Has anybody noticed a remarkable similarity in the way Scummo has handled the vaccination roll-out and the climate crisis? In both instances the strategy has been to protest loudly the seriousness of these issues, then to do the bare minimum. When it all blows up there’s another great protestation of how hard the government has been working, and a hint of hurt feelings over the public’s ingratitude. When things get worse, it’s time for a little Whataboutism. What about China? They’re much bigger polluters than us! What about Sudan? They’ve only vaccinated about 1 per cent of the population, we’ve done 18 percent.
Finally, when the mess is undeniable and the popularity polls are looking grim, Scummo will tell us that he “gets it”, roll out some phoney achievement or intitative (gas-powered climate action! millions of new Pfizer doses!), and still avoid taking responsibility. We’re all in it together, we all have to pull together… and besides, salvation is just around the corner because of all our hard work, etc, etc. “We’ll get through this when we get through this”. Apparently we’re making a “gold medal run” towards vaccination.
This week the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented the bleakest, most devastating picture to the nations of the earth. In the midst of raging fires, floods and hurricanes we are still pouring too much carbon into the atmosphere, and have already inflicted permanent damage on the climate. The oceans are warming, the droughts are lengthening, catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent. As forest fires rage for months huge amounts of carbon are sent into the atmosphere. As the permafrost thaws in the Arctic Circle, gigantic quantities of methane are released. Each climate event accelerates our progress to the point of no return.
Australia’s record is deplorable, and we’re still unwilling to commit to a 2030 target, but Scummo keeps telling us how well we’re doing. It’s completely Orwellian: We’re not lagging behind the rest of the world, we’re leading. It sounds increasingly absurd and he seems to know it, but even if Jesus told him in a dream that he should set climate targets, he couldn’t convince the profane Beetroot Barnaby, who keeps asking: “Who’s going to pay for it?” The obvious answer is that if we don’t act we’re all going to pay for it. Big time.
Barnaby’s shtick about not wanting to burden the Man on the Land rings a little hollow when his own preoccupation is making the world safe for mining companies like those owned by his dear friend and patron, Gina Rinehart. All across the country rural voters are deserting the Nationals, who represent their interests so badly, in favour of independents; Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidates, and One Nation imbeciles. It’s also doubtful there are many women who would view Barnaby as a great choice for leader. He doesn’t seem much interested in securing a future for all those children he’s sired.
This may be wildly optimistic but I get the impression that people have stopped listening to Scummo’s self-justifying drivel. The bushfires should have settled his hash but human nature is such that everyone who didn’t lose their house seemed to quickly forget his expert management. The vaccination debacle is still inflicting pain and will do so for many months to come. By the time the next election rolls around those memories should still be fresh in voters’ minds. As for the climate crisis, when the Murdoch media start deleting its anti-environmental propaganda, as it is currently doing with anti-vaccination videos, we’ll know the tide has turned.
I’m marking the closing of the Tokyo Olympics with an ‘art and sport’ piece. It’s a theme that provides enough material for a large book, let alone a brief essay, but the compression forced on a writer by a tight format helps keep things focused. The most surprising discovery for me was how much abysmal “official art” is generated by the Olympics. When it comes to sporting art it seems the best results are obtained by artists working under the most deplorable political systems. One would have to be an aesthete of outlandish proportions to wish these totalitarian systems on the human race in the name of better art. I’m not quite there yet…
Neither sport nor art are of much relevance to an increasingly sizeable portion of the human race who spend their lives glued to a computer screen playing on-line games. Now there is a movie tailored specially for this subculture. Free Guyfeatures Ryan Reynolds as a fictional character in a video game who decides to get real. As movies go it’s a pretty ordinary attempt to do something about the gaming world, an industry that shamelessly exploits addicts and whose social benefits are, at best, dubious. Free Guy is supposed to be a comedy, but the humour is anodyne when it needed to be a deep shade of back.