Narcissist - if man can put man on the moon - he can sure as hell get food to the starving on this planet. It is not a lack of roads (or transport generally), its a lcak of political will or caring.

I have admired Tomlinson's work on the "Band-Aid" social welfare system - I was introduced to his thought by a friend who studied under him. In particular, I agree with his view that a Guaranteed Minimum Income is necessary - see http://www.basicincome.qut.edu.au/ where a lot of his work is stored.

But I disagree with this piece.

Sadaam was a fascist. Simple as that. I am glad he was overthrown, and so are most of the Iraqi people. The terrorists who attack both US soldiers and Iraqi civilians refused to take part in elections, because they knew they had almost no support amongst the Iraqi people. I hope they are crushed.

Everyone talks about how the Iraq war was about oil.

Why did the evil USA not just do a squalid little deal with Sadaam to get oil? Why did they dissolve the Ba'ath Party (Sadaam's fascists) in Iraq? Why did they support elections that have led to a moderate Islamist government?

Tomlinson talks about "Australia’s involvement in the 11-year blockade of Iraq that led to the deaths of 6,000 Iraqi children each month.".

That would be the blockade that went on for every single day of the Clinton administration? The blockade that Bush has now made unnecessary?

Fascists should be overthrown. Let's hope Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be the next to go.

David Jackmanson
http://www.letstakeover.blogspot.com

What is the pseudo-Left?
http://www.lastsuperpower.net/disc/members/568578247191

You are a wise and compassionate man John. Thank you for this piece. By not looking at today's world through the lens of history, but through the lens of one's own present day heart, you speak the common sense so sadly lacking in much that is called 'information' these days.

Persuasion is merely the leveraging of force. Peoples minds/rationalisations may be changed by sweet words, but it is the blunt force of the State or Markets that actually changes behaviours. When was the last time persuasion alone created enduring change, unsupported by price or regulatory signals?

Ditto on what plantagenet wrote, nation States have always and will always be far greater killers than terrorists/insurgents, as is being demonstrated currently by israeli/lebanese and us/iraqi fatalities. May god, and our children, have mercy on our souls

Crime Prevention strategies would become useful and we would go a long way futher if they, the policy makers and their enforcers understood the paradigm you promote here John

Tops for this article - and especially the reminder where you say; "We know that people who can be persuaded are far more likely to comply in the absence of the authority figure than those who, though unconvinced, can be forced to comply in the presence of a figure of authority."

But where does that leave us -

Without better efforts in communication - without the engagement of pro-active empathetic listening - a will to understand and more room to participate .... we are....?

..... unjustly - repeating history perhaps? This is at the cost of human life .... see http://www.miacat.com/Media_Pan_One/UN_Forum_News/DPI-NGO_Evans_8ix05.htm

When it comes to "non-violent direct action".... I agree " “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty” and I just wish Australians and especially Queenslanders would do more to be heard when it comes to being outspoken on the need to protect our democratic, civic, human rights.

I agree that we are not as free as we may feel we are, until there is more done to protect what we have NOW... given the past few years locally, and the impact of world events.

See "Collective Securities" other notes - http://www.miacat.com/

And I ask anyone with more information to please tell me as I would like to do more around this topic ie: build a reference page of links on the surrounding discussions on "collective security" and issues at both local and global levels.

This raises a very interesting issue. If the notion that, "if injustice becomes law then resistance becomes a duty" then the farming community of Australia has every right to start making truck bombs and torching national parks.

Injustice has become law under the vegetation management laws. These have been justified on grossly exagerated need with no consideration of the rate of new forest regrowth that compensates for land clearing, and no distinction between removal of young regrowth from existing paddocks, the majority, and actual forest removal, the minority. And this has enabled the enactment of disproportionate measures with disproportionate sanctions.

These laws have also been deliberately drafted to avoid core principles of justice and equity like,innocent until proven guilty, the right to remain silent, defence of innocent mistake of fact and defence of bona fide claim of right.

So cases that do involve bona fide claims of right are brought before ordinary Magistrates Courts when, for every other instance, a magistrate must oust himself from such cases to ensure that they are heard by an appropriate higher court. And this, in itself leads to gross injustice because vegetation cases can cost well in excess of $150,000 to defend but, even if the defendant were to win, the maximum scheduled costs that can be awarded are in the order of only $6,000. In one case this was barely enough to cover the cost of the required number of photocopies of relevant documents.

And all one can conclude from all this is that the majority urban public who have either approved these measures, or condoned them by their silence, should feel very fortunate that this scale of injustice has been visited on a such a stable, law abiding and above all, patient minority as our farming community.

But if they ever start to lose that patience, if they see too many of their neighbours taken down on bogus science by predatory governance then, as the old Dylan song goes, "it aint no use to sit and wonder why, babe. If you don't know by now".