Mad as a March in March hare

For once I'd like to write about something other than the appalling state of politics. Yeah, Gina Rinehart openly wants Thatcherism in Australia and condemns our age of entitlement even though she inherited her wealth and her industry gets billions in fuel subsidies. Perhaps when she kicks the bucket she'll have incurred such goodwill with the people that like Thatcher, people will be dancing in the streets at her demise.

On entitlements – education is one such right that we have in this country. If like Pyne however you think that rich kids are entitled to a better education and if you fear the general population developing critical thinking skills (an easily swayed into fear voter is a liberal voter), then it's goodbye to a fair go Gonski deal for students.

And Malcolm, we had such high hopes that you would save us all from the real mad one. You have dismantled the NBN though and permit and encourage the questioning of funding to public broadcasters SBS and ABC. Smugly ignoring the numerous independent professional reports, some that you asked for. Which state that both broadcasters provide extraordinary value for money and are making such significant contributions to our nation that they deserve more funding. Yet because Murdoch who got nearly a billion dollars of entitlement of public money wants to further his monopoly of propaganda you parrot Tony's hypocrisy. Who will stand up for what is right in your party if not even one member of cabinet shows that it can be done? Have they broken you Malcolm?

Oh Tony, I expect nothing less than tearing apart the forestry peace agreement that took decades to implement so that your ultimate conservationists can cut down more trees. And then you want your 'half the minimum wage slave wages Green Army' to go and plant more. I don't have a major problem with forestry workers but I do have a problem with the language you use that causes divisions in our society. On top of that we are set to lose thousands of jobs. And we are losing support for renewable energy. We are turning away from the strides forward we made in facing the greatest moral challenge of our time in curbing our greenhouse emissions. Oh, and not forgetting the cutting of foreign aid. Thanks for nothing Tony.

And then there is the great Scott ignoring all the internal and international criticism of our human rights abuses. Atrocities are now being committed in our name in offshore concentration camps. We have the horror of murder and people blinded and having their throats cut and of children being present in it all. And in response we have a government who is proud of its policy. Still, I can't just be mad at the government. We have a populace where they have much support. I am angry at you Australia with Scott Ludlam the only politician in the last week to provide me any real light in this dark vaccuum void of reason and humanity.

So whether the issue is that you think the attack on Unions is more for political pointscoring than any real attempt to make Unions a fairer, more effective and translucent operation. Whether it's that we are now curbing the right to protest or ignoring the gay marriage debate, while more than half the western world leaves us floundering in their wake like a dinosaur in mud. Whether those listed above or other reasons, get mad as a march hare – at least for this weekend.

I really wanted to write about something other than the appalling state of politics we find ourselves in. I was going to write just a couple of examples of appallingness and then write about something not politically related like my love for fantasy footy or that I finally start a new job next week after months of rejection. But the list just kept growing. I'd like to write about something else but everything else seems trite in comparison.

That's why I'll be marching tomorrow through the streets of Sydney as a vote of no confidence in our Government, I hope you'll consider getting along to your local march too, it'll be one heck of an experience. I'm hoping that being sourrounded by thousands of Australians that are as fed up as me will go some way to restoring my faith in Australia. Maybe I'll be able to find a place of peace to be able write about something else.

emotion in motion

How is it that emotionally derived opinions are sufficient even in the face of facts and logic that would suggest otherwise?

We see issues creating divisiveness where an emotional wave will roll over the bedrock of truth in arriving to a perceived majority consensus. These issues of climate change, asylum seeker policy, gay marriage, mining, the economy and now a fractured multiculturalism are at the forefront of public and political debate during this dark chapter.

Never mind that more than 90% and up to 97% of reputable climate scientists agree that the planet is warming due to human activity. origin of graphic from skeptical science

with 2 being unsure and 1 saying no.

One half of the people would rather listen to Tony Abbott or Alan Jones, neither who have any expertise in this field and dispute the findings as if scientists had some secret global agenda.

Tony also questioned the quality of our economists when they said a carbon tax or emission trading scheme was a responsible and efficient way for this nation to respond and move forward towards a greener economy.

From The Australian - Opposition leader defies economists on Carbon Tax 

Is he an economist as well as a climate scientist? No, so why do people listen to him? Not for facts and logic that's for sure so it must be that he appeals to the base emotions of many. And those many believe they know better, why?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5ia5qZrU21qify48o1_500.jpg

Just because we don't want a carbon tax (not that the public pays it - we are compensated for the rise in cost of living that the top polluters pass down to us from the impact of a carbon tax on them). 

I'm more concerned with the other cost they are passing down, the commodity of fear. With no rational foot to stand on they use their clout to sow seeds of doubt and pull at the heartstrings of fear. It's Un-Australian. They're taking our jobs. We can't afford it in this GFC (despite not being in recession and one of the richest countries per capita in the world).

Advocates for climate change can and do use fear to drive their cause as well and I hate it when they do that because then we end up downriver from the bridge to change in a quagmire of emotion, slinging mud at eachother.

And what of the asylum seeker debate? Our two major parties seem to have settled for offshore processing and long stays within detention centres as a detterant to refugees seeking asylum in Australia. They claim with emotion (much of it genuine) that this is to prevent the tragedy of refugees drowning at sea. The detterant has been shown to be somewhat effective but only when we treat refugees so abhorrently as to cause such mental anguish that we see numerous suicide attempts in detention and people sewing their mouths shut. And on all indications they say they are going to keep coming. 

Tony Abbott (leading the way again) refers to these people as illegal immigrants which is factually incorrect, and he uses it in such a way as to be imflammatory. He also had the gall to refer to them as un-christian for entering through the back door despite Jesus himself being a refugee and the principles of christianity calling on followers to love thy neighbour and care for the poor and downtrodden. They are often referred to as queue jumpers even though it has been widely acknowledged that there is no queue for them to join. How do you apply for asylum when in some war torn countries like Afghanistan it is normal for our embassy to move place from day to day to avoid becoming a target for insurgents. So what are the facts?

There are really only two ways to stop drownings at sea - gain a reputation for treating asylum seekers so abhorrently that no one will want to come, or create a queue that asylum seekers would see as worthwile joining. I'm for the latter option because our identity as a fair, just and compassionate nation is easily worth the extra people that we will have to accomodate. And if you welcome people with open arms then they're more likely to be grateful and want to contribute than to feel seperate and resentfully and barely tolerated.

Our emotions are primitive. We can be tribal with them and just last week we saw a tribal mentality riding on a wave of emotion lash out with ugly repercussions. Does this mean that I'm suggesting that our human emotions are bad and we should dispense with them and all become Spock-like characters?  ...Problem solved - let's party!!!...

Our emotions are important and part of what makes us human but I don't want to see emotions riding roughshod over rationality. Or our emotions being manipulated so easily for that matter. What happened to the inbuilt Australian bullshit detector? Emotions without logic can lead to crimes of passion and punching holes in walls. Logic without emotion is generally referred to as being psychopathic. Either on its own can be very destructive.

Wisdom comes from when our emotional and logical bearings are brought together to form opinion or to make a decision. Nelson Mandela said 'a good head and a good heart is always a formidable combination.' Shouldn't that be something worth striving for?

We need to ask ourselves why we stand where we do on certain issues. Is it emotion, fear or love that drives us? Are we deceiving ourselves? Are we leaning on our own understanding? Are we only listening to what we want to hear?

What Motivates You?

A mid last century musician Bill Dixon said “Fear is the greatest motivator”. It appears that civilisation agrees. Those with an urge to motivate others for whatever agenda they have often utilise fear to do so. We are delivered this almost daily in the political realm as we watch and listen and read through whatever medium we get our news from. They dole it out from their fear budget in small change that builds up over time. They place large bills of it in your palm as they smile and shake your hand and sometimes they write massive cheques that bounce when you try to cash them in, realising that children weren't being thrown overboard after all.

In the world of religion fear is a universal motivation. Fear God, and perhaps rightly so, but while you're at it also fear those who follow a different God or the same one only with a different name or a different understanding. Fear women who want to speak, or lead or show their ankles or god forbid, their faces. Fear homosexuality and gay marriage for they will turn us all gay and bring natural disasters down on our heads. Fear beards and funny hats and atheism, ethics classes and most of all scientists – those godless souls searching for a theory of everything. Do not allow people to use their own minds to come to their own conclusions on spirituality. Tremble so much that you will do all in your power to indoctrinate people into your belief system before they gain the ability to discern for themselves.

And it works! We all know fear, it is programmed deeply into us so that when we see a bear charging towards us we are motivated to our fight or flight response. Fear is natural, it gets our adrenaline pumping and readies us to do what needs to be done to survive. So there are times when being afraid is a good thing but is it healthy for us raised in this culture of fear to be so overly exposed to this emotion? It's like we have learnt to be addicted to it, we lap it up, we crave it, good news stories don't sell newspapers, we feed the monster that feeds off us. We have a list a mile long of things to be afraid of including stock market crashes, strangers, technology, too little clothing - too much, failure, success, young people, foods, how people see us and death etc. It's a booming market of relentless commercials telling us what we need to survive. With so much to be scared of, we surrender ourselves to being controlled because there is so much we feel need to be protected from.

I might say here that if you should fear anything, then fear fear, but it might be better to come at it from a different angle. I don't believe that fear is the greatest motivator. When we look back at the people that have shaped humanity and the great things that we have done I see another motivation at work. We went from having reds under the bed to being in bed with them at the crumbling of a wall and the world didn't go to the dogs. When Churchill delivered his famous speech he aroused something in people stronger than fear. When we went to the moon the whole world watched in united wonder. When the storm threatened to sink a fishing boat a man stood up and said “Don't be afraid, I am here.”

Those who have moved to occupy Wall St are not moved to action out of fear, they are angry and they believe in justice and compassion and without hope that they could make a difference why would they bother? Fear leads us to fight or to withdraw and while there are some things worth fighting for, some injustices that need to be cast out with great force, it is hope that something better will come of it that gives us the courage to overcome fear. Fear destroys and controls and leaves us cowering in a basement behind closed doors. Hope opens doors to something new, freeing us to be creative, hope is the greatest motivator.

We fear what we don't understand. Solution – come to understand what it is you fear which means coming with an open mind and not just latching onto the nearest loudmouthed potentially closed minded opinion. When they tell you the Carbon Tax or refugees will take away your job, Muslims will take over your culture or climate change will snuff us out, be skeptical, be humble, then learn. For our own good, education is so vital and learning how to learn and keep on learning is what will serve real progress for humanity.

When I look to recent leaders, when public support was high in getting someone elected it arose from hope instead of fear. Rudd and Obama won through to office on the wave of hope and while some of that hope may have been naïve and misplaced it exasperates me why so many still want to employ fear as the motivator while their public support nosedives. We can unite under hope but fear tends to divide us and tear us apart. And for those that fall to their knees in front of God, respect or honour is what God calls for, not twisted meanings that call for you to obey out of terror. If God is, then God is love. Is my greatest fear that hope will go missing? If so then I'd rather focus on hope, what do you hope for?