Dear citizens of Australia
In this guest post Fionn Quinlan
makes a passionate plea to those people who fell for any of the
propaganda that enticed them to vote for the Coalition. It’s OK of
course to vote for the Coalition – or any party you wish to – but as
Fionna points out; your vote could be put to better use in future if you
recognised the consequences of it.
Dear citizens of Australia,
I am writing to inform you/us that we’re quickly becoming, or rather
already have become, an international laughing stock. An in-joke for the
majority world; the other 7 something billion outside of our 20
something million are coming to think of us as the big fat country with
too much, that’s giving too little, that isn’t able to look outside of
its self-imposed exile, unwilling to step from its soap box to see the
world for what it is; a web like community made up of billions of small
but vitally significant links. It’s no longer those who are politically
conscious that are aware of the disgrace of the group of humans that
have been granted power to make overbearing decisions on behalf of our
nation, it’s the majority. So, before I try and vent and release the
deep scar that is being created due to recent and not so recent
happenings, I must assure you that I am indeed what some may call True
Blue, as it is, of course, a subjective term. Yes, I too have loved the
smell of gum leaves since I was in a pram, I love a sunburnt country,
I’ve been around the world a couple of times or maybe more, I say g’day
and how’s it goin’, and I still call Australia home. But to be
completely honest, it’s really beginning to hurt. Like that awkward hurt
you can’t quite put a finger on, and if you try and explain to ya mates
down the pub, they begin to look at ya funny.
I’ve waited months to attempt to compose this letter. I was waiting
for a time when my emotions weren’t running too high due to one thing or
another our current government has perpetuated, implemented, slashed,
withdrawn, torn down, disrupted, damaged or simply ignored. Every week –
near on every day – I have been confronted with another daunting
disgrace. So I’ll try and ease into it a little and go easy on the hard
data and “facts” and just try to keep it “real”.
To begin with, I want to know how it is we let ourselves be led by
such a group? I like to think that to a large extent it has a good deal
to do with a caustic mix of social conditions and what some call the
manufacturing of consent. However, I would love for you to ask
yourself ‘why’. Have you taken the opportunity to look at alternatives?
Have you dedicated even a small amount of time or effort to
comprehending policies that are due to be implemented and begun to
fathom their diverse effects on not just yourself, but all
those around you? Or did you just take for gospel the words of one of
the many media outlets controlled by a minute few? Did you stop to
question whether or not these people may not only not have your best
interest at heart, but in fact the whole system is rigged to favour
them, and that within this rigged system you’re merely a pawn in their
game? I know, it’s a very hard pill to swallow. In fact you’re quite
likely to ignore this entire piece and likely anyone for that matter who
may be deemed a voice of dissent. Or any one of the many voices that is
forcing you to stretch your manufactured paradigm more than it’s been
programmed to stretch.
I’m really struggling to put succinctly what it is that so frustrates
me about our current position. But it’s something to do with our lack
of Stoic behaviour (you know, the great philosophers of old, the ones
who could see beyond wealth and material privilege). Our inability to
see that we’re sitting on a literal and metaphorical gold mine and still
complaining about it. Our inability to see that the policies being put
in place are not only deleterious to us, but are to the whole planet.
“Oh come on, that’s alright, isn’t it?” Sure. So long as you get your
long weekends, and the mining trucks get their petrol for a few cents
cheaper, the boat people are being kept out and there’s little to no
real societal change. Because who likes change anyway? Especially when
we’ve got it so good? Who cares if someone who has English as a second,
third, fourth language or in fact can’t speak it at all can’t get into
your country? So what? It’s likely they don’t deserve to be here. That’s
the beauty of an international meritocracy, isn’t it? The people who
are wealthy and have all the power have got there because they deserve
it and that’s how globalised liberal-democracy works. So, I’ve thrown
eloquence out the window; I feel like screaming, but that’s not going to
help anyone or anything. This of course part of the problem. Unless I’m
the mainstream news or the pretty/wealthy majority (who is of course a
minority) there’s a fair chance nobody will hear what you or I have to
say. But please, Mr and Mrs Australia, put down that newspaper, and stop
watching that mind warping excrement on television. It’s become obvious
to me that you’re unaware of the harm being done to our world and
country. Take the opportunity to look outside your paradise. Try and
stop believing the lies. Ween yourself off the crack that is modern,
conservative, comfortable, mainstream life and live.
The fact we’re one of the most urbanised nations on the planet speaks
volumes about us. We’ve all this space yet we prefer to be insular,
we’ve been forced into cities to work jobs we hate so we can buy things
we don’t need. Yet people keep buying into it.
All I ask is that you see this letter for what it is; a letter from
someone who sees the destruction wrought by this somnambulist society
trying desperately to control you. Take your head from the sand and
begin to demand more. You deserve it. We all do. Soon you’ll see that
the vast majority of what you’ve been told is highly processed faeces
sold up stream, and that what you have been lead to believe is not the
truth.
Yours most sincerely
Fionn Napier Quinlan
An unedited version of this article can be found on Fionn’s blog the Paradigm Stretch.
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