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The Forum > Article Comments > Political seas are changing fast > Comments

Political seas are changing fast : Comments

By Peter McMahon, published 11/8/2006

Global challenges and technology will force change in politics.

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• Alchemist ..."Economic rationalism's designed-to-strangle competition, reducing the populace-to-slaves of corporate-conglomerates hell-bent on-expansion and economic-growth at any-cost. Doesn't anyone-wonder why-we're working-longer with-less-time for anything but corporate dictates-in-every aspect of our lives"... Yeah, due to early goldsmiths created money by writing notes against which they had only-a-fractional reserve.

Thus began banking business, and for a long-time anyone could-become a banker just as easily as he could become-a-grocer or a barber. The large-banks-however, were government chartered. The earliest ones include the Bank-of-Sweden (1656), the Bank-of-England (1694) and the Royal Bank-of-France (1716-1720). They issued bank-notes just as the goldsmiths did, and these printed-notes circulated-nationally, like today's paper-currency.

"If you want to-be the slaves-of-banks and pay the cost-of-your own-slavery, then let the banks create-money"... Josiah Stamp, Governor of the Bank-of-England 1920. Money is the medium which we use to-exchange-goods and services, so whoever controls the issue-of-money is potentially in a very-powerful-position. These facts give an-extra edge-of-topicality to what-in-any case has been already-a-highly controversial records-study of the infamous elders-of-zion.

In a July 1995 interview with Playboy magazine, Jew maverick Mel Gibson said President Bill Clinton was a "low-level opportunist" because someone was "telling him what-to-do". He said he thought Clinton and other politicians who-had-won Rhodes-Scholarships were part of a "stealth" trend-of-Rhodes-scholars becoming-politicians who were striving for a "New-World-Order". He said this was-a-form-of-Marxism and that "Karl-had the right-idea".

During the interview, Gibson also said the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, along with attempt against Ronald Reagan may-have-been related-to-actions, they took regarding the Federal-Reserve. Asked if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded: "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible".

Which brings to mind comatose Sharon (well before) in his hey-day of escalated fascism, quoted to say on Oct 3rd, 2001, to Shimon Peres ..."Every time we do something, you tell me America will do this and will do that, well I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it"!
Posted by Leo Braun, Sunday, 13 August 2006 4:17:05 PM
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Firstly, people are worried about a post-peak oil civilisational collapse, or at least a shake up. Australia should be well positioned to make a transition to bio-diesel or ethanol for instance, with self-sufficiency and exports aplenty (and the Middle East could finally become irrelevant!). I guess it might suck to be in a small, over-populated, cold and cloudy European country, but not here. At some point, other forms of energy to those being used now will be more attractive and viable, and people will use those instead. Maybe the Europeans have a vested interest in the doom and gloom because they realise sunny Brazil and Australia have little to fear.

Secondly, the terms "the market", "neo-liberalism" or "rationalism" get thrown around a lot, but there are a few things to consider. One is that these things are actually diametrically opposed to a notion of oligarchical figures running the show, which leads me into my next point. The market is what people make it. Much like the old adage of people getting the governments they deserve, maybe people get the corporations they deserve too. If jobs are disappearing off shore and the elite really are stealing the shirts off our backs (which I'm neither confirming nor denying), then that's ultimately the failure of individual consumers to take an approach that isn't incredibly short-sighted. Take responsibility. If you don't want a national supermarket chain running the show, then support your local greengrocer (or grow your own food!), but the trade off is that things are more expensive, less convenient, etc. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Don't complain when the bogeyman you got to micromanage your life because you were too lazy then starts micromanaging it too much.

Anyhow, regarding the future of federal politics, I think it's worth noting that a lot of the time, governments lose elections, rather than oppositions winning them, which often means the replacement is even more of a dud, yet still gets in. The ALP may be a joke, but remember what happened to Kennett in Victoria.
Posted by shorbe, Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:34:15 PM
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Hi Shorbe - 2 things. 1, it's not possible replace oil, a massively energy dense substance we're using in massive quantities, with bio-fuels. To understand why, read Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over." Here's a much shortened, pdf booklet version:-
http://www.postcarbon.org/files/EndOfOilBooklet_0.pdf

& here's a link to the book itself:-
http://www.richardheinberg.com/books

& Heinberg will be in Brisbane on 23 Aug, here's a link:-
http://www.brisinst.org.au/calendar/20060823_44.html

Also, we need to understand (and change), the current "Ecology of money." It's bigger than individual choices, as those that benefit from the current system don't WANT change. Check out economist Richard Douthwaite's writings:-
http://www.feasta.org/documents/moneyecology/chapterone.htm

Plus Brisbane economist Richard Sanders:-
http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/brisbane_institute_sanders_sustain.html
Posted by KimB, Monday, 14 August 2006 9:55:32 AM
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Peter, a very neat and compact description of our circumstances. Thankyou. Yet I scry a glimmer of redemption for my grandkids.

How to fashion good governance while minimising the effects of the grosser aspects of human nature is a pretty conundrum. Put a seasoned politician in charge and he will waste no time in making the world a safer place for politicians. Put an economist in charge and he will waste no time in making the world a better place for economists. Put a general in charge and he will naturally compete for precious resources to fashion a more formidable army.

All of these things are being rubbed into our faces, even as we write. In principle, it is as normal and natural as turning one's home into a better haven for the kids. Yet real governance demands that the "governator" sees all men as his brothers and all children as precious as his very own.

Somehow it all seems to get lost in a competitive and confrontational system that favours the ascendancy of those with the most keenly developed sense of self-interest. The outcome is boringly inevitable.

Fundamentalists will point out that this Darwinian system is the inevitable result of being born into this lifespring, yet even Darwin wondered if the purpose of human intellect was to offer evolution the chance to escape it's Archean beginnings.

I wonder if the Internet might be the merest beginning of something that approaches the collective mind, given time and sufficient electricity? I do believe that good governance may yet be something that hasn't entered our minds to conceive.

As Catherine Austin Fitts says, "No-one is smarter than all of us".
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Monday, 14 August 2006 10:41:32 AM
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fdixit wrote "greed and anger are the cause of the world's ills." More fundamentally, the ignorance and delusion which give rise to them. So long as the leaders of society lack wisdom, changes to the form and mechanism of government will have a limited capacity to bring about positive change. Of course, if you want wise leaders, you first have to develop wisdom yourself.
Posted by Faustino, Monday, 14 August 2006 6:13:42 PM
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KimB: I'm not saying that we could continue to live our present lifestyles, but I think we're far from civilisational collapse. Civilisation existed for a long time without oil.

We don't necessarily need all of the tacky plastic crap produced from oil. Likewise with fertilisers and many other products.

Transportation could very easily be solved in a number of ways. Firstly, reduce what we use (or replace it with alternative fuels, public transport, etc.). Secondly and more importantly, all we need to do is be more localised. Rather than travelling ridiculous distances to work or anywhere else, we just need to focus such things at a community level, within walking or cycling distance. Likewise, for a long time in history, people didn't get food from a long way away (and even as recently as a few decades ago, people grew vegetables and fruit, and preserved them, and kept small animals for meat or eggs), or if they did, it was a real luxury. Sure, I miss not eating bananas, but given that I don't live in the tropics, it's ridiculous that I ever ate them to begin with. The trouble is often that people want to eat something from a long way away or something that's out of season, which is why we need so much oil.

The trouble is that in the past century (but especially the past half century), the notion of the city has been anything but self-sufficient or user friendly. This peak oil scenario is only a major issue because we let it be that way.
Posted by shorbe, Monday, 14 August 2006 6:47:08 PM
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