Still under the anaesthetic? Sleepy Hobbits still in slumber
These are changing times with a growing constituency for fundamental economic and political reform but perhaps for the first time in its short history since colonisation, NZ cannot be considered to be a leading agent for change.
This is the country where women first won the right to vote in national elections. Old age pensions and other elements of social security were introduced way back in the 1890’s.
In 1935, long before the reforms of most other Western nations, the first Labour Government began a programme of comprehensive social security and social protections, state housing, free education and free health.
In the 1980’s New Zealand was at the forefront of the neo liberal revolution; deregulating, privatizing and removing subsidies at break neck speed and permanently damaging whole communities in the process.
This is also the country where the rights of indigenous people have been a major and ongoing issue in the social discourse and there has been progress in recognizing these rights over the last 30 years.
On a recent visit back home I was struck by the grim emptiness of politics in Aotearoa. Of course there are activists doing great work; there is union organizing, environmental activism, fights for Maori sovereignty and a broad coalition against the TPPA. But I did not detect a growing groundswell for political change that stretched into the consciousness of the nation and which would concern the ruling elite.
Politics is dumbed down and hollowed out. The standard of the mainstream media is woeful and it serves up almost 100% ‘infotainment’. The attacks on privacy and civil rights are all so ho-hum to the daily news feeders. Serious academics and journalists such as Jane Kelsey and Nicky Hagar are deliberately consigned to the fringes. The class war of recent decades has seriously eroded workers’ rights and choked the space and questioned the legitimacy of the collective voice of unions. The strands of a coherent narrative for fundamental change are present but middle NZ remains switched off, still comfortable in a debt fueled economic illusion.
Globally, corporate capital continues to hoover up the world’s resources and kill democracy. Austerity is destroying the future of Europe’s young people. Victims of the largest refugee crisis since World War 2 are de-humanised by media and politicians, and the West’s culpability in creating the crisis is largely ignored.
But despite all of this, or rather as a result of this open attack on egalité, fraternité and liberté; in Europe and the U.S., there is something in the air.
The brutal attack on the people of Greece has shown Europe’s rulers to be ruthless defenders of austerity and neo-liberalism. Syriza has been forced to retreat but the party is still a progressive hope for Europe and they have shown the way for other parties on the left. Syriza is not just a political party, it is a movement for social change. It built support through practical community programmes of assistance to those suffering from the austerity imposed by the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Syriza needs allies. Its leader Alexia Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece, was booed on the floor of the European parliament by conservative and social democratic parties alike in a forum more like a witch trial than the expression of democratic peoples of Europe.
The rise of the SNP in Scotland, on a progressive platform of self determination that rejects austerity, has energized the youth of Scotland to embrace political activism.
The candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn for leader of the British Labour Party is as refreshing in England as the SNP has been in Scotland. Win or lose, the new united force behind Corbyn will grow from strength to strength and, with the SNP, will fundamentally change British politics for the better. The bankers of London should be concerned. The Blairites are finished.
And in the U.S., the candidacy of Bernie Sanders for President continues to astonish. This is not the pre-Presidential rhetoric of Obama, this is the real thing. His every speaking engagement demands a bigger venue for his growing audience. Like Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie tells it like it is in language that ordinary people use. Can we dare to hope that the age of the sound bite is receding?
It is very unlikely that Bernie Sanders will be elected President, or that Jeremy Corbyn will one day be PM, but the political programmes they are championing are now a growing political force which can triumph in other nations just as they would have in Greece but for the brutal reaction of the European establishment. The lesson of Greece is that democracy must be defended demonstrably and actively by allies in other countries. The lack of political pressure in home countries (and the appalling media myths perpetrated on German television) let the European parliament crush the will of the Greek people. The EU was not created to defend democracy but to defend privilege.
So NZ, will we just be followers in the future? Has the neo liberal revolution killed our reforming spirit? Are we all just consumers now? Prove me wrong!
James Ritchie runs one of the largest Unions on the planet – the IUF-UITA-IUL
Syriza failed because they wanted to end Austerity but they wanted to do so within the confines of the EU and Eurozone and thus expected other nations to pay for it. Quite understandably the rest of the Eurozone member nations baulked at writing blank cheques to a nation that had shown that it couldn’t be trusted to spend it’s way to prosperity.
I think you are viewing history through (red) rose tinted glasses if you think NZ and the rest of the world were somehow paragons of progressive politics in the past. The response to the problems facing the developed world are pretty much the same as those prior to the 1980’s. Neo-liberalism (whatever that means) has not changed this one iota.
Will you say the same about NZ debt when the shit hits the fan, or is NZ not trying to spend our way to prosperity through your government’s borrowing of $100 billion?
What the F—–k!!!!!
http://pro.moneymappress.com/MMRBSSH39PPM3/WMMRR539/?pub=mmr&ad=china-market-crash-2&h=true
BRILLIANT … THE CABAL IS GOING UP IN FLAMES !!!!!
The Fed has been bankrupt for years and has finally been caught.
ROLL OUT NESARA.
Here’s another perspective of Greece which might warrant a look:
http://sgtreport.com/2015/08/whats-really-going-on-in-europe-a-dutch-perspective/
I think you are viewing history through (red) rose tinted glasses if you think NZ and the rest of the world were somehow paragons of progressive politics in the past. The response to the problems facing the developed world are pretty much the same as those prior to the 1980’s. Neo-liberalism (whatever that means) has not changed this one iota.
I agree. What happened in NZ is that we woke up to the fact that we had to make our way in the real world, that we could no longer rely on ‘mother England’ and her common-wealth to buy all of our produce and maintain our standard of living. Our response was to adopt a free-er market approach, and now we make it in the world on our own merits, as farmers, orchardists, film makers, tourist hosts, technology innovators, etc etc. We should be proud of what we have achieved, but the bitterness of the left knows no bounds.
Not quite – during the transition a great deal of public property made its way into corrupt and undeserving hands. This is why our phones and electricity are disproportionately expensive and our internet unnecessarily slow.
So is was socialism for corporate capitalists and the free market for everyone else. And it hasn’t worked. We slimmed education, not corporate salaries. Telecom was allowed to maintain a monopoly for decades.
The accounting, when it comes, and come it must, will be terrible.
“during the transition a great deal of public property made its way into corrupt and undeserving hands. ”
Names? This isn’t Russia Stuart.
“This is why our phones and electricity are disproportionately expensive and our internet unnecessarily slow.”
I’d be interested in seeing evidence to support those assertions. The reality is that our telco service is far more efficient and effective than it was in the days prior to liberalisation.
Why are my comments being marked as spam Admin?
[This is not deliberate policy on our part, Gosman, and is an issue that we are working on. We regularly check the various Folders to see if messages are ending up in the wrong place. Apologies for any inconvenience caused in the meantime. We are working on it. – ScarletMod]
Your comments are nonsense anyway.
A wise man fills his mind before emptying his mouth.
Little proverb there for you.
Totally agree ! ! !
Blog sites need a few Gosmans. Someone’s got to bowl the ball to bat off
Maybe because your comments are as repetitive, numerous, persisting and to some perhaps annoying, that fits the description of spam, I suppose. But that is just my “wild” amateurish guess.
We don’t know what equality, fraternity, liberty (democracy) looks like or how it’s supposed to be run. Where are the examples. Perhaps Norway comes the closest.
In the known so-called democracies one tyrant (surrounded by his yes men/women) simply replaces another (surrounded by his yes men/women. With the occasional singing canary, I mean whale oil, thrown in).
I’m happy to stand corrected.
I feel I have to say something here, so as not to leave Gosman as the sole respondent to this excellent post. This sentence is telling; “The strands of a coherent narrative for fundamental change are present but middle NZ remains switched off, still comfortable in a debt fueled economic illusion.” It is true that a small section of NZers are living a kind of celebrity life-style that was all but non-existent in an older NZ. However, I think that the globalised character of neoliberalism leaves many more people feeling helpless, in the belief that we are too far from, and too much at the mercy of, the centres of global power to exert meaningful influence over them, and hence over how things go in NZ. Many past shows of progressive muscle occurred within the relative safety of a British Empire that seemed unlikely to abandon NZ, even if it considered its politics risky, and in habits that continued to rest on that assumption after the reality had disappeared. Moreover, it is fairly easy in a small country to keep the entire media in lock-step with powers-that be, especially when that small country contains few career opportunities. However, so long as ‘the strands of a coherent narrative for fundamental change” remain alive, they can also be very quickly activated in a small country. So I sigh along with you, but I have not given up hope.
Nope – wake up wont happen … yet. Little country, easily controlled. Watch out for UN Agenda 21 now being put in place in U.S. The plans for California very interesting.
I believe, can’t confirm, Hamilton has been identified for the roll-out here. Flag, blasphemy law … NWO really being put into another gear for N.Z. What next jonkey, old chap? Perhaps things might change in September. Here’s hoping.
I wrote a comment on this very good post, but it disappeared when I pressed “post”. I don’t know if I made a typo in the little sum, or whether something else has gone wrong.
Olwyn,
Goose stepper is freckling out as he gets paid for “Performance” and “reaction” to his stinging statements but I suppose since he is getting culled because of the new “Blasphemy” charges he wont get paid now because he cant write nicely without offending us all it seems.
Forget him ignore and they go away. Please post this Scarlet Mod.
@Cleangreen: May I post this confirming your link above:http://sgtreport.com/2015/08/warning-alt-energy-insider-the-elite-are-in-a-panic/
Please post this Scarlet Mod. Not intended for people to panic, just know that the cabal wont lie down quietly. We need to have things in place for ourselves and our families until Nesara rolls out.
Be my guest Helena.
These whistle blowers need to be heard.
fair enquiry James;
individualism, aspiration and consumerism have replaced much collective activity and public participation in civic affairs and elections continues to drop as a consequence of inequality and alienation
it will probably take a slew of farm failures and subsequent sell offs, hordes of jafas with negative equity after a popped real estate bubble and the middle class to lose their dole–WFF Working for Families in work tax credit, to get the selfish kiwis inertia out of the way
there are pockets of resistance and a good bedrock of decent kiwis among the dark kiwis aka the sleepy hobbits as Martyn calls them, the brutish dimwitted ones that conduct trial by social media and would sooner attend a boxing day sale than a TPPA Walk Away march
people will rally to class causes once the main stream media can be got around or co-opted as the zero hours issue in fast food showed, Campbell was not sacked for no reason!
a thorough up to date class analysis needs to be done urgently in NZ so left activists know what forces they are actually trying to organise,
it emerged that in the UK only 48% of employed people have a ‘traditional’ job with established hours, holidays etc. which makes things like a UBI more of a priority if most are in precarious or even unpaid work (interns and the like)
kiwis will rise again we just need to adapt our methods of work to the new reality that the 21st century is one of increased exploitation for the many rather than the futuristic leisure world once predicted, enlisting consumer support is already a significant factor
the last feature is internationalism, the corporates have just about run out of places to hide
Politics have become so timid and entertainment based because the political right have steadily and stealthily been weaning New Zealanders off news and onto infotainment over the last two decades or so, and now they are hooked. People hooked on infotainment do not ask many questions, because they don’t really want to know anything more than the kind of dross that is served up on the likes of E-Channel. Questions more difficult than “What is your favourite colour, or “what is your ideal Sunday?” severely tax their brains.
The National Party used blather on about how great the new knowledge economy would be to New Zealand. Don’t hear much about the knowledge economy now do we? Probably because they don’t want it to happen, when people acquire knowledge they start asking questions that the political right don’t want asked. Questions like: is there a better way? National don’t want people to know that there is a better way, and our pathetic dithering MSM want to help them achieve this.
Give me an example of a ‘better way’ being implemented somewhere in the World please?
Certainly in places like Greece and Venezuela people are realising that you can’t simply vote for a different reality.
Denmark, Sweden perhaps, Gossy?
Gee Gosman, you really have a bee in your bonnet about the Venezuelans. What did they do to you?
This is essentially a variation of “People who disagree with me are stupid”. It is indicative or a high degree of intellectual arrogance by certain supporters on the left of the political spectrum.
And the right too Gosman. Let’s be honest here.
You want examples, Gosman? OK, I’ll give you some examples. A better way means treating disadvantaged people with respect instead of ridicule; a better way means giving people with opposite views to the government a fair hearing on the MSM. A better way means giving people job security instead of them having to hope and pray they might be offered enough hours to pay their bills each week. A better way means stop putting the needs of the 1% ahead of everyone else. A better way means stop pouring cow shit into our rivers. A better way means stop putting New Zealand’s assets up to auction so the foreign corporates can cash in. Need I go on or have you got the point yet? You may feel comfortable in the dirty corrupt system we have at the moment, but I don’t and there is no shame in saying so. There is more shame in pulling your head in and pretending that everything is rosy.
” The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. ” Noam Chomsky
New Zealand society and the MSM have this down to a fine art. Dissenting views even by a majority are simply ignored like the asset sale referendum. Serious issues simply aren’t debated or discussed like child poverty and neoliberalism.
Campbell live was sacked because he refused to stay in that box.
A million didn’t vote last election ,they know their opinions are irrelevant and will not be taken notice of. Same in the U$,the U$K.
“The brutal attack on the people of Greece has shown Europe’s rulers to be ruthless defenders of austerity and neo-liberalism.”
No, what it has shown is that any nation that lives beyond it’s means will be held to account. Greece is suffering not because of neo-liberalism, but because of it’s own brand of socialism that empowered an entitlement mentality amongst it’s peoples that we have at times dangerously courted with here in NZ.
@ Lionking . Poor lamb . Can’t read and don’t get out much do you? Never mind. You’ll be safe with us . You won’t be hunted down , murdered then eaten by your beloved members of the Right-Wing, Law of The Jungle Brigade . We’re here to protect and nurture each other. Not to lie, cheat , steal, swindle and in some cases murder each other for baubles and power.
( I honestly don’t know why I bother with kittenkings. Hones my sarcasm skills I suppose. )
The moment action takes the place of looking on in horror will be an interesting moment indeed. Professor Stanley Milgram’s made a study of that particular human conundrum. We see it ! We know it’s terrible! We empathise with the victim! We, however remain rooted to the spot. Doomed to look on in horror.
And it’s largely due to the likes of @ Kittenking. The likes of this character play a powerful role in disarming the dissident . A bully, in other words.
And in New Zealand, the land of the Long White Bully, it’s never been more a powerful emotion and a brilliant tool to command dubious respect for an equally dubious albeit weak authority, frankly.
To act ! No matter how absurd, how difficult, how dangerous, how silly one might look on the TV, no matter what others might think. To Act ! Even in blind rage is better than this . Quietly going to our graves softly puffing out stale, angry air. We’ve become like little lambs, herded by kittens, off to make monsters lives ever more comfortable while we little lambs die in debt after working too hard.
I’ve just watched this .
Someone. Please. Tell me this isn’t so ?
Alan Hubbard conspiracy .
https://youtu.be/E9CE1a4pSeQ
Ok. Now Listen/watch this . Turn it way the fuck up !
Rage against the machine
https://youtu.be/bWXazVhlyxQ
Feel anything ? Are we, as a free people, going to just keep talking ? Or are we going to act ?
Controlled by debt, hunted like mongrel dogs by banks and money lenders, treated like shit by small, political masters with psychopathy on their side to guide them on their unquenchable quest to have what’s yours and mine? If you’re in any doubt, you need to have a stiff whiskey and listen to Rage Against The Machine Again.
Enough talking . Let it out . Rage ! Rage ! Rage ! Act ! Act ! Act !
Clich’e King.
‘Nuff said.
And while were at it- how many times must you be reminded that the ones who have the greatest sense of entitlement are those right wing politicians and their corporate buddies both of which have their snouts firmly in the trough.
I think its time we revoked the Employment Relations Act, made unionism and award rates compulsory , and introduced a sliding progressive tax geared towards preventing those corporate s from rorting the system any more.
And while were at it , – a thorough purging of the right wing infestation of the MSM .
And also as a final blow to these corporate pigs -re-nationalisation of all SOE’s , a cap on immigration to prevent cheap labour and laws preventing foreign nationals from buying land here unless they actually live here as citizens.
Do this and you will soon see these corporate trougher’s with their gross sense of self entitlement squealing like the stuck pigs they really are – them along with all their self congratulatory bullshit knighthoods .
Egalit’e !!!!
Fraternit’e !!!
Libert’e !!!
Vive la New Zealand !!!
Are you suggesting there are no left wing politicians with a sense of entitlement and their snouts in the trough?
During the early years of the Clark years the media was drowned in it’s love affair with her, that’s how they operate. The shoe is on the other foot now. Build a bridge.
Come now LIONKING, have you forgotten the MSM mantra of ‘The Winter of Discontent’ in 2000 and the hysterical reaction by them also to ‘Closing the Gaps’ policy – they succeeded in having it absolutely neutered. I wouldn’t call that ongoing campaign as a love affair.
“On a recent visit back home I was struck by the grim emptiness of politics in Aotearoa. Of course there are activists doing great work; there is union organizing, environmental activism, fights for Maori sovereignty and a broad coalition against the TPPA. But I did not detect a growing groundswell for political change that stretched into the consciousness of the nation and which would concern the ruling elite.”
I agree, I get depressed every day, waking up, turning on the radio, and hearing all this drivel and nonsense being “reported” on. The country is heading towards a perfect storm, economically and with that eventually socially, and we have the Prime Minister and government, together with their ACT Party lackey Seymour, pushing for a legislative change to allow pubs and clubs to open an hour or so longer in early mornings, so people can watch next year’s rugby world cup games while having a drink of beer.
We have TV and other media present us with only rushed through, superficial bits of real news, and then spend extra time on flag design discussions, on endless weather reporting, on some new consumer gadgets, and what a nutty, obnoxious primaries candidate in the US, called “Trump”, has to rant on about, making a fool of himself. We learn next to nothing about what goes on in Syria, Greece, Mainland China, about tensions here and there, about what causes social, economic and environmental disasters, and then it is swiftly on to sports, about which player has just hurt himself, and cannot play next week-end.
So it goes in circles, and do not even bother with talk back, you get all kinds of trivial discussions, about middle class pet topics, about preferences for consumer goods or lifestyle “issues”.
Print media is following suit, big headlines, and little substance, about often just sensational reports, crime is always tops, with the most recent assault, murder, drug raid and what else there may be, even though statistics supposedly tell us that crime is overall down.
Adrenalin and other hormone stimulation dictates what goes on in people’s brains now. And social media can also be blamed, to some degree, as Twitt-err, Fakebook, Tinder(dry) and other forums keep people busy doing more trivial chattering and so forth.
Everything is so fast paced, few even listen to, let alone digest and consider constant “news”. Hence important things vanish from the attention span, go under, just as they seem to be part of the endless chain of “newsy” bits thrown at us 24/7, between endless commercial ads. So we get overloaded brains, and people cannot cope, and switch off, distract themselves and escape into the private sphere, to indulge in what may stimulate them for pleasure.
I fear that we are losing our democracy here, we have forces take advantage of what technology and socio economic realities we have, most feeling like insignificant little numbers, and many marginalised. They do all to hammer us with the above, to brain wash us, to condition us, so all we do, is forget what is serious and may matter, and focus on distraction and on consumption. Put something nice in front of your eyes by clicking pictures onto the screen, stuff some food into your mouth, drink some beverage, perhaps with a “kick”, so the nerves get a boost of “feelgood” stuff, and that is “nice”, so a vicious circle starts, that is done again and again, and the thinking part is reduced to simply just cope with demands at work, and to plan the worker’s and consumer’s day, and nothing else.
Goodbye freedom, goodbye democracy, goodby unity, goodbye solidarity, goodbye society, goodbye common sense, goodbye planning, goodbye pro-active actions, goodbye participation in things that matter, goodbye future, they have got us all hooked, stuffed, shut up and dumbed down, there is NO more hope, but to step out, really, no alternative, than shut all this crap out and switch off, for health’s sake, for sanity’s sake.
Take care, fight back, once you have switched off, observed, analysed and thought clearly and without distraction, in your time, then FIGHT BACK, with full consciousness, fight back, and deal to these dictatorial forces that run the show!!!
Glad to see someone knows what`s really happening. Spot on!
Gutless Government hasn’t taken action at times to deal with important issues.
John Key says it’s too hard, too complicated. He wants bars to be open for us to watch World Cup rugby and hey presto,that’s important, Parliament has time for it.
For all that read ‘low life populism.’ The standard of the mainstream media might be woeful and serve up almost 100% ‘infotainment’, but that means it’s on the same page as the PM.
@CB – yeah let’s act…does this mean I have to get down to Wellington?
Extremely prescient, sadly extremely true
The Year of the Sex Olympics is a 1968 television play made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 as part of Theatre 625. It stars Leonard Rossiter, Tony Vogel, Suzanne Neve and Brian Cox. It was directed by Michael Elliott. The writer was Nigel Kneale, best known as the creator of Quatermass.
Influenced by concerns about overpopulation, the counterculture of the 1960s and the societal effects of television, the play depicts a world of the future where a small elite control the media, keeping the lower classes docile by serving them an endless diet of lowest common denominator programmes and pornography. The play concentrates on an idea the programme controllers have for a new programme which will follow the trials and tribulations of a group of people left to fend for themselves on a remote island. In this respect, the play is often cited as having anticipated the craze for reality television.
Malcolm X said ‘…..women were the most important property of men….’
Islam, such a force for human rights….Malcom X – NZ hero…….
…oops sorry for interrupting I will shut up now.
Please don’t hit me, please look after me, just as if I was your favourite
car.
Anymore heroes for us to look up to.
I too have recently returned to New Zealand and am appalled at the content of the local media machine, be it radio, print, or tv. There is little notion of what the “real world” looks like, thinks or says and instead we as a nation simply adopt the capitalistic ideals of the banks (Key), corporates and elite. The media follow the line, and it seems to me they act like employees of the state designed to monitor and control public thought and opinion – the ruling class dumbing down a nation and a perfect case of cultural hegemony. We`re becoming a nation of morons, interested in the weather, rugby, real estate and our own self importance. It`s boring. It`s obvious, unless of course you’re inside the machine, living it, in which case you become the conductor. No, it`s a sad state. I`m no expert, and I can only go on my own observations, but the way I see it, from the outside looking in, we have become a pawn of the US machine, nothing more.
It appears Gramsci was spot on, especially in the case of NZ when he said –
“In Marxist philosophy, the term Cultural Hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of the society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that their ruling-class Weltanschauung becomes the world view that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.”
Yes…unfortunately for so many of these arrogant troughers and their disgusting sense of self entitlement ‘born to rule ‘ types they haven’t bothered to listen to Marc Bolan and T Rex….
Well you can bump and grind
If it’s good for your mind
Well you can twist and shout
Let it all hang out
[Chorus:]
But you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No no no
Well you can tear a plane
In the falling rain
I drive a Rolls Royce
‘Cos its good for my voice
[Chorus]
Yeah!
But you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No way!
Yes well…here goes another captcha duplicate…but as you say…its unfortunate these same corporate troughers with their odious hypocritical sense of self entitlement and their ‘ born to rule ‘ mentality HAVE NOT listened to Marc Bolan’s T Rex…..
Well you can bump and grind
If it’s good for your mind
Well you can twist and shout
Let it all hang out
[Chorus:]
But you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No no no
Well you can tear a plane
In the falling rain
I drive a Rolls Royce
‘Cos its good for my voice
[Chorus]
Yeah!
But you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No you won’t fool the children of the revolution
No way!
Comments are closed.