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9th
October
2004
Just took a look at the Aussie Blogs’ Recent Posts page and there seems to be a lot of disappointed bloggers out there. My general impression is that that is a fairly accurate picture of blogland here in Australia. There definitely seems to be a fairly strong left wing bias amongst bloggers. A quote from the first blog on the list at the moment (which I choose not to link to) : “I’m just going out the back for a minute. Don’t worry if you hear a gunshot.”
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Categories : Politics |
9th
October
2004
Maybe I’m just weird but I love watching the election coverage on TV. It’s only on every 3 years or so but I just lap it up - all those stats and graphs and little pictures of the seats. Going through all the different seats and talking to the different members and candidatees - swings, preferences, primary votes and 2 party preferred votes, gains and losses. It’s just very dry talk for hours on end but for me it’s edge of seat stuff, though the suspense went out of it fairly quickly tonight - not that that has lessened my enjoyment of it.
Categories : Politics |
9th
October
2004
“No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof. If no one turned around when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met ‘cut us dead’, and acted as if we were non-existing things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would before long well up in us, from which the cruellest bodily torture would be a relief.”
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (Boston 1890)
[Current Music: Hillsong London - Shout Your Fame]
Categories : Quotes |
9th
October
2004
Why is it that we often feel like we shouldn’t ever talk about politics in coversation, like it’s taboo? Why is it that when the topic does come up we get this guilty feeling for discussing it. Shouldn’t the discussion of politics and important national issues that affect us all be something that should be encouraged in a vibrant democracy, rather than frowned upon? Of course the danger is that such a discussion can quickly stray into vehement defense of your position and when it become emotional or when another person is run down because of their diferring opinions then that is when such discussions should be terminated. I guess the problem is that some people do feel so strongly about these issues that when they talk to others about it, it almost invariably comes across like they are preaching, or campaigning. There’s a guy like that where I’m working now - no one likes to talk about politics with him because once he gets on his high horse you have trouble stopping him and he will go on for ages. Now in a lot of ways I agree with him politically and it makes me uncomfortable so I’d hate to think how it must make someone who disagrees with him feel.
The reason I write all this is because yesterday I was asked about the election and had an opportunity to influence someone’s vote (shock, horror - trying to influence the way someone votes must be an even worse sin than discussing politics in the first place) and in the process I felt uncomfortable, guilty, and kind of dirty. I actually considered backing out and saying something like “you have to make up your own mind” but this person was asking me directly what I thought so I ended up telling her. It was one of the young receptionists at my work, who is voting in her first election. Like the young people we were talking about in a discussion at lowercase, she really didn’t have a clue about who to vote for and why - the classic uncommited voter. So she asked me what I thought. And despite the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach I told her, and gave her some reasons why to make that choice. And she said “Ok, I’ll vote for them then. Thanks,” I don’t think I did the wrong thing because she asked my opinion and I gave it to her. I wasn’t bothering people who weren’t interested trying to influence their vote - I was just responding to her query. But it still left me with this kind of dirty feeling - I wonder if politicians feel that way all the time?
Ironically that exchange possibly might make more difference to the election outcome than my vote will today, since she lives in a tight marginal seat, while I live in the safe Labor seat of Brand, held by Kim Beazley. If my party retains her seat I’ll feel some gratification I guess, but probably more of that strange guilty feeling as well. Anyway thanks for hearing my ‘confession’ 
[Current Music: Smashing Pumpkins - Soma]
Categories : Politics |
