Hard News: A message from The Fabians
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the delusion that we’re doing anything for the first time
And sometimes it positively feels like we're going circles.
Round and round, same shit, every day ...blah blah blah on & on -
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Gower is of course a synecdoche for the media pack.
Love that word…
Damn, I misread that, I read sycodouche, as in Psycho douche.
But the Brain... you know...
Brian DeMarge... -
simon g, in reply to
As I mentioned in another thread, we already know there are divisions in the Labour Caucus, but I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near like the Lange-Douglas split of 1989.
So I have a right to ask: how much of what we hear right now is about the party's actual divisions, as opposed to the whole thing being used for selling schadenfreude-flavoured popcorn?
That was a split that reached its logical conclusion: people left Labour to form or join other parties (ACT, United, New Labour > Alliance, etc). They then fought against Labour at the ballot box. It was messy at the time, but more healthy for democracy in the long run (once we'd taken the other logical step and moved to MMP).
If these divisions in the Labour party are about something irreconcilable, then that's what should happen now. If the irreconcilable thing is a basic principle or policy, the leavers might get votes for their new party. If it's just about personal animosity, they won't.
Sadly, it does appear to be the latter, which means no splitting, and no resolving. And from the public, not much caring or listening.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Gower is of course a synecdoche for the media pack.
True dat. Distinct from, but probably related to, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods female Media incarnate:
"Media. I think I have heard of her. Isn’t she the one who killed her children?”
“Different woman,” said Mr. Nancy. “Same deal." -
Mr Brown, at the event will you be going over meth recipes then?.... the shortest route or least precursors?....hope you have a power-point....see ya there...
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Economics is akin to anathema for most NZers and the mainstream media and revolutionary voices are largely MIA in raising any debate or criticism. Across the ditch, Macrobusiness has taken up the challenge; yet in NZ, it appears that people are stupefied when confronted with economic issues. Given the precarious nature of the current debt-driven model, it is remarkable that the entire framework is not worthy of deconstruction and understanding.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
If these divisions in the Labour party are about something irreconcilable, then that’s what should happen now. If the irreconcilable thing is a basic principle or policy, the leavers might get votes for their new party. If it’s just about personal animosity, they won’t.
Sadly, it does appear to be the latter, which means no splitting, and no resolving. And from the public, not much caring or listening.
Just like its West Island counterpart in the ALP. So it'd be less waka-jumping, and more likely ‘leadership spulls’.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Economics is akin to anathema for most NZers and the mainstream media and revolutionary voices are largely MIA in raising any debate or criticism. Across the ditch, Macrobusiness has taken up the challenge; yet in NZ, it appears that people are stupefied when confronted with economic issues. Given the precarious nature of the current debt-driven model, it is remarkable that the entire framework is not worthy of deconstruction and understanding.
Rod Oram and Ganesh Nana are largely lone voices in the NZ economic debate. Most others seem to play the picket-fenced quarter-acre orthodoxy straighter than a drag strip. I suspect there won’t be much movement, short of something Icelandic.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Hi Ho Silver!
Rod Oram and Ganesh Nana are largely lone voices in the NZ economic debate.
Lend him your ears:
11:05am Today, Radio NZ 9-Noon Business commentator Rod Oram
Rod Oram takes a look at the falling dollar and Fonterra's results. -
Colin James has a pertinent column today - http://www.colinjames.co.nz/labour-not-part-of-the-communities-we-live-in/
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Someone will no doubt correct me, but I was struck, when reading Gore Vidal's Lincoln, about the financing of the Civil War being the beginning of the owning of the US's soul (and latterly other countries' souls) by the banks...
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Rod Oram? Are you serious? Economics is not paint by numbers where you color blue or Red in a minimal degree of shades. Hickey attempted to push the envelope in terms of opening the public' eyes, but it appears he's been largely written off by the media and he definitely irks the mortgage belters. David Llewellyn Smith praises the guy for his efforts.
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Don't forget that Hickey was the target of Slater's Dirty Politics smears .... certain people don't want independent economic analysis out there being consumed by the general public
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Hickey attempted to push the envelope in terms of opening the public' eyes, but it appears he's been largely written off by the media and he definitely irks the mortgage belters.
A media that's heavily reliant on advertising revenue from the banks, which earn not a small amount from property loans. Turkeys and Thanksgiving come to mind. As I've mentioned before, the orthodoxy will probably remain in place until there's a very big and disruptive event of Icelandic proportions.
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A media that's heavily reliant on advertising revenue from the banks, which earn not a small amount from property loans. Turkeys and Thanksgiving come to mind. As I've mentioned before, the orthodoxy will probably remain in place until there's a very big and disruptive event of Icelandic proportions.
Yes, and Hickey is very valuable to the media considering economic orthodoxy is blind to the inherent risks in the system, which have not been addressed nor answered by the govt, media, or general public. BH is a "the other" even though his questions are asked more stridently in other countries. He is no analyst, but he has the gumption to ask the questions that need to be considered.
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Greg Dawson, in reply to
Economics is not paint by numbers
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Art Official Intelligence...
Surrealism maybe?
Modernism even?
But no Site-Specific works thanks...
;- ) -
Testing
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Colin James has a pertinent column today –
Parts of it are okay, parts of it are odd and even offensive. Where do James, Stephen and the other party members here fit into his frame of angry old lefties and identity politics warriors?
He lays the the blame on "a coalition of representatives of minorities such the gender-disadvantaged, the disabled, ethnic groups and the 1980s-type feminists who drove last year’s abortive “man ban” to manipulate women into electorate candidate selections."
Whatever,
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
gender-disadvantaged,
What the frosty circle of Hell?
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nzlemming, in reply to
What the frosty circle of Hell?
Yah, it's a direct quote. He believes that minorities have banded together to take ove the Party, i.e. that it's captive to competing special interest groups who are holding it at stalemate in trying to progress their own agenda. Not completely wrong, but not a very sophisticated analysis either. He can do better, or used to be able to.
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andin, in reply to
It happened at the end of the civil war the "Reconstruction" as it is so nicely called. Gave rise to carpetbaggers, yes, people walking round with a carpetbag full of money.
The US of EH? got the fourteenth amendment to its constitution. -
Sacha, in reply to
have banded together
Isn't that precisely what the party is having trouble doing? Sad seeing these frightened old men pin stuff on any other social group than themselves.
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The Fabians do some good work, but I fear, like so many organisations and societies, that have progressive ideas, goals and aspirations on their mind, the reality is immensely depressing. It seems that in too large numbers, New Zealanders simply do no longer care and bother much, whether it is about social justice, smart economics, the environment and the future in general. Many certainly are totally indifferent re human rights and democracy in other places.
So I read this this morning:
'Support for Democratic Rights in Hong Kong', Mon. 29 Sept., 05.08 pm:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1409/S00559/support-for-democratic-rights-in-hong-kong.htmTens of thousands go onto the streets in Hong Kong, demanding the Mainland Chinese government, and their CEO or representative for Hong Kong listens, and allow for more democracy. The media reported on it for days, and indeed, it deserves respect and more.
Thinking that at least a few hundred of New Zealanders and especially those of Chinese ethnic background would heed the call and be there, I went to the Auckland CBD, to outside the old Town Hall, to Aotea Square and also walked all the way down to Britomart and back up, to see NOBODY assembling and taking a stand. Heaps of people were busy window shopping, eating, looking up smart phone messages and sending some, leisurely walking in the sun, some with kids, it being school holidays, but NO, NOBODY cared to listen, and bother, to support the ones in Hong Kong, for their fight for a bit more democracy.
We have had the same for years, with abysmal participation in other marches, pickets, protests and what you have, New Zealanders seem to have sold their souls to "mammon", the modern god of consumerism, and are adapting to serve the "master", whoever employs them as such, and do not bother to question much, unless it affects their immediate self.
No wonder Labour lost abysmally, and while the carnage amongst the caucus members is continuing, them fighting each other, perhaps they should take a stroll outside, and see the real reason for the apathy, indifference and so, which is ALL the result of diversity and division, also encouraged by mass migration, and of endless commercial media dumbing down.
I had to let steam off here, as I was furious, and devastated, to bother and make an effort, and not even one "organiser" Bevan Chuang could be detected in the masses of consumerist numb brained, I saw, sadly.
There is no future for a society when we have such a situation. And also, we have had tens of thousands of Mainland Chinese migrants come here, most of them are not bothered with democracy, so perhaps that is also to be considered when we look at voter apathy? Who bothers to stand up for democracy these days? With no fighters left, maybe just keep on selling your country, from under your feet, dear "Kiwis"?!
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Marc C, in reply to
The average New Zealander, even many that bothered studying "economics", have not much of a clue at all about the bigger picture, most certainly when it comes to macroeconomics. They rather "micromanage" at their familiar household purse string level, and even run most businesses like that.
No wonder there is such a large overseas ownership of companies and other interests. It is going to get worse, I am sure, as with what I witness and hear everyday, most should not even be allowed to vote, as they are a "threat" to the economic future of this country.
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