Barbara Ehrenreich was driven by both her undying anger at the profound injustices of life under capitalism and a fervent hope that the world doesn’t have to be this way.
Source: Barbara Ehrenreich Made Socialist Ideas Sound Like Common Sense
Tag: Ideas
From kids driving forklifts to crippling foreign relations, Scott Morrison has made some truly questionable decisions of late, writes Paul Begley.
A letter to Andrew Bolt from Julia Baird and it’s polite. What Bolt calls “free speech” is privatized product and locked in contracted speech. The merger of Ch 9 and Fairfax will concentrate media into 2 companies controlling 82% of our media and consolidating speech supporting less than 5% of the nation who can afford to buy the advertising space and skewed to content supporting the LNP. We need the ABC more than ever and the LNP are intent on insuringthe demise of the public broadcaster. The only broadcaster devoted to the principle of free speech and questioning the veracity of those making it. Tony Abbott put the nail in the coffin of Radio Australia the once heartbeat of the Pacific by cutting ABC funding by $200mill and 1985 levels. Since then with our disintersest in Foreign Aid we have simply given that space to China and are now blaming the Chinese for what was obvious in order to retain some domestic votes at the expense of what was a once positive relationship. Turnbull is the highest paid PM in the world nothing but the best for he and the LNP spells nothing for Australia. (ODT)
It would be far better if think tanks were legally required to reveal all funding, so we can best assess contributions to public debate. This includes the likes of the Australia Institute, the McKell Institute, the Centre for Independent Studies and the Sydney Institute, as well as the IPA.
The Australian media landscape is increasingly spotted with large silos and part of the reason for that is the fact that a large number of prominent conservative commentators – like Chris Kenny, Ross Cameron, Rowan Dean – have exclusive contracts with Sky and will not appear elsewhere.
It also means that some of the loudest critics of the ABC can’t or won’t come on the flagship daily panel show (The Drum) just to discuss ideas. Some conservatives ask for money to appear. Some will say privately that they don’t want the attack, that there is little incentive to cross silos just to be abused on Twitter.
Some examples: in recent months, Kenny and Cameron, we’ve asked Janet Albrechtsen – who politely declined – Rita Panahi – who said The Drum was a “terrible show” – and Gemma Tognini- who has a contract with Sky – to come on the show. I won’t name them all as our door remains chocked open (Gerard Henderson, I am looking at you).
Silos are about gathering armies, about attack, and the casualties are civility and persuasion. It’s taking more and more muscle to carve out public spaces for argument, not antagonism, and for talking, not trolling.
If you have only conviction without persuasion, you won’t convince anyone.
With yesterday’s “Message from the Prime Minister”, delivered to camera and without the presence of reporters, Tony Abbott signalled that he’s chosen populism as the way out of his self-inflicted leadership crisis. No longer will Australia give the “benefit of the doubt” (at the border, in their citizenship application, at Centrelink) to “those who might be a threat to our country”. He advanced no supporting evidence that such benefit is being given, but did promise a fuller statement next Monday. Posing a largely unspecified threat are vaguely identified others – “extremists” influenced by the “Islamic death cult” – for whom the only course of action available is to toughen security laws so as to prevent “evil people” from “exploit[ing] our freedom”.
In the world outside the bubble of prime ministerial rhetoric, there is a debate about how authorities should respond to the threat of “lone wolf” attacks. Experts in “radicalisation” – the process by which alienated individuals adopt increasingly extreme ideas – suggest that tough, us-versus-them talk may have the undesired effect of encouraging radicalisation, by confirming the world-view propagated by advocates. A more effective strategy, experts say, combines social inclusion and explicit de-radicalisation efforts.
But Abbott is desperately seeking a reversal in opinion polling to short-circuit the inevitable second challenge, and he knows that a population fearful of their security can potentially deliver it. Like all political leaders, Abbott mixes populism (he exploited fears of boat people, debt and power prices in opposition) with conviction (breaking electoral promises, cutting spending and awarding a knighthood to Prince Philip, which “wasn’t so much a question” of popularity, Abbott confirmed yesterday). If he’s got the balance wrong in recent months, it’s not that Joe Hockey is a dud treasurer or Peta Credlin is running too tight a ship – it’s that his Chief Whip, Phillip Ruddock, wasn’t communicating to him the mood of his backbench. So this is Operation Save Abbott: a new Whip to open up dialogue with the backbench, a renewed focus on national security and, despite the budget “crisis”, more money for pensioners and the mentally ill.
Russell Marks
Politicoz Editor
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