As we come to the end of another year, please forgive a little self-indulgence as the
TPS Team discusses what
TPS has achieved in the past 12 months.
It was a year in which we saw Abbott and his cronies trying to destroy the country and make us a paradise for the neo-liberals, the neo-cons and the economists that support them — and, of course, big business. We saw the worst budget in living memory and have, so far, only been saved from its full ramifications by the senate. We saw Clive Palmer appear with Al Gore to talk about the importance of climate change but, at the same time, cave in to support the repeal of the carbon price. We have seen Abbott, more through luck than design, deflect the budget issue and ‘bask’ in the glory of the world stage, taking on the Russian bear and alienating our closest Asian neighbour. He has ‘stopped the boats’ but also stopped government transparency in the process. He is undertaking more privatisation of government services and encouraging the states to do the same. Without openly saying so, he is pursuing a neo-liberal and economic rationalist agenda backed to the hilt by the IPA (and, as others have noted, he is, to a significant extent, following its ‘
hit list’).
Talk Turkey has made the point numerous times about the need to keep up the fight against this government and what it is doing.
We believe
TPS has been doing that but not always directly. We are not a news site, and with only a few people volunteering their time behind the scenes we could never be, so we do not react to every government announcement, no matter how bad.
TPS sometimes takes a longer view, looking at socio-political issues and the political and economic philosophies that underpin this government, as Ad Astra also did at times.
We published 43 pieces during 2014 over 46 weeks: those 43 pieces actually encompassed 48 postings as we had four multi-part pieces and we also posted mid-week on a couple of occasions. We had six ‘guest’ writers during the year, now counting Ad Astra as a guest since he retired from full-time blogging, but 2353 and Ken provided the bulk of our pieces — 35 between them. We haven’t bothered counting the words but, given that most pieces are between 1500 and 2500 words in length, it would be getting towards 100,000 words. Plus all the words our friends have posted in their comments.
We didn’t ignore Abbott in our quest for wider truths and have launched attacks, both directly and with satire. We first asked whether Abbott
remembered the twentieth century in his rush to take us back to some halcyon previous age; we wondered whether he was ever
meant to be PM as he originally won his position as opposition leader by only one vote; we suggested he was a ‘
con artist’ and questioned his
Humpty Dumpty words; and James Wight exposed the extent of destruction wrought on our society
in just one year. We presented ‘
Tiny-er-er O’penmouth’ who morphed into ‘
Tiny Napoleon O’penmouth’.
The LNP and the government more broadly were also in the spotlight in David Horton’s piece on
LNP electioneering, Ad Astra’s piece on
what underlay the budget, the government’s seeming blindness to major
issues raised at the World Economic Forum at the start of the year, its
links with the IPA, and the way it snuck through changes in its
approach to climate policy during the 2013 Christmas/New Year break.
Political ethics were questioned by 2353 in several posts: he questioned the morality of
using refugees for political advantage; the ethics of those who legislate hardship for many in the community but
accept expensive gifts and high paid jobs requiring little work; their use of
slogans and sound bites rather than taking the time actually to address issues; and asked why we allow politicians to regulate donations to their own parties when we have witnessed that
self-regulation doesn’t work for industry. Twice 2353 specifically questioned the
link between religious and political values asking how politicians could claim to be religious when implementing policies that clearly
breach their religious morality. As Ad Astra commented, it is a brave man who addresses the religious link to politics.
As we have moved from being a ‘society’ to being an ‘economy’, we couldn’t ignore the underlying economic approach of the government and the rising inequality it gives rise to.
Piketty’s work on inequality was discussed and was preceded by a piece showing how rising inequality matched
the rise of the economic rationalist approach. Finally, Ken suggested that inequality wasn’t an economic question at all but the result of
witchcraft (presented as some dark humour to end the year.)
It was also suggested that economic rationalism, after 40 years,
may be on the wane: pieces like 2353’s on
modern monetary theory and Kay Rollison’s on
‘middle out’ economics reinforced that there are new economic approaches emerging that may, indeed, lead to the demise of economic rationalism.
Kay’s piece was also presented as an alternative approach for Labor. It was one of five pieces that addressed new approaches for Labor, including the
speech Ken would like to hear and Ad Astra’s
letter that actually was sent to Bill Shorten.
Associated with economics, were pieces on governments’ approach to
infrastructure and
privatisation.
Ken presented a piece on our understanding of ‘
freedom’ which, at first, may have appeared something from left-field, but it was a prelude to his discussion of the lack of freedom in the
free market and the loss of
social responsibility as the neo-liberal concept of freedom, embracing individual self-interest, took over political thinking.
We also briefly discussed
Aboriginal affairs, the role of
unions and the role of
experts.
We prophesised the future with David Horton’s piece correctly suggesting that conservative governments resort to war in their quest for popularity; Ken’s piece on Abbott’s efforts to take us back in time foreseeing that coal would become more, not less, important in Abbott’s world; and 2353, in ‘
The thought thief’, providing a fair reflection of what did eventuate from Pyne’s review of the national curriculum.
The one area we have been lacking this year is putting the media to the sword, other than for
Jan’s two-part piece. Perhaps that is because some segments of the media now seem to be doing a better job: Abbott’s broken promises and the down-side of the budget were more widely reported (but still not so much in News Ltd papers). It has been our commenters who have continued to point out the flaws in the media’s approach, including the ABC’s attempts at so-called ‘balance’.
And throughout the year, Casablanca has continued to provide us with numerous links relevant to each post, as well as other news of the day.
We trust we have continued Ad Astra’s tradition by putting the sword to Abbott as prime minister, the government and its policies more generally, its political ethics, its political and economic philosophy, and the approach of the economic rationalists and neo-liberals that support it.
Take the time during the break to revisit some of the pieces that were posted during the year and see what you think now that the year is coming to an end and you can see how the different posts tie together. If you have topics you would like us to address in 2015 please let us know, either in a comment or in a message to the Team (the Contact tab above).
This thread will stay open until 4 January, when another piece will be posted with an extended thread, so please post any new comments and insights you may have. And, as we asked last year, please also feel free to post any video, music video or photo that takes your fancy and that you may wish to share, with a short story as to why you selected it.
Wishing all our lurkers and commenters a happy festive season and looking forward to you being back with us in 2015.
The
TPS Team
