Its disappearance went largely unnoticed. There was no post mortem, no eulogy, no deep sighs for what had been lost. Posterity slipped from our consciousness as we ushered in the neoliberal era 40 years ago. Populations would now be administered, not led. Grand vision was a quaint artifact of generations past. Besides, the invisible hand of the marketplace would see to all our needs today, tomorrow, forever. Politicians grew smaller and smaller until they shrunk to fit the mold of technocracy. Like sheep being dipped we were plunged into a world of supply-side economics in which lower taxation and deregulation would deliver manna from heaven. We focused on skinning the economy, and society, right to the bone. Everything would be maximized, nothing would be wasted, not even the offal. We were surrendered to a world of short-termism. We elected governments of technocrats - grey suits stuffed with wet cardboard - whose horizons were measured in electoral cycles. They would do what they
This is insanity.
ReplyDeleteHow can people in authority become this depraved, Owen?
DeleteWhy, in Texas hill country, that's where, home of the independent screwed-up mind! Even Elon Musk, purveyor of Battery Electric Vehicles, has fled there from California to open his head office in Austin, Texas. Lower taxes and less interference in his sometimes hare-brained schemes compared to pesky CA regulations have been advanced as reasons. Meanwhile his battery Gigafactory continues in Nevada, and is most definitely not contributing to depleting local water aquifers in that riverless part of the state, we are assured by "local officials". His German factory due to open soon offers but 75% of the usual German industrial wage, but as it is situated close to the Polish border and workers face no EU barriers to working in another country, the Poles are hot to work there, to return home to spend their Euros in a lower cost country. The race to the bottom is about to hit Germany as well.
ReplyDeleteAh, what would we do without brilliant oligarchs reaching for the sky and Mars while life here on Earth rots to hell? Or where people so bereft of common sense and human kindness strut about in fake cowboy attire muttering old takes on creationism and Jaysus our Lord, spurning a Covid vaccine shot, while offering only one poll per rural county at which to vote a year ago in the Federal election to minimize the black vote.
Texas, suh! That's where! Where logic triumphs over reason, or the other way around, take yer pick, and women get to lead second class lives under a patriarchal nosy-parker boot. That shining beacon of the world which premiers kenney and moe wish to emulate, delivering their provinces from the unutterable decay of "socialist" Trudeau thinking so common in the greater part of the country we are pleased to call home.
Where the hell it all ends we are unlikely to discover before climate changes ruins everything, to the utmost surprise of deniers and Texans wading through constant floods everywhere as it is.
I suppose this could happen in any country where the majority of free thinkers become lazy and indifferent.
ReplyDeleteYesterday in Alberta they had an election where the issue of who is to govern was the main issue.
Jason Kenny added a couple of meaningless click bait issues to the vote!
Offer free beer and who will say no?
So it is with certain politicians but the click bait gives them mainstream normalcy and credibility.
Remember BC's Bill Vanderslam who campaigned on 'every man should be able to afford a beer!!
Democracy and the voting public is vastly over rated.
Texas is an example of what the end game is.
TB