Somewhere along the line, we all got handed a little label maker and told it was “personal growth.”
Gay. Trans. Cis. Straight. Non binary. He him. She her. They them. This. That. The other. And if you do not pick one quickly enough, someone will kindly offer you a set like a waiter listing specials.
And look, I get it. For a lot of people, those words are not decoration. They are survival. They are belonging. They are the way you find your mob when the world has been rough. I am not here to take that away from anyone.
But I am here to ask a blunt question: why is the label so often the first thing we ask for, like it is the password to the real conversation?
Who Are You When Nobody’s Watching?
Here is my problem. Labels can be useful, but they are terrible at doing the job they keep getting hired for. They do not tell me if you are kind. They do not tell me if you apologise when you are wrong. They do not tell me if you are safe to be around when things get messy. They do not tell me if I call and 3.00 am you’ll come?
They do not tell me how you got to here?
And that is what I actually want to know.
What did you crawl through to get here? What are you proud of that nobody claps for? What do you hope for when your head hits the pillow and the day is finally quiet? What do you want to build, or fix, or protect? What makes you laugh so hard you snort and then pretend it was a cough?
Tell me about the dream you have not said out loud because it feels too big. Tell me about the grief you carry like a constant dead weight in your pocket. Tell me about the time you were brave and nobody saw it.
That is the stuff that makes a person. Not a checkbox.
Pronouns, Tribes, and the Great Human Hunger
I am not offended by pronouns. I am not terrified of identity. I am not declaring war on anybody’s flag.
I am just saying that sometimes it feels like we are collecting categories the way kids collect footy cards. Got one. Need another. Rare edition. Signed. Limited release. And, it just ends up in the box with the rest. No really adding to my life, just sitting there to show once in a while to show I have something you don’t.
We are starving for belonging, and we keep trying to eat it through labels. We keep trying to connect by pushing people in and out of a group.
But belonging is not a word. It is behaviour. It is how you treat the barista when your coffee is wrong. It is how you speak to your partner when you are tired. It is how you act when nobody is recording you, and there is no applause, and you could get away with being a dickhead.
If you want to tell me who you are, tell me what you do when you have power, even tiny power. Tell me how you handle anger. Tell me how you handle someone else’s pain. Tell me what you do with your attention, your money, your time, your words.
Because character is identity with receipts.
What’s the Point?
The point is simple. I want a world where the first question is not “what are you” but “who are you.” I practice saying when I meet people for the first time, not “What do you do for a job?” But, “What do you love to do?”
I want conversations where we do not lead with a label and end with silence. And, when we don’t agree the winner is the one that yells the loudest and blames the other. I want friendships built on curiosity, humour, honesty, and the strange miracle of being two humans who both made it through their own storms and still have the nerve to hope. And the understanding that hatred is a disease not a source of energy. And anger need only the addition of one letter to always signify “D anger.”
Maybe if we get good at seeing the person first, we can make someone’s day a little lighter. Maybe we leave a place better than we found it. Maybe we leave a person a little happier, or at least a little less alone.
So yes, be whatever you are. Call yourself whatever helps you breathe. I will respect it.
And then, once that part is done, come closer and tell me the real story.
Tell me your story, without fear or favour, with heart and truth. Tell me, who are you?
The ‘Run – Hide – Fight – Active Shooter Strategy’ is actually taught in schools in the United States. As you can see at the bottom of the poster on the left, it is from a school in Pennsylvania US and is on the schools’ main web page!
I always thought this was sad and tragic?
After the sadness created through the tragedy that happened in Bondi in the last week with 15 people murdered by terrorists,
I think it is time we have a look at our ‘mindset.’
And, I’ll try and do it quickly and with just the basic info? There is a lot of movies that make survival look like its the tough who survive. But, in reality it is the smart, with a whole lot of luck.
I often ‘test’ people and say “What is the First Rule of Survival?’ (I wrote a post about all the rules if you want to have a look – click here)
And, I usually get some good answers, find water, find shelter etc etc. But, like a lot of things, the first rule is obvious and people go “Oh Yeah’ when I tell them but people don’t follow it. Most people don’t think it will happen to them, and when it does it’s often, too late?
The first rule of survival is ”DON’T GET IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION IN THE FIRST PLACE.”
Just by reading this post you have exponentially increased your chances of survival in numerous situations. Firstly, by the ones you avoid and perhaps having a little more thought before saying ‘Hey, hold my beer, watch this’ or heading off into the bush, or out in the boat, by getting a fire extinguisher and first aid kit for your car, having a fire evacuation plan for your home, etc etc
The ‘Active Shooter’ scenario is just something we hope will not happen again, but….?
One simulation study using agent-based modelling (look this up – it’s really interesting for working out probabilities?) suggested a survival probability of over 92% for individuals who focused solely on running away, compared to only about 5% for those who solely hid.
Most people will ‘hide’ where they first become aware they are in danger. Under a table, lying down on the ground. These ‘hiding places’ often don’t provide cover or concealment.
’Cover’ is behind something that will protect you from gunfire. ‘Concealment’ is something that will ‘hide’ you but wont stop gunfire. Cover and concealment is the answer; but in the moment how do I find that!?
You find it because you know it before the danger arrives by being ‘situationally aware.’
There is not one cop I know who doesn’t think about ‘what if there is a hold up’ every time they walk into a bank?
When you are ‘aware’ of what is happening, if you are in danger, particularly an active shooter situation, you have to ‘respond, not ‘react.’ A ‘reaction’ may actually put you in more danger. By having a route of escape that does not put you in more danger than hiding you are ‘responding’ and making a conscious decision. Remember there is ‘cover’ that will protect you from gun fire and there is ‘concealment’ which means that you can’t be seen but your ‘concealment’ probably wont stop a bullet. You will need, cover, concealment and a route of escape.
I think we’ve all done it. Walked around in a day dream or our head in our phone. I think we’ve all nearly ran over someone who just stepped off the kerb without looking. Situational Awareness is not walking around ‘ALWAYS READY!!!’, it’s just not walking around oblivious.
Also, often when a lot of people run away from danger you have the real possibility of creating a ‘mob stampede’ in which people get injured or killed by the crowd and not the threat. In these situations is not about being the ‘coward’ who ran away, or the ‘hero’ who stayed and fought, it’s about working together and helping each other. Make that your catch phrase if you are in one of these situations. Yell it out “Work together, help each other.” Humans are best when they do that.
I hope you never have to use the information I shared here, other than to stop yourself getting run over, and perhaps see the world a little clearer. And, mostly, not get in a survival situation in the first place.
(Note to reader – no pictures this time as I just had to write and post?! – Sorry about the typo’s and spelling errors!)
“If guns kill people, pencils misspell words, cars drink drive, cutlery makes us fat, lighters set bushfires.”
Yesterday. many people were murdered. Australians were murdered and our guests, in Sydney, in Bondi…”
These words, remind us of something important. It isn’t objects, or sensationalised video future of Australians doing what they do, that define tragedy or its cause.
It isn’t simplistic slogans and thoughts. It isn’t panic or division, it’s the human condition, greed, creed, ideology, doctrine, the raw unfortunateness of madness.
And with the promise of more laws slapping on bans, we’re again being told to be afraid and divided instead, from our mates.
Australians don’t scare easy. That’s not in our DNA. From the Dreamtime to the prison ships, from the diggers at Gallipoli to the stories our bush poets wrote that inspired generations, songwriters have sung, what makes us Australian isn’t fear, it’s resilience and looking after each other.
The Seekers got one thing right in We Are Australian.
“We are one, but we are many… We share a dream and sing with one voice: I am, you are, we are Australian.”
That dream isn’t a political slogan. It’s about community, shared struggle, shared strength.
That’s the same spirit John Williamson captured in True Blue, the idea of being fair dinkum, genuine, authentic, and loyal to your mates. True blue isn’t about exclusion or fear. It’s about being good people who look out for one another, stand up when times are tough, and don’t hide behind catchy headlines or fear mongering.
And, Redgum’s I Was Only Nineteen ,haunting ballad about the cost of war, about men in suits sending our young to die in countries they’ve never heard of, in wars they dont understand.
These songs, these Australian anthems, remind us that mate ship isn’t rhetorical, it’s lived in hardship, fire, drought, flood and blood and memory. That song isn’t an anthem about politics, it’s about people.
We are better than fear and division, and what God your pray to.
We don’t need more bans, more fear, more “solutions” that really just divide us and strip away liberty. We need mates ship, empathy and mostly we need to look after each other, especially when the world feels mad, and bad and poor and always on the brink of war.
Australian’s don’t bend easily, . We don’t roll over when someone tells us to be scared or to choose sides. That’s not who Australians are.
And speaking of being ripped off, let’s talk resources, how then ‘popular’ elite that govern us have decided what happens to what we all own.
We are a resource-rich nation, really rich. But, most of the massive profits from our minerals, gas and coal don’t actually make their way back into the community that owns those resources. According to my research, mining taxes and royalties combined make up only about five cents of every dollar of government revenue, despite mining being one of the most profitable sectors. Much of that revenue goes overseas, or into corporate structures designed to minimise tax, sometimes illegally, but most often legally because the system lets them. Many gas fields and resources are exported royalty-free or pay minimal tax, leaving the public, the owners of those resources, with far less than they should receive.
We need to ask, if these companies are digging up our land, exporting our resources and enriching shareholders overseas, why are we not seeing a fair share of that wealth reflected in better hospitals, better schools, better regional services, better support for veterans and struggling communities.
That’s not sovereign wealth. That’s selling the farm and being told we’re lucky they bought it.
Our leaders aren’t always the best qualified, so they hire consultants, for billions, YES billions of dollars, and tell politicians what they want to hear.
Let’s be real. Big politics is often about big egos and small accountability. Hire a consultant and get the answers you want, in black and white, from the experts.
We deserve better, NO we need to start demanding better.. We deserve leaders with backbone, vision, and real understanding of public good over private profit.
So what do we do?
We lean into what makes us Australian. Mateship, you help a mate when he’s in a fight. A fair go, we give it, and we expect it back. Resilience, we don’t cower, we stand up. Truth, we call out bullshit when we see it.
We remember the stories, the songs, the history, the shared struggles. That’s what being Australian really means, not fear, not division, not spin and sensational headlines.
We are better than our fear. We are better than the cheap narratives sold to us to distract us. We are still the people who sing I Am Australian and mean it, because we understand it’s about people, not slogans.
And, this is not a call to ‘action.’ This is a call ‘‘thought.’ It is a call to ‘truth.’ It is a call to “not only some mates looking after some of us, but, all of us looking out for all our mates.’
And, as our mates have lost their lives in the last day or so, we saw when the fighting gets tough and Australian is not who you want to have that fight with. We’d rather have a beer, a chat and sort it out that way. But, somehow we got into a struggle where a bloke born in this country, and his Dad, somehow!!!!, thought it was okay to kill his fellow Australians.
My heart breaks, for those murdered, those injured and those that this day will now define them. But, my heart rejoices in seeing the spirit of Australians in this tragedy, helping their mates, running towards danger for their mates, protecting there mates with their own bodies, getting together and saying we will not live in fear…. And making the ultimate sacrifice because:
No one has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends,”
I am in shock still, I wonder, why we have come to this. My Dad was a Truckee, my Mum a primary school teacher, and we didn’t have much. But, we were happy, and we had our community, a diverse group of countries we were born in and came here from, religions, skin colour, languages spoken at home, sexual orientation, men and women, gays and straights, but, we knew one thing, if they called we went, and if I called I knew they would come.
Because, that’s what Australian’s do.
The only ‘pub test’ was after, wether you were having a soft drink or ‘necking a beer’, because we did it together.
Thanks mate….
PS: When I was writing this I was flicking through all the news stories (with fucking tears in my eyes!) and then I came across the show ‘Love Island Australia’ being aired at the same time…. There is a fair chance we may already be fucked!!!!!!
Our Government is spending millions on missiles and billions on submarines that we won’t get for 20 years. Yet no-one wants to join the Australian Defence Force (ADF) or for that matter the Police. I think the Ambo’s are faring better but spending their well trained and highly qualified working hours sitting on hospital ramps. I think the Firefighters in South Australia anyway are doing good because they look after their people..
Funny thing is that more ADF personnel, Police and Firefighters die from their own hand than the dangers of the jobs they do. They die also in spirit, destroying family units and relationships for their duty is done and the Government throws them away. Brave soldiers live on the streets after fighting for all of us.
Australians traditionally do not behave like this. We look after each other.
Our Governments are teaching us not to.
And… Governments send our resources and young men and women to die, always on foreign soil, always for a fight picked by someone else.
Honestly, fuck the war in the Middle East; it has already been going for 3000 years. Fuck the war in the Ukraine, NATO picked the fight, they can fight it.
We don’t need to keep being ‘deputised’ to fight other peoples wars.
Fuck nuclear weapons….. especially the one that will soon be dropped in either the Middle East or Ukraine.
….. and buy the way there is clean nuclear power plants that use nuclear waste, but unfortunately they don’t have a by product called plutonium which is required for nuclear weapons. Don’t believe me check out this video: Click here
Finally, as the Government is working towards us doing other peoples dirty work and getting to fight people who are mostly just like us, but perhaps not so lucky, we can go about our lives.
Going about our lives means striving for that bigger TV, that better car, both of which are probably made in a country our Government is spending billions to protect us from. And by the way of any, if our ‘enemies’ wanted to invade us, it would be over before lunch!
So, have a nice peaceful day consuming and sleep soundly in you bed tonight because no-one is dropping bombs on us,
Biden just told the world he would hand over the US Presidency to Trump peacefully and they met and had a nice chat…..
I love being wrong in my predictions…… but: I make them anyway….
Biden will be dead before Christmas (gently in his sleep?) Kamala will be President for a bit under a month….. Multiple assassination attempts on Trump….. they will probably get him….. There will be a US Constitutional “Crisis”…….
….. and it goes on…. And on…. And on….. And on……
(The new civil war in USA is still not avoided…..)
Have you ever encountered someone who seems utterly confident in their abilities despite clear evidence to the contrary? Or perhaps you’ve caught yourself feeling overly confident about something you later realized you knew very little about? Welcome to the fascinating world of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Some of you who have read my stuff before may remember another less scientifically supported syndrome that once you know it you can’t unknow it. This is the group of people who are know as “Six-Percenters.” It’s worth a read but, again I caution, that reading the below post and the Six-Percenter” post can not be unlearned and it will change the way you look at the world (go to Six-Percenter post – click here). There is a disclaimer that if you suffer from either of these two ‘syndromes or effects’ even after reading these posts you won’t necessarily realise it if you are someone who may be afflicted.
What is the Dunning-Kruger Effect?
The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, describes a cognitive bias where individuals with low ability in a particular area tend to overestimate their competence. In simpler terms, it’s when people who know the least about something mistakenly believe they know the most. This phenomenon can lead to unwarranted confidence and poor decision-making.
How Does It Work?
Ignorance of Ignorance: At the heart of the Dunning-Kruger effect lies the inability of individuals to recognize their own incompetence. This lack of awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their skills or knowledge level.
Overconfidence: Due to this ignorance of their own limitations, people affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect often display high levels of confidence in their abilities. They may assert their opinions strongly, even in the face of contradictory evidence.
Incompetent Performance: Despite their confidence, individuals with low competence typically perform poorly when objectively assessed. Their lack of knowledge or skill becomes apparent when compared to those who are more knowledgeable in the same domain.
Self-Reflection: Interestingly, those who are more competent in a given area may underestimate their abilities. This occurs because they assume others have similar knowledge or skills, leading to a modest self-assessment.
Examples in Everyday Life
Social Media: You might have seen individuals confidently arguing about complex topics like economics or politics, despite having little to no formal education or understanding of the subject. I just love these keyboard warriors and spend many hours agreeing with them and providing further false information!
At Work: Just note this is where Dunning-Kruger is a plaque. In professional settings, the Dunning-Kruger effect can manifest when employees overestimate their capabilities, leading to the dumb boss being in charge of experts and demanding the experts agree with them. This is also called Politics.
Mitigating the Effect
I had a really scientific and ‘workplace consultant’ answer for this but decided that it sounded too much like I was suffering badly from the Dunning-Kruger effect myself – which incidentally since I learned of this effect I catch myself a lot of the time falling for it.
What I do is, when I am being espoused obvious bullshit from a Dunning-Kruger ‘specialist’ is just nod my head and say ‘really,’ ‘how interesting’ and ‘I didn’t know that.’ It is also a fantastic time to practice active listening and actively observe those also listening to see who is buying the bullshit and who is not. I also encourage those other people to argue!!!
I also use this strategy with ‘bosses’ that are obviously a Dunning-Kruger suffer, which most are, as that’s how they got there! If they require you do do something really stupid, just say ‘Yes.” Mostly they don’t care if you do it, they just want to wield power over you because they believe they are smarter and will never check if you do it or not. So just don’t, they’ll never know. If the argument comes from the Dunning-Kruger subordinate, who thinks they should have your job, just asked them what they would do and then say ‘we’ll all share the responsibility’. They’ll do what you ask.
You Now Know About Six-Percenters and Dunning-Kruger, Sorry
The Dunning-Kruger effect serves as a reminder that humility and self-awareness are essential traits in navigating life’s challenges. It also important that you are not following fools into business or war!
So, next time you find yourself feeling overly confident about something, take a moment to to think about it. Are you truly as knowledgeable as you think, or could the Dunning-Kruger effect be at play? Are you the smartest person in the room, or the Six-Percenter?
This is an extract from my post ‘War What is it Good For‘: you can read the entire thing, but I got to the point where I decided that we, ‘we the people’ should stop being passive and sheep. The hardest part is that we are divided already. Revolution only starts or succeeds if we are all going in the same direction and of course we are going in the ‘right’ direction..
So here is my little extract:
WE ARE AUSTRALIANS!!!!!
Our home is on an ancient land with an ancient culture and are made up of people from all the other cultures on this planet.
We have historically fought for the ideals of other countries (not our own) and defended our coast only twice in wars that, one changed a culture and the other never really threatened it. And, other than the politicians, we Australians have defended our shores with a lot of loss of life and a pain.
But, we are all still here, we are Australians.
A revolution is coming and it is not in a country we have to Google to figure out where it is, or a place we send our young men and women to die, or the future destruction of the true ‘Australia Culture’….. which is all of us that live here today.
You don’t think you can do anything. You think being passive is not the answer (Hint: See Gandhi, see Dr Martin Luther King, see Nelson Mandela – all good examples of resistance without resistance!)
This “Revolution” involves doing northing.
We are ruled by our own consent. We are taught to:
Consume
Live in Fear
Be addicted
Separate into our separate ‘tribes’, groups, ideologies, etc etc (Please remember, one of the greatest military strategies, is to ‘divide and conquer’)
So, I have decided, all the writing I have been doing over the last few months, years, decades…. And all the plans for change, I will post.
And, I guarantee, by deciding to not, consume, be afraid, be addicted and to decide more importantly, to work with everyone for change, we can again all be true Australians.
So, PHASE ONE, is this, and its simple because it is what we used to do:
Say hello to people in the street…
Wave to people from you car…
Let that other driver in front of you…
Let that person in front of you go first in the in line…
Say please and thank you…
Smile…
Chat…
And, again I promise, I will hopefully post more PHASES of this ‘Revolution’ to get our lives back as Australians. To share the values that have been here for millennia , centuries and for all the time that Aussies used to believed, in giving everyone a fair go.
And, no-one will ever fire a shot, sue a neighbour, be marching down the street with a sign, or do anything that is not moral or good and transparent.
Because, ‘the system’ is our enemy and lucky it is its own worst enemy.
For again I say, we are governed and ruled by our own consent.
We will as Australians, change our country, to where we are all equal, where 99% of the wealth is not owned by less than 1%. Where those who try, and take the time to notice, will make a difference that no-one will see coming.
WE HAVE TO TRY!!!!
Let us all be the good leader in the ‘survival situation’. I suspect we are approaching one. So let us look after the weak, sick, disadvantaged, lost, etc etc (whose eye contact we now avoid in the street). Or, we only ‘help’ because someone is paying us.
Let us first reconnect with each other right where we live and where’ve we travel in this great land. By doing a few small things each day in reconnecting, you will find you may very well feel happier and make someone’s day. And, the best part, it costs you nothing. If we can’t take this first step in a ‘Revolution” which involves being kind to each other, it is no wonder big business, governments and big Tech are not kind to use and use us as ‘consuming machines’. This can change, and will change, if we all work together; if we decide to ‘withdraw’ our consent.
I wrote not long ago about “War what is it good for” (click here to read), but it didn’t involve a cat riding a vacuum cleaner so my AI statistic robot in the background told me only 28 or so people read it and they only stayed for an average of 58 seconds….
So, to the point.
Today we are sending two war plane and 100 troops to the Middle East. The Prime Minster state two very important things:
We are sending them to support Australian wanting to leave.” Well send a passenger jet and not two war planes.
And, “This is not ‘boots on the ground’” Well it looks like it to me.
We are sending 100 and two planes, then a thousand and all the rest of our planes (which adds up to about 5 or 6?). But, be afraid because Australia is protected by nuclear submarines…. So please get back to us in Andy’s years.
This is all familiar.
These countries ring a bell: Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.
It’s only a few troops today who don’t have boots on the ground and then it’s thousands and then the draft…. And then our young people start coming home in body bags.
No.
PS: No pictures as not pictures of our young people dyeing should be necessary. PPS: I will post Phase 2 of The Revolution soon. (Although its hardly a revolution when only 28 or so people are involved?
I was watching the news last night and realised the above statement is true…. And I can prove it.
It will take a few paragraphs…. but, I guarantee it will be worth it!
The current ‘road toll’…..
‘Road Toll’ – a very nice term to describe people who have died unexpectedly in car accidents, usually by getting their delicate human body smashed and torn apart by sharp metal, bitumen and glass…..
So, the road toll in South Australia for this year (2023) is 31, that is 31 people
And ‘they’ took away the markers no doubt because someone was offended?
died as I described above.
Last year (2022) at the same time it was 15.
I wrote the above a few weeks ago and just decided to publish it and trawled the internet for the current totals….
That was difficult as the SAPOL web site had two different results and every where else I searched compared death rate to date, with the total for last year……
I could have gone to the media (the ‘merchants of misery’) reports but decided I couldn’t trust them more than statisticians, politicians or pollsters predicting ‘the Voice’ referendum….
So I will let you be the judge of these ‘accurate statistics’ …..
So, we are dying in horrific circumstances, being crushed and ripped apart; even incinerated, at double the rate.
Our Police (our beloved SAPOL) is full of good people going out their each day risking their lives when we need them to serve and protect us from the fantasy of the road toll and how they are ‘helping’ to reduce it.
They are just going through the PR motions:
More breath tests
More drug tests
Giving out more on the spot fines
Cameras and computers even giving us more on the spot fines
Traffic operations in country towns and ‘black spots’ to do more alcohol and drug testing and hand out more fines.
The fantasy is the glory of protecting us from the ‘fatal five’ killers on the road:
Drink and Drug Driving
Speeding
Distraction
Seat Belts
Dangerous Driving
…. And SAPOL on average hand out …… get ready for this as it doesn’t sound real but, it is recorded on the SAPOL web site at the link below….
Okay I did research…. not my thing….. and found the below statistics.
In the days between 6/7/2022 – 31/3/23, a total of 268 days, there were 425,407 expiation notices issued by person and machine.
That is about 1500 a day!!
That is at total of $119,198,366.00 of fines issued in that period.
I need to write that out in full so you know it isn’t a mistake:
“one hundred and nineteen million, one hundred and ninety eight thousand three hundred and sixty six dollars!!!!!”
(Wait for it…. that is $444,770.022 A DAY!!!)
How about that ‘ramping’ at the hospital emergency departments where all the road accident patients go screaming in the back of an ambulances with bits hanging off them, or bit missing and squirting blood…. and waiting for hours with ambos on double shifts and not break
After all, we just need more beds, more doctors, more nurses….. but, where do we get the money???
Plus,
$26,253,260.00 additional payments on top of those fines for the Victims of Crime Levy. (I bet that makes you feel good as a victim of crime when you have been waiting years for compensation?)
But, the good news the statistics reveal that SAPOL’s vigorous protection of us from the “Fatal Five’ resulted in more deaths and more fines.
The simple truth is that the infringement notices are going up in line with the the road toll – remember that is the crushing and ripping apart of human bodies and the death of someones’ loved ones..
So, this wonderful strategy of protecting us has continued with enforcement, telling people they are selfish pricks (which by the way wins an award in advertising!?) and that 3 out of 5 people killed on country roads live in the country; I just wonder what the statistics are for the number of people who live in the city that are killed on the roads in the city?
Plus as a little side issue (I’m writing a series on this one called ‘Never Pay and On the Spot Fine Again’ – to be published in the next week or so – there will be a link – here – when it is done).
SAPOL continues to increase enforcement, disregarding your presumption of innocence by taking away your license, on the spot, and then taking your car (and charging you to store it)….
And…. having on their web site that you ‘have‘ to pay the fine….
Is this all sounding a little crazy, even insane.
SAPOl is not doing the same thing over and over again….. they are doing more of the same thing, and more, and more…..
That is because by definition SAPOL and their ‘traffic strategies’ are insane as old Albert points out below:
I will tell you how to NEVER pay an on the spot fine given by a Police Officer or a robot (although it is getting pretty hard to tell the difference) EVER again….. in my next blog….
…..or maybe the one after….
I got heaps of other stuff to bitch about, like, crime and mayhem in the CBD of Adelaide!!!!!
Well here goes…. ….. and this is a long read….. sorry!
I haven’t had my second vaccination yet (I will not use the advertising slogan “The Jab” although I did use it in the heading of this post – hypocrisy is still one of my strong points?), however I am all booking in later this month and will be getting it.
…. someone said to me the other day, all that is happening in the world today seems a bit like a bad plot in a B Grade science fiction movie… ?
As I said in Part 1, I love movies; I also love reality TV; well not in its entirety, okay not at all, I just love ‘Survivor’. But, truely can Reality TV be anything other than real; real people put in real made up situations trying to be real? I blame the Kardashians and Paris Hilton who are real famous for being, well, real famous. And, then there is living in the real world….
In the real world, the weird real world of today, I have spent a lot of time thinking about stuff. I think about stuff I know, and then there is the stuff that I think I know; and what I see. Then I try and put this all in the perspective of my years of deducing conclusions that fit all the facts.
I tell young Detectives do all you can to try and prove the ‘offender’ innocent and when you can’t, well logically, they did it….
So, in my ‘analysis of The Jab’ I first had to get rid of some of the ‘innocent’ or unprovable theories.
… bearing this in mind, I told a ‘flat earther’ friend of mine the other day that I don’t believe the world is flat as there is more evidence that it is a sphere floating in space and a force we can’t explain called gravity keeps us all from falling off (that sounds just as silly when you write it down); But, I listened to them as their arguments were interesting. I did finish our conversation by saying, if a giant spaceship landed tomorrow and the occupants of that ship came out and said ‘Oh, by the way, you have been living on a flat earth under a big dome’ I’d walk out to the fridge in the shed, get a beer, have a sit down and say ‘fair enough’ – this doesn’t seem probable, but….?
So back to my ‘innocent’ and unprovable theories, they all seem to be flawed on two grounds.
Firstly they seem statistically unlikely, and secondly they do not have a logical purpose behind them.
Before I go on (and I believe me I am going on….!) I am going to do my best to not say ‘your should or you shouldn’t’. Religion is so full of people starting sentences with ‘you should’ and/or ‘you shouldn’t and that when for me it is not talk to the hand it is talk to the back of my head as I am walking away. So, I will do my best not to do this to you. Always remember that when religion is working for the rich, it’s fine; but, not for the poor. See, I’m not the only one with a monopoly on hypocrisy.
Back to the Detectives ‘investigationing’ (a great non-word) I started by just letting all the ‘facts’ be a mist of genuine ‘unknownness’. In the end, after asking a few very basic questions of myself, the answer seemed really simple, not sinister, just really, really sad.
I considered two main questions below which led me to the answer (and it is not 42! – that was the question remember!)
Question 1 – The Media
What of the Media (the Merchants of Misery). As said before it is probably the first time they have so obviously been in support of the Government and any of their plans. I also relates to the fact that their job has become easier; we can’t attack them for manipulation because we are all victims who prove so easily and eager to step into the experience they provide; fake, proven or otherwise it is the spectacle, the modern arena for us the slave gladiators willingly taking part; and we are sold the myth that we think we are just sitting in the stands.
Question 2 – The big Question: Why?
Well, it depends on how you are looking at this pandemic; as this view will make the question very simple or very complicated. The greatest question which answers itself about all conspiracy theories in that for most of them to be true, the extent of the conspiracy would have to be so big, what could I do about it anyway… another time to walk to the fridge get a beer, sit down and say ‘fair enough I didn’t expect that?’.
We mostly live in a democratic world, but that doesn’t really matter. Even in a democracy we really can do whatever we wish so long as we do what ‘they’ (the infamous ‘they’!) tell us to do. Remember all our ‘rulers’ democratic or not rely on our consent to rule.
Controlling the consent of ‘robots’ is easy when we have a futile fear of everything and are focused on the superficial joys of consuming, immediate gratification and the Kardashians.
The question as to ‘why’ is simple. Does it help the rich or does it help the general population? From this question you know the ‘why’ straight away and virtually what’s going to happen next.
Well, surprise we are now allowed to have freedoms that we started off with before and thought nothing of. Perhaps we are being giving something called the ‘Privilege of Greatness’ were the ‘powers to be’ rely on the supreme pleasure and gratefulness of the population on receiving small concessions so as the bigger issues are forgotten in the celebration and joy of the insubstantial gift. Viva La ‘Freedom Day’!
…. And through this smokey, misty, fact finding and intuitional detection process, it dawn on me…
The vaccines are probably safe(ish) as much as polio, rubella etc etc were/are safe in their interestingly statistically verified safeness. A sad statistic is that vaccines, even the bad ones have never hurt or killed more people than the countries that have been torn apart, the generations of hurt, guilt, regret, pain and death, that resulted from our smallest wars. So, many wars, our World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan; ….. the war on drugs ….. the war on terror ….. the war on traffic fatalities ….. the war on corruption ….. the war on COVID19
Fun Fact: COVID19 is the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain just like AIDS in the disease caused by the HIV Virus. Go figure this silly medical stuff?
After all, our emergency services and defence services personnel are always on the front line of these ‘wars’. It is never the generals, it’s the civilians who authorise and organise these wars who ultimately commit the worst war crimes in history.
All that has happened in this ‘Why’, has ‘political support’. Political support is a wonderful phrase as it almost always means the Governments bipartisan support from the rich and big business. Climate change for example (I think that’s a ‘war’ too) is now big business, so everything is being ‘green washed’ because that’s where the money is.
However, this is just the pilot in a really great apocalypse movie (although low on budget and special effects.
All good apocalypse movies have a sequel in the making when released. If ‘Rick’ can go from trying to steal a mates girlfriend (Love Actually) to being the reason we all hope the Zombie kill him (The Walking Dead), then anything is possible in the sequal.
I believe the why and the solution is not revolution but evolution; I can hardly wait for ‘The Jab Part 3’!!!
Really – this guy is only 0.69 !!!!
(I had actually finished the draft of this post and thought leaving it on the above ‘cliff hanger’ was like watching ‘Highway Patrol’ when the blood alcohol metre is spinning in the corner and then they go for a commercial break – then I realise how much I hated that so I can’t do it to anyone else….)
I finished my draft on the evening of the 12/11/21…. and upon realising the date was a palindrome like ‘race car’ and hannah’ and ‘glenelg’ and my favourite and applicable to this post:
“no sir panic is a basic in prison”
The words of Plato filled my head: “All in all, nothing human is worth taking very seriously, nevertheless…..”
I recommend before the sequel to keep the status quo by:
keep consuming
pay your fines and surrender you right of having ‘your day in court’ – even to just say sorry or give a good reason or to ask for a bit of leniency
watch cats on vacuum cleaners and the Kardashians and their clones
buy on line and never price compare unless it is online
watch the Media (the Merchants of Misery) even though you don’t believe them…. much.
and most of all, be afraid; in the most prosperous, safest, longest life expectancy and peaceful time in human history, ever; you just remain afraid
Remember the above strategies have ‘political support’ which is best statistically summarised by this wonderful survey in the US, which had 98% of the population supporting universal health care – this was not considered ‘political support’ so universal health care was abandoned by government – well they had to, there was no support?. Remember, we are most in danger when we have jumped out of the way of a speeding car, willingly or not, of most likely being run over by another car.
So, we will fight ‘the war on COVID19’ for as a government and us as the willing mob we all live for the sake of combatting an enemy, therefore as that is our purpose, it is in the best interests of everyone to keep the enemy alive to fulfil our purpose.
So, what, best interest?
Best interest is big business, the super rich and the implementation of the ‘three laws of robotics’ as designed by the science fiction writer Issac Asimov (by the way old Issac just came up with three robot laws and a few good books, whereas another science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard came up with an entire religion!):
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Now the Why is revealed.
We have become customers for life, obeying the three laws as all good robots do.
Not truely sinister, but COVID19 (forgot all the conspiracies) has provided the opportunity for the greatest marketing, sales and future binding contracted arrangements with consumers. We, the 80-90% of the population, are now consumers of our COVID19 vaccinations, and boosters for life. We should be proud that we are part of the greatest demonstration of consumer led capitalism in the history of man, ever!
Protests in the streets, even with the best of intentions of the ‘choice argument’ will fail…. Long rambling blogs will fail……. Litigation will fail…….
I, along with 80-90% of the rest of the world have sealed deal and signed the ‘customer for life contract’.
…. and then I thought I had written enough…. and had a sleep and made the mistake of watching the News and not just publishing this post…..
13/11/21 (no palindrome – that day is gone…)
They say a week in politics or the news cycle is a long time. Well, I should have published/posted this the morning and then I wouldn’t have watched the news tonight!?
Countries with similar (or better) vaccination rates to us are going back into locked down – when the Netherlands do something like this I pay attention – they seem like reasonable people and secretly own half the world.
I hit myself in the face in front of the mirror ‘Fight Club’ style, as I again fell for the trap of attempting to use logic to solve and illogical problem.
I remembered even ‘customers for life’ need to be entertained to keep that ‘brand loyalty’…. always waiting for the new and improved models, which will have great new versions and the ever expectation and excitement of impending war.
