Too Broke to Fix

As sure as the daily rising of the sun is the eventual urge by right wing conservative governments to turn citizens into patriotic morons. It’s in their DNA; deep down — and by deep down we’re talking about a millimetre deep … or less — their larval little souls get excited by glorious nationalism in the form of unfurled and vigorously waving flags accompanied by robustly sung national anthems.

The Baillieu government’s latest, and somewhat timid, regression into ethnocentrism was announced yesterday by the Minister for Multicultural Affairs Nick Kotsiras. In the name of multiculturalism, he claims the singing of Australia’s national anthem in schools will help in teaching children, and especially migrant children, “Australian values”. This sounds great until you realize that nine out of ten conservative politicians despise the idea of multiculturalism, opting instead for assimilation. And by assimilation they mean that all races should join the predominate white culture.

Whenever a right wing government intones “values,” be it national or family, they are almost certainly dogwhistling xenophobia and racism. Even if they’re not, the end result could lead to what the Americans suffer from: exceptionalism.

Making migrants feel at home here is more complicated than having them join in for a ritual intoning of “Advance Australia Fair.” When sung on appropriate occasions it gives a frisson of emotional appreciation for the fine nation that Australia mostly is. But sung ritually by rote you can just see the kids glazing over or giggling or pinching one another until it concludes.

At present the decision to sing or not to sing is up to individual schools. And that is as it should be. The government should stay out of it altogether.

Of course, Kotsira’s announcement may just be a diversion from the government’s attempt to screw the nurses out of a decent wage.

Technorati Tags: conservatives, nationalism, nick kotsiras, patriotism, ted baillieu

Blog Tags: conservatives, nationalism, nick kotsiras, patriotism, ted baillieu

In an unprecedented display of corporate hubris, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has grounded 108 aircraft in 22 airports around the world, stranding thousands of passengers. Backed by an overwhelming proxy vote of non-attending shareholders at Friday’s AGM (over cries of “shame” from shareholders actually there), Joyce was not only awarded a $5 million pay increase, but the full support of the Qantas board and its chairman, the union-hating Leigh Clifford, to destroy the unions and perhaps even the economy. Such is the privileged entitlement exhibited by one percenters the world over.

Employer associations are slavering at the possibility of a Qantas victory. Make no mistake, if the Qantas board wins this, all unions can expect the same treatment.

The greatest airline in the world, and the one many were prepared to pay a little more for because of its safety record and excellent service, is about to become just another commercial entity. If it survives.

Passengers who have been reserving judgement over years of cutbacks have had it.

NB. This deserves a separate entry, but read Paul Krugman Austerity not the only way, about one nation (Iceland) that refused to back the banks but instead backed the people. It gives moment to the belief that making people pay for the sins of the one percent is not only wrong, but unnecessary.

Technorati Tags: alan joyce, jeff lawrence, john lee, one percenters, qantas, richard woodward, unions

Blog Tags: alan joyce, jeff lawrence, john lee, one percenters, qantas, richard woodward, unions

The Gut and his Moll observe the handiwork …

… of state-owned thugs in the service of World Corporatocracy.

The fact that the “one percent” will never be defeated does not mean the “99 percent” shouldn’t keep fighting. It’s what the living have always done in the face of rule by the dead.

Actually there is no 99 percent. If you count the Silent Majority — the larval demographic that wilfully believes what right wing demagogues tell them — then the percentage drops to around 50 percent. Of that number, you can count on around five percent to stand up and be counted.

But what chance do they have when Australia (and much of the world) is a Murdochracy. 70 percent of newspapers sold in this country are owned by Rupert Murdoch, and every one of them toes a line defined by Andrew Bolt. In the cities there is still a choice, but in smaller towns it’s pretty much all Right Wing Rupert.

How many people do you see picking up Fairfax papers at the newsagent or in coffee shops? Practically none.

So the problem is an entrenched right wing media in support of corporate rule and its political minions. And the rulers own the police. Occasionally you will hear of a nation’s military taking the side of the people. But never the police. They are the state-owned thugs, always ready with truncheons and pepper spray to move on unarmed dissenters.

The last decade or so has seen the worldwide corporatocracy shed its behind-the-scenes skulduggery for transparent warfare on hapless citizens. Tony Abbott’s popularity, reminiscent of early-Thirties Germany, owes a great deal to the neutered Labor Party and Julia Gillard, but mostly to the power of “corporate rent-seekers” and the Murdoch Press.

Is it all too broke to fix? The Silent Majority has always opted for security over freedom (and deserve neither), while those truly concerned are too busy working twelve-hour days to take a breath. That leaves the Occupy groups all over the world, the only demographic that still has the time to take action before being caught up in the soul-killing task of permanent wage slavery and its attendant grind until death. These people are perhaps the last front line troops to take a stand before the Corporate Masters have us sipping Victory Gin with a glazed rictus on our immobile faces.

When in doubt, act like a hero. OCCUPY EVERYTHING.

Technorati Tags: corporategreed, occupyeverything, occupymelbourne, occupywallstreet

Blog Tags: corporategreed, occupyeverything, occupymelbourne, occupywallstreet