John Linton
I don't know whether it the continued outrageous lying by Krudd and co or the chaotic and stupid performance by the Federal opposition or the ludicrous attitudes of so many people whose views are impossible to avoid in the visual, sound and print media or just the actions of the a**holes on the roads or even the arrogant piece of sh** who parked in my car space on Friday and when 'found' had the unmitigated gall to say "I'll only be another ten minutes" and then not move the car for another hour. Perhaps its all those ethically challenged and morally bankrupt people who publish their views that stealing other people's property is absolutely their right and AFACT etc are sooooo wrong in attempting to protect their client's property. It might be simply that I've spent almost 4 weeks out of Australia with very different and very pleasant people - but I am reaching the very strong view that I really dislike so many people who proclaim themselves to be Australians and I dislike their actions even more.
I understand that it is a 'universal truism' that as you get old you see the past with rose coloured glasses and see current circumstances as being inferior and inimical to the past experiences and circumstances - I think (though I may well be wrong) that I am relatively intelligent, well read and well educated so I am aware of most 'conventional wisdom' and then some real understanding of most commonly experienced changes of perspectives as a human being grows in age and experience and understanding (in some people's cases). So it seems to me that I am not completely incorrect in my view that Australia has slowly deteriorated from the country I came to as a lonely 17 year old almost 50 years ago. I have no doubt that my views are irrelevant and most people would hotly dispute them but, to me, they are factually and empirically based and, again to me, are now being played out in almost every aspect of life in this country.
However what is beginning to really depress me (in general not specific terms) is the belief that this isn't a simple incorrect judgment at a point in one person's personal life but it's actually just a point along a steepening curve of decline across the whole spectra of Australian society. It isn't reversible in my opinion because we have ceased being any form of democracy (the first basis of which is the fitness for office of any candidate and then the accountability for their actions once in office) across the mess that is Australia's triple level of wasteful government. As Ros Pritchard's script writer gave her the words to say that describes 'democracy' today:
"Have I become like every other politician - a duplicitous tosser."
That is the problem. I live in A State where local councils are so blatantly corrupt that they are run by bribes to inadequate people who are part of the 'two party system' of branch stacking and back handers putting inadequate people in 'power' whose only objectives are to further their own interests and to make as much money from their "office" as possible as quickly as possible. I also live in a State where the venal Labor party has destroyed every aspect of infrastructure and every aspect of service provision by a candidate selection process that simply recycles union hacks and fellow travelers who have NO capability or capacity whatsoever, let alone the education or intellect, to "manage" the ministry they are appointed to - the result for ANY person who lives in NSW is that during the greatest economic growth period Australia has ever seen every aspect of the State in which we live declined sharply.....and what compounded that obvious management fiasco was that somehow the electorate of this State re-elected the lying, criminal buffoons who were making all aspects of their lives more miserable year by year.....presumably because there was no better alternative.
I, personally, don't think that the Labor party is the only reason the country is declining in appeal to me - the Liberal and National parties and the dummies who think that fragmenting a two party system is going to help in any way semi-equally contribute to the process - they just equally serve as examples of why Australia is not the great place to live it once was and as the old concept of democracy further atrophies it will become even less appealing than it is today. I'm not a conspiracy theorist (perhaps I don't have enough imagination) but I have read enough 'real' history to understand that nothing is forever in any society comprised of 'evolutionary' based entities. All human societies that have ever existed have reached a peak and then declined at some rate from that peak - often precipitously - but almost always because of the decline in standards of their governors/government.
My, you may well think jaundiced, view is that Australia reached its peak some 30 years ago and now, having consigned every public decision making position to a succession of duplicitous tossers (how illustrative was it to appoint a union drone who didn't finish high school as Minister Of Defence?) we are, jointly, suffering from the consequences of having 30 or so years of decisions made by people whose only decision making criterion is "how do I personally get a benefit from this". With 2,000 duplicitous tossers making every decision that affects all Australian societies for decades past and decades to come and an apathetic electorate that has no choice (both sides of politics blatantly talk about getting in to power or remaining in power as their only objectives - not a skerrick of benefiting Australia and Australians enters into a single sentence from their duplicitous lips) God knows what shape this country, this State and this suburb will be in over the coming ten years.
I see no prospect of any change to the steepening decline - every aspect of it is rotten to the core - the ever dumber electorate treats political parties in the same way they treat football teams but without any level of knowledge.