Believe it or not this site cheers me up when I'm down, when I read the meanderings of an old man with obvious paronoia, living in the late 70's quoting Thacherism, talking of compassion, as if he knew what it was, and espousing theories like "This is what "we" mean by a moral society" using the royal "we" as if he were someone, instead of doing a job classified as distrusted second only to second hand car salespeople.

Politics James is supposed to mirror the aspirations of the majority, instead we have "Worhchoices" [no choice] forcing the employee's wage down, which would be fair enough if it forced the average C.E.O's million dollar salary down to a respectable level.

Paul Keating showed us how easily statistics could be manipulated to say whatever the current Government wanted them to say, a decade on nothing has changed, every Australian is supposed to be worth $310,000 so says the latest stats, if this is the case the Packer or Stokes family must have our families share of that amount.

We are in a greed is more important than need timeframe, the rich refuse to pay their fair share of tax, so there is only one avenue left to Government, the resources companies, who cannot dig up coal, uranium, iron ore etc anywhere else, so are a captive taxpayer, especially when the public provide infastructure at our expense to accomodate them, surely they should be made to pay their share of tax. Sadly our Government seems to sell "the jobs" they provide as some sort of justification for all the taxation discounts they enjoy.

Don't get me wrong, if people elect a "big business" Government they deserve all that they get, or don't get, as the case may be. Positive politics in the end is a pipedream, from one living in Fantasyland, those of us who do not reside there deal with reality, as hash and as cruel as it is, and see James and Khemer as storytellers much in the same vien as Hans Christian Anderson.

I have always believed that Right and Left referred to a way of thinking and processing information.

The Right are more visual spacial, they tend to be more creative and intelligent and need to see a big picture before they can fill in the blanks - they learn by experience and learn by trial and error.

The Left are Audio Sequential, they tend to do things by the book. The left believe that they need Policies and rules - they learn by hearing and memorising. Many left thinkers believe that just having a Policy on something is going to make a difference. They dont learn by trial and error. They dont actually appear to learn at all. They just have more enquiries and write more Policies.

Alchemist, good post. I agree with most of it.

“Until we have a totally new political system different from those presently in use throughout the world, we can only look forward to more social and environmental grief.”

No I don’t think so. Things are pretty well under control in Switzerland and Scandinavia, with similar political systems. The huge factor that makes them so different is that they don’t have massive growth (in population or economy) and have no expectation of getting it. They HAVE to deal with more or less steady state regimes.

With the various things that you mention that would greatly reduce the ties between big business and government and increase power to the people, we could vastly improve the existing system.

The really big problem is weaning ourselves off the absolute absurdity of rapid continuous growth, and growth that feeds itself in a spiral, which is rampantly promoted by the business sector and unscrupulous politicians (the rampant push for greater population growth in order to spur economic growth, which is then necessary to maintain the same standard of living for the ever-larger population, with no average per-capita gain, but big profits for a few already rich and powerful people). If we can’t address this, then forget the rest.

The trouble is, the enormous powers that rule our society are vested-interest and profit-driven and will vehemently resist implementing political measures that break down the ties between big business and government or move power more towards the populace.

Overall, I don’t think we can do it. Unfortunately, I agree; “Change will only come after a total society collapse”

Alchemist, Ludwig

It is beginning to look as though unregulated capitalism will eat itself.

Despite there being potential profits in sustainable industry, as market values continue to replace moral values there is little incentive for government/big business to aim for steady, sustainable and responsible growth.

The IR reforms were just another step towards global corporatisation and at present it looks like the only way it halt is with societal and environmental collapse.

Sorry to be so negative, but I think you may well be right.
:-(

Jolanda

With all due respect, I think you may have confused left and right brain function with political inclination. While some people's intellectual abilities may be dominated by either right or left hemisphere this plays no part in whether a person is conservative or radical in their political beliefs.

For example, many artists tend to be "right brained", yet hold left-wing views politically.

Thanks Ludwig, it is good to see that some can see past the illusions our world is dominated by.

However regarding, “Things are pretty well under control in Switzerland and Scandinavia, with similar political systems.” I hate to disappoint you, but that's not the case. In the last few years rape by non born Swedish residents (read muslim), has tripled. Rape involving children under the age of 15 have increased six fold, all by muslims. 9 out of the 10 most criminal ethnic groups in Sweden are Muslims . Street violence of all kinds is soaring on a national level.

9 out of the 10 most criminal ethnic groups in Sweden are Muslims.

A trend known from other European countries such as France, where Muslims make up 10% of the general population, but 70% of the prison population.

This is a fast growing problem in all European countries. My friends keep me informed, reading the various English newspapers, Aftenposten The Local Copenhagen Post Watch Stockholm Spectator Enough! Tundra Tabloids shows you that there no place left that's not faced with religious cultural chaos.

Sadly those who follow monotheistic religions, are hell bend on destroying everything, in their ambition to have their despotic beliefs take control. Those that control PC politics can only see their growing power and wealth, yet they fail to see that they are being used by the very thing things they support, that will destroy them as well, monotheistic religions.

You are so right Scout, it will be survival of those that choose to prepare, mentally, not physically.

Jolanda, I admire your attempt, but if right wing people are thinkers, how come they are leading us down the same path as the left. Could it be that both sides are just inadequate mental concepts, with no real relevance, except the despair they both cause.

One of the particularly disgusting aspects of our current system, which has got to be viewed in the most negative manner possible, is the federal ‘compulsory preferential’ voting system. It means that for a significant proportion of voters, their vote ends up counting where they had no intention of it counting! It is unbelievable, and yet over the years it has remained unrecognised by most voters and practically unpublicised.

For example, if you really didn’t want to vote for either Labor or Liberal, and you put them last and second last on your ballot paper, in the vast majority of cases preferences would filter down until they counted for whichever party you put second last.

This is a million miles away from democracy. What it amounts to is massive vote-rigging. There should be no way in the world that your vote can end up counting for a party/candidate that you specifically did not vote for!!

There is no reason why the optional preferential system that we have at state government level can’t apply in federal elections.

Woops - of course, there is a very good reason; to keep the two-party system entrenched and keep the minor parties, well, minor. How on earth the populace can allow this sort of thing to exist is beyond me! No, it’s not cynical, just the straightforward truth.

This is a very significant factor in keeping the entrenched pro-growth anti-sustainability major parties, well, entrenched.