An Open Letter to Australia

Dear citizens of Australia,

I am writing to inform you/us that we’re quickly becoming, or rather already have become, an international laughing stock. An in-joke for the majority world; The other 7 something billion outside of our 20 something million are coming to think of us as the big fat country with too much, that’s giving too little, that isn’t able to look outside of it’s self imposed exile, unwilling to step from it’s soap box to see the world for what it is; a web like community made up of billions of small but vitally significant links. It’s no longer those who are politically conscious that are aware of the disgrace of the group of humans that have been granted power to make overbearing decisions on behalf of our nation, it’s the majority. So, before I try and vent and release the deep scar that is being created due to recent and not so recent happenings, I must assure you that I am indeed what some may call True Blue, as it is, of course, a subjective term. Yes I too have loved the smell of gum leaves since I was in a Pram, I love a sunburnt country, I’ve been around the world a couple of times or maybe more, I say g’day, g’day and how’s it goin’, and I still call Australia home. But to be completely honest, all this, it’s really beginning to hurt. Like that awkward hurt you can’t quite put a finger on, and if you try and explain to ya mates down the pub, they begin to look at ya funny.

I’ve waited months to attempt to compose this letter. I was waiting for a time when my emotions weren’t running too high due to on one thing or another our current government has perpetuated, implemented, slashed, withdrawn, torn down, disrupted, damaged or simply ignored. Yet as the time has oh so slowly passed, and every week, near on every day I have been confronted with another daunting disgrace, I have realised that time is not likely to come. So I’ll try and ease into it a little and go easy on the hard data and “facts” and just try to keep it “real”.

To begin with, I want to know how it is we let ourselves be led by such a group? I like to think I know very well why, and to a large extent it has a good deal to do with a caustic mix of social condition and what some call the manufacturing of consent. However I would love for you to ask yourself why. Have you taken the opportunity to look at alternatives? Have you dedicated even a small amount of time or effort to comprehending policies that are due to be implemented and begun to fathom their diverse effects on not just yourself but all those around you? Or did you just take for gospel the words of one of the many media outlets controlled by a minute few? Did you stop to question whether or not these people may not only not have your best interest at heart, but in fact the whole system is rigged to favour them, and that within this rigged system you’re merely a pawn in their game? I know, I know, it’s a very hard pill to swallow. In fact you’re quite likely to throw it by the way side, not the pill I’m attempting to offer you but this entire piece and likely anyone for that matter who may be deemed a voice of dissent; One of the many voices that is forcing you to stretch your manufactured paradigm more than it’s been programmed to stretch.

 Image care of http://uknowispeaksense.wordpress.com/tag/rape-the-planet/

I’m really struggling to put succinctly what it is that so frustrates me about our current position. But it’s something to do with our lack of Stoic behaviour (You know, the great philosophers of old, the ones who could see beyond wealth and material privilege?). Our inability to see that we’re sitting on a litteral and metaphorical gold mine and still complaining about it. Our inability to see the forest for the trees, to see that the policies being put in place are not only deleterious to us, but are to the whole planet.

“Oh come on, that’s alright isn’t it?” Sure. So long as you get your long weekends, and the mining trucks get their petrol for a few cents cheaper, the boat people are being kept out and there’s little to no real societal change. Because who likes change anyway? Especially when we’ve got it so good? Who cares if someone who has English as a second, third, fourth language or in fact can’t speak it at all can’t get into your country? So what? It’s likely they don’t deserve to be here. That’s the beauty of an international meritocracy isn’t it? The people who are wealthy and have all the power have got there because they deserve it and that’s how globalised liberal-democracy works dummy!

So, I’ve thrown eloquence out the window, I’m currently unable to type in a buzzy and fun filled manner. I feel like screaming but that’s not going to help anyone or anything. This is, of course, part of the problem. Unless I’m the mainstream news or the pretty/wealthy majority (who is of course a minority) there’s a large chance you won’t hear it. Granted there’s not too much above for a greater insight, just more mild vitriol amongst a few million other voices of descent. But please Mr and Mrs Australia, put down that newspaper, stop watching that mind warping excrement on television. As it’s become increasingly aware to me that you’re unaware that it’s actually doing you and the world a great deal of harm. Take the opportunity to look outside your paradise. Try and stop believing the lies. Ween yourself off the crack that is modern, conservative, comfortable, mainstream life and live.

The fact we’re one of the most urbanised nations on the planet speaks volumes about us. We’ve all this space yet we prefer to be insular, we’ve been forced into cities to work jobs we hate so we can buy things we don’t need. Break the bonds people. Cease buying into it. Stop debating whether the kettle on the stove is black with silver speckles or its silver speckled with black! Try to understand that the very kitchen which contains the kettle is within a house that’s very foundations are built not only on shaky ground but on skeletons, blood and for the most part on some of the most morose things man is capable of!

I dream that one day you’ll wake, and see this letter for what it is; A letter from someone who has arisen, and sees the destruction wrought by this somnambulist society trying desperately to shake you. If indeed you’re being roused from your slumber, you may ask, as many have; “I am only one person what can I do?” Plenty. Take your head from the sand and begin to demand more. You deserve it. We all do. You can start by asking simple and pervasive questions. These questions will likely be uncomfortable at first, but you must persist. Soon you’ll see that the vast majority of what you’ve been told is highly processed feces sold up stream, and that what you have been lead to believe is not only the truth but is the only way of thinking and comprehending the world.

Until then. Just turn it off. Seek your information elsewhere. Those bickering about what one party should or should not be doing are at least on the right track, but I dare say they’re still far from it. When you start hearing from those who are discussing the foundations, then you’ll know. When you begin to interact with those who are shaking the foundations, you’ll be home. Once you’ve started shaking those foundations yourself, then you will begin to know freedom.

Yours most sincerely

Fionn Napier Quinlan