IL DUCE II TO TAKE VICS FOR ANOTHER RIDE
- Hark's Barks
Despair Twists the Curlies as Outcome Depends on Outer Suburbs
An important demographic will stiff-arm the Don over the line on 18 September. Besides the traditional Liberal Elite and their 4-wheel driving wannabe's, there is an emerging voice coming from the Outer Suburbs. These are the AutoBirths, the vast slab of duhbrains required to make something of the fertilised eggs of an increasing population. Their proliferation owes much to the temporary cessation of hoon-shoots so popular during international wars, and to increasing lifespans. They may be dumb, but they do share in the collective unconscious, particularly in that part which is nostalgic for the old days of say, fascist Italy, when their predecessors got to stand up and be counted. But now it's their turn, and don't they love it.
Turning aside, for a few weeks, from their instinctive allegiances to the Australians Against Further Immigration, the Shooting Party, ex-Liberal Pauline Hanson's One Nation, and the Ku Klux Klan, they can now fulfil the Coalition's dream of conning an uninformed and uninterested electorate to vote itself into sub-proletarian oblivion. The Coalition, keen students of history, know that people will only too willingly dig their own graves before obligingly standing beside them as they await the final legislative bullet. It's only taken six years of Coalition rule in Victoria, but for these f.....g Jeff supporters, it's as if things had never been different. They are the political equivalent of battered wives, who keep taking the punches and abuse because they are too stunned to leave or, more frighteningly, because leaving has never occurred to them. HH
Demagogue's Myth of Economic Miracle Written in Stone
Forget hospitals and education, we're living in Roman times. The whole state has turned into a Colosseum where civilisation is being thrown to the shareholders. Il Duce, the ad man, has sold himself to a gullible electorate as--hold on, a deep breath will stop the gagging--COOL! A seventeen year old girl of my acquaintance once described Jeff Kennett as a "spunk." Despair? We ain't seen nuthin' yet. Indeed, we are in the grip of a phenomenon that has been played over and over throughout history. The phenomenon of the demagogue and his gullible worshipers. There is certainly nothing new under the sun and Jeff proves it in spades. His commanding persona overrides the sundering of free education and the closure of hospital beds in favour of the paid and the private. And no one seems to care. What does catch the eye and feeble brain of the electoral majority are the Roman circuses: the totally inessential and downright detrimental distractions of Swell's Casino, the asinine Grand Prix, and the ludicrous Commonwealth Games. City Link, a time-saving boon for those who can afford it, will empty every one else's wallet for the next 35 years. The costs will add up very soon and the outcry will be heard. But the Coalition, keen students of human nature as taught by Machiavelli, have foreseen this and closed off the alternate routes. The stuff of totalitarian states? We ain't seen nuthin' yet. And then there are the public servants in the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs for no good reason, the utilities sold from under us to pay off a debt that should have been eased by a government of the people instead of what has amounted to a coup by business interests acting exclusively for the rich. Because of this coup, secrecy is rampant, with its commercial confidentiality restrictions bringing the shutters down on what used to be a free, if imperfect, state. Victorians have indeed become "victims," as Kennett promised they would be in his acceptance speech in 1992. And the majority of us seem to love it. HH
Welcome to jeff.com, the taxpayer funded web site promoting the man who is emerging as Australia's answer to one of the biggest cult figures of all time, Mao Tse Tung. (He's even being marketed as "The Great Helmsman!") Naturally, Peter Poggioli, Victoria's Minister for Propaganda and the man in charge of selling Jeff to the chumps (and especially their children), won't say how it's funded, so we'll just have to assume the worst. Which, after all, is the only assumption left to most Victorians.
Right there on the home page of the first posting on 26 August, along with eight thumbnail pix of the Great Demagogue, is the site's most revealing propaganda: "There's no passion in the Labor Party. They don't believe in anything." Aside from the obvious projection, Mao, and all the dictators before and after him, would heartily approve. We're wondering why Jeff Inc. didn't go further and accuse Labor of being commies and child abusers. Oh, but of course, Jeff's already done that. Under parliamentary privilege, to be sure.
We assume most Liberal sympathisers will go straight to the primitive Grand Prix game, eschewing the boring policy statements as irrelevant to the future of Victoria, which, rumour has it, is soon to be renamed Gibbsland, a name combining the vast northern area of Victoria, Gippsland, with the Helmsman's middle name, Gibb. The game is a kind of a bore, but, hey, it should keep the young fogey's entertained when they're not comparing MBA's at fashionable bars while listening to TT-FM, the station of mainstream, corporate rock.
One of the home page's menu items, DISCUSS, asks the surfer to check out various FAQ'S often put to His Gibbs. You can also search for topics. We typed in "Democracy," and were treated with: "Your search for "Democracy" found 0 messages." You can also e-mail the Great Man with your worshipful best wishes.
Menu item, TODAY, leads to JEFF'S DIARY, which listed two radio interviews, but failed to say where he would be afterwards. Perhaps back home, where on a sub-menu we can read all about GARDENING JEFF, with the requisite photos of the Great Man communing with the soil.
TEAM is the meatiest menu item, with maps of each electorate, along with bios and thumbnails of all the candidates. Commanding attention, however, is an imposing profile photo of Our Leader, screen left, gazing at the tiny pic of the minion in question. An understandable layout since all candidates are forbidden to debate their opposition counterparts or discuss much of anything with anybody. Once again, Mao would approve.
And here are two bonuses. Besides a JEFF SCREENSAVER (the answer to our dreams!), you can subscribe to the JEFF NEWSLETTER. Just give him your e-mail address, sit back, and wait for the Liberal Party spamming to commence.
Under POLICY, you get another photo of Jeff, this time looking exceedingly avuncular with pen in hand as he's about to sign another of his Tyranny On The Move edicts. The policy statements covering education, employment, better health, etc., are the usual condensations of doublespeak. They are there merely to give a ghost of substance to what otherwise is an expensive advertisement promoting the most dangerous man in Australia. HH
Malcolm Mackerras Says It's Impossble ...
If, as we all suppose, Labor leader Steve Bracks will not come within cooee of victory, then the least Victorians can do is take away Kennett's autocracy by taking away his upper house. The corruption rampant at the highest levels in this state is due to voters' failure to insure that the house of review is not in the premier's pocket. Those taking an active role in the campaign against his tyranny must make this their number one priority. If not, by the time, Jeff Kennett is swinging like Mussolini, the state will be nothing less than the property of Il Duce's legalised Mafia. HH
