June 2019

A busy month, or I made it so, because I became at least mentally involved in two lots of elections, and seemed to be glued to either the Internet or the TV set for the duration of the campaigns. The Australian Federal election was held on May the 19^th, and the EU elections on May the 26^th. The EU elections were made more complicated in Greece by the fact that local elections were held on the same day. The practical consequence of this was about 37 pieces of paper: and I thought Australian elections, with the system of preferential voting, were complicated! At the village polling booth the process was interminably slow because of the fact that there was only one curtained off space in each room, and because the desk in this space was cunningly designed to let the 37 pieces of paper slide immediately to the floor. I hope I didn’t accidentally vote informal. In any case the result was a disappointment, with the only bright spot being the poor performance of Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi party. Over all, the conservatives carried the day.

I was also disappointed in the result of the Australian election: indeed, I was just incredulous. Of course I had to write my view of it all, but nobody was interested in airing the piece. Here it is:

THE ALP PHOENIX

Something positive nearly always emerges from defeat. When the House of Stuart and the Scottish clans were finally vanquished in just one hour at the Battle of Culloden in April, 1746, the many laments were loud and long-lasting. One that has made its way into modern English is: All was done that could be done, and all was done in vain.It is highly likely that the true believers of the ALP would have felt the same, and agreed with the notion towards the end of May the 18^th. They can hardly be blamed if they decide never to read, let alone trust, a poll again. For the ALP conducted a good, sometimes even daring, campaign, keeping vital matters such as the threat of climate change, growing inequality, public health, housing and education well in mind.

The question being asked is: How did the polls get the trends so wrong? Not being at all an expert in these matters, I can only hazard a guess. Or a few guesses. Perhaps it is often a futile exercise to try, in a sense, to quantify human nature? People are often mercurial in their behaviour: why are pollsters ever convinced of people’s answers on any particular day? Opinions are not set in concrete, so it is not hard to believe that a voter might change his or her mind even while walking into the polling booth.

And in a sense a war of attrition had been going on long before the official election campaign started, with the Murdoch Press bringing out its big guns and pounding the public relentlessly with the suggestion that the Australian way of life (whatever that is, precisely) would come to an end under a Labor government. Then there was the always important matter of money, with the dubious Clive Palmer flinging it about in the interests of himself and of Adani. People can be brainwashed easily enough, as history has shown many times: they can resist for quite a long time, but then cave in under pressure. Perhaps pollsters fail to acknowledge this.

I keep trying to believe in Abraham Lincoln’s idea of ‘the better angels of our nature.’ But those angels are so often overcome by fear. Australians are encouraged to fear any sort of ‘otherness,’ hence the detention centres; they are encouraged to fear any threat to their security and standard of living, hence the fuss over franking credits. And those who deploy fear as a weapon apparently have no scruples about making false claims, such as the one about the ALP’s death/inheritance tax, : it was alleged that deceased estates were going to be taxed 40%. This claim appeared on social media several times, and was denied by both the ALP and the Greens, but the charge stuck, and was widely read and circulated.

It seems that much of the Australian public is sleep-walking, or else being like the proverbial ostrich in putting their heads in the sand, thinking short-term in being concerned for their children’s and grandchildren’s monetary future, rather than for the future of the planet these descendants will have to inhabit. Benjamin Franklin had a point when he asserted that ‘those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.’ Such blinkered Australians have not got Liberty or Safety at present in spite of their wishful thinking; nor will they have it in future, not with the cynical, self-serving LNP and the Murdoch Press in charge.

There was much suffering in the wake of the defeat at Culloden, but some good consequences eventually flowed from it. Scotland’s literature, music and folk-lore became the richer, and so did the infant country of Canada, whence the Scots immigrated in large numbers, often enjoying much more prosperity than they would have had, had they stayed in their native land. It is possible that the ALP will rise again, having engaged in some thorough soul-searching, and in close examination of its election strategy. And it is essential that its many supporters not give up (nor leave for New Zealand) but concentrate on living to fight another day. The end of May the 18^thmust be seen as a call for renewed action on several fronts.

Three years seems a long time, but that time will pass.

&

I’m not sure what to write or say about the situation in Greece, so perhaps I will leave a comment until after the result of the general election to be held on July the 7^th.

In the meantime, elements of village life are surviving. Yesterday I heard a cry I’d not heard for a long time. Kareklas! Kareklas! Karekla means chair, and this cry meant the chair-mender was out and about and offering his services. Sure enough, his battered car crawled past, with its bundle of bamboo fronds and wands strapped to the roof. A reminder of a simpler life.