In the closing days of the Second World War, the name ‘Lord Haw Haw’ was synonymous with the cry: ‘traitor!’ In those days a traitor was seen as a clear-cut thing. In
The Meaning of Treason (Penguin, 1965), Rebecca West identifies him as a traitor:
... by broadcasting between '... the eighteenth day of September 1939 and on other divers days thereafter, and between that day and the second day of July 1940, being then to wit, on the said several days, a person owing allegiance to our Lord the King...' It was in fact the case for the prosecution that a person obtaining a passport placed himself thereby under the protection of the crown and owed it allegiance until the passport expired.
A clear case of loyalty to the crown, His Majesty, The King.
These days, loyal allegiance is somewhat more ‘beige’. Today's democracies lean more toward public perception and cultural authority for a definition of loyalty. But to work hand in hand in a brazen manner to both bring down the democratically elected government of the day
and, by obfuscation, stealth and deliberate slander to work to have elected a ‘favourite’ of the vested interests that had the intent of demolishing national infrastructure and working against the social equality of the peoples of the nation, has to equate with a definition of treason.
To my mind, there is no doubt that we, as a nation, have been betrayed. Those many ‘national interest’ policies: the NBN, Gonski, NDIS, ETS, Environmental Protection, and National Parks, that
are in the national interest, and coupled with a
now recognized ‘non-emergency with the budget’, are at risk, and indeed in some cases
will be dismantled for no other reason than to satisfy vested or financial interests, not solely out of a twisted ideology, but out of insatiable greed.
It would be an act of treason to betray the nation’s interest by destroying national infrastructure and public policy that benefits the majority of citizens, while giving financial reward to a tiny minority of capital-invested players.
That would be treason, in every sense of the word and meaning. Judas would get his thirty pieces of silver. The fact that these modern major players are set to gain billions of dollars through such acts of vandalism against the nation is
their treason, in every sense of the word.
But we are told that the government was voted in by over half the population. That is correct, but we are also aware that much of the voting public is neither politically perceptive nor very interested in political outcomes, other than to effect a strange ‘payback’ for the illusion of injury that has been trumped-up by the Mainstream Media. Whatever swayed the voters it certainly was assisted by some outright lies and slanderous accusations in the MSM against the sitting government.
The political players, in collusion with big media and big business, have done the most damage, particularly the Mainstream Media. We know their names, we have railed against them here and elsewhere for their perfidious behaviour, and they continue to obfuscate and manipulate out of self-interest, financial gain, or a perceived political future too obscure for mere mortals to comprehend. Only now are we reading of the vast number and scope of the rorts perpetrated by the then Opposition, now the Government. Why was this information hidden when members of parliament, and even the Speaker of the House, were being goaded to resign and were being vilified over lesser amounts? There can be only one reason.
This Government was voted in after a campaign based on fraud and deception, one perpetrated by the Mainstream Media and its employees. Who can deny the fact that many of the Government’s so-called policies were unexamined, uncontested and unopposed by that very estate that sanctimoniously holds itself up as the Fourth Estate of democracy? Indeed, it continues to this day to support the Government’s policy agenda. Even the recent trips to Indonesia and Asia by the PM were deemed a roaring success, not because of what was achieved (there was more given away!), but because it was deemed so by the Fourth Estate! The lies were maintained; the circle is complete!
In
The Meaning of Treason, Rebecca West makes some very interesting observations on how the modern media has played its part in the dissemination of propaganda:
Never before have people known the voice of one they had never seen as well as if he had been a husband or brother or a close friend; and had they foreseen such a miracle they could not have imagined that this familiar unknown would speak to them only to prophesy their death and ruin.
She speaks of William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw). She continues:
He was not only alarming; he was ugly. He opened a vista into a mean life. He always spoke as if he were better fed, and better clothed than we were …
The above portrayal is an example of the malicious persuasion that manipulates a people, a people hungry for simplicity of policy, for entertainment, contentment and insulation from the harsh realities of the world on their doorstep. It is the style of propaganda of those who have in many cases helped cause those very disasters that bring trouble to our doorstep, propaganda that is trying to stop programs that could alleviate and soften such events in the future. Such people portray a meanness of spirit and ugliness of heart that opens the door to cruel intent.
That is a betrayal of the trust given to the Mainstream Media, a trust that was bestowed upon those called to shine a light on duplicitous behaviour that can ruin a society,
not to collude with reckless abandon in that very behaviour.
I give the last words on such a tawdry subject to Ariel Gonzales on Rebecca West's book:
The Meaning of Treason reminds us that sometimes the worst betrayal is the trading of values for the illusion of safety.
That is the meaning of treason!
