We certainly know which method our current fearless leader prefers, I prefer love, it may be a little more compicated however in my humble opinion the results are worth the effort.

So much for serious thought!

The rhetoric of politicians is not so limited as to be reserved to just one of the deadly sins. There are some pollies who can work through the full seven in one short interview and regularly do just that. To take but one example, what about the intergenerational jealousy that is regularly revived because of its success in hooking the easily led in the community?

Australia needs statesmen who appreciate and live by the seven holy virtues of chastity, abstinence, liberality, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.

Leigh,
Sorry mate, do you also have trouble with the truth. My comments were truthful, so much so that it appears you could not comment yourself.

Never mind mate, you will enjoy the Rudd Labor Government.

“ I prefer love, it may be a little more compicated however in my humble opinion the results are worth the effort.”

I wonder Shonga whether we could have loved Hitler into not persecuting the millions of jews? Maybe if we could have loved Saddam a bit more he wouldn’t have gassed his own people. Slobodan Milosevic could surely have been diverted from his evil ways if we just loved him a little more? This Pollyanna nonsense seems to always come from people who live in the safety and warmth of a democracy which people fought and died for.

“We certainly know which method our current fearless leader prefers”
So the events of 7/7, Madrid, 9/11, Bali (twice), plus all those that were prevented or contained, were figments of our imagination? Bush/Blair/Howard concocted these events to mess with our civil liberties in order to remain in gov’t? What they really want is a police state?

Howard, who I am not a fan of, has a responsibility for our safety. In a world in which the nature of threats to the community has changed so rapidly, it is possible that we are overreacting. It also quite possible that we are under reacting and this was in fact the case for Australia before both WW1 and WW2.Under reacting did not work out well for us then

Its called risk management, something I’m sure the global warming advocates out there would well understand

Sometimes, it is worth reading the stuff before you sneer.

Paul.L wrote:

>>I wonder Shonga whether we could have loved Hitler into not persecuting the millions of jews? Maybe if we could have loved Saddam a bit more he wouldn’t have gassed his own people. Slobodan Milosevic could surely have been diverted from his evil ways if we just loved him a little more?<<

If you look back at the quote, Paul.L, you will find:

"Machiavelli wrote that rulers could control their subjects with either love or fear but fear was simpler"

You see, it is the rulers that are exercising the love/fear, not the subjects. So your mockery of Shonga's preference that our leaders should avoid the path of least resistance and instill fear into the population at every possible turn, falls pretty flat.

It is nothing to do with whether "we" love Hitler or Milosevic or Pol Pot. It is the manner in which our leaders, having been elected by us, decide to treat us.

And I'm with Shonga. The "control by fear" mentality is far too easy. It should not be beyond the wit of our esteemed leaders to treat us less like objects to be controlled, and more like partners in a joint venture.

Except of course, most of them are lawyers. Whose empathy glands are forcibly removed before they are allowed to practice.