I presently feel that the world is going dangerously towards the far right wing approaching fascism similar to Europe in the 30′s and 40′s and the use of fears caused by fanatical religious fundamentalists are being used by the pseudo democratic governments to take away basic rights and liberties.
I believe that the only way to obtain a true free democracy is to have absolutely secular public education, as wide a range of views as possible with the full right to express these views and to criticize the various so called experts that speak so authoritively about matters that often haven’t a black and white solution and to have an independant legal system free of political control.
Secular education tends to limit the teaching of fanatical hatred and terrorist activities, the right to hold different views and to criticise tends to keep development of new ideas and progress towards a state of human dignity and freedom and an independant judiciary protects the people against excesses of over self righteous governments.
Grandad!! Well done! You’ve made your first post! It’s under the category “uncategorized” so I’ll have to show you how to do categories again, but you’re on your way to becoming a fully fledged blogger!
We’re not even in google at the moment, so I gather there are not many ways of getting to the site, but we’ll get there in the end.
At the outset it should just be a voice to a void – does it really matter if nobodys listening? If you are interesting and post semi-regularly people will come. It’ll take time though.
Oh, and it’s a pretty heavyweight “introduction”! Not a “hello world, I am John Tyler, age X born Y done Z, welcome to my blog”.
I completely agree!! There are a number of bands who are singing the same lyrics as you (Anti-Flag and Propagandi) you may want to check them out.
What do you think about the press’ role in the current right wing slide?
Righteous Stuff!
It’s nice to know that there are older people in the world who aren’t fans of the evil John Howard and his sinister henchmen.
What do you think of the absurd Alan Jones and his pompous self-promoting blatherings? (Guess what I think of him…)
Alan Jones! It is impossible to understand how such person can have so much sway in the politics of this country. It certainly doesnt’ inspire confidence in our politicians if they are so fearful of being found wanting by an advertising person that is so easily bought.
!!]]]
The press has no credibility, it has no reporters, investigative reporting is non existent, we now just have columnists like Piers Akerman and Terry McCrann that produce simplistic, popularistic comments on often quite complex social problems.
It is the same modus operandi as the talk back radio commentators like Alan Jones, John Laws etc.
I now only buy papers to get the crosswords and su doco and commercial radio is also a non event. To hear such drivel spoken as fact is actually annoying, especially when one realizes that our politicians of both major parties seem to think that these rantings are words of wisdom!
Hi John
You might be interested to know that Australia is ranked 35 in the world on a press freedom scale just released, and has dropped a number of places since last year. Finland, Ireland, Iceland and Netherlands are number one, our close neighbour New Zealand is ahead of us in 18th place. Most developed countries are ahead of us, except Italy, Spain, Japan, the US and some Eastern European countries
Check it out
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=639
I am not surprised to see that the Australian press is rated 35th it the world freedom of expression, I think that this is not only due to a lousy government but also to lousy reporters.
Unfortunately, the press reporters don’t seem to realize that it is up to them to defend the freedom of the press as much as it is up to them to report honestly the news of the day.
The musings of reporters on the rights and wrongs of every day happenings are no more valid than any one elses; however, if we have good honest reporting from different sources, we would all have a better chance of coming up with the right outcomes.
Unfortunately, it is not the desire of any government or religion to have a constituency which has the facts and is prepared to question their claims and dogmas. Far better that we all believe that god and the employers will look after us and ensure that we get what we deserve!!
I’m new at this game so I’m wondering if I should have, out of courtesy, addressed my replies to the people that asked the questions? I apologize for this gaff, put it down to senility!