Death, Famine, War and Scotty – the Four Horsemen

                                                                                   Fly! Fly! There is no tarrying here!

In 2013, in a graphic demonstration of the naivety of offering olive branches to vermin, the gruesome survivors of the 2007 conservative rout in Australia exhumed the putrid, rotting carcase of the Liberal-National coalition, which staggered minging from the crypt like a monstrous apparition, spitting bile, fear and loathing at the frightened masses, dog-whistling the racists, xenophobes and bigots, beguiling the ignorant with lies, distortion and deceit, confusing the gullible with threats of calamity and ruin, and suborning the selfish with promises of unearned riches and unjustifiable rewards. 

Like horsemen of the apocalypse, these festering survivors of the battle of 2007 appeared in the glowering light of the oncoming storm, led by the ghastly spectre of the snarling face of Abbott  and followed by the loathsome spawn of Howard, slavering at the prospect of suckling at the desiccated breast of a convalescing nation.

For an ignorant, frightened and suspicious populace, hypocrisy, cant and deception were triumphant over logic and reason. 
We were all deeply fucked. 

The conservatives were enthusiastically abetted in their crusade to restore the preordained dominance of the establishment and to the return of the socially, economically and racially disadvantaged to their rightful place at the bottom of the social order by an unholy alliance of big business and the media, the latter being held in thrall by the most powerful man in the world, the expatriate Rupert Murdoch. 

The extraordinary influence of media in politics is troubling in Australia, where there is a disturbing homogeneity of opinion dictated by the Institute of Public Affairs, predominantly conservative-leaning. 

This leads to relentless public criticism of Labor policies and a near-complete absence of critical appraisal of conservative policies. 

It is also unsurprising when ownership of main-stream media is considered. 

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which in past years provided some balance to the relentless right wing bias of commercial media, had been taken over by the ex-private school bright-young-things of the IPA - exemplars of the pernicious influence of economic, social and educational privilege - who have joined in the anti-Labor chorus.

This regrettable development began with Howard (who appointed prominent right-wing supporters to the ABC Board) and was perpetuated by Rudd (who was determined to demonstrate his self-righteous commitment to bipartisanship by egregiously not repealing, or repeating, the blatantly political appointments of his predecessor), and is now nailed to the floor by Turnbull with his support for the appointment of ex-Newscorp executive and Rupert buddy, Michelle Guthrie, as ABC Managing Director. 

Malcolm Turnbull, now more po-faced than fresh-faced, continues to disillusion even the cynical. All that promise of a bright new dawn, of equality and compassion: of help for the helpless and hope for the hopeless, the poor, the disadvantaged and the infirm; of justice for all, of equal access to health care and education. And the end, at last, to discrimination.

All gone to shit because the smarmy git hasn't got the balls to take the risk that the electorate might not be so obsessed with greed and self-interest that they don't care, or that the Opposition might gain some traction by assuming that they do.

We have, indeed, arrived at our Philippi. 
But don't fall on your sword. Despite appearances, this is still a democracy. 
Your vote can make a difference.  
Use it.




2020 UPDATE:
You didn't and it hasn't.  Morrison has set about,with evangelical enthusiasm, proving Clibrig's Fourth Rule of Life - "However bad things are, they can always get worse."

It's time to fall on your sword.

We are all well and truly fucked.