Violence – Futility – Violence – Futility . . .

Fiona Uncategorized

Bushfire Bill gets it:

When I was watching 60s war movies with my Dad as a little’n, I used to ask him why the Germans bothered with armies and stuff, when they could just blow up bombs in London and terrify the populace that way.

He talked to me about “rules”.

Later on, after I grew up a little, I thought that if The State (l’Etat?) guarantees more or less 100% security, then anyone who took even 1% off that, was defying the State’s authority and was thus undermining the other 99% of the State.

In my mature(r) years, I have thought that if WE bomb THEM, then why can’t THEY bomb US?

The product sold to us in the West of highly trained fighter jocks, 30,000 feet above the fray, dropping laser guided bombs on hapless and defenceless targets, who then die terrible deaths with their bloody, eviscerated intestines wrapped around the severed, eyeless, lipless heads of their children, was always false advertising.

We sit in our fighter jets playing win-win video games.

They arm themselves with Kalashnikovs and retaliate against our homeland.

Yet the former is moral and surgical. The latter excites worldwide horror and revulsion.

It’s not win-win anymore. The targets have learned how to be the aggressors.

Can we really blame them for retaliating in the best way they know how?Can we condemn them for bringing home to us, in our supposedly secure cities, just what it is like to have random murder perpetrated on our citizens and loved ones?

I’m as horrified as the next person by what happened today. I’m revolted and disgusted about Paris.

But can I blame “the enemy” for giving back to “us” some of what we have done to “them”?

In my heart of hearts, I can’t.

I hate it, but you can’t say we weren’t warned of the consequences of our actions.

Can someone tell me I’m wrong? And if I am, where I’m wrong?

As does Leone (not to mention every Pubster who has been commenting since earlier today):

You are right, and I agree with everything you say.

Tonight New Matilda gave us this –
(IMAGE: Moyan Brenn, Flickr) Paris Attacks Highlight Western Vulnerability, And Our Selective Grief And Outrage
https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/14/paris-attacks-highlight-western-vulnerability-and-our-selective-grief-and-outrage/

It has attracted quite a bit of ‘how dare you say this right now’ comment. But it is absolutely right, and there is no ‘good’ time to point out how hypocritical we are, weeping over one outrage and ignoring another, just as horrifying, because those killed or injured are not white, or European, or Australian.

And Kaye Lee from AIMM:

Does anyone truly believe that violence can lead the world to a better place?

There can be only one reason for the attacks in Paris and that is to draw the West into increased military action in the Middle East, and from the sounds of it, that has been the call from many people today.

To those whose answer to the bombs and bullets is bigger bombs and more bullets, I would say you are being manipulated in the same way as the ignorant deluded handful of people who carried out these attacks.

How can you claim to be on the side of right when you use the same methods – go to a foreign country and kill innocent people?

How can you speak of national security and protecting your borders as you invade other countries?

How can you claim to be protecting human rights as you bomb hospitals?

How can you claim to be fighting for freedom as you lock up the people fleeing from oppression?

We have removed countless despots and dictators but rarely has it gone well. We install corrupt governments or leave when it becomes politically inconvenient to stay and leave people to cope with the mess we leave behind. We train and arm paramilitary groups and then abandon them and show surprise when they team up with others we don’t care for.

The armaments industry is a huge global business with no ethics. Defence forces are empire builders who demand hundreds of billions to ‘keep us safe’ as they spark aggression around the world.

If you kill people, others will want revenge. Where does it stop?

Is humanity capable of civilisation? Capable of tolerance? Capable of accepting the responsibility of caring for and nurturing all children, educating them, and protecting the environment so they can have a future?

Billy Connelly used to do a skit about his mother belting him for hitting his sister. Are we to respond to violence with violence and see ourselves as saviours?

Until we learn to respect each other and the planet we share, we are doomed to let those who would use us for their own power and profit pull the strings.

VIOLENCE BEGETS ONLY ONE THING – MORE VIOLENCE

Somehow, we – the beneficiaries of the West’s crusading, colonising, exploiting activities for so many centuries – have to resolve this hellish brew. As far as I’m concerned, however, Kaye Lee has nailed it:

Until we learn to respect each other and the planet we share, we are doomed to let those who would use us for their own power and profit pull the strings.

525 thoughts on “Violence – Futility – Violence – Futility . . .”

  1. Leone – strictly on the level of cultured voice, smiles to replace proper engagement, air of superiority. Journos are suckers for that sort of thing. They think it equates to quality. At least I assume that’s the case, as they patently pay no attention to anything Turnbull ever says, or if they do they fall over themselves to explain it away.

    I simply can’t fathom that a debate as important as the way we are taxed and how the government collects and spends money can be reduced to a question of image. With Abbott and Hockey they had to pretend that infantile utterances were indications of deep thought and measured policy. That was tough work for them at times, but they gave it a red hot go. They’re not bothering with that any more; they’re just tapping out “scare campaign”, taking a big yawn and letting Turnbull’s cachet do the rest.

    We’re back in the world of lazy assumptions – delivered as Liberal talking points – setting the political agenda, and all political writing consisting of discussions resting on those false assumptions. Any attempts to dig any deeper are met with, “Aaah, waddya gunna do about it, he’s popular dontcha know…”

  2. Unfortunately it’s here to stay, and I hope that a few idiots over the road realise that replacing Shorten won’t alter that simple fact.

    if the swing voters haven’t yet seen that Turnbull is pushing the same backwards policies as Abbott, Labor could run Jesus Christ as leader and his disciples as the shadow Cabinet, and Turnbull would still win.
    Our media will do their level best to ensure they don’t notice, of course. Getting another Coalition Government is what they want.

  3. GL

    I rarely even lurk over the road these days, it’s too boring, too nasty for me, and there are too many idiots who just want to pick fights. But I can imagine the comments about Labor’s leadership. The same old garbage that has been floating around Twitter and other places for two years now. Whingers who didn’t get their choice of leader and are still sulking about that. I suspect most of them were not even qualified to vote. I suspect a lot of them are stooges and trolls planted by other parties keen to goad Labor into doing something foolish. It’s to Labor’s credit they are ignoring all this nonsense.

    Shorten is doing OK, given the MSM bias against him right now. Swapping leaders is not going to help. This is exactly what the government wants, it will allow them to drag out all that instability/leadershit crap while the compliant and adoring MSM ignore all the very real leadership tensions in the government.

    Anyway, who is supposed to replace Shorten? Albo seems to be the popular choice among the ‘we never wanted Shorten anyway’ whingers. but he would be hopeless. He’s fantastic on infrastructure, but as we saw when Rudd made him Minister for Communications, totally lost on anything else and too lazy to swat up on details. A fantastic attack dog maybe, but not prime minister material.

  5. Truffles’ waffle is boring as bat shit. He sounds neither intelligent or erudite , just another pollie bullshit artist. The gush from the media just shows the depths of whoredom the journos will go I an attempt to please their masters.

  8. Spot on, Leone

    “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

  9. I saw Spectre earlier today, a late birthday present from No 1 Son. (Loved it, very relevant considering what is going on right now.)

    Anyway, there was one line that made me think immediately of Turnbull. Bond, in a sticky situation, says to the villain wtte ‘Anything is better than listening to you talk’.

  11. SBS now doing “Australians looking for friends” in Paris.

    Give me strength, Dawkins!

  15. The ABC: “A father and his son survived it”.

    As a bonus, the ABC will talk to Michael Keenan about what he is doing about it.

  17. At 7:30 SBS will tell us that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

    Rome: Rome – The first town of over one million people was built more than 2000 years ago. Without any of our modern conveniences, and what we would consider necessities today, how did they function? Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill explores the remains of these ancient megalopolises, explaining how to make a city work without the benefits of modern technology. In the final episode, Andrew takes us up ancient tower blocks, down early sewers, and above 2000-year-old harbour basins still filled with water, to find out. He’ll reveal how Rome surpassed all those cities from the ancient world that had gone before. (From the UK) (Documentary Series) (Part 2 of 2) (Class tba) CC

    Then, if you can stand the American jingoism

    Genius Series 1 Compilation Ep 2: Genius tells the story of the men and women that changed the way we live. These are the heroes, legendary icons, luminaries who changed the world through monumental innovations and staggering ingenuity. They gave us the aeroplane and the television, the six-gun, the A-bomb and more. But behind every great genius is a great rival, an unstoppable adversary with incredible vision, determination and ambition. Out of their struggles came the greatest breakthroughs. In this stunning four-part series, we hear the stories of how the ultimate rivals for posterity clashed, lost everything or triumphed. (From the UK) (Documentary Series) (Part 2 of 4) (Class tba) CC

  20. Seems we might be selling some boots to Syrians. Is that what “boots on the ground” means?

  21. We have had 20 minutes of “terrorism” on Their ABC TV news and there is still Keenan to come.

  27. ajcanberra
    While not admitting defeat this far out, I am realistic in acknowledging that the ALP may not win the next Federal election. But I am pretty sure they will win the one after that! It is just a matter of when they will learn that a Lib/Nat government is always a bad deal for voters, especially in the coming recession.

  29. Penny Wong and the Pandas.

    Penny said when she was told the reception was with the Pandas, she thought pictures of pandas on the wall. But look, it turned out to be the real pandas.

    This is the venue (sans tables) The panda enclosure is behind the glass.

  30. I was very tolerant of the Greens woman sitting next to me at the Union conference. She is the one who brought up political parties when I discussed 457 visas. In reply to her comments about the ALP not voting for Adam Bants’ bill, regarding the TPP legislation (about electricians and engineers skills being tested) I said the ALP would have its own legislative agenda. In reply to her withering look, I said that Adam didn’t do a very good job of negotiating the passage of his bill if it did not get up. I refrained from the word ‘stunt.’

    The ALP does vote too often for Coalition bills. for my liking but I am damned if I am going to get all apologetic to a Green. Maybe I just should have said “Malaysia solution’ and be done with it.

  33. Hi,

    I’ve been a lurker for a few years. I hope you don’t mind me posting a link to another POV after the carnage in Paris on Friday. It is imperative that political solutions are found for the conflicts in the ME to alleviate the suffering being experience by the mainly women and children that have had nothing to do with these conflicts.

    As’as AbuKhalil’s (The Angry Arab Blog) observations are insightful:

    http://www.angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/some-observations-about-carnage-in-paris.html

    eJames

  34. The dog walked on my keyboard as I was writing my comment, Can someone check if that is a formula solving some fantastic problem or inventing a new substance.

    1 million monkeys typing and all that. :grin;

  37. Ejames,

    Welcome to The Pub!

    I will have a look at your link tomorrow – still racing the clock marking the last few assignments.

  43. Good morning, Pubsters.

    I am delighted to let youse people know that the last comment went onto the last assignment at 12:01 am today. So, that’s almost it for assignment marking for the year, apart from the usual small handful of special consideration students who will be submitting late with permission.

    So, back to “real” work – trying to write some papers, and trying to get my house cleaner and into some sort of order.

  44. I feel so safe knowing the Brussels Sprout is protecting our borders. I’d feel so much safer knowing he has a permanent seat on the NSC.

    There, that should fend off Big Brother for a while.

  45. Fiona

    Well done.

    Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t want you to write those papers. He (and his chief scientist) think uni research is pointless because it is only published in ‘obscure’ journals and doesn’t make anyone any money. They want to see researchers stop writing and instead ‘engage with the community’ and produce ‘something’ that has commercial value. Like writing puff pieces for the Womens Weekly perhaps?

    Academic publications to become less important when funding university research
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/academic-publications-to-become-less-important-when-funding-university-research-20151112-gkxkgl

  46. Fiona

    Enjoy your freedom again, give the house cleaning a miss for a couple of days, just relax and play music.

    abc radio is full on disaster porn. No facts, just waffle.

  47. Leone,

    With the greatest respect to waffles, he can get knotted. I am far more interested in what my co-authors want to achieve.

    Gravel,

    I wish! Studenty things to do this afternoon and tomorrow morning, then a meeting about our writing. However, that will be far less stressful than the agony of marking.

  49. We have been well informed on workplace bullying and abuse of power from BB’s account of HI’s travails. The worst is that it’s a heavy burden on the innocent who have behaved with integrity.

    IA details an account of the damage to a nurse
    https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/bullying-alive-and-well-in-our-medical-system,8380

    It’s another reason we must stand with BB and HI. Being blameless and being vindicated offers no protection against the personal damage.

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