Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Who are the real enemies?

Labour's post-conference pitiable policy announcements have depressed me.

What will it take to break the accursed connection between keeping people expectantly dependent, one way or the other, and political power-grab?

I deplore the contemporary 'victimhood' society but hell, we are all most certainly victims of one particular group. Politicians. Our franchise makes us victims of their boring bribery. Yes, they aren't even imaginative in their cajolery any more. The bribes are recycled and renamed; bribes that are enabled by forced wealth redistribution which all must submit to or face the legal might of the state.

But here is the very worst aspect of this despicable process.

The politicians turn people against people. Groups against groups; individuals against individuals. They do it knowingly and purposefully by manipulating one of the most powerful human emotions - jealousy - and its companion - resentment.

So, conveniently for the politicians, we start hating each other instead of hating them. But why? Especially when the abhorrence results from the leftists stirring loathing of the so-called 'rich'. After all, Labour and Green politicians are well within their own prescribed boundaries for qualifying as 'rich pricks'.

But low income people are too busy glowering about the unfairness of farmers supposedly not paying tax, to recall that politicians don't risk anything or produce anything. Politicians don't have incomes subject to the cruel vagaries of the weather. They aren't subject to the harsh physical realities of farming. Or the see-sawing economy.

Unbelievably politicians are even accorded recognition and kudos by dependent voters for revealing just who isn't pulling their weight. Like the employers. The very people who provide us with jobs and livelihoods. They are the greedy bastards, they say. Not us politicians, consumed by playing you off against each other to ensure our continued comfortable circumstances and regular ego massages.

And don't tell me National didn't bribe voters in the latest budget. Of course they did. They continued the handouts and hampers of various goodies despite their patent lack of affordability.

We are played for fools. We delegate our responsibilities gladly and take perverse pleasure in the battles that result. The battles that the biggest bandits, politicians, orchestrate through the most cynical play on human nature - evocation of the politics of envy.

Are we really so devoid of self-respect, so pathetic, as to keep submitting to this embittering exploitation? Would we let others in positions of relative power blatantly play us off against each other for their own gain? Isn't such an utter milking the hallmark of dysfunctionalism?

My faith in democracy is vanquished. I am squashed beneath the heavy abeyance of individual autonomy. I am surrounded by unseeing fools. And worst of all I don't know how to end this post.

An exhortation to rise up and throw off the shackles of dependence? Bah. All we are seeing around the developed world is revolt against the loss of entitlements.

The only people who will read my post and empathise belong to a minority so small we cannot even obtain a piffling, paltry portion of parliamentary presence. Let alone power. And how distasteful. To need to join the game to have the merest chance of scuppering it.

14 comments:

Greig McGill said...

Amen. Nothing to do but keep fighting or give up. Unless you have directions to Galt's Gulch handy?

Anonymous said...

My faith in democracy is vanquished.

more fool you for "faith" in "democracy" in the first place. The universal franchise leads inexorably to universal welfare, and then to national ruin.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Lindsay.

Yes, where has our National personal self-respect gone to? Under supposed democracy the welfare state will never end it has so become about bribes for power.

A sickness of the national soul. Don't expect Key to fix it, he is another one, power at any cost.

NZ, a broken country in decades to come, quite possible. And the taxpayer, snubbed and condemmed. Treated as the lowest form of life. Many of our problems can of course be traced back to the welfare system.

Anonymous said...

broken country in decades to come, quite possible.


Or for anyone who can read a set of accounts - a broken country now.

. Many of our problems can of course be traced back to the welfare system.

which can be traced back to the universal franchise.
And kind of taxpayer or ownership franchise would never have voted for any of this rubbish

Lucia Maria said...

Hi Lindsay,

I prayed for you last night after reading this post.

The thing with democracy, is that just like any other political system, it really depends on the virtue of those who are elected, as well as the virtue of the electors and the watchdogs.

For virtue, man himself is not sufficient, we need God for that. We cannot be our own god.

Manolo said...

Well said, Lindsay, and welcome to the ranks of the people who despair at seeing the current situation.

NZ is bankrupt in more than the economic sense of the word.

baxter. said...

The blog of the day, certainly of the ones I have read....Perhaps it is relevant to quote Mark STEYN in the latest Investigate "In a multi party system it is very important to have some sort of a force to the right of a right of centre party to arrest a tendency of the mainstream right to drift across the spectrum and wind up taking the rest of us to the same destination the Lefties want to travel but at a slightly slower speed."

Don Mac said...

Keep your chin up Lindsay. Sooner or later we will get an Oliver Cromwell.

Dave Christian said...

Sometimes, people stand for parliament with the intention of working to reduce government size and power. Sadly, they are soon tempted to believe that fighting over the 'fairness' of the spoils of big government is a step in the right direction. It isn't. Once seduced into playing the political game they are lost. To my knowledge, no MP in New Zealand has ever been strong enough to avoid this fate.

All is not lost however, when not voting or engaging in politics, most people act every day in ways which enrich our society.

Lucia Maria said...

Dan,

Oliver Cromwell helped bring in the shambles we have now. What we need is someone to reverse the damage he did.

Frank davis said...

Dont you bloody dare give up and throw in the towel Lindsay. Your blog is keeping me (barely perhaps ) sane !

Anonymous said...

Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

Hard to see how that created the problem!


Then Cromwell sent a request to Congregational churches in every county to nominate those they considered fit to take part in the new government

Now say we did that to every Exclusive Brethren congregation: NZ would be a very very different place.

James said...

Lindsay,please edit this for submission to the Heralds OP page....brilliant!

LM: "For virtue, man himself is not sufficient, we need God for that. We cannot be our own god."

Bullshit

Anon:"more fool you for "faith" in "democracy" in the first place. The universal franchise leads inexorably to universal welfare, and then to national ruin."

Agree.....before any positive progress can be in uplifting this country the power of the moron vote must be diminished to the point of irrelevancy.How is it just that the vote of the informed and intelligent can be neutralised by the ignorant tick of the guessing dropkick?

Anonymous said...

Great post Lindsay.
Had an interesting conversation with a 55 year old man the other night night. The chap told me of his horror at being confronted by a middle aged woman "dripping with gold and diamonds" who was interviewing him for his application for a disability benefit. He said her overt display of wealth made him feel "worthless" He suggested WINZ staff should have a strict dress code which took into account their clients circumstances.
It now seems we must not make our poor cousins feel poor for fear of offending them.

Dirk