Saturday, August 18, 2012

Compliant little lap-dog

The single most disturbing thing about our polity - is the *illusion* that we are a democracy.

We aren't of course.  We used to be but we haven't been since around the time of the 9/11 attacks - after which our government decided to treat us all like suspected terrorists - without bothering to tell us.

But the punters don't know any of that because they don't pay attention to what our politicians and bureaucrats are up to.

Mostly, the punters don't even know what a democracy is and they certainly don't know what good governance would look and feel like.  That is one of the main effects of our decades of inattention to politics.  And that is how our current government likes it.

But we can't change that in 5 minutes or even 5 years.  It will take a serious and major adverse event to wake Australian's up - and even then I doubt that many will stand up and protest.

Instead we would try to sell our story to Channel 9 to make a quick buck ;-)

Because "not paying attention" to politics is baked into our culture.  And if we did manage to collectively discover something nasty about our politics and politicians - then we would drop our eyes and close our mouths - because we all know what happens to "whistleblowers" don't we?

And that's what is so dangerous about the present time - because we have a government;

*  That is encouraging the US to install their troops in *joint facilities* across our nation - in support of their regional sabre rattling.

*  Is resisting an inquiry into how we got to participate in the Iraq war - because they and their US friends fear the truth.

*  Is complicit in the US persecution of WikiLeaks and Assange - because they have been told to shut up.

And is doing these things *without* reference to what Australian's actually want.

Seriously, how can this be in Australia's democratic interests?

Friends - we stopped being a democracy when the US got to own us - now we are just a compliant little lap-dog.

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