Australia is a great place to live probably the best country in the world in which to live but that does not make it perfect or above criticism. Having lived here for 16 years and been an Australian national for 14 years the only thing which really troubles me about Oz is the political and social complacency of most people; the following is an e-mail I wrote to a friend in response to his concerns regarding the banning, by stealth, of the importation of specialist minority interest literature.
---
The problem, Eric, is that it's not really the government or the Customs you need to challenge it's the appalling apathy consistently practiced by the majority of the population of this country.
Life, on the whole and for most people, is very good in Australia hence the "she'll be right" attitude and, of course, if life is rosy there is no incentive to lobby government or protest against government transgressions providing they don't impact too much upon Mr and Mrs Aussie and those few troublemakers who do protest can be shrugged off as simply... troublemakers. From the government's perspective it's rather like having a pet hamster; keep it well fed, warm and comfortable, don't let it have too much information and, chances are, it won't want to ditch you and find a new master. The system seems to work well.
Actually, Eric, it gets even better for government because a large proportion of the population are pretty thick (by definition half the population are below the average IQ level) so a few rousing stories about child molesters or global warming or the evils of driving 10kph over the speed limit in the tabloid press and television and, immediately, a substantial body of public opinion is behind whatever the "opinion makers" want to happen.
In 2008 we, in Victoria, passed legislation which tossed away rights secured in the Magna Carta 800 years ago (Family Violence Protection Act 2008). A few days ago we brought into being legislation allowing police to search people in a manner which breaches our own (government inspired and introduced) "Victorian Human Rights Charter" - I mean... what the hell is the point of having a "Human Rights Charter" if whenever it gets in the way of police controlling the populous in an oppressive manner you simply pass legislation which ignores it!? That's exactly what a human rights charter is supposed to stop! Did we see letters of protest in the newspapers? Did we see people marching on the streets? De we see thousands of letters of protest sent to MPs? Did we hell!
The upshot of all this, of course, is an insidious loss of freedoms, often in a small way; eg. making areas "Wilderness Areas" ensures virtually no one (except the "Chosen Few") are allowed into them; insisting people have "Police Checks" before being involved in many ordinary activities etc. And the real sadness is that it seems most people think all of this is a "Good Thing".
I believe the reason for such apathy in Australia is that our freedom has never been tested. Democracy fell out of the sky onto this country in 1901 - it was not fought for, blood was not spilled, husbands and sons were not killed, bombs did not fall, invasion was not imminent: for 25 years following this non-event the talk around family dinner tables was *not* about "The War". Children were not raised to understand how lucky they were to be free and taught that if, God forbid, such threats occurred again then they must fight to ensure the freedom of their children - instead they learned that all was rosy in Australia and "she'll be right mate". There is no "national concept" of loss of freedom in this country - such awareness is still very much a part of the national psyches in Europe. Let us hope nothing, in the future, goes wrong and bursts our Australian bubble.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I only want a bloody torch!
I often head deep into the Australian bush and, at night, the blackness is total so it's advisable to have a quality torch with you. My current torch is nearing the end of its life and I decided to replace it; I'm happy to spend a goodly sum for my new torch but I do want a quality item.
So began my search....
In times gone passed if one wished to purchase a torch one went to the local shop where the conversation would go as follows: "I'd like to buy a torch please", "Certainly Sir; a small torch or a big torch", "Oh a big torch, I think", "Here you are Sir and this is the battery you'll need", "Thank you my good man here are some coins of the realm for your trouble". And one walked away with an adequate torch.
Nowadays! If one wishes to purchase a torch there is an initial choice to be made between incandescent (bulb) and LED; "eeerrrmmm LED I think, better light output and more robust". Having settled on LED and asked the Font of All Knowledge (internet) to lay before me the choices available I am faced with a bewildering array of options: should the manufacturer be Fenix, iTP, Tiablo, Nitecore, Lumapower, Zebralight or Dereelight? What light output do I need; 50 lumens, 90 lumens 180 lumens or 500 lumens? Should the torch run from AA batteries or CR123A lithium batteries? Do I need the "Tactical" model (I kid you not!) or will the "Regular" be adequate? Should it have the Cree 7090 LED or will the Osram part do? Do I need a "Constant current output control" or is "Pulse width modulation" better? What about the beam? Spotlight or wider with more light scatter? I only want a bloody torch!
Having reached bewilderment level seven it seems the only option now is to seek further guidance from the Font of All Knowledge. Using Google I search for reviews of my choices for possible purchase (Reviews!? Of a torch!? "It's a torch e'n it. It makes light dun it.") and discover a previously unknown movement of people dedicated to the subtle nuances of LED torches - we have a world filled with beauty, birds singing, flowers blooming, rivers flowing, great literature to read, beautiful women to make love with but these people create websites and write reviews about... torches! Weep Oscar, weep.
Finally the decision is made; the iTP C8 regular with variable light output, a microprocessor to control it and remember settings is my choice for $60. The credit card is tortured into submission and my shiny new torch is winging its way to me via Australia Post.
One has to wonder if the dazzling variety of choice in modern society is contributing to the massive stress levels of people and, indeed, do we _really_ need a choice of 58 almost identical torches? Bush Tucker Man had a great technique for making a flaming torch from Candle Nuts strung on a bit of old fencing wire... I wonder what its beam scatter ratio was?
So began my search....
In times gone passed if one wished to purchase a torch one went to the local shop where the conversation would go as follows: "I'd like to buy a torch please", "Certainly Sir; a small torch or a big torch", "Oh a big torch, I think", "Here you are Sir and this is the battery you'll need", "Thank you my good man here are some coins of the realm for your trouble". And one walked away with an adequate torch.
Nowadays! If one wishes to purchase a torch there is an initial choice to be made between incandescent (bulb) and LED; "eeerrrmmm LED I think, better light output and more robust". Having settled on LED and asked the Font of All Knowledge (internet) to lay before me the choices available I am faced with a bewildering array of options: should the manufacturer be Fenix, iTP, Tiablo, Nitecore, Lumapower, Zebralight or Dereelight? What light output do I need; 50 lumens, 90 lumens 180 lumens or 500 lumens? Should the torch run from AA batteries or CR123A lithium batteries? Do I need the "Tactical" model (I kid you not!) or will the "Regular" be adequate? Should it have the Cree 7090 LED or will the Osram part do? Do I need a "Constant current output control" or is "Pulse width modulation" better? What about the beam? Spotlight or wider with more light scatter? I only want a bloody torch!
Having reached bewilderment level seven it seems the only option now is to seek further guidance from the Font of All Knowledge. Using Google I search for reviews of my choices for possible purchase (Reviews!? Of a torch!? "It's a torch e'n it. It makes light dun it.") and discover a previously unknown movement of people dedicated to the subtle nuances of LED torches - we have a world filled with beauty, birds singing, flowers blooming, rivers flowing, great literature to read, beautiful women to make love with but these people create websites and write reviews about... torches! Weep Oscar, weep.
Finally the decision is made; the iTP C8 regular with variable light output, a microprocessor to control it and remember settings is my choice for $60. The credit card is tortured into submission and my shiny new torch is winging its way to me via Australia Post.
One has to wonder if the dazzling variety of choice in modern society is contributing to the massive stress levels of people and, indeed, do we _really_ need a choice of 58 almost identical torches? Bush Tucker Man had a great technique for making a flaming torch from Candle Nuts strung on a bit of old fencing wire... I wonder what its beam scatter ratio was?
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A few quotations
For 12 years or so I have maintained a "Quotes" file; it's simply a collection of quotations I have come across over those years which held meaning for me. Some years ago, at her request, I showed it to Suzy... she commented "It says more about you than the authors of the quotes" - I'm sure she was right :) Here it is:
---
I hate a Roman named Status Quo! Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.
Ray Bradbury - 1954 - Fahrenheit 451
Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
George Eliot
I cannot convince myself that there is anyone so wise, so universally comprehensive in his judgment, that he can be trusted with the power to tell others: "You shall not express yourself thus, you shall not describe your own experiences; or depict the fantasies which your mind has created; or laugh at what others set up as respectable; or question old beliefs; or contradict the dogmas of the church, of our society, our economic systems, and our political orthodoxy."
Jake Zeitlin
In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran Pastor (b.1892 d.1984)
Heaven is:
An English policeman
A French chef
A German engineer
An Italian lover
and everything organised by the Swiss
Hell is:
An English chef
A French engineer
A German policeman
A Swiss lover
and everything organised by the Italians
Unknown
Is there really someone who, searching for a group of wise and sensitive persons to regulate him for his own good, would choose that group of people who constitute the membership of both houses of Congress?
Robert Nozick
This generation will have to repent, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" (1776)
If you walk down the middle of the road you'll be hit by traffic coming from both directions.
Bryce Courtenay
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
Thomas Jefferson
It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge
Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
General William Westmoreland, during the war in VietNam
Don't resent getting old. A great many are denied that privilege
Unknown
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
There may be a legal obligation to obey, but there will be no moral obligation to obey. When it comes to history, it will be the people who broke the law for freedom who will be remembered and honoured.
Tony Benn, UK Labour MP, 1995, regarding the Criminal Justice Act.
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Stephen Roberts
There is no point in being paranoid - unless there's good reason!
Unknown
The secret to happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.
So, where do you draw the line? When is a bad law serious enough to warrant action? A government doesn't pass a law that's "utterly abominable" until they've removed their citizens ability to fight back. Usually by passing laws to make the citizens "safe". In Nazi Germany most citizens didn't object even when some of them were dragged off to concentration camps. By that time they were too afraid to object, and justifiably so, the government had made them "safe" by removing their guns and their ability to fight back against "utterly abominable" laws. It's always the same, start off small, if no one objects then pass an even more oppressive law, no one complaining? More oppressive again. They kill you with incrementalism. By the time you wake up and realize it, you've lost not only your rights to change it, but the ability to as well. The time to object is when it's still at the small stage.
Chuck Bryant <3rdpig@bigfoot.com> from sci.geo.satellite-nav 9/Dec/02
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844-1924)
The real wealth creation potential of an enterprise is inversely proportional to the number of MBA's employed therein.
Mark Fort from aus.electronics
How can you govern a nation which has 246 kinds of cheese?
Charles de Gaulle
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken
Oliver Cromwell - 1650
People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
Unknown
I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.
Albert Einstein - Letter to Edgar Meyer Jan 2 1915
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
Adolf Hitler - April 11 1942
Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.
Heinrich Himmler - 1935
Another death that changes nothing in this conflict, but changes everything in one family.
Mourning a West Bank wife
Matthew Price, BBC News, Tulkarm
Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one
Journalist; A.J. Liebling
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think
we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.
Arthur C Clarke
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard
There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
James Thurber (1894 - 1961)
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
Dante Alighieri
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"
William Congreve (1670 - 1729). From his play - The Mourning Bride
---
I hate a Roman named Status Quo! Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.
Ray Bradbury - 1954 - Fahrenheit 451
Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
George Eliot
I cannot convince myself that there is anyone so wise, so universally comprehensive in his judgment, that he can be trusted with the power to tell others: "You shall not express yourself thus, you shall not describe your own experiences; or depict the fantasies which your mind has created; or laugh at what others set up as respectable; or question old beliefs; or contradict the dogmas of the church, of our society, our economic systems, and our political orthodoxy."
Jake Zeitlin
In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran Pastor (b.1892 d.1984)
Heaven is:
An English policeman
A French chef
A German engineer
An Italian lover
and everything organised by the Swiss
Hell is:
An English chef
A French engineer
A German policeman
A Swiss lover
and everything organised by the Italians
Unknown
Is there really someone who, searching for a group of wise and sensitive persons to regulate him for his own good, would choose that group of people who constitute the membership of both houses of Congress?
Robert Nozick
This generation will have to repent, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" (1776)
If you walk down the middle of the road you'll be hit by traffic coming from both directions.
Bryce Courtenay
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
Thomas Jefferson
It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge
Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
General William Westmoreland, during the war in VietNam
Don't resent getting old. A great many are denied that privilege
Unknown
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
There may be a legal obligation to obey, but there will be no moral obligation to obey. When it comes to history, it will be the people who broke the law for freedom who will be remembered and honoured.
Tony Benn, UK Labour MP, 1995, regarding the Criminal Justice Act.
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Stephen Roberts
There is no point in being paranoid - unless there's good reason!
Unknown
The secret to happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.
So, where do you draw the line? When is a bad law serious enough to warrant action? A government doesn't pass a law that's "utterly abominable" until they've removed their citizens ability to fight back. Usually by passing laws to make the citizens "safe". In Nazi Germany most citizens didn't object even when some of them were dragged off to concentration camps. By that time they were too afraid to object, and justifiably so, the government had made them "safe" by removing their guns and their ability to fight back against "utterly abominable" laws. It's always the same, start off small, if no one objects then pass an even more oppressive law, no one complaining? More oppressive again. They kill you with incrementalism. By the time you wake up and realize it, you've lost not only your rights to change it, but the ability to as well. The time to object is when it's still at the small stage.
Chuck Bryant <3rdpig@bigfoot.com> from sci.geo.satellite-nav 9/Dec/02
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844-1924)
The real wealth creation potential of an enterprise is inversely proportional to the number of MBA's employed therein.
Mark Fort
How can you govern a nation which has 246 kinds of cheese?
Charles de Gaulle
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken
Oliver Cromwell - 1650
People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
Unknown
I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.
Albert Einstein - Letter to Edgar Meyer Jan 2 1915
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
Adolf Hitler - April 11 1942
Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.
Heinrich Himmler - 1935
Another death that changes nothing in this conflict, but changes everything in one family.
Mourning a West Bank wife
Matthew Price, BBC News, Tulkarm
Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one
Journalist; A.J. Liebling
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think
we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.
Arthur C Clarke
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard
There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
James Thurber (1894 - 1961)
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
Dante Alighieri
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"
William Congreve (1670 - 1729). From his play - The Mourning Bride
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Climate Change
Martin Durkin described the public reaction to his television programme which challenged the concept of Climate Change as a "middle-class fatwa": a piquant observation of the discomfort of the Chattering Classes I suspect.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22105154-7583,00.html
It's so cool (is "cool" still a hip word - is "hip" still... never mind :) to support Climate Change and feel morally superior as we do our bit to save the planet by not using plastic bags and recycling milk cartons. Trouble is I'm quite sure almost none of us has the remotest idea whether climate change is happening or not. Over the past couple of years I have listened to experts from both sides of the debate present convincing arguments that climate change is real... and that it is not real! How the hell am I supposed to know? I am but a humble electronics engineer. The reality is that virtually no one in the general public has the specialist knowledge to make any sort of objective assessment and I question a science which whilst it cannot accurately predict the weather two weeks hence maintains confidence concerning the vagaries of the whole planetary climate across millions of years.
Nevertheless it's a fair bet that pumping all the crap associated with industrial development for the past 150 years or so into the atmosphere, oceans and soil hasn't done much to improve our environment and we really should seek to minimise our impact and take stock of what damage (if any) we have caused.
Let's get back to the Middle Classes - Marx was wrong, they are still with us and appear to be gaining in strength, God help us! Still, look on the bright side, at least my appallingly middle class ex-mother-in-law has moved on, although I do miss Bill, her long suffering husband.
The middle-class love climate change because it gives them a sense of purpose and an opportunity to feel superior. No longer may the "Joneses" pontificate upon the virtues of their new [insert consumer item of choice] because the Smiths can now trump them with; "Of course we've downsized in order to use less energy". Brilliant! Joneses left deflated and Smiths gain the moral high ground - despite the fact they couldn't have afforded the damn thing anyway!
It's the hypocrisy of this which angers me: neither the Jones nor the Smiths _really_ give a Dingo's kidneys (Australian expression = "don't care" for the benefit of you foreigners :) about the planet or distribution of energy/wealth upon it. So they recycle their milk cartons and use "Green" shopping bags (which won't break down for ten thousand years!) but they live in houses which required millions of joules of energy to construct and cut their lawns with machines which, again, consumed more energy in their manufacture and use than an Ethiopian will see in ten lifetimes!
I can't quote a source for this but I understand that; "The people of New York use more energy in one week simply commuting to and from work than the whole of Africa uses in one year" - I've always felt that one statistic alone encapsulated the selfishness of the Western World and it's also the one which makes me feel sick when the Smiths tell me they've switched to a Toyota Prius in order to help save the planet. Perhaps part of the problem is that you non-engineers don’t actually understand “energy”, its measurement and consumption?
What's the reality if we really are going to change things?
I guess we huge energy users in The West will need to trim our consumption quite a bit. Cut our energy use by 50% perhaps? The impact of such a change on our day-to-day lives would be dramatic. Private car ownership mostly gone, electronic toys mostly gone, air conditioning definitely gone, heating in all but the really cold climes... gone! Smaller houses utilising very basic construction, simple furniture. What might be the consequences of this? Perhaps we discover we don't actually need huge, air conditioned, expensive shopping malls. Parades of shops and markets come back into vogue, communities flourish around these local hubs, factory farming reduces, people begin to talk to their neighbours again (do you know the first names of all your neighbours?). Without the X box and parents having to work all hours to fund all this consumer junk family relationships improve and there is a very clear link between good relationships and good health.
Trouble is... hardly any of it will happen because we're far too selfish and concerned with our own affluence.
Climate Change? "Oh yes, of course, we're doing our bit we have solar panels feeding back into the grid - we got in just before they cut off the government rebate"
The solar panel rebate, in Australia, was abruptly cut a couple of days ago because the Middle Class were milking the system dry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22105154-7583,00.html
It's so cool (is "cool" still a hip word - is "hip" still... never mind :) to support Climate Change and feel morally superior as we do our bit to save the planet by not using plastic bags and recycling milk cartons. Trouble is I'm quite sure almost none of us has the remotest idea whether climate change is happening or not. Over the past couple of years I have listened to experts from both sides of the debate present convincing arguments that climate change is real... and that it is not real! How the hell am I supposed to know? I am but a humble electronics engineer. The reality is that virtually no one in the general public has the specialist knowledge to make any sort of objective assessment and I question a science which whilst it cannot accurately predict the weather two weeks hence maintains confidence concerning the vagaries of the whole planetary climate across millions of years.
Nevertheless it's a fair bet that pumping all the crap associated with industrial development for the past 150 years or so into the atmosphere, oceans and soil hasn't done much to improve our environment and we really should seek to minimise our impact and take stock of what damage (if any) we have caused.
Let's get back to the Middle Classes - Marx was wrong, they are still with us and appear to be gaining in strength, God help us! Still, look on the bright side, at least my appallingly middle class ex-mother-in-law has moved on, although I do miss Bill, her long suffering husband.
The middle-class love climate change because it gives them a sense of purpose and an opportunity to feel superior. No longer may the "Joneses" pontificate upon the virtues of their new [insert consumer item of choice] because the Smiths can now trump them with; "Of course we've downsized in order to use less energy". Brilliant! Joneses left deflated and Smiths gain the moral high ground - despite the fact they couldn't have afforded the damn thing anyway!
It's the hypocrisy of this which angers me: neither the Jones nor the Smiths _really_ give a Dingo's kidneys (Australian expression = "don't care" for the benefit of you foreigners :) about the planet or distribution of energy/wealth upon it. So they recycle their milk cartons and use "Green" shopping bags (which won't break down for ten thousand years!) but they live in houses which required millions of joules of energy to construct and cut their lawns with machines which, again, consumed more energy in their manufacture and use than an Ethiopian will see in ten lifetimes!
I can't quote a source for this but I understand that; "The people of New York use more energy in one week simply commuting to and from work than the whole of Africa uses in one year" - I've always felt that one statistic alone encapsulated the selfishness of the Western World and it's also the one which makes me feel sick when the Smiths tell me they've switched to a Toyota Prius in order to help save the planet. Perhaps part of the problem is that you non-engineers don’t actually understand “energy”, its measurement and consumption?
What's the reality if we really are going to change things?
I guess we huge energy users in The West will need to trim our consumption quite a bit. Cut our energy use by 50% perhaps? The impact of such a change on our day-to-day lives would be dramatic. Private car ownership mostly gone, electronic toys mostly gone, air conditioning definitely gone, heating in all but the really cold climes... gone! Smaller houses utilising very basic construction, simple furniture. What might be the consequences of this? Perhaps we discover we don't actually need huge, air conditioned, expensive shopping malls. Parades of shops and markets come back into vogue, communities flourish around these local hubs, factory farming reduces, people begin to talk to their neighbours again (do you know the first names of all your neighbours?). Without the X box and parents having to work all hours to fund all this consumer junk family relationships improve and there is a very clear link between good relationships and good health.
Trouble is... hardly any of it will happen because we're far too selfish and concerned with our own affluence.
Climate Change? "Oh yes, of course, we're doing our bit we have solar panels feeding back into the grid - we got in just before they cut off the government rebate"
The solar panel rebate, in Australia, was abruptly cut a couple of days ago because the Middle Class were milking the system dry.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The honesty of the hunter
A few weeks ago, here in Victoria, a young man (21, I think) was badly injured by a ricocheting bullet whilst out deer hunting with his friends. The Herald Sun published a report of the incident on its website, the report was followed by many public comments of the ilk "Now he knows how the deer feels". Over the past 50 years we have seen the "Disney-fication" of animals, especially wild animals; talking foxes which don't tear apart every chicken they can find even when they're not hungry, estuarine crocodiles with nice smiles, cuddly rabbits which don't devastate the habitat of native mammals and plants, female elephants who are not, sometimes, given to killing their own newborn... I could go on.
What I find so hypocritical about the cuddly bunny approach is that the vast majority of people who espouse it are city-dwelling meat eaters most of who have no idea of the bush and its ways. Although I have been a firearms owner for 40 years I have never done much hunting (I shoot feral animals in the bush where necessary) - I don't enjoy killing and am a bit of a closet vegetarian - in spirit at least :) The following is a piece I wrote in response to the above Herald Sun article and its associated replies.
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There is an honesty to the hunter: he does his own killing unlike most of us who choose to pay Safeway to do it. But we want them to do it out of our sight and hearing and then package the result in a manner which removes it as far as possible from the concept of an animal who's death we have occasioned. The kilo of sausages you bought last week didn't commit suicide.
Man has hunted since the dawn of time, it is part of the cycle of life - he hunts wild animals which have lived the proper life of an animal, they played with their siblings, mated, felt the warmth of the sun on their skin - they have not been raised in a cage, filled full of drugs and screamed in terror as they smelled the blood and death of the path into the abattoir.
Before you become too sanctimonious take a visit to a factory farm and a tour of an abattoir and then tell me the way you "hunt" and kill your meat is morally superior to the way of the hunter.
What I find so hypocritical about the cuddly bunny approach is that the vast majority of people who espouse it are city-dwelling meat eaters most of who have no idea of the bush and its ways. Although I have been a firearms owner for 40 years I have never done much hunting (I shoot feral animals in the bush where necessary) - I don't enjoy killing and am a bit of a closet vegetarian - in spirit at least :) The following is a piece I wrote in response to the above Herald Sun article and its associated replies.
---
There is an honesty to the hunter: he does his own killing unlike most of us who choose to pay Safeway to do it. But we want them to do it out of our sight and hearing and then package the result in a manner which removes it as far as possible from the concept of an animal who's death we have occasioned. The kilo of sausages you bought last week didn't commit suicide.
Man has hunted since the dawn of time, it is part of the cycle of life - he hunts wild animals which have lived the proper life of an animal, they played with their siblings, mated, felt the warmth of the sun on their skin - they have not been raised in a cage, filled full of drugs and screamed in terror as they smelled the blood and death of the path into the abattoir.
Before you become too sanctimonious take a visit to a factory farm and a tour of an abattoir and then tell me the way you "hunt" and kill your meat is morally superior to the way of the hunter.
Who cares? Well... eerrrr... me, actually.
15th June 2009 - Melbourne, Australia.
At last! My own little corner of cyberspace in which I may whinge and prattle without being censored by others. A real positive of the internet is its bringing the ability to publish to the masses, no longer does the quotation from journalist A.J. Liebling; "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one" hold quite as true.
Being frustrated by local media (ABC, 3AW, The Age, The Herald Sun etc) who stifle opinion from the public when it doesn't follow their Party Line or make good "talkback" I have created this blog to put forward my opinions regarding issues I consider worth commenting upon and which I believe I have, at least, a modicum of knowledge. Feel free to take me to task or agree - as you choose.
At last! My own little corner of cyberspace in which I may whinge and prattle without being censored by others. A real positive of the internet is its bringing the ability to publish to the masses, no longer does the quotation from journalist A.J. Liebling; "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one" hold quite as true.
Being frustrated by local media (ABC, 3AW, The Age, The Herald Sun etc) who stifle opinion from the public when it doesn't follow their Party Line or make good "talkback" I have created this blog to put forward my opinions regarding issues I consider worth commenting upon and which I believe I have, at least, a modicum of knowledge. Feel free to take me to task or agree - as you choose.
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