symbols are not the thing that they represent

[miriam_e]

There is a bit of stupidity being blown out of proportion at the moment by our creepy little prime minister John Howard. The Big Day Out people don't want people to bring flags to the event because of the way they can be used by thugs and bullies to dominate and antagonise others... the way racists produced the Cronulla riots. So what does our nasty PM do? He gets in on the act in typical divisive fashion to make out that the Australian flag is something special, almost holy. Yes, he is using it to divide, antagonise, and bully. This is exactly the kind of behavior the Big Day Out people wanted to avoid!

Howard is such a fool if he believes his rhetoric. Flags are nothing but fairly empty symbols. If someone tears up, burns, a symbol it doesn't affect the original thing. He is one of those kind of bullies that indulged in the race riots.

What passes for mass media here in Australia cravenly scurries after him, lapping it up, fostering the division of course... and they wonder why people are getting sick of them. They remind me of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, but without his charisma.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some rare people can feel pride in their imaginary country without feeling some kind of disregard for other random bunches of people who just happen to share different land masses, but I think most people just can't do that. In some ways our species has a surprisingly ugly pettiness to it. It is almost as if we look for things we can use to pit each against the other. For instance, imagine how absurd it is that many people hate others for the kind of pigment in their skin, or for who they love! When it comes to hating or belittling people in far off lands, well that is just way too easy.

I'm not too sure about communism. I don't think there has ever been a real example of communism. Anarchy comes the closest, but always some bugger steps up and decides he can take control. Then it becomes either a dictatorship or a corporation. The USSR, in my view, was never a communist country. It was one big monopoly -- a single big corporation. Do you get to elect your boss? Why is a monopoly so dangerous? It is for the same reason the USSR was so uncomfortable to live in.

A friend told me a great joke the other day. He said he went to a meeting of the Anarchists Society, but it was too chaotic so he didn't bother going again. He then revealed that he had never actually been to a meeting of any anarchists -- it was simply a joke as told to him by a friend. I thought it was kinda neat. Although I must admit some of my favorite clubs have no leaders. The fact that they are unstructured and spontaneous (not boring) is precisely what I love most about them.

[lilygoat.livejournal.com]

They started a group for agoraphobics...
Nobody showed.


The procrastinator's meeting has been pushed back again.


The meeting for people dealing with OCD was held sixteen times today, and will continue until we're sure we've had it.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheheh :D I love these.

[lilygoat.livejournal.com]

On a related note-

Did you hear about the dyslexic atheist insomniac?
He stayed up all night, wondering if there really was a dog.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

hahahahah I laughed aloud when I read this one. Very clever. :)