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The Forum > General Discussion > Australia - The Perennial Minion

Australia - The Perennial Minion

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Oh come on squeers, you do go on a bit.

"Democracy (the tyranny of the herd)". It sounds like the catch cry for some ratbag mob, meeting in some seedy hall in the backstreets somewhere.

Please explain just how democracy has exerted it's tyranny on you, I would love to hear.

I have lead a most unconventional life, but our democracy has permitted me to;

Do whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted.

Live wherever I wanted, in or out of the country.

Leave, & reenter the workforce, as it suited me, & the games I wanted to play.

Breed , or not breed, as choice or accident dictated, in fact I can't imagine a freer life.

Sure I can't use explosives, without a permit, & I can no longer drive at 100 miles per hour on the highway between capitals, as I once could. Annoying as these restrictions may be, I am prepared to accept them for the greater good. After all, it is probably only us superior beings, & not the general public, who should ever have had access to such things.

So please tell us all how democracy has encroached on your life. I'm more worried about lefty ratbag attempts to restrict my present freedoms, & those of my kids than any restrictions imposed by democracy.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 1:27:52 PM
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Poirot:

Thanks for this thread. Both sides of politics in this country are very much in favour of Australia remaining a committed US ally for the foreseeable future. Canberra and Washington seem to share similar views at present. However, there is current debate about what the US expects from the alliance and the nature of American power. Add to this the fact that Australia now faces challenges in its own neighbourhood, which must have first priority, maintaining support for the alliance will I guess, rest upon Washington's success in convincing our government that US policies are both necessary and legitimate and that Australia's contributions to mutual security are not taken for granted. From what I've read, some of the biggest "obstacles may arise if the US made politically difficult demands on Australia in combating terror, sought military support that forced unacceptable risks, or drew Australia into a major conflict with China over Taiwan."

One website quoted that "the greatest potential threat to the alliance may be differing views about the security challenges emanating from a rising China."
Posted by Lexi, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 1:42:48 PM
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Hasbeen,
I shall forego the pleasure of disburdening myself to you, except to say that the tyranny of populism is the way responsibility and self-governance is lost, attenuated, among the crowd. Popular democracy is much more a collectivism than communism, which is devoted to human needs and fulfilment rather than quotidian grind and glut.
As TBC indicates, even the conservatives were against it. Here's Edmund Burke:
<Aristotle observes that a democracy has many striking points of resemblance with a tyranny. Of this I am certain, that in a democracy the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority, whenever strong divisions prevail in that kind of policy, as they often must—and that oppression of the minority will extend to far greater numbers, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. In such a popular persecution, individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable condition than in any other. Under a cruel prince they have the balmy compassion of mankind to assuage the smart of their wounds, they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings: but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species>

That conspiracy, of indifference and base appetite, proceeds unimpeeded by ethics or even evidence of its rapaciousness, and wiser heads are lost among the clamour. But as I say, it's one of those institutions we hold as sacred. But like all such institutions, it doesn't stand scrutiny; even a cursory examination is damning. Perhaps that's why we refuse to look at it.
Posted by Squeers, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 3:03:09 PM
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*But like all such institutions, it doesn't stand scrutiny; even a cursory examination is damning. Perhaps that's why we refuse to look at it.*

Squeers, nobody is claiming that democracy is not full of flaws.
The claim is that its the best thing that we have. Now for
Squeers, a tyranny/dictatorship according to Squeers, might sound
like heaven, but frankly it sounds like hell for the rest of us.
Posted by Yabby, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 3:17:25 PM
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Yabby:
<Now for
Squeers, a tyranny/dictatorship according to Squeers, might sound
like heaven, but frankly it sounds like hell for the rest of us>

Of course it suits your defenceless position, Yabby, to misrepresent me like that in these threads; why would I "want" tyranny? As I've often said, I'm in favour of "inclusive," sober and sustainable democracy. That is a responsible democracy whose voters are "educated" in the vital importance ethics, politics, economy and the art of civil society, who see life as a practical exercise devoted to answering the question, "how should we live?", rather than merely what's to be had. As Marx said, the point of philosophy is not to understand the world, but to change it.
Our relationships with powerful allies are predicated on ultra-conservative realism; that the balance of power is at it is and must be preserved, or cannot be changed, no matter the stink. At the very least Australia should be in meaningful dialogue with China and discussing the kind of human-world we, as a race, should be striving for, comparing notes and finding common-ground, instead of remaining manically antitheitcal and holding on to the diseased world we've created, or eurocentrically insulating ourselves, or favouring a neurotically secretive, shallow and obsessive US hegemony.
Our current "democracy" lacks leadership. I don't mean "a leader", but a conscience and senses of proportion, prudence and direction. Mob rule, the sway of the lowest common denominators, has none of those qualities. Popular democracy demonstrates all the restraint and circumspection of our celebrated Christmas sales---which of course amounts to the highest ethic of capitalism.

BTW, someone above, New Zealand is more of a minnow than the OZ and it thumbs its nose at those we toady to.
Posted by Squeers, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 5:46:08 PM
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Lexi,

I’d be interested to hear of any claims from mainstream Australian politicians (not greens or independents) that the US expects too much from the Alliance.

We have provided token support for the US in Iraq, and barely more than that in Afghanistan. Much respect to those who have been forced to carry out Canberras limited flag waving exercise, but this is all it is. Tokenism. The US does a great deal for the Alliance merely by resisting the urge to say so.

The most recent white paper on defence clearly set out Australias strategic risks and sought to address them within our limited capacities. We are moving into a period of rapidly changing global power structures. In the past, such change has almost invariably been accompanied by much violence. Our best defence is our relationship with our allies. Chiefly, the US, but increasingly Japan and Indonesia.

The US itself is deeply divided over what security challenges China does pose. As Kevin Rudd rightly pointed out, we should do everything we can to help China become a responsible global power, but we should be prepared for the possibility that it won’t.
Posted by PaulL, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 7:30:04 PM
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