dumbing damnably down - and down, and down

.. do what you want! ...

  .. (I know you will anyway)

subtitle: scare them s**tless; promise to 'save' them

-=*=-

Ask me no questions - I'll tell you no lies.

Q: Why would anyone lie?

A: ONLY to deceive; and IF also to rip the sheople off, THEN that's what I call crime. Big-time crime.

Rationalism[1]: I was surprised when a correspondent blamed it all on 'rationalists,' since I had nominated rationalism as one of my own tenets, back in my 'formative' years. It turns out that there are a few different sorts of rationalism; cynical, thoughtless and/or criminal coming to mind as undesirable sorts. Perhaps I should have realised it when I heard the term "economic rationalism" being bandied about - but that was before the big B, B & H "Ah-ha!" experience. Recall that the "All politicians lie!" construct was deployed especially in a vile attempt to explain Howard's chicaneries[2].

-=*=-

It is not too difficult to see proof that things're crook. Our 'greatest treasurer' Costello presided over a doubling of house-prices; this is called an inflationary bubble. When I was preparing to leave high school I was told that I should be capable, in a few years after establishing myself in a reasonable career, of purchasing a house valued at a multiplier of about 2.5 times my salary. Now in Aus, the multiplier is somewhere around 6-9, depending on income and area. That's not progress - and recall that productivity is supposed to be (desired to be) always increasing, with new technology and better education. What only partially 'keeps the lid on' is the provision of 'cheap' electronic geegaws (plus the associated Hollywood film/TV programming rubbish) and the illusionary 'wealth effect' (borrowing to finance consumption must be the height of idiocy - another thing 'promoted' in the Costello era.)

The most significant thing Costello did vis-à-vis house-prices was to halve the CGT, basically giving already rich fat-cats an unearned bonus. Any interest rates set in Aus are largely determined externally, and 'freeing' the RBA is a nonsense; it removes a needed tool from (accountable) government (assuming that the Aus government actually is accountable; it's largely not.) So any bulls**t about Costello and 'greatest' is exactly and only that - bulls**t. Note that the preceding facts about Costello and bulls**t do not prevent the AusBC from endlessly regurgitating the "Costello the greatest" and other such lying canards[3].

There is a complaint being made by the Murdoch branch of the corrupt & venal MSM that the BBC publicly-funded broadcaster 'unfairly' competes with the fawning corporate media, this is nothing but (unjustified) special pleading, and the wrong argument anyway. Publicly-funded broadcasters have a vital role to play, and that is to keep the corrupt & venal MSM honest - a function they are failing miserably at - since most publicly-funded broadcasters (US, UK, Aus (& Israel too I suppose)) - namely, those in the crooked Anglo/Judaic block mostly repeat *and even amplify* the lies coming from their respective governments (and in turn, the lies coming from the politicians' puppet-masters.)

Another proof that things're crook is the charming situation backgrounding this: Street Swag goes global with design win. Fantastic! Fan-bloody-tastic progress! Global as in globalisation; privatisation, down-sizing, out-sourcing etc. - all the elements of "economic rationalism," of neo-liberalism, of the Washington Consensus – turned out to be nothing other than cleverly disguised systems for ripping us, we the sheople off, and disgustingly further enriching already rich-beyond-avarice fat-cats. Bah!

One would think that it'd be in all our interests, sheople and rulers alike, to be actively ensuring that we run a sustainable show; clearly not (think possible, going ever more probable excess-CO2 caused climate catastrophe, think excess-people caused resource depletion/pollution impending catastrophe). Fools. Utter and complete fools.

-=*end*=-

PS IF things were getting better, THEN we could have a relax.

They're not, and we can't.

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] rationalism n. practice of treating reason as the basis of belief and knowledge.  rationalist n. & adj. rationalistic adj.

rationalize v. (also -ise) (-zing or -sing) 1 (often foll. by away) offer a rational but specious explanation of (one's behaviour or attitude). 2 make logical and consistent. 3 make (a business etc.) more efficient by reorganizing it to reduce or eliminate waste.  rationalization n. [POD]

[2] chicanery n. (pl. -ies) 1 clever but misleading talk. 2 trickery, deception. [French] [ibid.]

[3] canard n. unfounded rumour or story. [French, = duck] [ibid.]