Displaying items by tag: Australian Politics

The fear, even hysteria, among the population over Covid is unprecedented.  Yet there is a precedent for the strategies now being used by governments and others to generate the fear we are now witnessing.  We merely need to look back a few years to the great climate change scare to see the parallels.  Indeed, it might be argued that climate change was the perfect dress rehearsal for Covidmania.

Victoria is now a living hell of Covid Fascism, as the vicious lockdown continues.  Yet the people of Victoria seem to think this is all a good thing, or at least a necessary evil.  This is what life in Victoria is like now.

Peter Ridd was a respected Australian academic who dared to question "the science" of climate change, and in particular, the work of colleagues at his then university.  He was sacked for his trouble.  He is now heading for the High Court, and all of us should be hoping he wins his case.  There is much at stake - for freedom.

At a time of epic fails by political leaders, oppositions, bureaucracies, and, alas, churches, we need an epic fail by our media like a hole in the head.  Yet that is what we have now.  Amid all the Covid disasters, our media have lost the plot.  They are not doing their core jobs of speaking truth to power and calling out stupidity, and we are all the poorer for it.

It has been said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  Well, on any number of fronts, people in liberal democracies are currently "doing nothing", as our freedoms and the quality of our governance ever decline.  And evil is winning.

The response of governments to the Covid "crisis" has been a revelation.  They have grabbed supreme power and have diminished freedoms and crushed the economy.  How did they get away with it, with such little push-back from we-the-people?  They had six strategies.  Strategies that appear to have worked.

The re-emergence of Mark Latham has been one of the most interesting developments in recent Australian politics.  Latham's common sense centrism and his push-back against the ruling elites has struck a chord with voters of all stripes.  Populism, perhaps, but also, maybe, a much needed reality check in these troubled and inauthentic times.

There is a theory of politics called the "Overton Window".  It explains a lot about modern politics in the age of madness and badness.  It does not explain everything, but it offers fresh insights into the way our modern, diminished politcs function.

There is a madness to crowds, as writers such as Douglas Murray have observed, with great perception.  To explain the modern world's predicament only as a problem of madness is to miss a big point.  The problem of evil.  Christians understand this.  It is time for the world to catch up.

Australia's battle of ideas - the culture war - seems lost, to the forces of progressive liberalism.  Those who would fight this battle seem preoccupied with getting the Liberal party into office, and keeping it there.  While the bigger battles go by, without a fight.  Understanding where we are going wrong is the first task in understanding the war we are in.