a short history of democracy

Even since a big caveman discovered
that a big club gave him power to control
smaller cavemen, women, children
and domesticated animals...



... a gilded caveman's club has adored most
parliaments, including the one in Canberra:



Canberra's 'Mace' is a powerful reminder that
the primary purpose of ALL governments is to
demand money with menaces (of financial ruin
and/or physical violence) from voters to maintain
the primacy of state power over the peasants.

The other Great Weapon to keep peasants
downtrodden and quivering with anxiety are
wizards, sharmen and oracles who have the
power to see into the future and speak
in riddles and strange tongues.

More recently, share market analysts perform
similar linguistic wizardry (for a fee) for awed
and nervous Mum and Dad investors.

All of which confirms George Bernard Shaw's
astute observation that:

"All the professions are a conspiracy
against the common man!"

None of this is new:

Well-fed churchmen spoke and wrote to each
(and conducted powerful rituals) in Latin
to bamboozle the peasants and
maintain control over them.

Well-fed diplomats spoke and wrote to each
(and conducted secret meetings) in French
to bamboozle kings and peasants
and maintain control over them.

Alexander Downer is highly skilled in the
art and craft of speaking in tongues
and lying for his party and country.

Kevin Rudd is a former diplomat
who speaks Mandarin.

Some things will change if Labor wins
the election - but some things never
change.

Here is part of an article in this
morning's 'Canberra Times' by
Jack Waterford who glories
in the title of 'Editor at Large':

Under the Howard Government, information is tightly locked down.

Access to it is tightly centralised, and confined, as far as possible, to higher political levels, These days it is almost an offence for a public servant to communicate with a journalist, and the careful one, approached by a journalist, will not only deflect all inquiry to the public relations apparatus, but cover his or her bum by reporting the contact.

An increasing number of departments, some with elaborate public relations staffs, are not allowed to answer questions from the media, but must refer all questions to the minister's office.

Some ministers' offices lie, Others play funny games with the timing of answers, which are, in any event, spare with information and strong on spin.

Some ministers - Peter Costello for example - will only agree to meet a lobby if there is already on his desk a draft press release from the lobby describing what a wonderful chap he is.

Those who cross the system, say critical things, or, horrors, consort with the other side, get punished, particularly by being denied access.

Even legal processes, such as FOI requests, are treated not as matters of obligation, but part of the public relations process, to be managed by the discretion of the minder, rather than the obligations under the law

Rudd, in short, will be giving us more of the same, if with a slightly different flavour.

The obsession about controlling information, as well as the fantasy that by doing so one can control events, is a bipartisan problem, is getting steadily worse.

It existed under Hawke and Keating too - though those seem glory days compared with now.

Vague promises by the Opposition to reform FOI when in office - the sort of promises all oppositions make - can be taken with a dose of salt.

Quite apart from the damage to the public's right to know, does it serve any public good? No. Indeed it has created one of the central problems of the Australian body politic, and keeps it in a perpetual adolescence.

Politicians are afraid to speak their minds, to admit that there are different sides of questions, or to engage in real debate. They are afraid to disagree with each other, or even to put different stresses on different factors, for fear of being thought disloyal.

In America or Britain, a politician can think aloud without his every word being parsed for signs of deviation from the party line. The media, unwittingly, or stupidly, helps by playing policeman and sheepdog.

When facts (as opposed to spin and puffery) are rendered a precious commodity and tightly rationed, they end up becoming the bullets that shoot you.