Post-script

In the very first post for this blog, I said that "I am looking to an opportunity to reinvigorate myself."

I can safely say that I achieved that. I am clearer on how I can go about finishing this darned degree and how I can get on with the final half of my life. The blog has been a worthwhile exercise for me and it is something that I do actually look forward to returning to over the years to come. It captures a particular period of my life quite nicely. 

I also look forward to the 2017 Bendigo Writers Festival. I look forward to taking my time and absorbing the sessions and to just loiter in the general ambiance of bookish delight. 

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I leave this blog with the world looking more than just a little nutty. 

The weekend news sites are filled with stories about an audio tape that has emerged of Donald Trump making lewd remarks about women. (source) 

It remains to be seen whether or not this will finish off his candidature for president. Sadly even if Trump does pullout or is replaced, the celebrity culture that exists that made Trump a contender will remain. The decay of the United States of America and the vulgarity and violence of neoliberal capitalism will just move onto its next freak show. 

It is no comfort knowing that Hilary Clinton moves closer to the White House. A careerist politician and part of an elite that has corrupted American democracy. A war mongering free market fundamentalist. With Hilary as president the rest of the world can look forward to new wars for profit. 

The USA lost out when Bernie Sanders did not get the nomination for the Democrats. 

In Australia, the plight of asylum seekers held in indefinite detention continues. It is not off-shore detention for processing refugee claims, but rather a system of corporate profiteering. It is a disgrace and something one day Australia will have to reckon with. 

Martin McKenzie-Murray has a piece in this weekend's Saturday Paper - 'Leaked UNHCR report: Manus Island world's worst'. It concludes with the undeniable observation

Let it never be said that we didn't know. 

brainstorm #34 - the post truth dystopia

Opening: Random observations

The International New York Times is quite a useful publication. In fact, I made the comment to somebody earlier in the year that I thought if the I-NYT ever decided to establish business in a sizeable way in Australia that it would put a lot of pressure on News Ltd and Fairfax - organisations already struggling. 

My casual remark may have held some unintended prescience. Amanda Meade, media correspondent with Guardian Australia, reported a few weeks back that Fairfax was entering into some sort of arrangement with I-NYT. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. (Hopefully something good!)

The world is getting freaky. Alliances need to be made and strengthened and solidarity against a "neo-fascism" - for want of a better term - needs to be planned. 

Why do I say this?

The I-NYT is running an article this morning titled "Donald Trump's Anything Goes Campaign Sets An Alarming Precedent"

Trump is shifting the boundaries of what is acceptable in the pursuit of political power.

In part the article observes:

He seemed untroubled in using an ostensible campaign event just a few blocks from the White House to openly promote his personal commercial interests 52 days before the election.

In fact, this past week offered a vivid illustration of how little regard Mr. Trump has for the long-held expectations of America’s leaders. He is not only breaking the country’s political norms, he and his campaign aides are now all but mocking them.

Besides using his campaign as a platform to make money on a new hotel, Mr. Trump leveled an untrue assertion that Hillary Clinton had been the first to claim Mr. Obama was born abroad. He also boasted about his healthon the show of a daytime television celebrity while releasing just his testosterone levels and a few other details about his well-being.

And this 

Routine falsehoods, unfounded claims and inflammatory language have long been staples of Mr. Trump’s anything-goes campaign. But as the polls tighten and November nears, his behavior, and the implications for the country should he become president, are alarming veteran political observers — and leaving them deeply worried about the precedent being set, regardless of who wins the White House.

“It’s frightening,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. “Our politics, because of him, is descending to the level of a third-world country. There’s just nothing beneath him. And I don’t know why we would think he would change if he became president. That’s what’s really scary.” 

Given that corporate America and the apparatus of state has done so much to interfere in "third world countries" it should perhaps not seem strange that America - and its project of disestablishment and manipulation of chaos - has now turned on itself with a weirdness and ugliness it has normally exported. What goes around comes around. The circle becomes complete. And the tension becomes unbearable. (Or, as Yeats said, "The centre can't hold") 

But why do I say this? 

Hmmm... I am not sure. I am wanting to say something about the importance of the public space, the public forum, that stands as a place of integrity and of reason in the face of 'stuff' like Trumpism.