An inconvenient moment

The Tony and Clive Show on ABC's Lateline program  25 June 2014
For a change Tony Jones seemed lost,  and like the audience there was this sense that nothing was making sense. Tony ,as usual,  was asking a lot of questions and the one he wanted answered , even though he said it directly , wasn't really answered.
Is Tony dumb or has the value of asking a dumb question diminished?
No , dumb questions are always fine,  though they risk wasting time and making the author look dumb- its fine because,  like democracy we learn by waiting and being interrupted by the inefficiencies of weird interactions of faith, reason and approaching dead ends.  I like taking such risks with Q's which is one reason i doubt like a scientist before I get on my horse and or speculate wildly like those three horse and destiny bound amigos on the screen last night .
So are we the long suffering audience to understand another beating over the head - one so repetitive and dumb,  retorting of "confidence" between the three hot air merchants .( who don't trust each other - why trust them?)
The dummies have forgotten something .They have their own denial problems and typically project them onto others.
The thing they have in common is  that they all see themselves as powerful.
If we are to believe someone who actually knows something , we would have greater certainty about what the show meant last night . Power corrupts and talking about the invisible corrupts easily and most assuredly . They should all shut up and we should all switch them off ( as we are) Where are the scientists and technology experts on the ABC when you really need them?

Another sobering thought comes too from history. "The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention" . That doesn't worry Tony Jones,  but being in denial about it may mean he is most vulnerable to it - just as all of us are.
So what do make of last night ? An inconvenient moment of truth projection and denial -- nothing superficial like the hot air merchants want us to believe was the issue  ?



Nothing wrong with dumb questions but Q&A control of questions means the ABC must stop running this pretence of feeding the right ( and conservative s and those who are not mere reactionaries) to the lions on Monday night . Its getting more desperate and less watchable  each week

Here 's proof.  Ask this question yourself Tony to whoever comes on .

"If we (ABC and associated wannabes) haven't been able to convince the public about the dangers of CC after 10 years banging on about  it , why would be bother again tonight? "

Beyond a mere god

Heidigger said only a god could change the world . Chesterton said that if you abolish God the government becomes god . If only we listened to one or both of these old blokes we might not have wasted billions trying to fight the unseen enemy CC  .  If only the Roman emperors could see the foolishness of their worries about the people worshipping an unseen God .
Modern progressives are living in a dream and have proven that despite spending billions { of money that was not their own) to try to force the public to lower carbon emissions ; the strategy they chose (carbon tax and market mechanisms)

They should have listened to and studied sociology so they knew how difficult it really is to change behaviour ( at what tax percentage markup do you stop smoking ?) A great student of the subject like Ellul.



The individual who burns with desire for action but does not know what to do is a common type in our society. He wants to act for the sake of justice, peace, progress, but does not know how. If propaganda can show him this 'how' then it has won the game; action will surely follow".<sup>[33]:209

Beyond  a mere god - and god worship 

When ABCTV put a panel together of scientists and let them talk we will ignore their selective editing  and 
restrictive solution exploration: we know they have walked out of church in disgust</sup> 

More religious than we think

Current contenders for PRIME MINISTER in AUSTRALIA could be considered "Pious".

You 'll note that I am using the word  in both the common "religious" sense and the more profound 'Cultural "sense in which Chesterton used it against "the First Fabian". Noone but noone,  including me likes to be called pious in the common understanding of the word . Sort of implies " other worldliness " , out of touch with reality -,
Its confronting nature is why we need to take it serioulsy . Just to repeat myself Chesterton had in his Biography of his friend Shaw seen his very popular ideas work through a war and was not about to allow another; by careless reaction against the culture that bore HIM and US into freedom and dignity . 

Grab yourself a copy of "Eternity Magazine " or Roy Williams book "In God they Trust " for more about our pious leaders:  very interesting as both have widely differing drawing patterns to their clear commitments there. The idea is important because many of Australians intelligensia think that religion is not only not necessary but dangerous . Dangerous it certainly is which is all the more reason to take it seriously .The fear of the average non commited aussie of religion needs to be addressed too with facts,  as freedom of speech could be removed simply because the wannabes want to restrict the amount of " heat" in debates about " what is right " and "what is correct to believe" . Such a freedom was hard fought for but easily lost in the same it was lost before ? 

Psychologists tell us we all " have  religion " so denial of the need too,  is not helpful.
 A culture which teaches forgiveness and acceptance of political diversity is however a little different to one which supports revenge and  political control . 

The "Muslim protest in support of Egypt's leader in Sydney yesterday , it seems to me , is not about race but about proclaiming the superiority of one cultural idea ( one pietas ) over another . Many Christians would agree with the thinking Muslim that western culture has lost its way and is MOST vulnerable because it has a faith that is failing to deliver .
The problem then is not the religiuos,  but those who say faith systems don't matter . Its th e deniers  who need to change their minds and engage with the cultural ideas that motivate men. 

Rudd Rhetoric - Same old same old , revolutionary reformer

We used to just say - "keeps on going around in circles"  Circle work CW
Maybe its not content , but attitude that matters . Mr Rudd is relentlessly positive while Mr Abbott is "Mr Negative" . The parent,  at least , can be trusted .
If you were a pedant you would tell yourself that CW is both revolutionary , reactionary and reformist .Wonderful comforting words.Perfectly logical -- if you are a pedant .
... and don't want to see the world as an outsider might see it

Playing the air game , and being light on your feet can  be very useful with a weary public - got to pick your time and moment . Labor can jump ahead and call the opposition "full of negativity" . " "no new ideas " party . Life is too short to be always chasing new ideas and much shorter and less satisfying if you don't really reform the good old ones .Rudd has at least hit the nerve there this week .
You  can as a pedant  have it all ways with the words but still not be moving in practice - just treading air and hoping that noone would notice that its recycled air , not "fresh air " you were ingesting( today he announced the most momentous  featureless large democratization ritual ever undertaken  by the Labor party ) .
Feeble spirits use all the right words and right words of passage ( " history long time hard work") from the past but because they do not really  study the past,  they repeat past mistakes ( more Pacific solutions )

Mouths are aghast that Kevin Rudd can be King again by playing the chameleon . He's always moving on and zipping the opposition before they have time to form a question.  Port Moresby or the Highlands absolutely no one understands how we got there - clearly he got there on the universe explorer Politicaceleste.- a featureless place to most Aussies ; perfect place for a landing

Like Julia he's just got away today with finding a real solution to the refugee problem - by naming a new ( always that way ) country . PNG .
No one with half a brain can fathom the acceptance of this zipped brain scheme.
Its not a joke and its not a good look for the media too ,, who are mesmerized by change. The faith of our society is complete in theory ( evolutionary is how good things happen ) but devolutionary and destructive in practice ( just uses up resources saved to enable future investment) 

Even the word reform can have a new meaning each week - "we have thought long and hard about this" suggests anything but  .

Noone in their right mind can digest the idea that what was announced today in regard to democratization of Labor " is the most significant , the most important  change ". ( words often chanted by preachers from the pulpit) The acceptance of this nonsense is due to the widespread false faith in progress - that what comes tomorrow is better,  more evolved than what was here yesterday

All Fabians have used the "change is good card" since Chesterton wrote about Shaws addiction to it . Its hard to ask a good question about the future.
"All feeble spirits naturally live in the future,"  We don't need to look far to see the faith in the future merchants as they dance around responses with the "moving on" imperative that fixes them in the old church from which they come .
Some would say this "god of the gap flller " works,  but it only works as a daily and costly fix.  It only survives as a weekly meal because its powered by the public purse and .. perhaps only in areas of church  where they too do not accept the public curse of faith in mere progress.

If you don't know which church YOU belong to ,
ask yourself the question .
Are conservative people just full of negative ideas ( implies that only one direction is positive )
The air may appear fresh,  but true movers use a car that has wheels ( real history of ideas) and doesn't reinvent them every time it wants to go somewhere .( Rudd calls for new ideas today showing what a shallow showman he is !)
"Feeble spirits live in the future because it is featureless"  It can look big and its up there 

Labors iron fist

The ongoing deceptive projection of either Gillard or Rudd as fronts for Labor says something terrible about Labor - we don't know what they stand for and its not clear they know either. Moving so easily from left to right suggests, not that they are a broad church , but that  there is nothing in between the images. No doubt they will be busy pre election trying to talk broadchurch and stability of policy .
Let's assume, as is our bent here,   that the issue is not issues ( the substance thereof  --as the desperate reactionary rhetoricians would have it ) but impressions. Clearly just  toughness imaging  is not the issue, but toughness undermined by substituting left for right is the credibility cruncher for thinking people - terrible twin concatenation  to many.
None of us like the hidden extremes in Labor ( glove and fist ) but we MUST always be aware of them - such extremes suggest a vacuum in between. Their ongoing attempts to use the glove is a hypocrisy and thinly veiled tragedy of emptiness we best reject forever.
The mass exodus of Julia's operatives ( 1/3 of cabinet have just quit) suggest this overblown balloon of rhetoric about "world shattering" has no real their commitment to being implemented ; belated arguing for world changing policy --eggshell thin excuses and "I, me and my exit speeches " . Watch Rudd soften the hard edge of this shallowness and lack of substance!  Is winning everything ?- watch the threatened throw up survival changes to policy that was once said to be sacrosanct .
Is it only an impression that Gillard's cabinet were never as convincing as Rudd's - 2 years of birdbath depth defences for heavenly policies that we will see washed clean or even empty  over the next few months?
If anyone gets the prize for lightweight and narrow focused, it is this natural association between the left and the greens. 
Julia may have labelled herself and the party "as god like" but she surely she went down because she has not performed like god -let alone sound like.
So how deep does the god like imagery in Rudd run?  Clearly Rudd's alternative humility cop will be attractive to many.
Before anyone else gets carried away,  all parties ( including the most pretentious godlike Greens ) will be judged , not on the power they presume, but there respect for their limited power .
Rudd clearly has an advantage over some in the Liberal party who have never doubted they are infact godlike and always were.
The big question is : Will we be fooled to accept for a second time that Rudd is the kid glove type  covering an iron fist of  a few fanatics in behind him  . Labor's  hold on the intellect and internal substance is as shaky as their long term reliance  on Barry Jones as a symbol of it . Behind Labors policy is not substance of the many but interest of the few. Totally ineffective industry and employment development policy and a clever country policy as shallow and shaky as the walls of their hypocritical building education buildings policy .
Abbott would do well to focus on the facade.

At least Angels move Up and Down the ladder

The aristocrats in Canberra are complaining they need to have a voice ( ABC today )  As far as "angel hierarchies" ("next to God "as Sir Humphrey would say )  go they are near the top . The question is whether they really know what's happening below.
I say,  be convincing and convicting and you ( and others ) will have all the voice our democracy needs.   Know what you know and keep attention - a tension
You can't have a tension between two old doctrines  ( Chris Berg's point from the IPA )  if you abandoned one or other doctrine a long time ago. The left have trouble talking to any doctrine - let alone 2.
There is no such thing as doctrine for "the progressives" -those whose faith is in the evolution of good doctrine .In other words they can't tell you anything definite ; either because the best answer is yet to come or its defined by reaction to the last answer ( whatever universe it came from )
I can't work out why anyone would call themselves Fabian when their commitment lead them big government and no further ; when it has lead them to such strange unsustainable new condoctrines and concoctions such as  Marxism,  Fascism and now fighting amongst themselves for wisdom neither of them have .
True democrats always believed that the power was in "much advice"  from below- not the wisdom of the aristocracy .What does Canberra know ? What do Canberra mandarins know that they can't share with their mates in the press ? Give it a rest - The arsitocracy are going where angels fear to tread and don't even know it!
Carbon policy doesn't work because no one up top really knew what they were doing - both parties are both in deep trouble and they keeping making it so - by their own heresies

As for the heading : When Jacob was sleeping on a hard rock in a hard place ,  he dreamt of angels . They were moving up and down the ladder . So it is with good doctrine . Hierarchies are to build communication and their effective abandonment ( recent history of western politics) ) means LESS communication rather than more : less responsibility  rather than more - you don't change  the precious place of listening  unless you really know what you are doing .Need I say more ?Some people dream without angels . Perhaps they dream they are angels ?

Half baked doctrines create waste :time , money and lives . Best be rid of anything that is just a faint hope in the future.
 ( You heard it first on Blogger 23 April 2013 )

Always best to check whats happening on the ground

Before you get carried away with what YOU can achieve in parliament, study the method ( its tried and tested,  in case you have forgotten!)
Here it is written down for you, on the ground as it were, in the simplest of forms Proverbs 11:14 . Right down on the floor of parliament.(Vic)

The tried and true method that Churchill and Queen Victoria ( standing in the background) and many others for whom the aforementioned are but a symbol ,  gave us as a legacy. That legacy is being undermined by the very same lack of vigilance that they identified in their day; People who think that life emanates out of a set of laws; whose education revolution is so tightly bound it only ever works through rules and learning them well ( I can see Alan Bond smiling at such stupidity and blinkeredness - go see my lawyers ! - great legacy !)
. Name calling pedantry preoccupations instead of practicing principle .Accusations and counteraccusations instead of acceptance of sin ,trial by hearings,  adminstration of justice and mercy and regeneration ( even if it means pulling down  before building up again - the old gas buildings ) to top it off .
 Melbourne is one of the most livable cities in the world and it isn't because of any superheroes , mayors or developers OR RULES .
The planning system, like our  legal appeals system was built on a flexible framework of advice and review courts.  Planning is what makes any country great .
YET Look what a mess our legal systems and goverenments have made of the Tribunal system ( eg VCAT) - turned half baked into righteous pedantry and pathetically unreliable justice with no mercy and often now for the poor old taxpayer , no hope of real regeneration ( while leaders just throw money at " problems" .