Thank you for a very thorough analysis of the present geo-political situation.Yes, politics and maybe life itself is about power and as some wit said: Power is wonderful and absolute power is absolutely wonderful. Maybe we do need an ecological catastrophe to bring us to our senses. I hope not. The antidote to power is love. Power destroys love in marriage as well as in the wider world.So the problem can be put in another way. Why do we allow our leaders to fool us with promises of a Heaven on earth and of an enemy which we must forever hate in order to reach paradise? I guess it is that the God that we now worship who goes by the Greek name of Mammon and is the most powerful and dangerous God that we have ever followed tells us that there is a solid pot of gold at the end of that beautiful rainbow.
Thanks again- as long as there is life there is hope! Pluto

Peter, I'm feeling more optimistic about your pessimism.

While still lamenting the "fall" of old style democratic politics you now see some hope in the democratic possibilities of information technology.

I think your definition of politics is a little restricted to liberal or social democracy where national autonomy is strong.

Looking at history I think Australia's financial and foreign policies were subservient to Britain's until the 1940's, not to mention reacting to the economic forces of Wall Street for the last 85 years.

I think our politician's have always (and necessarily) reacted to more powerful centres overseas. There has always, however, been some influence from voters and other national interest groups in determining the shape of politics. Poticians therefore respond to a mixture of interests (eg. US interest rates and Australian voters)rather than maintaining a "pure" policy agenda (chock full of intergrity).

So, the fact that "multinationals" and "globalisation" are now well labelled does not necessarily diminish the power of the public when one compares it to other times in Australia's history.

You've written set of articles. I don't agree with your analysis but do agree that the internet offers a ray of hope.

Peter is confusing change with death, not suprising since he is stuck in a 1950s mindset.

There is less of a range of political parties from the left to the right today?
The evidence shows the reverse. Australia, like most stable democracies, as always been a two party system. The two major parties have always ruled and set policy and created any progress. In fact the vote of the major parties is much lower these days and there are many more independant and minor party represatives in politics than in the past. The problem seems to the be failure of left wing ideology and political parties, not politics.

To maintain his old Marxist fairytale Peter has to cast a Greengrocer's daughter and a B grade hollywood start as the wealthy elite ruling class. They apparently managed to seize back power from the masses by getting resoundingly elected by the masses and implementing the ideas of an Austrian refugee with a Nobel prize.

Next we get the new version of dialectic materialism, where there is not one but three simplistic inevitable outcomes where all is ruination. All of them based on taking a few generalisations and extrapolating them to aburdity. And funny enough Global Warming is only a problem in one that continues to follow capitalism.

Politics is not dead, it has simply discarded the old irrevelant class based framework that Peter is stuck in.

David Watford

Peter,

The annoying fact that our Prime Minister is now saying during an interview that he believes rather than the party believes, is this proving the end of democratic politics and a trend to authoritarianism?

Also find attached, possible future global politics as supported by Paul Kelly of “The Australian” newspaper. He says that the present war on terror, will be long-running. Western nations such as Australia face the prospect of an exceedingly difficult challenge, a challenge with the military only playing a supporting role

Paul Kelly cites David Kilcullen, keynote speaker on the theme of “War and Conflict in the 21st Century.” Kilcullen, who has only recently returned from the US as a special adviser on counter-terrorism, believes the US is in a dilemma. It must maintain military superiority to contain the rise of problem states, yet the core threat America faces, apparently needs far more intellectual nd historical foresight.

Kilcullen’s diagnosis is that two epic trends drive the new warfare, neo-liberal globalisation and US imperialism. There are blowback problems from G8 protestors, environmental extremists, and narco-insurgents, American plans having disrupted their lives in so many different ways - the extreme of the protestors, the Islamics, ready to fight the US and its allies where the massive military combination is weak, in the combination’s own lodgings and in its own streets by the use of increasingly successful suicide bombing..

Suicidal warfare apart from lives lost, has proven cheap, difficult to counter and often effective - as agreed to by Keith Suter, who in an Online essay, cited the successful suicide attacks by the Tamil Tigers, which caused a worried Sri-Lankan government to grant them independence.

Kilcullen’s three-point victory programme is daunting to the extreme. A need for a road map to guide democratic societies under assault, yet the debate post-London is so marked by community revulsion, there is still yet a profound strategic uncertainty.

Paul Kelly believes that the issue now is whether the democratic multicultural state can survive as the 21st century model. There is an urgent need to find the right balance between force and persuasion

Peter,

Politics is "internationalised".

What issues are important:

1. nuclear and WOMD proliferation
2. African poverty
3. terrorism (see 1 above)
4. Integration into larger political units (EU)
5. Rise of India and China
6. International expeditions like Iraq
7. Role of the UN Security Council
8. Role of trade liberalisation and aid in promoting internationalism
9. Global warming

etc

Australia will always be a fringe player on these things and so our politics is limited by our relevance. Therefore we are left with much narrower debates than in America, Europe, India, etc - ie. the big players in these things.

This does not mean our debates are flawed, simply you have the debates that the majority of people feel connected to. Connect with and win:

1. tax and welfare policies
2. "pragmatic" identity issues
3. job creation
4. individual empowerment and social obligations for the empowered

Corin

Dewatt,

You knock Peter about left wing politics, yet your politics at a guess could be rather right wing and incestuously cliquy as if only special people from a special group should be in charge.

Could be okay for a couple of terms, but a tendency towards nepoticism could have such a party breaking rules to stay in power. Fundamental religous groups have this problem, as also organisations such as Freemasonry and even over-dedicated sporting groups.

Economic rationalism can cause problems also, the main reason that Labor is on the wane. It does not suit Labor because it is naturally ultra-right wing, supporting corporates and share-dealing rather than small business and localised cooperatives.

There is nothing new about all this political palaver, Dewatt, having lived through the Great Depression, one develops quite a lot of insight into politics. In fact, your style of politics was thrown out in 1932. It collapsed like a stack of cards. Maybe you would like to take a lesson.

Corin McCarthy,

What hope is there for the world? The most important political issue, which you have completely ignored, is that the world population is increasing by 6 million people per month. All other problems, global warming, poverty, pollution, etc. are made worse by increasing population, and trying to address them without measures to stabilise population is simply pissing in the wind.

You could say that there is no need to worry, as if mankind does not address this problem it will be dealt with by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They, of course, are WAR, FAMINE, PESTILENCE and DEATH.

I would imagine they are saddling up in the celestial stable at this very moment.

I think there is plenty of hope.

Poverty is reducing if you measure total poverty in the world.

Development economics is becoming more sophisticated, see India in particular that is doing far better than the Nehru state-ist approach.

The debt relief program is welcome for Africa but isn't the full solution. The solution to war, pestilence and poverty is generally good governance. Almost always these unwanted tradegies come hand in hand with nepostistic governments like Mobutu and Mugabe and Mao and Stalin, etc.

I spent a long period in India at the start of the year - go and see it - real poverty is mind numbing - but even within a society experiencing it there is real hope.

Look also how states like Korea and Malaysia have been transformed by good governance.

Reducing world poverty is complex and reliant in the main I would suggest on removing trade subsidies and this will grow in strength.

Africa is a 50-100 year project and more than at any other time that project is on the radar.

There sure is need for a different kind of politics. Those set in the framework of left or right seem to be concentrating on knocking each other off the perch, to the exclusion of being able to see the bigger, more fundamental, problems.
Plerdsus is realistic. Without factoring population into the occasion, we will never fix anything. As for Africa being a 50 - 100 year problem: Unless the horsemen of the Apocalypse get more active than they already are in that distressed continent, the African problem escalates no end. The present population is about 900 million.
If African nations take no steps to rein in their present rate of population increase of 2.4%, in fifty years their numbers will very nearly double. Instead of the current 900 mostly distressed people, in fifty years there will be almost 2 billion, much more distressed. And in 100 years they will be pushing towards 4 billion.
Were human beings themselves to face up to civilised means of minimising population increase it would save those horrific horsemen a lot of sweat.

PLUTO
you mentioned power..and God.. and the god we now worship..'mammon'.. quite true in many cases. Let me follow on with a report about some lives this morning.

MARY ZAMBESI.. was 22, in Zambia, married and abandoned after their baby reached 6 months. She sunk into deep depression, was hospitalized for over a month.. what next ? the usual step for those in need, totally dependant,abandoned, is the streets, prostitution.. aids etc.
What happened to Mary ? She had a vision, of Christ Elijah and Moses (sounds pretty weird huh :) she left hospital, renewed, transformed, and managed to get a job, she had another vision, a child being handed to her. After this there was a news story, of a child having been found in a box in the jungle. Jumping ahead a few steps, she was given custody of this child. (who is now 10) and raised him, but also, she founded a home (gave up her own home) for orphans. Her brother became HIV from an encounter with prostitutes. She began a ministry to prostitutes, providing for them as best she could from the income of her business. She lives now in a rented flat, the Zambian government wants her to become a government minister. But she has no desire for this.

Seldom have I ever witnessed such a glow in a persons life, such committment, such self sacrifice. She spoke in our church this morning, with boldness, confidence, and power. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place at the end.

So there we have it, our 'white racist/right wing/extremist/male chauvenist etc etc etc' church (as some would have you believe) this morning had a Black (and I mean blackkk) LADY as our preacher, and preach she surely did.

Lives were changed.

I was reminded of the comments of the religious leaders when they saw Peter speaking post resurrection,

"And they were amazed at the boldness with which Peter and John spoke .. and perceived that they had been with Jesus"

Politics, Policy, Pragmatism... all pretty useless without changed lives and renewed hearts.

I respect the writer for asking the questions that should be asked.
The problems I can see with our present democratically governed nations are:
- They’re not anywhere near as ‘democratic’ as they should be. Fair enough, we need structure & representation but why cannot a substantial number of decisions be held to direct referendum? A prime example is the proposed Oz IR changes. If Howard was interested in doing what the majority want, a referendum would take place with full information from both sides of the argument. Why in this age do we still vote with pencil & paper? If we can bank online, we certainly should be able to vote online.
- They’re largely bereft of basic human values. Our government is basically our ‘parent’ & sets the standard of the day directly through legislation & secondarily through how it conducts its own business. The ‘Constitution’ allegedly lays down the rules. I suggest a revision of this document to include basic human values & for it to be mandatorily updated by referendum at set intervals.
- Money and materialism rules. We generally couldn’t care less about politics, unless it provides us with more gain to ourselves. Our political mainstream is overloaded with gold-diggers who have no real social concerns. An obvious idea is to pay our pollies on a ‘performance basis’, to be determined by electronic referendum. The ‘values’ need to shift & we should be fully understanding of the need to be active politically. We need ‘political awareness’ as a value in our society. The way to do this is through the education system. What to do is not for me to decide.
These are good, commonsense observations & solutions. The ideas on what to do are aplenty. It's 'how to get the right people into the correct political positions' that eludes us

Dear Swiklie
I note with interest your astute observations of our political predicament.
All that you said is quite valid from what I can see.

The missing link though, is the solution.

You advocated "political awareness through the education system"

It's one thing to diagnose the illness, another to prescribe the right medication.
They key word in your post was 'should'. Things 'should' be different.
Why are they not ? you gave the answer to that. "Our god of 'mammon'"
(Money and materialism)

Your suggested solution will not work, for the same reason that in Christian circles we often refer to the mid week prayer meeting as the 'company of the committed/the faithful few' etc. in other words, the number of people who are truly interested in 'other' centered values is not by any means a large proportion of any given social group.

In our circles, I need to add, that sometimes mid week activities are more of a logistic problem than spiritual, Sunday can be quite a hoot so to speak, but the point is, that we do have lives, and it takes quite a bit to get people to step out of the busy-ness of raising/running a family/business etc.

So, I think that in general, the momentum for social change or maintaining a status quo will always be left to those who feel free enough and passionate enough to involve themselves in it. Most of us just want to get on with life without explaining it to ourselves, so we distill our political awareness down to "is this good for 'me'"

There is, in this a huge danger, that those passionately committed to ideas which would threaten our way of life, could have an impact far in excess of their numbers.

I do agree on one thing, making the process more accessable in this I.T. age + an educational initiative, supported by local groups would go a long way toward making people feel more connected and relevant.

Hello, David.
The only solution I’ve suggested is to educate. As to what to teach our lot is not for me alone, or any individual, to decide. It’s massively complex.
I don’t agree that we are dealing with unchangeable human traits here ( this seems to be the assumption in your argument). Ones “system of value” is an entirely “learned” part of human behaviour- primarily at a young age. Hence appropriate education.
I propose no finites in this approach. Just constant reference to universally accepted human values. There is no ‘can’ or ‘cannot’ work. It is simply a better foundation.
Food for thought (with full respect). An obvious problem is getting the various wonderful religious structures of this world to accept that they essentially worship the same God & should therefore work together for the benefit of all. Is this not what God would want?
Cheers..

Swilkie,
yes, I do agree that people are teachable and that the values you suggest would be beneficial. I was basing my post on the assumption that mankind is 'fallen' but being fallen does not mean unteachable.

The predisposition most of us have, (specially when push comes to shove) is ourselves and our own. But there are also the personality types who seem to believe they have some manifest destiny to 'rule' or lead in directions most suited to their view of life.
This inevitably ends up in them capitalizing on what may be small differences, inequities etc... perhaps even racial or religious differences, and they cunningly exploit these in a manner of which Mr Machievelli would be proud, to achieve the ultimate rush of power.

Among we westerners with our enlightenment/renaissance/Reformation heritage, the values you refer to would be pretty much universally acceptable. The Catholic/Protestant tension is pretty much zero from what I can see, apart from where it is exploited by the types mentioned in the above paragraph in Ireland.

Then there is the problem of Islam, which of course views the world in a 2 color landscape of 'Land of Islam' and "land of Struggle (to bring in Islamic rule)".

I have less than zero hope that there would ever be an acceptance of any set of values by by the likes of Iran etc, which does not have the (to them) divine stamp of approval.

But what could bring it all undone is happening almost as a side-event unnoticed by the prophetically sheltered :)
2 events in the past couple of days point to it.
Mahmoud Abbas, revving up the Palestinians about "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem" and today we had the 'Temple mount faithful' (Orthodox Israelis) planning to swarm over the Al Aksah Mosque. They would only do this because (believe it or not) of the existence of a little heifer "without blemish or spot"...

yes, I know, sounds surreal :) but those 2 events, may lead to our ultimate destination where the only politics which will matter, is our relationship with Christ.

Peter, interesting article, a lot of which I agree with, we may come from opposite sides of ‘politics’ however, I do agree with your notion that politics is dying a slow death…not quite dead yet though…we can still pump some life into the old girl yet!

To the respondents who always bring their god into the forum…Wake up fools…THERE IS NO GOD! Man has always believed in ‘his’ self-importance! We are simply animals; hence, we have always acted, and will continue to act, as such. I agree, our biggest problems, as a species, are our increasing population, environmental devastation, and religious zealots (including evangelists and ‘evil-doers’)!

Solution: There will not ever be one because we will never:

• Allow Africa (and any other place which cannot help itself) to implode (yes, I said it…many people think it, but are too ‘PC’ to say it); it is going to anyway!
• Educate…not some blind following or ‘taqlid’, but some real discovery learning and critical thinking which has not been permeated by religious, scientific and/or Cartesian certainty…forget about religion people, it’s just man’s way of hanging on to his self-importance (yes, I am a male; a classic Alpha-male actually!)
• Embrace Post-Modernism…understand it, learn from it…wallow in it.
• Nationalism! What is wrong with some overt jingoism? Forget about trying to save the world…let us look after ourselves first…first step…the environment, the next step, immigration…after that…hmmm, one can never be certain…

Please do not bother pulling your head out of the sand and writing a long-winded response to my comments, I will only laugh at you…stick your head right back where it is comfortable.

puzzlesthewill

This could be a solution, a simple one but not an easy one. It would take about 5 years to become effective, but once up and running, it would improve all our lives.

To start, we change our education system, placing children in school from 6 to 16. They would be taught the 3 RR R's, and how to live, including health, childbearing and responsibility and the practical requirements of life. This way when they reach 16 they will understand what life is and how it works and how they can get through it.

At 16 we put then all into 4 years of community service where they would work in health, the local community, law enforcement, public service, essential services, defence support and full advanced driver training. During the 4 years, they would have to do at least 10 different work experiences. Once they reach 20, they can then choose which avenue of work they would like and or go to higher education.

This would instantly drop youth unemployment, reduce youth crime, give us more people in hospitals and essential services and teach the young to understand what being responsible is.

This would also mean more work for older people as they would be required to supervise and teach.

The next step, people should have the right to believe what they want and worship the god the need, but not at the expense of others.

The best solution would be to ban the expression of religion or religious dress in public except on certain designated religious days.

We would end up with a youth that was informed, capable, useful and able to handle most situations in life. Result, no shortage of nurses, no shortage of essential service staff, and a growing knowledge base and security for our country.

The next step is the reform of politics so that it represents the will and wish of the people, it would be a very simple process, but hard to impliment

Peter McMahon, are you absolute in your anti-absolutism? If so, then don't you see the contradiction in this? Are you being hypocritical?

Can your absolutism tolerate any other form of absolutism? If so, does that mean that politics dies in this black-and-white world of absolutisms?

PUZZLE....

matey.. you make yourself just TOOOOooo much of a target not to have a little bit of a nibble at that world view of yours :)

Ok.. Step 1

"GOD IS DEAD" (Neitzche) 1870 ish

"THERE IS NO GOD" (Puzzleme 2005)

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING as right and wrong".. (obvious moral implication based on the above presuppositions) signed 'Blind Nellie'

STEP 2 -SOCIAL OUTCOME OF THE ABOVE.
"I feel like taking out some annoying person.. looks around.. aah..there is Puzzle.. bang"..
(some existentialist who believed the above 2 presuppositions)

Same existentialist is interviewed later ..

(Reporter) "So.. Mr X, why did you do that, don't you feel bad about it" ?
(Existentialist) "I did it simply because I felt like it, and NO, why should I feel bad about it ? I heard some bloke explain it all clearly, read some forum and he rambled on about no God, he is an alpha male etc.. so I took his words to heart.. now I'm the alpha male and he is dead"

STEP 3 :NEITZCHE IS DEAD, PUZZLE WILL BE DEAD (2006 signed GOD :)

ALCHEMIST

surprisingly, I think you have some good thoughts there, except for the brutal supression of free speech and worship which is such a fundamental human right, that it makes your 'utopian' vision seem just a little like National Socialism.
ALCH.. lemme know when you can find any foundation for your extreme disdain for the Christian faith in the life and teaching of Christ ok ? we can discuss further. Meanwhile, God luvs ya :)

pathetic loser DB...

PATHETIC

2. contemptibly inadequate: so inadequate as to be laughable or contemptible ( informal )

Puzzle. I don’t quite see where you arrived at that conclusion. You gave us the ‘religious people are morons’ speech, and all I did was demonstrate the philosophical flaws in your position by way of creative (albeit clumsy) reference to recent philosophical thought such as by Jean Paul Sartre and other existentialist thinkers; and its outworking in society.

You came in like a Bull in a China shop with your statements which were at least insulting if not outright villifying. So, I took you to task on that basis. I have not resorted to personal abuse or ad hominems, and perhaps instead of responding to a reasoned response to your position with ‘abuse’, you might like to try defending it. Or, pointing out the flaws in my own position. I don’t mind, your welcome to do so, it wont be the first time, nor the last.

Oh, if I may, you almost got the quote right “wake up fools, there is no God”.. actually its

“The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’” Psalm 14 verse 1.

LOSER

This might, at various levels of my life be true. I don’t always get what I’d like :) But then, its not about ‘me’ here, its about truth and reason. So, I have to advise you to be more selective about the labels you choose for debating opponents.

Anyway, I’ll reflect on your description of me, and I’m sure I’ll find areas of flaw and inadequacy that require a serious dose of divine grace. Thanx

In a pastoral vein, most people who have such vitriol for God or ‘religion’ have themselves had some disillusioning experience, ur welcome to chat with me about it if it would help.
jdrmot@tpg.com.au

ON TOPIC
If we remain in the business of 'power' (us/them) for powers sake,constructive politics will surely die.

Bd, national socialist, good try. Brutal suppression of free speech and worship, give us all a break for once. I have searched through my post and can't find anything that brutally suppresses free speech or worship. But I suppose that you were referring to the freedom to impose religious rantings upon people when you and your ilk feel like it.

Removing religion from the public arena gives everyone a go and as worship is supposed to be a private thing, why shouldn't it be restricted to the home and churches. As I said before, the religious dismiss anything that takes aways their right to annoy and that goes for all god head religion, Jew, muslims and christians.

This is why politics is so evil at this point, and why nothing will be done about it. People are locked into their illusions and refuse to see outside them, until that time we will continue this ever increasing spiral downwards

We even have the current ruling political parties around Australia blatantly and constantly in breach of the countries constitution, yet nothing is done about it. So with the religious politicians in control and the religious zealots fuming against each other, there is little hope, for they are all they same, nothing but lying deceitful windbags.

BD, “most people who have such vitriol for God or ‘religion’ have themselves had some disillusioning experience, “. You just have to look at history and the present world situation to answer your own question. The example you religious have given to the world over the last few thousand years could not be more disillusioning, it is only the weak willed, irresponsible and easily led self righteous that follow the fallacies you represent. Your god must be hanging his head in shame at what his followers are doing to the planet you say he created. But then again, its not you, its someone else, or isn't it.

Boaz, obviously you love regurgitating stuff you have read as it gives you some semblance of intelligence; most people in this country can read right? You just seem to be able to remember much of what you have read; well done, that is a great skill. However, you are obviously a very troubled unit, as you seem to place comments on every article on this forum, which is fine, that is what this forum is all about, but have something to say, you always seem to be void of any original thought…you just dribble duck sprat! Grant it, some comments you make are quite witty, but I am sure that you did not write them, it is obvious you cannot think for yourself. I however did not quote from some dictionary, philosophy manual or some fictional story (bible): I do not need some book to tell me what and how I know my world…your world dude is…well, your world is pie in the sky. Moreover, if you do not want to be insulted, I suggest you refrain from starting the pattern (PUZZLE WILL BE DEAD (2006 signed GOD :)…so, you speak for your god do you? Stop trying to help others and seek some help for yourself ‘matey’!
Seeing as though you like quotes so much…here is one you should take on board: it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle…Now, place your head back where you will find comfort, either the sand or your…you know where. Better still, go outside and get some exercise, enjoy the sun, get of your damn computer man, stop eating cheesy puffs you self-righteous freak and LIVE

PUZZLE.... regurgitating what I've read ? err... don't most of us do that ?
It's not about trying to look intelligent, its about basic 2+2=4 reasoning. If you say "No God" then you immediately remove all but a relativistic approach to moral values. It boils down to 'person A's verses person B's'.... One race's values verses another, one families view verses another... It's essentially saying that there is nothing inherantly 'evil' or wrong about Hitlers 'final solution'..etc.

Speak for God ? u misunderstood.. I was just making a point.

TOPIC. (option 2)

"Fundamentalist religion, based on an unquestionable authority (such as a book) says there is one legitimate way of living, and all else is evil to be fought against and destroyed."

yes.. a good description of Islam, a very bad description of what Christ taught, lived, and died for. The Biblical concept is about a relationship with God which produces a desire to do right.

It is more one of 'yeast in a loaf' people who have turned from a self centred life, turned from corruption(Zacchaeus,The Centurion)and humbly sought forgiveness, and will permeate society, and transform it as occurred during the 300 yrs from Christ to Constantine.

Then, we see 'human politics' in action, using and manipulating religion because it is 'politically advantageous' and we also see the beginnings of all that history records as a blight on Christiandom.

The Christians calling is to be Salt (to preserve) and Light (to illuminate) it is not to be the top dog on the political pile, though in a democracy this is conceivable.

So, there is a forth option, a society which is based on 'any' political system, where people, renewed in Christ 'do for others, as they would have done for them'...when this value permeates, like yeast, the loaf swells and takes on its intended true form.

The Israelites were NEVER meant to have a political king. (who mostly ruled despotically in his own interests) God was meant to be king in their hearts and all segments of society were to experience justice. (within given moral boundaries)