tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post115693814707505749..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: The left has its nuttersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-1157170644451063632006-09-02T14:17:00.000+10:002006-09-02T14:17:00.000+10:00Shane, an incisive comment.BTW, there's an interes...Shane, an incisive comment.<BR/><BR/>BTW, there's an <A HREF="http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/006300.html" REL="nofollow">interesting account</A> at View from the Right of someone revisiting Sweden after a long absence & reflecting on the changes wrought by liberalism on a once more traditional society.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-1157064323705601982006-09-01T08:45:00.000+10:002006-09-01T08:45:00.000+10:00Since when did left-liberals become reactionaries?...Since when did left-liberals become reactionaries?<BR/><BR/>The theme that we're "becoming bad" is simply odd. This suggests that we used to be "good" from their perspective. <BR/><BR/><I>"Once beautiful country"...."They have betrayed everything that made this country great".</I><BR/><BR/>When was this golden age? Surely they don't mean the Australian <I>dark ages</I> of self sufficiency, actually <I>having a culture</I> and kids reading Shakespeare by year 7. <BR/><BR/>One would think that an appeal to the past isn't a philosophically viable option. The past, in all the West, was a time of tradition, insularity and strict morality. <BR/><BR/>Australia is becoming "international". The population is rapidly becoming one of the most multi-ethnic in the world. We've "opened up" from our protectionist past. School curriculums put the young white devils in their historically oppressive places. We don't go to church in large numbers. Art and architecture has finally overcome the "restraints" of taste. We're more socially "free" than we've ever been.<BR/><BR/>Yet from the liberal perspective, it's "worse than it has ever been", "we've got to get out" and the proles they led for the last 30 years deserve great wrath - complete with transplanted Hollywood narrative about the darn "rednecks".<BR/><BR/>In the grand scheme of things, the proliferation of flat screen TVs and nosey foreign interventions is a small price to pay.<BR/><BR/>It saddens me that they're not enjoying it while it lasts. This is as good as it gets for liberals and they don't even realise it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-1156975519941597962006-08-31T08:05:00.000+10:002006-08-31T08:05:00.000+10:00Anonymous, I agree that there are nutters on the r...Anonymous, I agree that there are nutters on the right too, it's just that the left-wing ones tend to get overlooked more.<BR/><BR/>I'd agree with you too in thinking all is not well with modern Australia. However, I expect that what we see as the problem differs.<BR/><BR/>For instance, I don't think the problem is that Australia is backward, but rather the kind of "modernity" being pursued in Australia.<BR/><BR/>As for the specifics of Earthrise's comment, I doubt if anyone, however articulate, could really justify:<BR/><BR/>1) The claim that we are wealthy because of the suffering of brown people. This is simply a vilification of whites. In general, Western countries have prospered materially because all classes work hard, there is stable governance, and because capitalism (whatever its faults) has proved to be economically dynamic.<BR/><BR/>2) The claim that Howard represents a "creeping fascism" is absurd. Some people on the left are stuck in the 1930s. The Liberal Party is exactly what the name suggests, a right-wing liberal party, pursuing a free-market, individual autonomy philosophy.<BR/><BR/>For reasons I've explained at length at this site, I don't agree with this philosophy. It sounds good, but, taken seriously, it generates unintended, socially destructive outcomes.<BR/><BR/>But this will never be properly understood if the left lazily expresses its displeasure by resorting to the "Hitler" taunt.<BR/><BR/>3) Earthrise is disloyal to her own countrymen. She imagines them ready to support Hitler; she calls them fat, lazy and greedy; and she admits she wants them to suffer in a Great Depression.<BR/><BR/>Even if you don't think your country is heading the right way, I don't think you would make such comments if you had a natural sense of affinity to your own tradition.<BR/><BR/>So perhaps the problem is not that Earthrise lacks the necessary eloquence to put her case, but that she herself is excessively denatured.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-1156952597405792362006-08-31T01:43:00.000+10:002006-08-31T01:43:00.000+10:00There are nutters on the left and the right - ever...There are nutters on the left and the right - everyone knows that, so there's no real revelation here. <BR/><BR/>In every politcal party, the activists and grassroots members are all bonkers and the leadership has to broker a deal between them and common sense. It was ever thus, and in these days of declining membership of politcal parties, it it's only the proper nutters who are sticking around. <BR/><BR/>But I digress: the post on which you choose to pick is not the best piece of writing I ever read and yes the tone verges on the hysterical, but I remind you that there are a goodly number of more articulate people with a greater talent for words who agree with the authors', and have expressed these sentiments successfully and persuasively in other places. <BR/><BR/>I am tempted to agree that Australia has become the worst kind of rathole: an absolute warren of backwardness and human stupidity. About all it's got going for it is the weather, and I understand from speaking with my friends who still live there that even that's gone up the spout of late.<BR/><BR/>It's posts like yours that make my gladness to be elsewhere border on the smug.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com