Monk (for that matter) is effectively neutralised. And it sets a fire in the ranks of the coalition by his tacit approval with any Government action that falls within his portfolio. Above all could the Squire of Wentworth refuse such an offer? ‘The nation needs you Malcolm, you can not abandon her now.’

Such an action would be seen as being beneficial to the stability of the nation. Of course the Squire of Wentworth would be praised for his actions, for by joining the Labor Government in the Ministry he has set aside petty party politics and is focusing on the big picture. As to whose big picture is another question.

Some may think like that the Mad Monk is entrenched in the position of PM in waiting and that 41-40 vote which saw the Mad Monk defeat the Squire of Wentworth has seen a decisive sea change swinging support further in his favour. After all the Mad Monk nearly won an election that the fools in the NSW Labor Right handed him on a plate.

Such action on the part of the Gillard Government demonstrates to the public that Labor is prepared to be inclusive to ensure the stability of the nation. After all if he does accept and takes the role of cabinet minister, what would happen if he were forced into a position where he disagrees with Labor Policy?

I mean what choice would he have? Resign? And we know what political wilderness he would be banished too. What comes to mind is the frozen wasteland of Dante’s Inferno Ninth Circle of Hell?

Yes these are strange days for as the ancient Greeks stated, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” And we know that you should keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.

Yes indeed we do live in interesting times. But I for one just wish it would end and normal transmission would resume. Only time will tell and its only Monday(sigh!)

The text of the article can be found here http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/gillard-urged-to-appoint-malcolm-turnbull-to-cabinet-20100906-14x4k.html

Is it Thursday?

Meanwhile in the antipodes, a countrywide production of Waiting for Godot is being played out in the corridors of power and in the media. We join Vladimir and Estragon as they wait the election result to be determined.

A country road. A tree. Evening.
“And what did he reply?”
“That he will see.”
“That he had to think it over.”
“In the quite of his home.”
“Consult his family.”
“His friends.”
“His agents.”
“His Books.”
“His bank account.”
“Before making a decision.”
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Act 1.

The Australian nation has been plunged into an absurdist drama following the inclusive result of the federal election. It is now two weeks since the people voted and we do not have a government.

The backlash against Labor has been diagnosed by the pundits and seers of the political class as a protest vote, a vote against the State Governments of Queensland and NSW. A vote by some voters who find the fact that a godless atheist would be Prime Minister. A vote for the future. A vote for the Greens. A vote for what no one in particular has been able to work out exactly what it was all about.

Personally my take on this whole sorry imbroglio I think its vote against the fools and mandarins of Sussex Street the faceless men who shafted Kevin Rudd. These astute political power brokers who in their amoral pursuit of power for powers sake, have by their own deeds and actions destroyed the credibility of the Labor party. After all just look what the NSW Right has done with Labor in NSW. Mind you these apparatchiks and egotists are the people who forced Kevin Rudd in the backfilp over the Emissions Trading Scheme. Which had the direct effect of causing his ratings in the polls to collapse. And lets face it politicians live and die in the glare of public perception. Yes politics is about polls not values, not ethics, not effective governance but how the public image of a politician is perceived and registered by voters as viewed through the analytical lens of Newspoll and Neilsen and Morgan Research.

What ever the reasons Labor failed to obtain a majority as a nation we are up the creek in a barbwire canoe.

Or are we?

The wheels of government still turn the masses are not rioting there are no food queues, or national strikes by students or workers. Everything is the same but difference is that our political system is being held ransom to indecisiveness.

The Australian newspaper in a poll states that the majority of the voters they polled want Labor to govern. The SMH states that the majority of votes they polled want Labor to govern. What is going on here? Strange days indeed.

Or as the ancient Chinese curse states “May you live in interesting times.” But here in Australia we have a few good curses of our own. “May your Chook’s eggs turn to Emus and kick your dunny door down.” Yes that is what has happened. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

I know the gravitas of the situation and frankly I am scared for the future of the nation. If the Mad Monk and his ideologues get in, so hence the facetious nature of this post. We all deal with fear and uncertainty in our manner. Its just that the absurdity of the current situation just makes me laugh then weep.

This Sunday morning on ABC radio nation, one prominent Liberal hack was barking on about how Labor is the cause of all the evil in the world. No mention of the how Labor effectively saved the country from the ravages of the GFC. No this hack is barking on about Labor being ineffectual about boarder protection and boat people. Tell me this the 21st Century? Or is this the century of fear? So then what do these bankrupt Neo-Cons do? Resort to fear, in the 1950’s it was the Red Menace now it the ‘boat people’ ‘Muslim terrorists.’ ‘the Other.’ Yes the politics of fear are back in vogue, after all what does the Liberal have to offer the electorate in terms of ethical credibility? Nothing. What about ideology? Again bankruptcy. The Neo-Cons failed. Just look at the presidency of George the Second.

But wait we are not alone amidst all the chaos, the voice of reason has emerged. Three wise men from the rural hinterlands have come to our rescue. One a Queenslander ‘the force from the North.’ Is demanding that the government end the independence of the Reserve Bank and that the dollar is overvalued by four times. Excuse me?

Either way these wise men have assumed power beyond their constituent’s dreams to influence national policy and affairs. And so we wait for them to decide. Democracy is being held to ransom because a few fools who are basically Nationals by any other name are enjoying their time in the Sun. But then I could be surprised, stranger things have happened. Although I don’t remember when. At the best the country will be back in the polls in six months or twelve. Either way its like being trapped at present in a rather absurdist drama.

“But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Friday Or Monday?(Pause) Or Friday?”
“Its not possible”
“Or Thursday?”
“what’ll we do?”

We wait for the voice of sanity and reason to gain the ascendancy, we wait for what else is there to do but wait.

What the F@#k happened!

Has this election result confirmed the rise of the watermelon? Green on the outside and red inside?

Has the election result confirmed that the people do get the government they deserve?

Has this election result drawn the darkness over this nation?

Has this election result confirmed that the Australian public is just plain stupid?

If you answered yes to any of the above then your in the same boat as me. I fail to comprehend the ritual Seppuku that the ALP has preformed upon its self. As I said earlier come back Kevin we miss you, but then why would or should he bother.

I have to ask is will the public having vented their spleen on the ALP in NSW now reelect that odious Labor Government. Better still will those insipid clowns in Sussex Street commit Seppuku themselves after their disastrous Coup d’teat which has thrown the country in to chaos. I mean really my future is in the hands of Bob Katter ‘the force form the North.’ God help us all.

I mean please this is all a bad dream and as soon as I click my heels three times I will wake up and go ‘what the fuck was that all about.’

No still here. Well at least I can look at this from a manically depressed point of view and smile.

‘Mister Kurtz, he dead.’ If only. ‘the horror, the horror, THE HORROR’

STAND UP FOR AUSTRALIA:VOTE LABOR

Citizens, there are two days left on the campaign trail. And if you have not made up your mind as yet I urge you to listen to the inner voice of reason and VOTE LABOR.

Yes more than ever this is a conscience vote, do you want to return to the dark ages personified by the Mad Monk and his gang of Neo Con(artists) Look at how the Liberals have played wedge politics with the boat people. Social divisiveness at its best. The boat people are today’s red menace of the 1950′s or the Communist yellow peril of the 1960′s. Either way its a case of a bankrupt ideology stalking the corridors of Australian social life.

For me as an individual, the issue which all Australian should seriously think on is that under John Howard the Australian house was turned from a home into a line of credit.

The question is who is going to pay for it. Our children? Not at today’s market price.

Owning a home is not a dream, its part of a practical, stabilised existence. If you own your own home you have a sense of security of psychological well being. A sense of place, of belonging. Fixed home ownership is the foundation for building communities. Building communities is a way to build socially stable democracy and ensure the future well being our nation.

But under the previous Liberal administration all that changed. Currently Australian house prices are on average 40% over valued. Well and good for some but what about those who are seeking to enter the market.

The young have been exiled to become renters who are there to be exploited by investors all in the name of profit. Simple but true.

And looming over this is the question of when the housing bubble does burst what will its consequences be to the Australian economy and society.

I was bought up in the Labor tradition of egalitarianism and a fair go for all. Under the Howard Administration all that changed. The dictates of the market became the dominant social currency.

And then of course there was the GFC and the fact Rudd Labor government kept Australia out of recession. Do not forget that forget that Kevin Rudd destroyed John Howard, only the second Australian PM to lose his seat and the election. That fact is history. The election of Labor in 2007 offered a ray of hope for the future. Let us not reenter the darkness of the past.

I believe that Julia Gillard is still the embodiment of that hope for a better future. There are many issues why one should vote Labor, but as a citizen I appeal to the social conscience of other citizens, “Do not throw the future into the black hole of the past.” Tony Abbott is yesterdays man with yesterday ideas.

Citizens the future is in your hands use your vote wisely.

The Return of the Living Dead; A citizens soliloquy

I am a citizen and as a citizen living in a democratic state I am entitled to express my opinion. And that is what the following is just that, an opinion, not an insightful analysis of the election. No I will leave that to the journalists of this fair nation to inform us from the Olympian heights from which they pontificate. No this is a soliloquy. A venting of spleen, a feeling of frustration, anxiety and FEAR!

What you may ask has induced this state? Well read on, mine own election inspired soliloquy on the evils besting my fair nation.

“It is vile and pernicious and I am afraid you cannot miss it; for something wicked this way comes.” (With apologies to Shakespeare)

The Federal Election, and the possibility that the living dead of the Neo Con movement could be resurrected in the nation of Australia terrifies me ‘be afraid, be very afraid.’ (David Cronenberg, The Fly) The darkness is coming and there is no place to hide. As a citizen it up to you to act in a responsible manner, for me that course of action is to vote Labor for the sake of our nation and our future.

Why this overwhelming disquiet? I am apprehensive that the ossified remnants of the Neo Conservative ideologues could seize power due to the failings of the right wing mandarins of the NSW Labor party who abide or is it skulk at Sussex Street, Sydney. And yes if Labor fails to win and the nation is plunged into the darkness that is where the blame will squarely lie.

The current election has been the most boring non event in Australian political history. But the implications of a Labor loss are too horrific to imagine, turn back the clocks and we will renter the age of darkness if the Mad Monk wins.

For if the economic wise men are true in predicting that a second wave of the GFC will induce a far greater recession combined with the bursting of the housing bubble, well I had parents who grew up in the Great Depression, I know stories of bread lines, of poverty and despair. I grew up in poverty myself, it taught me hardship and ethics. But would I want to go back there? Never!

Never mind that the public has forgotten that the actions of the Rudd Labor Government prevented the country from being swamped in 2009 by that economic tsunami that was the GFC. If the Mad Monk and his gang of reprobates win and an economic downturn occurs it will not be sold as being the fault of any Global Economic Crisis. No the Mad Monk and his lackeys will hark back to the rhetoric of Howard years and the blame will all be attributed to the ALP.

Most nights I turn the sound down when any politician comes on the TV, for I know whom I will be voting for and why. Naïve as it sounds I believe in the light on the hill, that socially aware governments can improve the quality of life of its citizens. The market and the late capitalist epoch we live in exists only to further its own pockets.

Yes indeed something wicked this way comes and it called the Liberal Party of Australia. A collection of Neo-Conservatives bully boys, a slovenly gang of unrepentant bankrupt ideologues. Their basic pitch to the voting public of this nation is the hip pocket nerve and fear.

Yes fear of the ‘Other’, Afghan and Iraqi boat people whose arrival is due to the Howard Governments involvement in the US led Iraqi War. Aside from ‘the fear,’ they subscribe to the baser instincts of ‘what’s in it for me’ A base and ignorant mentality they exploit in their attempt to size power and drag the Australian nation back to the dark ages.

Fellow citizens beware this odious evil that is attempting to shroud this nation in their vile brand of self serving darkness.

Beware citizens the aspirational devotes who live in their Mc Mansions with their environmentally obscene gas guzzlers. I have no love of the petty bourgeois and their self-indulgence, those worshipers of Mammon who judge life by status symbols and brand recognition awareness or simply put ‘I have arrived and I’ve got mine.’ Personally I believe that all aspirational’s are morally and ethically bankrupt.

This is the age in which we should all be aware of our environmental footprint and take some individual action to address climate change. “No, why should I bother about that. I have a SUV, three kids in private school and have a home that is an energy sink. Yes I subscribe to a user pays mentality, and the middle class welfare I receive is due isn’t it? What’s that the undernourished uneducated socially deprived poor? Well we all know they are that way because they lack aspiration and the drive to succeed.” But aspirational’s are good Christian’s so ‘to them that hath, shall be given.’ (the Bible) Mind you it’s a pity that these born again Christians do know any environmental theology.

Beware fellow citizens the stupidity, avarice and ignorance of the Howard years has risen from the grave, in the form of the Mad Monk and the bankrupt ideology his lackeys sprout in an endless verbiage of utter claptrap. (Come home Karl Marx all is forgiven)

Mind you I am not overly impressed with the ALP and I say this as the son of trade unionist and member of the proletariat. Yes Sussex Street has a lot to answer for at the moment. Come back Kevin all is forgiven!

Now is not the time to vote Green, yes I know its fashionable in certain ideological urbane or is urban circles. I am sorry they lost me when they voted against the Emissions Trading Scheme. Yes I know it was not perfect, yes I know it had flaws (many) but it was a start. It could have gotten the ball rolling which would have been better than nothing. But if the Green voters think that will get a better offer from the Liberal party, well go hug a tree. And yes in my own way I take action to reduce my carbon footprint.

Our country is at a cross roads, the election of Kevin Rudd in 2007 was a turning point in our nations history. The vile ignorant years of Howard were washed away with a promise of hope. Ok so Kevin wasn’t the Messiah, he had his faults, quite a few by current articles. He did act decisively to avoid the worst of the GFC decimating Australia. But in the past hundred years only two politicians have come close to being a political Messiah, Ghandi and Mandela. And sadly neither of them were Australian.

The darkness is coming and be warned, the Liberal Party, (now how is that for an oxymoron) will turn the clock back to the bankrupt ideology of the Neo Conservatives and it will be Back To The Future part 4.

For the sake of the Nation and the sake of the future and the sake of your children’s future VOTE LABOR.

The Best of All Possible Worlds attributed to Leibniz. (Obviously God hired the wrong script writer.)

“I am animated by the idea that you can stop reading me when you wish,” from  A Brief Life, a 1950 novel by Juan Carlos Onetti.

I certainly do not know much about this author who I have quoted above but in relation to what follows I think it is pertinent.  I spent my 21^st year reading the Western Cannon, of what some PoMo’s (Post Moderns which for me is entirely dated. As  for  what we are know I have no clue. Maybe a return to high modernity?) or are they Bo Bo’s (Bourgeoisie Bohemians)  once referred to as  dead white males and the odd existentialist female for that matter. But now that your with me and reading just continue; but pause for a moment or two to ruminate upon that sentence. Where are we going in  particular? Yes you might find this boring and depart this moment in cyberspace or is it the blogosphere for something more stimulating both visually and mentally. But if you’re here your giving me your attention, now then if you are giving me your attention then we have begun to trade in a new (?) market currency; TIME.

Yes life’s most valuable commodity is now the currency of the blogosphere; focus your attention for a moment. I could ask what you were doing prior to your arrival at this sentence and what brought you here?

Is there something you were looking for in particular? Yes? No?  As I sit here and write this time flows out in a rhythm dictated by both the fabric of my mind and they rhythm of my body as my fingers strike the keyboard while listening to  the CD playing  at this particular moment.  Aja by Steely Dan, an acquired choice no doubt but if your still reading I would recommend it, the musicianship is first rate and there are enough jazz influences imbued in the pop music to make it interesting.

Are you still here? Well then a to explain my musical choice rather than have an affair when I hit my mid 40’s or a mid life crisis for that matter I rediscovered the music of my teens. Yes, (YES in particular Close to the Edge), I rediscovered that decade which has been christened ‘the decade which taste forgot.’ The 70’s of long hair & velvet flared hippies in tie dye eating brown rice. But then there arose out of this middle class rebellion a wave of working class revolt and  tastelessness; Punk. Q Are we not Men? Mind you John Lydon who once wore a T shirt while in the Sex Pistols which said I hate Pink Floyd now says, Listen, you’d have to be daft as a brush to say you didn’t like Pink Floyd.

But back to the 70’s today I played Isle of Wight ‘call it anything’ by Miles Davis before I came to write this; oddly enough Miles was not much of a fixture for me in my progressive rock phase of the 70’s. If there is something that Miles Davis is not its cerebral; he’s hot, burning with a passionate intensity that just sweeps you up in its notes and carries you away.

So then are you still with me?

So time has become both process and commodity. My perception of time is based on the fact  that I exist in time (Duration or duree) and occupy space.  In one sense time has always been a commodity which in the past was reduced to labour, still is for that matter but now as you read  your exchanging your time  to secure entertainment, information, knowledge or just pure indulgence.   I mean for you to give my words your attention your  spending time and by staying your making a further investment, sadly there is no option for refunds in at this outpost of  the blogosphere.

Your spending time here at this blog so therefore from my perspective it is up to me to entertain and inform you’ the reader.  After all I can only surmise from the dashboard stats that you have been here and these words are being consumed.

Excuse me Aja has finished I need to change the CD there that’s better My Favourite Things by John Coltrane, wonderfully uplifting music and if you don’t own a copy then go out and by one.

Side step back to Philosophy; (this is after all the plane of inconsistency)

For me the essential reading or insight if we are to bridge that chasm between metaphysical philosophy and (Post Jungian) psychology hinges on Satori; (illuminated understanding that is not based upon a process of deductive reasoning) a moment of insight which provides understanding which is not verbal, at least to begin with. It’s an expression of interiority, a subjective experience which generates a state, a feeling that transcends language. It’s only after the event when the Mind has had a chance to reflect upon what happened that the experience is reduced to language.

With my reading of Deleuze  A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia and co-authored by Felix Guattari (One self; many selves hence the multiplicity)I came way with the idea and still subscribe to it that  philosophy is ultimately a tool.  A tool anchored in language that can be directed towards specific problems and applied to achieve specific ends. A tool which can generate answers that relate to our understanding of the human condition.

Our life is a Becoming, which is anchored in the physical space of the body and its movement as it unfolds in the moments of our duration.

To Become is not a conscious undertaking, it’s more of Zen thing if you will. Becoming incorporates the dynamics of the unconscious mind with the perceptual qualities of the conscious mind, to Become is to evolve. Becoming has no fixed state but due its own momentum it does achieve rest, then progression. To Become is to drop away conscious intention, if anything Becoming is very similar in its presentation and dynamics to improvised jazz.

Is it up to us as individuals to create our own tools based on acquired knowledge plus non-linguistic insight welded to creative rumination and then application? After all as conscious individuals we have an intuitive urge to understand the world and our place in it. Hence we construct and offer interpretations and explanations based on our observations, perceptions and acquired knowledge. We then put it all into  the mix which constitutes our principal organ of though, the Mind. I perceive the  mind to be located in the brain and works though the expression of language. From the mind it then  emerges as a concept, an idea with form, a tool based in language.

After all do we really want to spend our lives using the thoughts and quotes of others to articulate a rational for our existence? No? Well then  its up to us as  individuals to learn to fashion the tool we apply to life.

The goal of Philosophy is to create new knowledge and hence new tools. Philosophy is not a closed system it is in a constant state of Becoming. Its not just words on the page but the actual process of discursive engagement, rumination, the construction and transformation  of ideas into  tools which can be readily articulated and circulated. The language tool becomes a meme which then becomes; a system,  a plane which is accessible to those willing to engage and evolve as it seeks its own end.

I thank you for the investment of time you have made while reading this and trust that you feel you  have received sufficient recompense for your attention

Life in Canberra:Send in the Clowns.

It could be a comment on the user pays society which is Canberra or a comment upon the quality of politicians who govern the people of the Nation.

Blessed Be Thy Sheep!