BADGE OF DISHONOUR - PART 2
Education
also leaves you with a huge HECS debt, and you go back to your shitty job
cleaning toilets, stacking shelves, or packing boxes in a warehouse because the
government is so busy misappropriating public taxes as ‘entitlements’ – and using
the fraud of ‘debt recovery’ to steal from the poor who cannot afford legal
help when Due Process and Onus of Proof are ignored – to do their bloody jobs
and create an environment where employment opportunities can grow. You are now
educated enough to know you’re being screwed over but cannot do a damn thing
about it. You no longer benefit from blissful ignorance.
If you did, you wouldn’t pay attention to the news and make connections that reveal links and predict the outcomes of others events. You wouldn’t notice the LNP terrorising hundreds of thousands of people in the hunt for $4B it mismanaged and overpaid in Welfare while politicians claim almost $500M a year in ‘entitlements’. You wouldn’t be able to do the math and realise that if the government created enough jobs for just half the officially register unemployed people that paid enough for those 400,000 people to each pay $10K in taxes, then the cost of providing Welfare would be slashed by $6B a year and they’d provide $4B in revenue. It would allow those people to participate in the economy, spending money and generating more jobs, which would allow the government to focus on other issues rather than terrorising the victims of their ineptitude.
That someone trying to survive on unemployment benefits of just $35 a day does so at two-thirds the poverty rate. They are less of a burden than a politician on base salary alone (not including “entitlements”) who gets $535 a day, and are far less expensive than someone in prison because their incarceration costs $275 a day. That blaming the victims of government failure, and demonising them even as they are exploited to keep inflation and wages at low rates, and strip away working agreements under the dishonest promise that the increased profits a company makes will be used to create more jobs, is a despicable and reprehensible act, a vile betrayal of our citizens by predatory, hypocritical, so-called political representatives.
That unemployed people forced to complete Work for the Dole programs are actually working but do not receive Superannuation, minimum wage, sick days, holidays, Union representation to ensure the Workplace Health and Safety regulations are enforced, and are not protected against workplace harassment. If there is a job for them to do to comply with the government’s policy of indentured servitude, they should be treated as part-time or casual public servants with all of the associated awards and conditions. That this would force the government to create private sector opportunities to ‘sell’ labour to reduce the burden on revenue while, at the same time, allowing those employees to be up-skilled through real training programs.
Which brings us to Superannuation. If the government feels compelled to blame minimum wage workers for not being paid enough to accrue enough Super for their future, but refuses to pursue employers that fail to pay so-called government guaranteed contributions, then the government is at fault. Government should pay Super to all employers and employers should be forced to reimburse government so that any failure to comply becomes the government’s problem, not the victim’s. The government then has an incentive to get dishonest employers to pay the outstanding money and impose penalties and court fees to create an actual disincentive for non-payment, including laws to pursue CEO’s and owners that deregister their company to avoid paying off debts, seizing assets as proceeds of crime where needs be.
If companies can make multi-million or even multi-billion dollar profits, they can afford to pay taxes. Those that refuse to comply and threaten to leave Australia to do business elsewhere can pay a departure tax and increased tariffs to sell goods here if they do. Companies must provide the government with a bond to cover any environmental damage they do or debts they incur should they go belly up. Employees and customers must be the first to be paid out if a business fails, then investors. That’s what risk and reward means: success leads to profit, failure leads to loss. For the investors. Not profits for investors and losses for the exploited workers and customers. Trickle-down economics fails because neo-liberalism rigs the system.
But
people like me can’t live insulated from reality. We can’t not see issues as
opportunities and think of ways to avoid problems. We’re educated. We don’t
have the advantage of being a self-absorbed dullard. If we had just been
content with “the school of hard knocks”, we could still be stupid enough to
blame others for all our hardships. The gays. The immigrants. The refugees. The
Muslims. Women. We could be racists, homophobes, misogynists, and unaffiliated
freelance idiots, bigots who refuse to learn because we have the “alternative
facts” that let us behave like animals. We could live our lives in that unenlightened
stupor of never knowing the ruling-class is using us to maintain their position
of authority and wealth. We could be part of the mindless fucking mass that
lives with their heads buried deep inside their own colon because we went to
“the school of hard knocks” and believe we’re better than everyone else. But
we didn’t.
People like me climbed out of the abysmal muck at the bottom. All that rich, fertile stuff that is forgotten and ignored under the stagnant waters of a swamp. We worked our way toward the surface, beyond the scum that floats on the top and thrives in the sun by exploiting everything produced from below. We are above, looking down, trying to figure out how we can help drain that swamp to help others while struggling against the pull of the toxic filth trying to drag us down, that loud and offensive (in every sense of the word) minority claiming to be the silent majority that’s part of the problem but insists its part of the solution, all those idiot bullies that claim they’re wiser because they went to “the school of hard knocks”.
A
comedian once said, “People who know nothing about everything should shut the
fuck up”. If only it were that simple. Ignorance, bigotry, racism, homophobia,
misogyny, and all the hate of different names is the product of fear and
self-centred stupidity. It is not a badge of honour to be used to bully and
beat better people into silence. That is an act of cowardice and shame. Blaming
others for problems you help cause, are too stupid to learn how to solve, and
prevent others from exposing is part of the problem not part of the solution. What
does that behaviour accomplish? It only makes the problem worse.
It’s all too easy to assume that the ignorance that leads to the rise of right-wing fascism and politicians like Trump can be attributed to the under-class, but that’s far from accurate. A great deal of ignorance can be found in the working-class and even ruling class. They are so detached from the reality of deprivation and necessity of welfare subsistence they believe every lie they are told about the under-class being the source of all society’s woes. The predators, the real cause, create the fiction required to polarise enough voters to support them in their political aspirations, to continue inflicting more harm, more lies.
The solution? It is time to start electing smart people with moral and ethical integrity to lead us. It is time to restore the simple dignity victims of inequality and injustice have been denied. It is time to give everyone the chance to be all they can be, and to use real disincentives to discourage those that would drag us down. Meritocracy and accountability are the key. Those political representatives must be held to account. They must pass performance evaluation tests and suffer consequences for dishonesty and failure, the same as any other public servant, under genuine regulation where “internal investigations” cannot be used to cover-up what causes so much harm by using that conflict of interest to force real victims to remain silent.
If you did, you wouldn’t pay attention to the news and make connections that reveal links and predict the outcomes of others events. You wouldn’t notice the LNP terrorising hundreds of thousands of people in the hunt for $4B it mismanaged and overpaid in Welfare while politicians claim almost $500M a year in ‘entitlements’. You wouldn’t be able to do the math and realise that if the government created enough jobs for just half the officially register unemployed people that paid enough for those 400,000 people to each pay $10K in taxes, then the cost of providing Welfare would be slashed by $6B a year and they’d provide $4B in revenue. It would allow those people to participate in the economy, spending money and generating more jobs, which would allow the government to focus on other issues rather than terrorising the victims of their ineptitude.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-02/david-leyonhjelm-calls-to-restrict-pension-assets-test/8157924
That someone trying to survive on unemployment benefits of just $35 a day does so at two-thirds the poverty rate. They are less of a burden than a politician on base salary alone (not including “entitlements”) who gets $535 a day, and are far less expensive than someone in prison because their incarceration costs $275 a day. That blaming the victims of government failure, and demonising them even as they are exploited to keep inflation and wages at low rates, and strip away working agreements under the dishonest promise that the increased profits a company makes will be used to create more jobs, is a despicable and reprehensible act, a vile betrayal of our citizens by predatory, hypocritical, so-called political representatives.
That unemployed people forced to complete Work for the Dole programs are actually working but do not receive Superannuation, minimum wage, sick days, holidays, Union representation to ensure the Workplace Health and Safety regulations are enforced, and are not protected against workplace harassment. If there is a job for them to do to comply with the government’s policy of indentured servitude, they should be treated as part-time or casual public servants with all of the associated awards and conditions. That this would force the government to create private sector opportunities to ‘sell’ labour to reduce the burden on revenue while, at the same time, allowing those employees to be up-skilled through real training programs.
Which brings us to Superannuation. If the government feels compelled to blame minimum wage workers for not being paid enough to accrue enough Super for their future, but refuses to pursue employers that fail to pay so-called government guaranteed contributions, then the government is at fault. Government should pay Super to all employers and employers should be forced to reimburse government so that any failure to comply becomes the government’s problem, not the victim’s. The government then has an incentive to get dishonest employers to pay the outstanding money and impose penalties and court fees to create an actual disincentive for non-payment, including laws to pursue CEO’s and owners that deregister their company to avoid paying off debts, seizing assets as proceeds of crime where needs be.
If companies can make multi-million or even multi-billion dollar profits, they can afford to pay taxes. Those that refuse to comply and threaten to leave Australia to do business elsewhere can pay a departure tax and increased tariffs to sell goods here if they do. Companies must provide the government with a bond to cover any environmental damage they do or debts they incur should they go belly up. Employees and customers must be the first to be paid out if a business fails, then investors. That’s what risk and reward means: success leads to profit, failure leads to loss. For the investors. Not profits for investors and losses for the exploited workers and customers. Trickle-down economics fails because neo-liberalism rigs the system.
People like me climbed out of the abysmal muck at the bottom. All that rich, fertile stuff that is forgotten and ignored under the stagnant waters of a swamp. We worked our way toward the surface, beyond the scum that floats on the top and thrives in the sun by exploiting everything produced from below. We are above, looking down, trying to figure out how we can help drain that swamp to help others while struggling against the pull of the toxic filth trying to drag us down, that loud and offensive (in every sense of the word) minority claiming to be the silent majority that’s part of the problem but insists its part of the solution, all those idiot bullies that claim they’re wiser because they went to “the school of hard knocks”.
It’s all too easy to assume that the ignorance that leads to the rise of right-wing fascism and politicians like Trump can be attributed to the under-class, but that’s far from accurate. A great deal of ignorance can be found in the working-class and even ruling class. They are so detached from the reality of deprivation and necessity of welfare subsistence they believe every lie they are told about the under-class being the source of all society’s woes. The predators, the real cause, create the fiction required to polarise enough voters to support them in their political aspirations, to continue inflicting more harm, more lies.
The solution? It is time to start electing smart people with moral and ethical integrity to lead us. It is time to restore the simple dignity victims of inequality and injustice have been denied. It is time to give everyone the chance to be all they can be, and to use real disincentives to discourage those that would drag us down. Meritocracy and accountability are the key. Those political representatives must be held to account. They must pass performance evaluation tests and suffer consequences for dishonesty and failure, the same as any other public servant, under genuine regulation where “internal investigations” cannot be used to cover-up what causes so much harm by using that conflict of interest to force real victims to remain silent.
Where can we find good people to affect positive change? How can we move against anti-social behaviour? Well, the best place to start is by educating yourself, to move beyond “the school of hard knocks” to become a means to affect positive change. You could encourage others to do the same but should recognise when such efforts will be wasted. Trying to reason with fools is an exercise in futility. If you engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed foe, it is a war of attrition that only ends in them scorching the earth as they seek to drag you down to their level. Besides, that’s not what we’re taught to do.
We’re
taught to ignore it. Say nothing. Remain silent. We are told if we do this, the
problem will go away. That’s bullshit. If you say nothing, if you do nothing,
you enable it. The problem will remain or escalate. If you watch some scumbag
wailing on someone who cannot defend themselves, and you ignore it, does it
stop? Maybe. Eventually. It will probably happen again, but as long as it isn’t
you, right? What the fuck is wrong with you?! You may as well go over and lay
the boot into the victim too! You say something. You do your best to stop that
shit! And if the offender was a ‘friend’ and refuses to change that vile
behaviour, you drop them in your wake and sail on by without a backward glance.
If that means you
have to break ties with your so-called friends and even people from a
“Christian” church you attend, so be it. As long as you remain part of an
unhealthy group of anti-social bigots, bullies and hypocrites, they will
continue to shape you in a manner that enables their own self-centred agendas.
And if you are part of one of the far too many ‘Christian’ cults that seem to
think inflicting their own rules on others is righteous, you need to sit down
with a copy of the Holy Bible (NIV) and actually read the thing, engage your
brain, and learn. Bad company corrupts good character.
And
just so you don’t feel hard-done by or compelled to hypocritically inflict the
whole “do not judge” line at me, my parents and step-parents (along with many
of my other relatives and far too many other people I know who are just as vile)
all claim to be Christians. I was raised Catholic, studied religion a great
deal, spent several years with one of the most reprehensible Presbyterian
Churches I’ve ever encountered, and have even tried to reason with Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh Day Adventists. Faith isn’t the problem, it’s
what greedy self-centred people do with religion that causes so much harm.
Seriously, sit down and read the New Testament. Jesus Christ was all about love and tolerance. He never told anyone to inflict his teachings on anyone else. He even said that if people didn’t want to follow him, walk away, to leave them alone. He also mentioned sawdust, planks of wood, and not throwing stones. His ideologies were about compassion, real Socialism, not Capitalist, and his anger at folks turning the Church into a commodity and experts in the law inflicting injustice should have been a pretty good indication of how he felt in regards to all the so-called “Christian” cults today. He opposed ignorance, discrimination, bigotry, but gave his own followers some rules to follow. Them. Not rules for everyone. Just them.
Read the New Testament and you only find three direct references to homosexuality, and a few more that could be interpreted as such. They’re side-by-side with a whole slew of other sins that ‘Christians’ are happy to violate or ignore, including hypocrisy, but that homosexuality one they single out and impose on non-Christians. Why is that? They do it with abortion too, and it’s not even mentioned in the Bible. It’s legalised in many places under State laws, a woman’s right to choose if there are pregnancy complications that force such a horrible, heartbreaking choice. Her choice. But far too many ‘Christians’ impose their own views on that too.
It
takes at least two people to make a baby. Sometimes not by choice. But for some
reason, a bunch of vile, self-absorbed bloody hypocrites from extremist
religious sects feel compelled to insert themselves into the relationships of
others to impose their own views on what the mother can or cannot do with her
own body regardless of whatever circumstance requires her to make a choice.
They insist she carry the child to term and raise it, but where are they when that
mother or child needs money and support? They are casting stones at her for
being a single mother or some other ‘sin’. Where do they get the audacity to do
this?
And what of the men who have affairs, simply abandon their wives and children, divorce their wives to get another (often much younger) one? What about those who steal from others, refuse to pay wages, engage in premarital or extramarital sex, slander those against whom they have sinned, drink to excess, and do so many things that also violate the rules? Why aren’t they vilified and ostracised like women who may have need of an abortion, or homosexuals? How is it they are not held to the same standards? How is it they can still be part of a religious cult, even part of a leadership team, but homosexuals and women who get an abortion are slandered, vilified, terrorised, and driven from the church?
But while church folk frown on ‘others’ both inside and outside their cult, judging, gossiping, and behaving as hypocrites even as they rebuke others for the same, there are some outside the cults that can be just as despicable. They hate religious folk to the point that they will accuse anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of religion of being a “Bible basher” or “God-boy” and any other half-wit insult they can make despite the fact that their own behaviour is as bad as, or worse than, the most zealous religious fanatic.
Seriously, sit down and read the New Testament. Jesus Christ was all about love and tolerance. He never told anyone to inflict his teachings on anyone else. He even said that if people didn’t want to follow him, walk away, to leave them alone. He also mentioned sawdust, planks of wood, and not throwing stones. His ideologies were about compassion, real Socialism, not Capitalist, and his anger at folks turning the Church into a commodity and experts in the law inflicting injustice should have been a pretty good indication of how he felt in regards to all the so-called “Christian” cults today. He opposed ignorance, discrimination, bigotry, but gave his own followers some rules to follow. Them. Not rules for everyone. Just them.
Read the New Testament and you only find three direct references to homosexuality, and a few more that could be interpreted as such. They’re side-by-side with a whole slew of other sins that ‘Christians’ are happy to violate or ignore, including hypocrisy, but that homosexuality one they single out and impose on non-Christians. Why is that? They do it with abortion too, and it’s not even mentioned in the Bible. It’s legalised in many places under State laws, a woman’s right to choose if there are pregnancy complications that force such a horrible, heartbreaking choice. Her choice. But far too many ‘Christians’ impose their own views on that too.
And what of the men who have affairs, simply abandon their wives and children, divorce their wives to get another (often much younger) one? What about those who steal from others, refuse to pay wages, engage in premarital or extramarital sex, slander those against whom they have sinned, drink to excess, and do so many things that also violate the rules? Why aren’t they vilified and ostracised like women who may have need of an abortion, or homosexuals? How is it they are not held to the same standards? How is it they can still be part of a religious cult, even part of a leadership team, but homosexuals and women who get an abortion are slandered, vilified, terrorised, and driven from the church?
But while church folk frown on ‘others’ both inside and outside their cult, judging, gossiping, and behaving as hypocrites even as they rebuke others for the same, there are some outside the cults that can be just as despicable. They hate religious folk to the point that they will accuse anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of religion of being a “Bible basher” or “God-boy” and any other half-wit insult they can make despite the fact that their own behaviour is as bad as, or worse than, the most zealous religious fanatic.
You see bigots everywhere. A “Make America Great Again” cap on their empty head, or the Australian or Nazi flag flapping from their car, covering their face or wrapped around their neck like a cape as they mock, insult or threaten anyone that isn’t so white their brain has been bleached by twisted Nationalist dogma. They usually have tattoos and body piercings in places a doctor would advise they didn’t, but since they refuse to listen to doctors because doctors are educated, they have tattoos and body piercings in stupid places that can cause medical problems. And chances are, they’re missing a few teeth. They are the kind of idiots that scream at young Aboriginal girls, “Don’t like it, leave”, “Get the fuck out of my country”, and “go back where you came from” as if informed opinions, reality, and civilised behaviour (like avoiding prepositions) have no place in their world.
This
is the price of glorifying ignorance, stupidity and idiocy. This is what you
get when politicians refuse to do their jobs, when they refuse to regulate
private education to ensure good quality outcomes, and go out of their way to
cut funding to public education and mental health services. Ignorance is like
an Ebola virus left untreated. You get one person who is infected spreading
shit everywhere until a few other folk get it. Then a few more. Then a lot
more. And before you know it you’re up to your armpits in liquid shit, corpses
and misdirected blame trying not to get infected too and thinking, “you know
what, if someone had said something, taken some kind of positive action instead
of ignoring this problem when it was just an issue, we wouldn’t be up to our
armpits in liquid shit, corpses and misdirected blame trying not to get
infected.”
Comments
Post a Comment