Self Interest Rules
then Fear and Ignorance
It is a sad
thing about the modern political system in Australia in that the dominant determinates
are self-interest, fear and
ignorance.
Self Interest-To focus on the needs or desires of
the self.
No longer
are we driven by the “common good” no instead we are driven and expected to be
driven by self-interest. Cynically the politicians play this for all that it is
worth. They exploit our selfishness by means of focus groups, think tanks and
polling. They find out what we want and then exploit our “interest”. I was
answering a tele polling survey the other day (yeh I know - political junkie) and
the questioner asked; “what will you
gain from this candidates stance”? I told her it was an unfair question she
should have asked me “what will we gain? “What will our community gain”? “What
will my country gain?” She did not understand my reasoning she was so
conditioned that everyone is in it for themselves.
This leads
the pollies into the dangerous ground of playing to interest groups, pandering
to the lobbyists, the loudest, and the influential, whoever they may be and
despite what may be in the best interest or the common good. This leads us into
the present situation where the courage of pollies convictions and motivations
is subverted to the lowest common denominator. Thus every industry, group or
calling has its own call on the politicians and each of us is out for me not
us. Morality, common decency, even common sense is sacrificed to the God of
self-interest.
Fear-An unpleasant emotion caused by the
threat of danger, pain or harm.
The
other pollies weapon of choice of course is to scare people, if people can be
made afraid they can be moulded to back you, if you offer a remedy. We have so
much fear now fear of drugs, asylum seekers, debt, each other, unions, big
business, government, countries, peoples, crime, viruses, you name it is it can
get your vote they will use it. The trick is creating a fear and then promise
to solve it! It does not matter if the problem is unsolvable or not a fear at
all. Remember a lot of the fear they generate is self-administered, they create
a problem and then pretend to fix it. Thus for example the fear of a carbon tax
was brilliantly exploited by the last conservative opposition. But at what cost
to the nation and the world? The so called solution they came up with is much
more expensive and probably will not work. But hey fear had got them into
power. Their Emissions Reduction Fund and National Energy Productivity Plan
have great names but will they work? Even they agree they are not as cost
effective or efficient as a Carbon Tax. I am not picking on the conservatives
here just stating a case. There are plenty of examples from all sides…
Ignorance-A state of being uninformed or lacking in knowledge.
Ignorance
may be bliss but in a democracy it is deadly. It is the ability of free
citizens to make informed choices in the knowledge that they are making a
difference that gives a country, a people, a government its strength and
flexibility. It enables it to make good long term choices and makes the
government accountable and honest. Look at these facts;
Most
Australians 67% do not think it matter which party governs.
20%
of voters opted out of the last Federal election.
WINSTON
Churchill's observation that "democracy is the worst form of government
except all the others that have been tried" is clearly lost on many of
Australia's 18 to 29-year-olds judging by the 2013 Lowy Institute poll.
Older voters
have retained their faith in the democratic process, however disillusioned they
may be with today's politicians. But fewer than half the young people surveyed
in March said democracy was preferable to any other kind of government. Even
more alarming, more than one in five claimed it didn't matter what kind of
government we had.
Whatever
young people are gleaning from social media, from which 78 per cent source
international news, few seem interested in engaging in the democratic process.
In part, their apathy probably stems from the fact most have no experience of
undemocratic or unstable regimes. Not surprisingly, Lowy Institute surveys in
India, Indonesia and Fiji in recent years affirmed young people's support for
democracy in those countries.
Whatever the reasons
behind it, our lack of political education is plain to see: around election
time, the major parties need only produce a low-budget campaign ad showing a
map of Australia surrounded by big, red arrows to garner votes. What is the
state of Australian political education when an Opposition Leader who is also a
self-confessed liar openly expresses sexist, classist and homophobic ideologies,
and is blindly followed by a substantial portion of the Australian electorate?
When a mob of angry, drunken youths can flood the streets draped in our flag
and commit acts of unprovoked violence on innocent people? When multi-billion
dollar corporations can pressure the Government to remove our prime minister
from office, and the number of young Australians who could explain what just
happened are few and far between? When the word 'tax' instils a greater sense
of fear in the people than the phrase 'children in mandatory detention'?
A nationwide Nielsen
newspoll last week revealed only 5 per cent of voters knew Warren Truss was the
federal National Party leader, a far cry from the days when Tim Fischer held
the post. And a snap poll by The Sun-Herald on Friday confirmed fewer people -
across age groups - could correctly answer political questions than
popular-culture questions about actors, models and sporting figures.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments: