Following a discussion on the change in Labor Party leaders
I was very disappointed to hear someone as experienced & intelligent as Antony Greene get sucked into the twisted logic* of the current political ideology.

Yes, people 'aspire' to, for instance, have a good education for their children. But what the idea used to be was that (like Medicare) everyone is entitled to have a reasonable, good education, everyone, having benefited from all the previous generations, contributes to the education of the current crop of children. If there is some special social or religious reason you want something different, then you may pay extra for that, but the majority learn together, each according to their talents.

The present ideology puts the general public good at the very bottom, along with the world (or 'environment'). To almost quote what was said "If you want a good education, send your children to a private school." Thus we end up a divided & fractious society, Catholics there, Anglicans here, Muslims off there, etc, etc.
Suspicious & fearful, closeted off in our own mental (perhaps eventually physical) gated communities & wonderful prey to the political types who feed on that kind of energy. Remember the countries where groups who'd lived together for a century or more were torn apart by this kind of divisive policy, even in Europe

The same with medical treatment - if Kerry Packer pays his taxes he is as entitled to use the general ambulance service if, say, he has a sudden heart attack as anyone else is. He doesn't have to pay for a private one to trail around after him just in case. And we all benefit because there's a well-supported service. Again, the same applies to a good public transport system instead of continual cutbacks, with tax support for private cars & roadbuilding.

If you rip the guts out of the general public services - transport, health, education, social support for those in difficulty - grind down those who are trying to work in them, treat the passengers, patients, pupils, people, who use them without respect, as 'no count trash', naturally those who are able will probably move away. And those who can't? It's axiomatic if you treat people like garbage, they won't love you or treat you well either. Getting respect means giving respect. So you end up in a vicious circle of increasing 'public squalor', driving more away.

*TWISTED LOGIC:
ENVY: If you say a policy or set of behaviours is greedy, selfish, short-sighted & very destructive, this is called 'envy'. That's obviously wrong, since 'envy' means you want what the other person has. What you are actually doing is 'aspiring' to a _better_way_ of doing things, benefiting yourself perhaps, but society & the world most importantly.

ASPIRATION: If you want to imitate the people who are doing destructive, selfish & short-sighted things, they call you 'aspiring'. I call this 'envy'. You may 'aspire' for yourself & your family, like the Suharto family did - the well-known phrase is "bugger you Jack, I'm alright" - but without caring what the consequences are for anyone else.
[Could go on about this more, but the fridge has died and I need to clear the way for the new one. Had to take day off work, although over weekend we cleaned old fridge & threw out all the things I'd been building up for the Christmas/New Year break - Grrr]
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/02/2003 11:56:00 am