The One Nation ‘Policy Development’ officer was suffering through yet another minor existential crisis. At one o’clock in the morning, seated at his desk, at home, with the rest of the world securely locked outside, he was taking stock, yet again.
‘I didn’t take a first in Politics to write nonsense. I was going to change the world. I was going to be principled,’ he declared in a firm and somewhat theatrical manner. He liked to talk and if there was nobody else around, he liked to talk to himself. It seemed to make thought manifest.
Nevertheless, it was only when the kids were finally well-asleep and he was cossetted away in his little hidey hole of an office, at the far end of the house, that he ever felt he could vent, even carefully. But there was something about staring out a window, at late night suburbia, that always prompted feelings of security, familiarity and existential despair, all at once. He should have pressed ahead and finished his work, instead of goofing off and staring out a bloody window.
‘Who are you kidding, Bruce. Back when you were a gorgeous tousled lad, swanning about campus, you had no fucken’ idea! You were a fucken idiot. A moral moron. An’ four years later, you were positively drooling at the prospect of writing nonsense for idiots when it was Advertising. Where were the scruples then?’
His voice was soft but firm. He was not whispering, yet the sound still seemed to just disappear. Nothing came back to his ears. It was odd as he could clearly identify the yapping of distant dogs, an occasional passing car, the whizz of the computer fan, and even the hum of a distant fridge.
‘How the fuck do you use the word “invaders,” about other Aussies, without sounding like a complete moron or a Nazi sympathizer?’
He had been instructed to use the phrase “recent invaders” in a press release, yet four hours of honest labour, well into the quiet of a late night, had produced nothing but an endless stream of recast paragraphs, word lists, some snappy sentences, and lots and lots of deletions. The Press Release remained unwritten. It felt unwritable.
Bruce slumped back into his seat and lit a cigarette. There were only three left in the pack and the ashtray was full.
‘It is not that the audience gives a damn, mate. Just write the fuckin’ thing. Tell ‘em what they want to hear. Remember, the members of the Party are high-functioning hypocrites. They will get dressed in their Chinese shirts, Malaysian socks, Vietnamese boots, then go hop in a Ford, or a Hilux, or a Toyota, buy a tank of imported oil from a US petroleum mega-corporation, then toodle off to their very middle-class meeting. All so “as they can name and shame some poor brown person for daring to ‘invade’ the country, and rip us all off, by working their bloody tits” off.’
Once again Bruce found himself in the middle of an entirely unhelpful, late-night moralistic rambling, when he should be working. Or, rather, at a time of night when the work should have been long finished.
‘I mean, who the fuck are the real invaders? Foreign corporations or the poor schmucks who are picking our bloody fruit? Fucking “invaders” my arse.’
Bruce took a puff and blew a smoke ring, then broke down into a spluttering, coughing, mess. It was going to be a very, very, long night.
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Now, there’s a slant on how to lie for a living, which so many do with success. The country most of us love and/or loved rather naturally and blindly is an object of deeper consideration now, for too many low grade distorters get airtime, as does the henna harpy, the expatriate taxbludging wifedumping foreign wart, the fat felonious frau of the west, shockjocks and media maggots, corporate carnalities, political porky poxes. What might be the price of intelligent individuality?
One would have thought Australians would be smart enough not to fall for RW MSM and far right or neo-eugenics agitprop, imported from the US; too easy after a generation of dog whistling since Howard…and nostalgia for white Australia.
Now we have this world of corrupt and authoritarian far right, supported by the dominant middle aged and older citizens following Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Orbán*, Murdoch and Koch, vs the people, too easy and people too submissive.
*Abbott has apparently been in Hungary with an upcoming election & Russain supported stunts, quietly, still feigning ignorance of his ecosystem that crosses over with aforementioned cast, and faux anti-imperialist tankie grifters of the left (or right?); latter includes Mearsheimer, Sachs, Farage, Galloway et al.
The defection of Beetrooter Joyce from the NOtional$ to ON while continuing his contempt for New England voters just shows how self-serving the ON politicians have become.
Feasting on millions of ”political donations” from FRWNJ corporate executives, I suppose we will see each member continue tending their personal pecuniary interests rather than represent the best interests of the voters who elected them to representative office.
Over the past 60 years the NOtional$ have pre-selected adulterers, alcoholics and philanderers almost as a pre-requisite conditions. Or is this simply the required misogynist standard to the COALition Big Swinging Dicks Club??
Now those same ”former” (nominal) NOtional$ have become Only Nutters because being in an Opposition party while being paid $200,000+ (plus other perk)s, means there is no requirement for ”work” as there are no policies to promote and no enthusiasm to promote them.
Anybody for a one night lie down with a Canberra planter box??
The sight of B Joyce posing with the rubyskulled ratbag political impersonator is constantly vomitous, for the desperate dills regularly embrace novel stupidity and have turned more to ingrained whining instead of conceiving good policy possibilities. Blankbrained bludging by One Nation types is rotten politics for progress and stability. Hanson cannot think well, and so, schemes, surrounded by maggoty misfits. This nation is staggering, slowing, risking actual decay.