Mr. Davies

Thank you, for your article and thanks to the ones who have so far commented on it.

I was born in 1925, in Italy. Fascism left some marks on my body and soul.

Like you, I have been prisoner of a political discourse, conducted mainly within myself, to which I could have given the whole of my lifetime without reaching any conclusion.

A few sincere, dedicated, articulate of my friends took to politics and some succeeded.

Now I am still around. They died, disappointed.

It was in mourning their death that I was able to discover the reasons for their defeat.

The levers of power they operated failed in having the mechanism respond.

The rigid structure of that mechanism, The ‘State’, frustrated the effort of those honest men.

‘The State’ as bureaucratic structure for administering the wealth of the planet is tardy, rusty and in itself inhuman and cannot but disregard the most fundamental of aspiration; Justice.

Posted by Geoff Davies, Wednesday, 12 May 2010 10:50:11 AM
Let me be very clear, I do not propose a return to socialism. What I lament is the loss of a party that cared for ordinary people, rather than sucking up to the money power.

Geoff I am simpatico with your expectations of the Labor party, and why not. The Labor party traditionally has had a humanitarian impact on our society with pro plebian legislations. The other lot looks at the plebs as a commodity, and now modern Labor also see the plebs as a means to an end rather than the destination of their means. How do we find a voice for "us" in the system, vote independent? Our chance of getting some chaff with the wheat is still there... but we’ve got a load of chaff mixed in right now, on both sides. Independents do not have to toe party lines. So the autonomy to make decisions based on what the electorate wants rather than payback policy for vested interests would be a pleasant change from the status quo.

Formersnag,

Your post adds nothing to the debate. Other than telling us that you went to the Labour Day March. Then producing some useless statistic of yours, straight out of your head, the 1%-2%, why not just say 99% of people agree with you. Then there was that childish rubbish about what does ALP stand for, some silly acronyms. To cap it off you point us in the direction of the politically irrelevant Campbell;s AFP, DLP and Democrats. Your time may be better spent staying at home and playing in the sand pit with the Acronymins, Mr Campbell and his mob, DLP and Demo members.

Chris I must take you to task on your post:
"Yes, the Greens and others are an alternative. Sort of makes a joke about people being concerned about Labor changing over the years. Just vote for another party as many in Britain just did with liberal democrats.
But, if the Greens ever get power, they will also change. It is easy to offer different policies from the sidelines, although they do help temper legislation fortunately from the opportunities created by proportional voting in the Senate.
Look what happened to the Democrats once they sought to become a more middle-of-the-road party. Those looking for difference abandoned them."

Yes it is easy to make policy from the sidelines, to a degree, but if you are putting yourself up as a real alternative, then your policy has to be creditable, constructive and well though out. Once in power there will be some change, that's inevitable not having experienced the constraints of government, but that does not mean you compromise your basic principals, you stay with your party policy, after all that's what got you there in the first place and make change from within.
Please do not compare the Greens with the Democrats. Greens in the main are far more committed and far more idealistic than Democrats ever were, their problem was they were too middle of the road, you just can't be all things for all men, like it or not you have to take a stand. There are those in the Greens who truly want to make a difference, I don't think that kind of person was in the Democrats, or if they were they soon left.

Geoff,
It will only take a leader to restore your lost hope. Poor old Kevin has fallen victim to his own cleverness. He has tried to out smart everyone and in the end managed to do nothing at all.
I agree with you that so many of the values we had as a society have left us. I used to cringe when i heard John Howard talk about the Australian way. I can not imagine us being less Australian than we are at the moment.
We are suffering the "greed is good" generation and unfortunately there are a lot of baby boomers. We seem to believe that we have the right to buy a house and rather than pay it off over 20 - 30 years it should appreciate by 10% a year so that it will give use a lotto win in retirement. We plunge massive amounts into superannuation and then wonder why the stock market is artificially high and we loose money at their gaming tables every time there's a bust.
Our nation was founded by the hard labour of convicts, forged by rebellions like Eureka and characterised by the mateship and guts of the ANZACs. Now it is whittled away by the greed and selfishness of a higher and higher standard of living.
I keep repeating this statement. "Standard of living is not quality of life".

Geoff, << And Spindoc I’m talking about much more than global warming, though that is the one that is likely to bring us down soonest, despite your colourful characterisations. You can’t last long depleting your soils, wasting and polluting your water, raising obese and cognitively deprived children, etc. etc. >> Can’t believe you said that. Yuck!

So when are you going to debate the rest of my post?

I have a PhD in Emotive Rhetoric and it is no substitute for absenting yourself from the debate you started.