Voting at an election is just one way we can disrupt the eating up of the world – to continually flush out career politicians from parliament and have ordinary folk sitting who won’t be as easily captured by corporatism. That is – the process of dismantling the old world while we are growing the new.
You can listen to the audio only version here:
Towards a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible… Big thanks to Glen Dunn for the remixing of the audio.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Anyone who has attended a local branch meeting of the ‘majors’ and the Greens and met the reality of the MPs and their daily struggles to cut through meaningfully knows all too well how misguided this view of the world is. They are just ordinary folk trying to do their best.
Yes, we are shaped by our experiences and what we witness, as much as what we already come to life carrying in our dna. This article gives some context for our differences, Pat. https://brownstone.org/articles/australia-champion-covidiot/
Gigi is a strange ally – she notoriously analysed the event in economic terms and proposed that it would cost less to let it run.
Not an ally, just a timely counter argument to the conformist political mindset, which will hopefully be shockingly disrupted tomorrow. But if not tomorrow, next election, then the next, and the next until we flush out the lobbied careerists and we rebuild a political system that is conscious, present, and not in the pockets of Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, The WHO, et al. It is a lie to say Foster suggested ‘let it rip’, but as that’s the policy from the Labor state government now, while they maintain the mandates and are therefore harming people, what exactly are you defending?
I’m sorry, it is strictly true that she argued that we should trade lives taken by covid against lives taken by lockdowns: “‘Economists have tried to do that and we try to do that in currencies like the value of a statistical life.
‘If you do that kind of calculus you realise very quickly that even with a very, very extreme epidemic, in Australia, we are still potentially better off not having an economic lockdown in the first place because of the incredible effects that you see.
‘Not just in a short-run way but in many years to come.’
The problem is she never attempted to quantify it and as we now know there hasn’t been a proportionate increase in lives lost by suicide, although there may be some impact as a result of delayed access to medical services, but that would have happened anyway in the context of a runaway covid event in this country.
Ironically, and this may be an idea you have some sympathy with, the slower lifestyle that lockdowns induced may have improved many peoples quality of life. Gigi could for instance now measure the improved outcomes for the countless people still working from home.
If you read this transcript of Prof Gigi Foster’s address to the PUBLIC ACCOUNTS AND ESTIMATES COMMITTEE (RE: Inquiry into the Victorian Government’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Melbourne—Wednesday, 12 August 2020) you’ll see that she is pro human welfare, arguing that the health measures are reductive and cancel out welfare. We think this is a fair call and it exposes the state Labor government’s negligence and harm it constituted on Victorians regarding lockdowns, not to mention closing children’s playgrounds and the vaccine mandates. While the laptop class loved the lockdowns, and we being a car-free family loved hearing bird song and no traffic, Victorian workers and many others were shafted by the Andrews government. Please feel free to read the document yourself. Thanks Pat. Inquiry into the Victorian Government’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Melbourne—Wednesday, 12 August 2020 It is also worth reading her completed Cost/Benefit analysis (May 2022).
Quite a few comments on the Twitter feed of Damien Cave who recently wrote an article in the New York Times how Australia dealt differently with the covid crisis compared to the United States.
https://twitter.com/damiencave/status/1526013614809022465
Thanks Sambodhi, Gigi Foster’s excellent reply to Cave’s triumphalism is wonderful to behold, and sobering: https://brownstone.org/articles/australia-champion-covidiot/
I am collaborating with my young neighbors who are so on board with the core values of slow food and medicine, community building, and political reformation, starting small here in Michigan, with a wider view. I’ll keep spreading the word. Bless you for your grit, artistry, and love.
Oh, the empowerment of the neighbourhood, Lynn. Wonderful to read this. Sending love and solidarity to you and your peeps xx
Lovely song! Thank you both for having the courage to speak the truth.
Thanks Char!
Great video thank you! Majors and/or miners last.
Nice. Miners last. The need for a post-mining party? Maybe called Custodians.
Thanks again Patrick, Meg and Woody. blessings to you all
Thanks Kate!