Dear Paul,

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

cont'd ...

I think our politicians should be accountable for
their behaviour. And I found both Lidia Thorpe
and Ralph Babet used inflammatory and divisive
comments both inside and outside the chamber.

Hi Foxy,

We can disagree on this, there is nothing wrong with that, if we were all to agree on everything then that could in itself be far worse than having diverse opinions. If you read into Indy's opinion;

"People need to make up their mind if they want a Democracy or free speech which includes blatant lying that favours minority groups!"

What that tells me is this bloke simply sees democracy as nothing more than a regimented state of compliant citizens. Something the fascists Mussolini believed was the ideal. Everyone who disagrees with state edicts is telling blatant lies, and therefore are disloyal and attempting to undermine the good of the state, and must be dealt with severely. Guys like Indy are very strong on punishment for disloyalty to what he sees as the rights of the state over the individual.

.

Dear Foxy & Paul,

.

I see freedom as the concomitance of possibility, capability, desire, will, and opportunity. When the green lights are shining on all five of those factors, we can think, express, and act freely. Just one red light is sufficient to prevent freedom.

Nature, nurture, culture, and society all attempt to impose constraints on our freedom. The first three plant internal (moral) constraints and the fourth, external (physical) constraints.

But freedom is no guarantee of the success of our endeavours.

Tom Crooks, who tried to kill Trump in Pennsylvania on 13th July 2024 was free to do so but only succeeded in slightly grazing his right ear with a bullet, despite firing eight rounds at him with a semi-automatic rifle.

Neither the internal (moral) constraints of nature, nurture, and culture nor the external (physical) constraints of society prevented Crooks from exercising his freedom to attempt to kill Trump.

The same principle applied to Lidia Thorpe and Ralph Babet who exercised their freedom of expression.

In each of these cases, society reacted proportionately to the infractions of its rules. But while the spontaneous shooting of Crooks qualified indisputably as legitimate defence, I see no justification for the precipitation of the senate to censor Senator Thorpe in her absence, for reasons beyond her control (airflight delay).

I’m inclined to think she should have been given the opportunity to explain why she acted as she did. Having had time to reflect calmly on the matter, perhaps she may have realised that she should not have acted so aggressively towards the present-day descendants of the British monarch who commanded the colonisation of Australia and was responsible for the confiscation of the land her people had occupied undisturbed for more than 65,000 years

.

Hi BP,

"society reacted proportionately to the infractions of its rules" no I disagree, some politicians reacted against other politicians to the infractions of their rules. Who is the arbitrator of societies rules?

In the case of Lidia Thorpe, maybe she is sick and tired of people like Charles Windsor who represents the status quo of polite society, blowing in with their condescending platitudes towards her people, whilst her people detrimentally suffer from the effects of post colonialism.

Thorpe could have penned a polite correspondence to his gracious majesty the king, and in polite general terms expressed her concerns with certain aspects of modern Australian society, as they pertain to the situation of her people in that society. Equally an underling of the king could have penned an equally polite reply, informing Ms Thorpe of the king's deep concern with such matters, but informing her of the fact his majesty leaves such trifling matters of state to his duly elected colonial government of Australia. (Particularly when his majesty has more pressing business to attend to, like delivering more condescending platitudes to the little black people of say Fiji, or alternatively, opening the local flower show!

Paul1405,
Is that as hard as you can try to be hypocritical ? Rather poor effort really !