The Hard Stuff

I never wanted any more than a passing interest in Australian politics. At most, I would have preferred to follow it as a form of mild amusement, something like watching cricket - "baseball on valium", as some Americans characterize it. Never much of a political animal, I'd have preferred to have left Australian politics about where I left American politics - as a rich source of humor and occasional frustration.
Something to growl and laugh about in small talk.

Australian politics forced its way into my life in a series unjust, and simply inhumane, ways. One unavoidable conclusion is that I stayed here too long. To expect to avoid running into a country's maladies for 6 years is unreasonable.
Unreasonable, and unavoidably, I have to admit that the prospect of another term under the Bracks-Hulls government saddens me. This is a government that is conservative in only the most political ways; not based on deep beliefs and principles, but only to maintain their hold on power. Political leaders that seek only to keep themselves in power are the source of tremendous suffering around the globe, no matter what their methods or the structure of government.

There are those who say politics is the art of the possible: that the ends justify the means. At some point, however, the means become the ends in order to satisfy those who come to influence the government.
It is up to those who rise to power to resist this influence.

Voters are swayed by the mad flurry of political promises during campaigns. Major accounting firms are hired by parties to add credence to political white lies. You would think after so many forgotten promises, no one would bother listening, but the papers are full of them, and people have very little else to go on.
The campaign promises that matter, under governments more desperate to keep themselves in power than to be responsible, are the promises that never find their way out of dark corners.

It is intolerable that a government can be so irresponsible as to allow courts to become blind and prejudiced, functioning on coached perjury and making convictions on no more than allegation; that people are dispossessed, slandered, and marked for life because no one will seek to prove or disprove the allegations - by government regulation, mandate, or direct order.

It is intolerable to find that a whole system has been allowed to perpetuate that prejudice for decades because of the growing influence of a few radicals.

It is intolerable to see people trained to blind prejudice as they seek to take jobs that they feel will make a contribution to a society; that this training is given to all levels of clerks, police, social workers, lawyers, teachers, ... Simply intolerable.

It is intolerable to find that agencies set up by government to oppose such discrimination and prejudice are in fact the proponents of the prejudice; that the governments have actually set the mandates of some agencies to allow them to avoid coming into conflict with the political influence that keeps them in power.

It all comes back to the unspoken promises in dark places that never make the news.

It is intolerable to find millions spent to study and understand Australian society misspent; and tens of thousands suffering injustice that will affect all parts of their lives as long as they live.

It's disheartening to find that Australia is another country that seeks to ignore the issues of disability, the elderly, the mentally ill, and its own health system. Australia is a small country spread wide across a vast land. It is a very young country, not so much in years but in experience and national character. In terms of maturity, Australia is more akin to a caribbean 'sand kingdom' than the US and UK.

Disheartening, and maybe even embarrassing, because if the injustices had not touched my life, I would never have given them more than passing notice.
In the past, Australia cared for its elderly and disabled at the state and council level. 'Council homes' were provided, and there was the same medical system for everyone. But local councils have followed the lead of state and national leaders to be both jealous, and more profligate, of their power over citizens. More money was spent by Melbourne councils on self promotion and travel for the last two years than for providing homes for the elderly and disabled - despite the flood of new housing.

The hardest of all is the sense of self-loathing that is unavoidable. A person who endures abuse comes to believe that somehow, for some reason, they deserved the abuse. Even when the abuse ends, that twisted sense will not leave easily, and certainly not quickly.
It doesn't matter what the reasons were for enduring abuse: love, a sense of duty or manliness, social or family pressures or imagined principles, illness or disability, whatever excuses the person made for the abuser - abuse marks the mind and heart with deep scars. A person has to fight for their own self respect, and the fight may take years depending on many factors.

For all that is intolerable, what is humbling is to realize that if it had not affected me personally, I would never have bothered. All of these intolerable facts would have just made me chuckle about the curiosities of Australia. A question screams silently to be answered though: Do I find these things intolerable because of an honest social conscience? - or is it just because of the deep scars within myself?
Will any changes to the social fabric that I may be a part of do anything to heal my own wounds?
I suppose, like so many things, time will tell.