Australia's politicians are on a break; a break we need more than they

Whew! Australia’s federal politicians are on a break; a break the public probably needs more than they.

Winston Churchill.

The modern 24-hour news cycle might pile hitherto unseen pressures upon our Canberra conquistadors, but those demands pale compared to the confusion their verbal cut and thrust brings to the body politic.

Watching, and listening, is tougher than being actually in the game, particularly when the discussion and decisions are impacting on you, your life and that of your family, community and nation, and, in a practical sense about which you can do nought, you are forced to sit impotently by and simply wonder.

Looking on from any vantage point beyond the immediacy of Canberra’s Parliament House there is some doubt as to whether or not our elected federal representatives are conscious of how Australia, and the world, is evolving or they are they simply responding to populist ideologues and the values they tenaciously cling to?

Whatever, the image portrayed through our media is less than encouraging and leads inevitably to thoughts of “Nero fiddling while Rome burns”, but any view about that is suggestive and reflective of personal wants and needs.

Some would argue that Rome is not burning and so the behaviour seen in Canberra is as it should be, for they profit as our legislators “fiddle”.

Many others, seeing it through a different prism,  are simply distressed with those reputedly administering our country seemingly obsessed with finding a weakness in their political opponent’s veneer and appearing do little actual “governing”.

Our politicians appear to be sadly distracted by what is colloquially known as “muck-racking”, most of which is absolutely unrelated to national concerns.

Much to the delight, and profit, of a few, democracy in Australia is wobbling toward a distinct difficultly – the façade appears wonderful, but behind this comforting façade is a moneyed clique edging us toward inverted totalitarianism.

Writing in “Democracy Incorporated”, Sheldon S. Wolin explains how sweeping corporate power masquerading as democracy has convinced us that contentment is to be found in consumerism and entertainment and together they see many of us bow willingly before values that are alien to the democratic intent. Democracy is presently being sold to the highest bidder.

Democracy is noisy, meant to allow room for the contrarian thinker, those who challenge the status quo and those who want to disagree, but it is not about the pointless squabbles that until now have preoccupied our nation’s best.

“Democracy” according to the former British PM, the late Winston Churchill, “is the worst of all forms of government, except for all the others that have been tried”; an idea that Australia’s politicians appear intent on testing, until now at least, as they, and we, have a break.

We need to watch and learn from our front row seat

Goulburn Valley people, and their Australian fellows, have a front row seat to watch the removal of another rivet in the superstructure supporting the U.S.

America's President,
Mr Barack Obama.

U.S. president, Barack Obama, has argued for a package of tax cuts and government spending aimed at invigorating his country’s economy.
The package, worth about $US447 billion ($A421 billion), is ill-directed, being aimed at a return to business as usual and in doing so appeasing most Americans who see their comfort in living as they have for many decades.
Rather than spend the country’s wealth on a way of life that is unquestionably unsustainable, Mr Obama and those around him, should overtly embrace the hope, audacity and the idea of change that saw him elected in 2008.
America is staring at economic collapse; a societal breakdown that will end its world hegemony and is the natural outcome of what former political philosophy professor and noted author, Sheldon Wolin, has described as “inverted totalitarianism”.
Wolin sees decided danger in the dysfunctional marriage between government and the corporate world, a union that he argues has routed democracy leaving America with a militarized, industrial complex.
Survival of that complex hinges on an obedient populace, one, which in Wolin’s terms, is distracted and titillated by such things as sport, entertainment and discussion and debates about what are ultimately unimportant matters.
And so while democracy survives in name, what America has, and Australia trails along behind, is inverted totalitarianism – a facade claiming social equity, but which is really a process favouring a few.
Mr Obama’s plan does have tax cuts for both employee and employers and billions to prevent teacher lay-offs and hire more police and fire officers, and it would spend $50 billion to improve highways, railroads, transit and aviation.
Examined, however, through the prism of climate change and seriously depleted energy resources, the plan’s outline quickly becomes distorted and dated.
Rather than grasp at exhausted ideas, the Americans need to abandon what once worked, and failed, allowing them to embark on an adventurous and exciting new project that would fundamentally change the fabric of its society.
Such systemic change is resisted by an American elite that appears unable to comprehend the fraying of its empire and beyond that is so misled by its own beliefs and values, that its impending doom goes unseen.
Rather than rescuing flailing and failing companies, the U.S. should be advancing concepts that call for the localization of communities and employing the idea of late author and influential economist and statistician, E.F. Schumacher that “small is beautiful”.
America is the world’s biggest and most influential economy and as its collapse will render ours destitute; we need to watch attentively, and learn, from our front row seat.