"Does the weight of our very existence within the social structure preclude us from even having the time or patience to think about anyone other than ourselves?"

Maybe, Richard, a sketch from Mitchell and Webb all those years ago was on to something...

"Announcer: In the old days you had to think whatever boring old stuff came into your brain. Not any more. From the inventors of the iPhone and the iPod comes the iReckon. The iconic white brain implant that lets you enjoy the thoughts you want in the order that suits you.

Man 1: Making thoughts used to be boring because I'd have to look at stuff and talk to people. Now thanks to some light brain surgery at the Apple Store I can download all my thoughts from the Internet. Just like racists and David Eike.

Man 2: Before the iReckon my thoughts came out one after the other in a repetitive, predictable series and man, that stuff is so analog. It's like I was practically Phileas Fogg or some crap. But now I just kick back on the train with my iReckon on shuffle. It’s mental. One minute I think I'm Jesus. The next I'm the height of a sausage.

Announcer: Select thoughts from hundreds of categories in our online store. Like sad, happy, paranoid and 80s. Thanks to the iReckon you'll never have to confront the eerie silence of the heart of your being, until you're lying terrified on your deathbed.

Man 2: Ace.

Announcer: iReckon from Apple, drowning out the screaming void…"

Hmmm.

There are far less things that bug me really.

Security bugs me. Having to remember so many passwords, having to swipe a card to get into work, childcare, I am defeated to the point of being ready to accept being micro-chipped. The vast vast inconvenience seems out of all proportion to the actual risk it is trying to ameliorate.

The other thing is the waste. There is so much waste everywhere I go. We all have so much money, so much. We tear down working houses, and erect a new one. Kitchens, bathrooms, Shopping centres. I see so much stuff on the side of the road for council cleanup. So much melemine. A sea of melamine. There is also the waste of someone's life, their employ, to take my tax dollars only to give it back in another form. When 70% of the population needs an accountant just to do their tax there is something hugely wrong.

Oh, and people getting other people to wash their cars. When did it become a normal thing to do to sit and eat and have coffee and watch someone hand wash your car in Australia.

Thirdly, the noise. The hyperbole, the lack of all sense of proportion. I long for quiet understatement, measured debate. A world where a bit of dry sarcasm is appreciated from someone other than a Yorkshire-man. Where the word crisis is reserved for a crisis, sexism differs to misogyny, people are disappointed rather than devastated and gutted, where someone can say something without worrying about the outrage machine of the hungry beast.

Look on the bright side. Phone plans have become much more simple and transparent in the last few years!

Hi Richard,

This is rationalism.

It only takes 10-15 minutes every 3 years ,to use the preferential system and number on the Senate ballot paper the 110 candidates below the line .
Not a big ask compared to having half one's face or ovaries blown-off in Afghanistan.

By doing this , you can send the only message to the major parties, that they respect .

Every major problem we face from housing, university funding, child neglect, jails, environment, manufacturing collapse, casualization of the workforce, selling public assets, massive public/private borrowings, traffic chaos, growing poverty, social security blow-outs.....(.very happy to dialogue the back stories on all this)...is made catastrophically worse by one design blunder..................POPULATION GROWTH .

By preferencing the STABLE POPULATION PARTY first, then your major party second ( after that, just do the numbering because it won't matter ), we have a chance to turn the place around.

The positive message is that we have designed the mess in, so we can design it out .

Very best Richard ,

Ralph

An Israeli official ( who must remain anonymous) is insisting that their experts in wire tapping (who cannot be named ) intercepted a conversation (just how, they cannot say) proving Assad is behind the recent chemical weapons attack on women and children.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fiveisraelis.html
And if you can't trust the Israelis, who can you trust?

**3 more attacks
SYRIA demands investigation

The Syrian government is demanding that the United Nations immediately investigate three alleged chemical attacks carried out by rebel groups on the outskirts of Damascus last week, Syria’s envoy to the UN said.

Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said he had requested UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the team of experts currently in Damascus investigating an alleged use of chemical weapons last week also investigate these other attacks.

The attacks took place on August 22, 24 and 25 in Jobar, Sahnaya, and al-Bahariya, Bashar Jaafari told journalists Wednesday. The “militants” used toxic chemical gas against the Syrian army,

http://rt.com/news/syria-investigate-un-chemical-116/

[re the fauix march..the in-crowd own..it all
via a toxic fiatised lie..toxic money

http://12160.info/video/author-ron-macdonald-they-own-it-all-including-you-by-means-of?xg_source=activity

the other march..to war
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/the-neocon-march-on-damascus/63717/

the old rummy..talking of 911..secretly recorded
Rumsfeld On Tape..Terror Attack Could Restore Neo-Con Agenda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oLuTQEL3ec

we are still marching on Saturday
as most of us got two jobs..yet no fear
http://intellihub.com/2013/08/27/war-syria-rallies-happening-saturday-august-31-worldwide/

no war powers ..mr president
http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/14746-no-the-war-powers-act-does-not-authorize-unilateral-executive-preemptive-military-act

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-syria-crisis-israel-defences-idUSBRE97R0MQ20130828

Hell Richard, I already have to manage my anxiety and you're not helping.

Yes politics has been demeaned by the game of mocking and wrecking the opponent; bad situation. The Media and primarily Murdoch with his 2/3 monopoly on paper media (I wont use the word NEWS paper) is to blame for much of this. Government was too gutless to implement Finkelstein Report, which had the logical answers to cleaning up the corrupt press monopoly.

But let's look on the bright side. We have the internet with many excellent news sites such as Crikey, Business Spectator, Renew Economy, Climate Spectator, The Conversation, Guardian Australia etc.
Spread / tweet / blog the truth. We have this site, which in spite of the trolls gives us free speech. Keep pushing for regulation for a fair press; the current corrupt press is self destructing; ignore their propaganda and don't buy their rags.

And we still have a working democracy with some very fine politicians who work hard for us (as well as the muck smearers and do-nothings).We have to earn our democracy; discern the ne're do wells and vote in candidates with integrity.

Also couple of corrections Richard:

Fact 1 - We had a carbon tax for 3 years (it has been effective and has not adversely affected the economy); to lead into a carbon pricing scheme that Labor and previously Liberal supported. So please get over the 'Juliar' nonsense that the corrupt media inflamed and apparently you've fallen for too.

Fact2 - Australia has the 4th lowest petrol prices of the 28 OECD countries(google Australian Institute of Petroleum). Won't find that in the mainstream press.

PS Houellebecq, agree with your lament about waste Our cheap petrol prices are a big reason for Australians being chronic wasters of fuel.