Another tedious, meaningless State election comes and goes. We all obligingly show up , compliant, complicit in the public charade - as if in our wonderful democratic country there is actually a choice between something and something else. Whereas in reality, almost all power now rests with Big Business, and it’s just a matter of which of the various squabbling toadying political puppets we end up with to bicker over the scraps and distract us from the main game.
Yes, I know I should be grateful to live in a country where nobody gets shot at, where no polling booths are fire-bombed, no candidates assassinated. Grateful that I don't live in Libya. Our local style here is ‘Not with a bang but a whimper’ .
Whichever of the two dreary, sycophantic ‘major’ parties wins, none of it will make the slightest difference to the culture of Big Greed in which we are all ensnared, by which we are all seduced and anaesthetised and which is rapidly trashing our only home, this planet.
Of course I vote Green - they at least have something resembling a ‘vision’ or an ‘overview’ not entirely shaped by corporate greed. But it’s probably too late.
So there’s my bit of pessimism for the day.
No, here’s some more: Re the way Big Retail is trying to use their Big Bullying Might Is Right power to squeeze everyone else out of business, by undercutting prices. We consumers who are willing to sell our soul for a a fifty cent discount are being co-opted into the whole greed game. Long term, big mistake. The diary farmers, even the beer manufacturers are copping it. As more and more small businesses get squeezed out, it’s scary to think about what the world will look like when we are ruled by one big corporation (Though environmental disaster may just intervene before that final corporate merger)
A few years back Woolies the Bullies moved into my old home town of Maleny despite massive protests - even their own survey showed most of us didn't want them. Now I've moved to a little town in Northern NSW, and it's all happening all over again. This time they have blocked off a major thoroughfare, buggered up several businesses, ruined the peace, and property values, of nearby residents - and the shire council is helpless in the face of their might. I reckon the big corporations are the modern day equivalents of the old colonial powers ie, too bad about the natives.
Back to The Election experience - I can’t help thinking on polling day what a wasted opportunity is. I mean every single person in the state or the country, more or less, turns up at a local hall or school. Imagine if instead of the futile exercise of ‘voting’ we...danced, sang, told jokes, hugged, planted trees, used all that paper to draw pictures and dreams, to imagine what sort of future we’d like for our children...
Spirited but futile protest when the fence went up six months ago (it's still up)
2 comments:
I cannot agree more. I don't know what Woolies the Bullies is or means but I think I can imagine it. And I want still to think that via a more decentralized government, more local, and alternative parties, there is still a chance for a better world.
But you are right, sometimes it is difficult to argue when one lives in one of the few lucky countries , like we do.
Woolworths - once a humble variety store, now a monolithic corporate empire, gobbling up everything in it's path - from gas stations to liquor stores; and building ugly big box supermarkets in every little town across the country...But soon just to balance things up I'll post about our fantastic local farmers' markets.
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