Tony Abbott’s most outstanding feature is, for me, his pointlessness. I look at him and I think, why? Why?
He reminds me of nothing as much as an unreconstructed Catholic priest. Old-fashioned paternalism. Meaningless clichés and stultifying slogans that won’t withstand a moment of even the mildest interrogation. Delivered with a most eerie absence of affect, indicating that even he doesn’t believe what he’s parroting. Speech designed to repress thought, smother questioning with a patronising blanket of faux fatherly authority that in truth means, don’t you question, we know best for no reason other than we are in possession of the power.
All designed to sap the public political life force, to grind it into submission the better to impose the kind of authoritative, unquestioned governance that is every conservative’s wet dream.
And what of his own life force? Think of him in opposition. Daily fired with destructive energy, unstoppable in his attacks, alive in every cell, thriving on abuse, insult, deceit, manipulation and spin. As the country’s leader he is a mere shade of his opposition self, far from what any country needs in today’s dangerous world, unremarkable except for his staggeringly stupid public utterances, thought of in Europe as “the blunder from down under,” our very own suppository of wisdom, though whatever is in that suppository is very far from wise.
That he is dangerous in his pointlessness is incontestable. Abbott believes he is wise. He believes he is a statesman. He believes he has a god-given authority that imbues all his decisions with rightness and righteousness. He believes himself to be appointed and guided by his god. He is, to the very core of him, a devoutly religious man, and from that central belief system, all things Abbott flow. For Abbott, the point of him is him, and god endorses that point.
You can take the man out of the priesthood. But you can’t take the priesthood out of the man.
No Place For Sheep 
My take on Abbott is that he’s mentally damaged, perhaps as a side-effect of his pugilism although there’s evidence he was brutal before that. I think he’s a high-functioning psychopath – he’s clever enough to pick words to say and deliver them doggedly and repeatedly in order to cause an outcome – but there’s no emotion behind the words and certainly no evidence that he has emotions or can connect with other human beings on any level other than that of the mindless contest.
His psychopathy is also the reason he is quite happy to lie blatantly and completely straight-faced. To him, the lies are nothing more than mouth-noises use to manipulate others to a desired outcome which can then be discarded, if inconvenient, without a second thought. It’s also he reason he’s learnt to say the opposite of what he really feels – So he’ll accuse the opposition of lying with not a shred of inner turmoil, guilt or insight. He’ll even say he never lies and maintain the pretence in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Another psychopathic characteristic is his level of childish, vindictive revenge. The Royal Commissions are ample evidence of this as was the wall-slamming incident many years earlier.
At some level I think he realises there’s something missing in his character which is why he toyed with the Church. I also think the Church saw this lack of insight and compassion in him and steered him gently away.
I also agree with you that he is dangerous. Time and again, governments underestimate the not-very-bright, tame and useful bovver-boy who eventually comes to dominate them. Stalin was one, Saddam Hussein was another. Abbott will do anything and everything to stay in power and he has gathered around him a cadre of unprincipled and formerly-principled accomplices who support him. Expect the firiest and dirtiest of fights leading up to the next election.
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Well said, I think you’re right. There’s certainly something awry in the man.
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Well I reckon he is okay and a great supporter of aboriginals
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Who or what are “Aboriginals” Are they part of the “Bush” that was all that existed prior to the arrive of the Rightman? 🙂
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A case in point?
“Make the lie big enough …”
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Yep, super size the lie, make the lie bigger
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And I wonder just what is the point of this tweet:
I am thinking this, which seems to have started this particular ball rolling, has to be a parody account and/or a bit of photoshopping:
Is The Australian going along with this trolling exercise for some ulterior purpose? Like ‘proving’ that Abbott’s ‘Ludicrous Pledge’ may also have been photoshopped?
Sorry about yet another tangentiality. Must be my dark vision kicking in again.
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Just to complete the picture:
This looks like confirmation of the (pretty obviously) parody tweet as part of a trolling exercise. How mean minded of me to think that it may have been all orchestrated to make the claims as to the photoshopping of the ‘Ludicrous Pledge’ referred to above more believable by what is presumed to be a gullible public.
Stuntboy at work?
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The thing is that it is very difficult to parody this government. They send themselves up amazingly well. Just looking at the Pyne tweet above, it is almost credible.
As one who tries to parody the tabbott-in-chief, I know I risk being quoted as his spokesman. (LOL?)
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