The introduction of mass communication after the industrial revolution, like many changes brought about by the industrial revolution, had both good and bad effects. When the radio was the dominant medium, large groups of people could be warned of impending danger, or told of events in the community, all at once with minimal effort. When television was invented, the potential to educate children in the basics of language and mathematics was quickly realised.
But there was a problem. Like all tools, the problem is never (okay, rarely) with the tool itself, but rather who designed it, or who is in command of it. During the majority of the time when televisual media was at its best, it was regulated. And far more heavily so than has been the case during my lifetime. Cry and bleat all you want about that, conservatives, but the historical record says so. In fact, the only contradiction of the fact lies in one of the side-effects of deregulation. You see, in the initial stages of deregulation, new players come onto the market, eager to take advantage of the reduced barriers to entry and make some coin. This is why many of the best films from the 1980s and 1990s were made by independent companies that started small. RoboCop, Alien, and Chuck Norris‘ entire career in film, are just a handful of examples of films that owe their existence to this.
The thing is, the present situation is basically the same as any in which a market has been subjected to a prolonged period of deregulated competition. All of the power, including ownership of products that were made by these now-swallowed-up independents, ends up in the hands of a small number of large companies. And as one Steve Kangas article says so well, one of the reasons markets should be regulated is because in deregulated ones, there is a perpetual elimination of the weakest companies in the market. Perpetual, as in it keeps going even when only strong companies remain.
You might wonder why I diverted into this explanation of deregulation and monopolisation. It is pertinent. You see, another problem with deregulation is that the playing field ends up being very politically biased. That small group of companies will do anything to keep the playing field under their control. Even the mere mention of removing a fragment of their power over their market will bring voluminous tirades against regulation that have about as much basis in reality as a fairy tale. Often, less so.
In the last few years, we have seen many heads of state who have come to lead nations so bitterly divided and so under the control of a privileged few that it must boggle their minds to hear some of the mentions they get in the media. Richard Nixon would have been truly gobsmacked if the press had referred to him as a “Muslim socialist” in response to his lesser-known statement that we are all Keynesians now. If John Gorton had heard a member of the press remark that his father died of shame at what he is, said member of the press would probably know what it feels like to have an Australian Federal Policeman’s fist introduced to their mouth at the speed of sound.
Recently, a radio announcer told a closed meeting of more conservative members of the Australian public that the father of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, John, died of shame brought on by her. Seriously, that is what he said. Apparently, Alan Jones thinks that John Gillard was so ashamed of what Alan Jones perceives as lies on Julia‘s part that John died of it. He has tried to cower in renunciation since, but the reality is that had he not been unknowingly recorded saying these things by a journalist who circulated it to the media at large, he would never have even attempted his half-hearted apologies.
Alan Jones, you are a fukking cunt. I say that here in this unregulated forum, I would say it to your face, and I would say it to an entire room full of the thugs you claim represent the people. Do you know why? It is like the saying (or “Russian epic of Cinderella“, to quote Pavel Chekhov) goes. If the shoe fits, wear it. Like my previous visitor who tried to tell me that separationist language is somehow acceptable, I am offended that you are even allowed to exist on the same planet as myself. If I had similar abilities to characters like Magneto or Sebastian Shaw, there would not be a place in the world you could hide from me. Now, allow me to enlighten you as to why.
You see, contrary to this proto-fascist Australia you want us all to live in wants us to believe, Ms. Gillard has actually done something good for people other than the richest one percent. It might surprise you and your constituents to learn that there are thirty countries in the Organisation For Economic Cooperation And Development, and for poverty levels amongst their disabled populations, Australia ranks dead last. Given that the OECD includes the adamantly anti-socialised healthcare nation of America, and such places as Mexico and the Slovak Republic, that is more than just a disgrace. It is statistics like that that make me wish I could move right the hell out of Australia and send someone like you my feces-covered passport. Are you hearing me on this, Alan? If you are okay with disabled Australians being left in their own filth for the majority of a week due to lack of properly-organised services, then you are not okay with me. Taking away every red cent you have and introducing a baseball bat to your spine seems like a perfectly appropriate response to your verbiage in my mind. Are you hearing me, Alan?
You might not like Julia Gillard. Hell, I do not really like her that much, given that she allows such bills as “Helping Children With Autism” (how does a four-word title manage to be offensive twice, by the way?) to remain law. But unlike the good ole boys you seem to prefer in the top office, Alan, Julia is the one who opted to start to do something about this. Furthermore, the people you have your nose planted in the butts of have demonstrated that they would rather spend 110 million dollars on horse racing than 55 million dollars as an investment in fixing their state’s share of this shameful, shameful situation.
Where was I? Oh yes. You see, people of Australia (I cannot believe I just called them people) and the rest of the world, you need to understand something. Thanks to people being allowed to buy a media and buy a debate, Alan Jones can simply say crap like this to his heart’s content, and often escape without so much as a reprimand. But if I tell the world that I consider the like of Alan Jones to be Nazis and that I should be allowed to have a pistol in case they decide to come after me, I will likely get the police coming to my door. That is a dare, by the way, coppers. You see, I am not like the people you are used to dealing with. No amount of trying to intimidate me into being normie will make me normie. It does not work like that.
But to get back to the more salient point, this is exactly like the statements by Mitt Romney that he does not give a shit about forty-seven percent of the people he aspires to govern. It is symptomatic of the problem that demonstrates that either party, Republithug or Liberal In Name Only, should be barred from the political process from this point going forward and replaced with something conducive to making the system work. You see, this is not the first time that the Liberal In Name Only party or one of the bullies that they regard as friends (or vice versa) have said something so deeply offensive that it has the knowing among those they care not two fukks for are revolted.
Although I only heard this second-hand, I have heard reliably that present Liberal In Name Only leader Tony Abbott (And Costello, ha ha) told an audience that he does not believe in disability. Combine this with his demonstrated hostility towards the rights of women, of Aborigines, or of people who were not drop-kicked through the goalposts of life at birth, and you can imagine why I foresee the election of this ignorant fool as a dark day for non-normies.
In fact, let me be clear about this. My experience has shown that any time the Liberal In Name Only Party is basically given the dictatorial power over the lives of the Australian people, it is a dark day for anyone who is not white, rich, or preferably both. A horrible sentiment to have about a country in the twenty-first century, I am sure you will agree. That it is one based on experience, not merely the discontent of a teenaged “middle class” white boy, makes it all the more horrible.
Hence, I have something I would like to say to Alan Jones. Not only do I want a media that is made for adults, I want a media that is made by adults. That means you have no place in a media. I might think, for example, that a world without Mitt Romney, Tony Abbath, or the entire Toff parties of both England and Australia, would be a better one. But only children automatically proclaim everything that a person says to be a lie, and it only crosses the minds of very small children to proclaim a person died because of being ashamed of them. People die all of the time as a result of Liberal In Name Only type policy, but the cause written on the death certificate is never shame. It has names like suicide, starvation, and so forth. So please let me be clear about this point. If a person died of shame because of me, I would bloodywell hope it was my father. Not because I have done anything wrong by being born different to your ilk, but because the convergence between your ilk and his is so powerful that he deserves to die of shame. In fact, that is going to be a major part of the next thing I write with Kronisk in it.
And by the way, Jones, the disabled in this country are not merely fearing your favourite becoming the country’s Prime Minister. They are scared in a sense of “I might die of poverty if he gets in”. They see him as the worst kind of bully. A bully who does not choose targets based on how different they are from him or why, but on how much weaker they appear to be than him. Hence, it is not the people of the Labour party who are scared of him or think him sexist, it is the country’s entire population. So I do not honestly know who on Earth you think you are describing as “a man of incomparable integrity and conviction”. He is leading the same party that bullied young mothers like mine, left me with a start in life I would not wish on him, and now threatens to take away one hope of rectifying the worst of that. I do not even call that a man. As much as I despise my male parental unit, I doubt that he would call that a man, either.
I do not call you a man, either. Alan Jones, go crawl in a hole and die, please. It will be the first worthwhile thing you will have done with your life.
(Oh, and hans of windsor, “free country” means free for all to inhabit safely and soundly. Not just rich pansy bully-boys like Jones. It means all people have rights. If we were a free country, a party that makes the disabled shit their pants at the mere mention of would be told to either clean up their act or get out. That is what democracy really means. Do not like it? Go back to the kids’ table.)
I Still Find It So Hard... 