Redressing Imbalances

Good Moonshine in West Australia

It is received wisdom in NZ that most Australians are feral.  They are like distant relatives, coming from a questionable branch of the family, who have spent too much time in the mountains sipping moonshine.  We exaggerate--but you get the idea.

Imagine, then, the expostulations of disbelief when it became known that West Australia is considering laws to reign in protest activity.  How backward.  How primitive.  How miscegenetic.  Au contraire.  How enlightened!  All of a sudden we are finding new respect for our Aussie cousins, at least those who dwell in the West.

The United Nations has called on the West Australian Government to withdraw controversial new legislation that imposes harsh penalties on protesters.  The proposed laws were first introduced into Parliament in March 2015, and the Government insists it will only target radical protesters using devices like chains or thumb locks to block or stop lawful activities. [ABC]

The fact that the UN "special rapporteur on freedom of expression" is objecting to the proposed law is a clue that WA may be on the right track.

"Just" Causes Justify Lawbreaking

Superior Mortals Have More Rights

Self-righteous precious petals are at it again.  There are plenty of folk making up the ranks of those who have "higher causes" which justify the suspension of employment obligations it would seem.  A senior emergency doctor, working at the Whanganui Hospital, recently took part in a public protest against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) presently being negotiated.  No problems so far.

But the self-righteous doctor had a higher calling than ordinary mortals.  He presented at a demonstration clothed in his work uniform, clambered up on top of a vehicle (not his own) and sat on it, refusing to move.  He was arrested by the police and later discharged with a formal verbal warning.  His employers (the District Health Board) summoned him to a meeting where they told him to cease and desist.  His union is now protesting the draconian, lawless, oppressive behaviour of his employer.  This from Stuff:

Telling Signs

Unbelief Bearing Consistent Fruit

We are told that "by their fruits you shall know them".  In similar vein, we are told that "wisdom is vindicated by her children".  The implication of the latter is that folly and Unbelief is exposed and condemned by its children.

The modern husting-hugger seems to believe that public anger conveys genuineness.  It apparently magnifies the horror and evil of whatever they happen to be protesting and shouting.  Outrage substitutes for argument, but somehow that is a good thing, because passion, even inchoate passion, sprinkles an aura of authenticity to a cause when rational argument fails.  Passion therefore cloaks itself as truth.

Of course there is nothing wrong with passion, provided it is grounded in truth and righteousness.  But what our modern protesting shock-troops fail to grasp is that the tenuousness of the cause is being exposed by the antics.  The children are shaming the parents.  The actions illustrate the evil of the underlying beliefs. 

When the "Occupy" movement had its half-life of public attention the media was captivated by the prospect of a genuine, grass-roots, little-person rebellion.  A few more headlines and sales dollars for the media beckoned.  But before you could say, "Down with the capitalists"  stories began to filter out of the "spontaneous" protest camps about rape, dirt, filth, drugs, public defecation, and general lawlessness.  Ah, said the fellow-travellers--that shows its a genuine protest movement concerned about real evils.

What the Occupy "movement" actually showed is the highest, most committed flowers of Unbelief.  The children were shaming the parent--which in this case was the doctrine that God is dead.  The protesting children began publicly to live as if God really were dead.  Since they did not fear God, they did not fear man.  They were free to abuse, shout, spit, rape and steal.

There was recently another manifestation of the fruits of Unbelief--this time in Australia.

Ante-Diluvians All

Blast From the Past

John Minto is a serial, professional protester.  We have often wondered whether there is any consistent ideology at work when John shows up to protest his current cause d'jour.  He has had no real job, no career, nor profession.  He would probably describe himself as a "voluntary worker", since he apparently has lived off the tax payer's dime for much of his life--either directly or indirectly. 

But when the causes you espouse are BIG and really, really important all that counts for nothing.  The cause justifies the narcissistic indolence.  But we would be amiss to think that Minto has no ideology at all.  Some would mistakenly think him to be a committed anti-racist, having been at the forefront of protests against apartheid.  In other words, they see Minto as a human rights ideologue, committed to fundamental human civil rights, regardless of ethnicity or colour.  Maybe.  But Minto has not been well known for positive affirmation. 

One would have thought that, after protesting and campaigning against apartheid in South Africa, there would have been a note of triumphalistic celebration in his later career.  Not so.  It appears that he was deeply disappointed in Mandela and the subsequent course of non-racist South Africa.

Protesting Too Much

Weakness of Idols on Display

Auckland has seen another violent protest by the same old faces.  This time it is protesting against free trade agreements.  The NZ Police took the brunt of the assault.  This from the NZ Herald: 

Police have condemned "violent" protesters who attacked two police officers and set fire to cardboard boxes as they tried to force their way into free trade negotiations.  A handful of police and SkyCity security staff were overwhelmed by more than 150 protesters, forcing the on-the-ground commander to call in reinforcements from around Auckland.

"Police staff moved in to prevent escalation and two officers were separated, attacked and kicked numerous times. Fire appliances were called to the scene to help," police said in a statement. "Two arrests were made. One of these arrests was a female that stomped on a constables head."

The usual suspects attended: John Minto (perpetual, serial, promiscuous protestor), Jane Kelsey (lecturer, Auckland University), Cathy Casey (Auckland City Councillor), Catherine Delahunty (Green MP) along with the mob.

"Blue" Inequality

Intramural Fight Amongst Factions on the Left

Here is an interesting take on the OWS protestors--which are rapidly becoming a noisome stench in the nostrils of the Democratic and progressive elites in the United States.

It is more complex because — as noted by Kenneth Anderson, David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead among others — the Occupy protests are primarily an intramural fight among the factions of the Left.  As Brooks would have it, this is a fight about Blue Inequality, not Red Inequality.  But these analyses  — perhaps because they are primarily intellectual pursuits — tend to gloss over the more simple aspect.  The Occupy protests are about jobs.  The Occupiers are unemployed and they tend to have a certain class of college degree and cannot find a certain class of job.  Anderson strikes close to the heart of the problem with Blue Inequality:

Artificial Rage

The Winter Will Chill the Discontented

The collective globe is holding its breath.  OWS has arrived and is spreading around the world like a virus.  What, we hear you ask?  Yes, you know, "Occupy Wall Street".  Around the world in several countries, including New Zealand, "spontaneous" protests have erupted against--well, let's see now--corporate greed, capitalists, bankers, plutocratic government and whole bunch of other stuff--like, the "gummint needs to pay for my college education".  It has even reached the Dunedin Octagon.  Amazing really. 

Colour us sceptical, but it has a deja-vu patina.