Just found out about tribalism, have we? It's nothing new, and most people don't need some obscure academic to tell them that. Tribalism is a basic human instinct. That's what makes enforced multiculturalism so stupid - it has added even more tribes, each pushing its interests and to hell with all the other tribes. The politicians love it; the fractured tribes are played off against each other for ease of control. Of course they don't do anything for the country. They don't have to, as long as they throw crumbs to the tribes every now and again. Western nation states were successful in the past because they were homogeneous. In Australia's case Anglo-Saxon - one big tribe. Now we have the dying old tribe that created and preserved, an Indian tribe (itself broken up into Hindu and Sikh), Arab tribes, Sudanese tribes, Ethiopian tribes, Vietnamese tribes, Chinese tribes and probably more minor odds and sods the politicians have slipped in without our permission. Australia because of self-inflicted, multi-tribalism, is rooted.

Good call Peter or rather the quoted Professor!

How can we do it better?

Well we need to restore integrity to the electoral contest, even if that requires the covert placement of unbeatable space age lie detectors at the pre election debates and in OUR houses of parliament.

OURS, BECAUSE WE TAXPAYERS BUILT AND PAID FOR THEM AND INDEED THE SALARIES, EXPENSE ACCOUNTS AND SELF REWARDED ENTITLEMENTS THESE TRIBAL WARRIORS (OUR ALLEGED SERVANTS) HAVE BLESSED THEMSELVES WITH!

We need to eliminate/outlaw non core or unaffordable promises (blatant pork pies) both sides of politics use to buy votes!

And only doable by the roll out of integrity guaranteeing covertly deployed, unbeatable space age lie detection equipment! Arguably and sadly, the only way anyone can guarantee the (unscrupulous) motor mouth laying out a case for election/reelection isn't being too economical with the truth!

Apart from the restoration of integrity and honour, plus the visionary quality candidates that would force the major parties to find and promote! We also need to restore respect!

A good start would be to outlaw the self promoting Dorothea Dix's and replace them with a repectfulling listening and relevance when asked to account for spending or decisions! Een if that requires far more question placed on notice with the requested information supplied verbally and on accompanying paper!

Pork barreling for electoral support must be also eliminated/outlawed, or if not, then the type of candidate who thinks this rubbish and waste of taxpayer funds, ought be acceptable on the part of taxpayer servants/employees!
Alan B.

> How can we get politicians to sit down together and collectively decide what is in the best interests of the people of this country?
By having more crossbenchers so that the tribes can't do anything by themselves.

____________________________________________________________________________________

ttbn,
Footy trumps ethnicity. GO CROWS!

Further comment. Our adversarial politics, courtrooms and institutions create much of this TRIBALISM and the (control freak) advocates that agree with it!

Imagine the political contest was a winner take all contest of ideas that entirely eliminated the loser for the entirety of the next term!

Meaning, our houses of parliament would be populated for a fixed term by only the winners, who'd have unfettered ability to implement their entire policy paradigm!?

Doable, given the diversity of passionately held opinion/genuine opposiion in every party room!

And a senate or higher house with the power of veto!

Even so, much of the roadblocks in the path of progress and or visionary outcomes, would be removed and quality candidates with the power of compelling, rational, logical oratory, would carry the day!

Then live or die electorally by how well those outcomes were accepted by their employer, the voting public/taxpers.

And kept honest by a press with guaranteed whistleblower protection and absolute, protected in law, freedom to investigate and report.

Moreover, supported in that endeavour by covertly deployed space age lie detection equipment!

Which would also serve to out the fifth column and seventh enemies, hiding in plain sight amongst us!

Who wouldn't want that?

Arguably, the briefly aforementioned fifth column or progress destroying seventh enemies?

All of who, would self identify by being the most vociferous in their opposition to or condemnation of the proposed progressive massive money saving (35 plus annual billions) change?

Better spent elsewhere! And plenty of currently unfundable options!

Affordable housing, rapid rail, overdue decentralization, affordable carbon free energy, deionization dialysis desalination, deserts made to bloom etc/etc/etc.
Alan B.

But politics has always been driven by competing tribalisms both here in Australia and all over the world.
And those on the "conservative" or right-wing side of the culture wars divide, including ALL of the usual "religious" suspects are very much into playing and aggravating that "game" too

The words tribe and tribalism are featured in the Title and the references numbers: 1-3, 1-6, 1-7, 1-18, 1-20, 1-31, 1-33, 1-40, 1-53, 2-2, 2-11, 2-37, 2-38, 2-39, 3-8, 4-22, 4-35, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, 7-7, 7-9 on this site: http://www.dabase.org/not2p1.htm

Imagine if we had laws that outlawed invective and aggressive behavior in all public discourse And where the most abusive thing you could say to an ideological aversary was you're a simpleton Moriarty?

This would trim the tail feathers of the control freak element that tend to dominate inside closed shop debates and allow those with the progressive ideas to put them, without being howled down by the usual (regression personified) control freaks and liars!?

Not for nothing is it writ large know the truth and the truth will set you free!

Imagine our courtrooms and places of public debate equipped with covertly deployed space age lie detectors and a climate where only the verifiable facts (TRUTH) mattered? Rather than simply winning!

It would change almost every institution and force those who live on their wits/deception to go do something else and somewhere else!

Who needs them and the mountains of BS they create and the damage they and their habits, leave in their wake and in every facet of life, be it on a footy field, construction site, boardroom, courtroom or legislature!
Alan B.

marxist are the most violent and predominant tribe in the west. They have infiltrated and virtually overtaken academia, abc/sbs, fairfax, education system and politics. Thank God Trump treats them with the contempt they deserve. Many politicians here know the damage of the marxist but have proven to be gutless to take the punches in order to expose their sick agenda which has been destroying families and our nation for decades.

runner,
>marxist are the most violent and predominant tribe in the west.
Really? I can't think of any 21st century examples of Marxist tribal violence in the west, barring the tail end of a few long running conflicts with significant violence on both sides. Have I overlooked something important?

//Have I overlooked something important?//

Yeah, you've overlooked the fact that runner considers anybody to the left of Torquemada to automatically be a Marxist, regardless of whether or not they have read any his work or agree with his ideas. Nobody knows why.

>Have I overlooked something important?<

Well given runner's endless hate speech and broken record rhetoric that simply glosses over, or ignores the compelling or proven evidence?

And rarely on topic, but, I believe, just uses OLO as his personal platform to promulgate his very strange, hateful, non christian views!

Jesus allegedly said love thy neighbour, turn the other cheek, he who lives by the sword dies by the sword, be the good samaritan, etc/etc.

runner invariably and consistently spews hate speech like verbal vomit!

Manure for brains perhaps!?
Alan B.

Toni Lavis

I think runner, as a subject matter, is actually confusing and not confused.

Runner is straight forward in his thinking and belief pattern.

Using his stand on abortion for example, could be argued as left leaning. It is traditional to believe anti abortion is a conservative trait, but a stand for anti abortion, is a stand for pro life:
Pro life is just another of the multitude of the “rights movements”, and left wing
liberal thinking.

Given pro-lifers also countenance euthanasia which is assisted suicide? Hard to claim to be pro-lifer!?

Stranger still is an anti gun lobby, where human life is allegedly sacrosanct? For who abortion on demand is just routine as is alleged, voluntary euthanasia?

And going ballistic or into orbit over the proscribed use of semi auto weapons by farmers/grazers!

Claiming as they all invariably do, that you only need a bolt action single shot to exterminate vermin, like the cunning wild dogs that hunt in packs and kill cute wee lambs for sport or fun?

And feral deer that can run for a mile with bullet in the heart or twenty, with one in the liver!

There's the case for a semi auto right there and the need to put two rapid fire rounds into the torso and one into the head of a beast brought down by the first two! And when they need to be eliminated at rates that include a hundred plus a day! Almost impossible to bait tree foragers like camels and goats!

As for packs as cunning as wild dogs, they rarely venture into range and when they do, a thirty round mag and a seven millimetre magnum semi auto, equipped with a scope and laser point aiming, may not be sufficient.

Even in an experienced and accurate markman's hands. Let alone from the back of a bucking ute! And sometimes the only way to get into range of the aforementioned or wild pigs, with their potential foot and mouth.

Many now too smart to take the baits laid out for them which instead take native species as often widespread collateral damage! Well done!

Particularly all we've ever needed was to keep guns out of mentally defective hands! Not conservationists like professional hunters!
Alan B.

Aiden

Antifa. The biggest facist tribe on the planet.

//The biggest facist tribe on the planet.//

Hang on, I thought we were talking about Marxists, not fascists.

Tony,

Fascists and Marxists are two faces of the same beast.

//Fascists and Marxists are two faces of the same beast.//

Marxists are adherents of the ideas of German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883). From what I understand he wrote a lot of twaddle about politics and economics, which I've never bothered to read because it sounds terribly dull.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism

Fascism is a political ideology that emerged in Italy during the early part of the 20th century, before spreading to other European nations. As far as I know it was not inspired by Marxism. It would very much surprise me to learn that it was, given that a key defining feature of Fascism is its implacable animosity towards communism, which is not at all what one typically expects of Marxists who are traditionally quite pro-communist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Hope that's cleared up any confusion for you, old chap.

Oh, and for heaven's sake sort out your spelling, Shadow. I feel embarassed on your behalf every time you repeat your mistake, because you generally seem quite intelligent... and it can't be that hard to accurately abbreviate Antonio, can it?

How many y's are there in a-n-T-O-N-I-o, Shadow?

Fascism? Adherents when politically convenient, to extreme right wing ideology. And may include the religious right, white supremacists, southern rednecks, intolerant book burning Nazis, the KKK and the brain dead? Runner and his alter ego Diver are in good company?

Marxism? Proposed a world wide worker's revolution, only to be stymied by the onset of the industrial revolution and better working conditions and wages? Even so broadly accept core philosophy by extreme left wing, early communists like Lenin, Who used, then got rid of the socialists element, i.e., Labor.

And eventually replaced by the very worst butcher and mass murder of his own people, Starlin. Who is credited with murdering or disappearing, more Russians than those killed in WW11!

Marxism and Fascism are hardly two sides of the same coin and poles apart as moribund ideologies, with absolutely nothing in common!

And have absolutely nothing in common with the moderate middle or rational common sense. And like the rest of the brainwashed from birth ideologies, never ever allow the fats/truth or compelling evidence to sway their views or change their minds on anything! NEVER! And able to go to war over those views or conditioned responses? TBC.
Alan B.

Hitler inspired Nazi Fascism. And needed a minority to blame for Germany's myriad problems!

He settled on the Jews because they were an easily targeted minority. After that he burnt books and butchered many who wrote them, then eliminated freedom of the press!

And history now repeating itself in Russia, Turkey And Cambodia, just to mention a few examples where history seems to be repeating itself?

The Turkish tyrant has the Kurds and Donald has Muslims and "fake new". And essential to divert public opinion away from the facts/truth.

Hitler wasn't very bright and decided he had enough technological edge to prosecute a war.

He stated with Russia as an ally even though they were poles apart politically! But turned on them before he had fully consolidated his earlier conquests.

Imagine how different the outcome could have been, if he'd been smart enough to wait until after he'd perfected his new super weapons and nuclear technology?

As seems to be the current case for a sabre rattling Putin who could easily threaten/conquer America's allies without going to war with the USA, who would sit on their hands? Thundering mightily at the dispatch box, how mighty they were, all while throwing former allies under a Russian bus?

And only possible because those allies were/would be caught with their proverbial trousers down around their ankles, in terms of defense preparedness! The russian fleet has already practised in the Indian ocean while we thundered at the dispatch box!

Putin has it would seem, singled out Muslims and homosexuals for special treatment And silenced the press and any sign of internal dissent? The west has financed most of this through their purchase of energy products from Russia!

And even now at 12 minutes to midnight, resolutely resists alternative, self sufficient energy and subsequent released billions able to be deployed into defense prepared readiness!

Why? Because Patriotism if not complete dead in this diabolically divided country, is comatose and teetering on the brink! But particularly, at the top!
Alan B.

I doubt that Barnaby Joyce is the first politician to end up in bed with a staffer, or to arrange a promotion for that staffer. Anyone naïve enough to think differently needs to stop voting and pay the fine. I am sure that most Liberal Party politicians know of Labor Party politician who have done everything Barnaby has done and now lecture others from a position of presumed moral superiority.

@Allen

Many people believe that people at each end of the political spectrum have more in common with each other than you might think. This theory of politics in known as the horseshoe theory.

I agree that Runner often seems angry. I don't think that accusing him of having manure for brains makes you much better.

Antonio (Berlusconi?)

I am fully aware of the founding principles of Fascism and Marxism and never claimed that were identical. The reality is that in spite of significant differences in founding doctrines, the end results in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia produced far more likenesses than differences, and both of them were more close to each other than to the democracies.

Both were socialist economies closely controlled by the state, led by dictators who ruthlessly butchered any that dissented. The main difference being the level of state ownership of production. Communist China is more aligned with Nazi Germany than communist Russia.

Similarly, ANTIFA, while claiming to be anti-fascist use the same tactics as the brown-shirted thugs to close down free speech.

I am extremely disappointed with you lot. I said at the end that I did not know how to end the tribes fighting on the floor of parliament; instead of sitting down and trying to workout together what was the best answer for the Australian people. I set out three possibilities

Is it discontinuing question time on television? Is it abandoning party discipline entirely?
Is it legislating only after the decision is made by joint parliamentary committees?

Nobody had any suggestions. All you were concerned with was making your own points.Try please this time.

Peter Bo

>Nobody had any suggestions
PeterBo, why do you regard me as nobody?

Here's one the maggots (women) will choke over. I overheard a conversation recently, in which one of the group said, 'have any of you seen the numbers on the comparison of the number of women and their gradual increase in parliament, and some of the decisions and laws enacted in the same time and rate. What he was suggesting was that as the number of women increased in parliament so did the stupid and frivolous laws. Quoting the queer law and others. I was not privy to the conversation and did not try to eavesdrop, so I did not get the other examples. So, I thought, someone has bothered to do a study and research into another useless topic. But then I began to wonder what if there was something to this, as I have been dissatisfied with many of the decisions the govt has been making for quite some years. Added to that, every time I heard someone say we need more women in govt, I would cringe. Why? Have we run out if men. It then became obvious, we are hiring on PC grounds not ability and experience. Now I could see where and why we are slowly failing. There are some parallels in the comment. Maybe someone will look into it, and not cherry pick data.

'I agree that Runner often seems angry'

Oh dear oh dear meanwhile we have Hillary lovers rioting, spitting on people, committing acts vandalism, stopping traffic and Runner is the angry one. You guys are either totally deceived or totally ignorant.

Quote" Tribalism is a basic human instinct. That's what makes enforced multiculturalism so stupid - it has added even more tribes, each pushing its interests and to hell with all the other tribes. The politicians love it; the fractured tribes are played off against each other for ease of control. Of course they don't do anything for the country. Unquote"

Now you know why a very small but very powerful mid eastern country wants more and more 'tribal wreckers' shipped into Australia and other western nations.

Their goal is to destroy our herd identity, culture, religion, values, national pride and traditions. Why? because a country like Israel which has a very strong sense of national pride, national identity, values, culture and traditions and a very strong sense of its own future will not surrender their Sovereignty easily. In fact they will fight to the death to preserve it.

A country full of bitza's, bits of this, bits of that, who are religiously divided, who have no easily identified sense of national pride, national identity, traditions etc, will have no sense of its own future and will not believe in anything and will not fight for anything.

Such a country will surrender its sovereignty with barely a whimper.

Sweden is a classic example. IMO they already capitulated and surrendered their national sovereignty to the 'tribal wreckers' imported for the purpose. - Get the idea?