One of the (many) problems I see with religious ideology is that it offers people whose intelligence and experiential curiosity is limited by cowardice and fear, a socially legitimised avoidance of the challenges of thinking differently.
This is what we’re witnessing in the current outburst of venomous denial expressed by Cory Bernardi, George Christensen, Lyle Shelton and their fellow travellers towards the Safe Schools program.
This is an extremist group resistant to any change in what they perceive as the traditional order of things. They use nostalgic reification of “tradition,” underpinned by religious ideology, to legitimise what is nothing more than personal emotion and private insecurity.
This isn’t to say only religious people are closed to difference, or that all religious people are closed, and religion isn’t the only ideology that closes minds and hearts. However, in this instance, which is focused on human sexuality and its many expressions, the religious appear to be dominant in their vicious objection to there being any expression other than the one they endorse.
Not one of them is able to take personal responsibility and say, for example, I am frightened of sexual difference and its expression and this why the Safe Schools program causes me such discomfort. Instead, they resort to what they claim has been “traditional” for “millennia” and/or the will of a transcendental exteriority they define as a Christian god.
These are frightened, cornered people, and frightened, cornered people are no less dangerous than any other frightened, cornered animal.
As Nietzsche observed “…systems of morals are only a sign-language of the emotions.” This isn’t a difficult concept to test: what upsets us humans are inclined to declare in some way immoral, while what brings pleasure and ease is intellectually defined as morally good. But as Hamlet observes before Nietzsche “… there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Bernardi, Shelton, et al have embraced the man-made doctrine that any sexual feelings and expressions other than those their peer group considers right and good are aberrations that they have set about attempting to destroy, regardless of the consequences of that destructive rampage for their fellow human beings. They do this in the name of some god. They are, quite frankly, deranged.
They are now supported in this endeavour by our government, as Prime Minister Turnbull endorses their demands for an inquiry into a program designed to alleviate the suffering of children and young people who do not express their sexual feelings in ways the religious consider moral. That our government should agree to the demands of religious extremists rather than wholeheartedly support acceptance of differences in youthful sexual expression is appalling.
Turnbull’s support of those who would cause suffering to the young, based entirely on religious ideology, must be greatly discouraging to young people as well as to those adults who want to make acceptance of difference commonplace.
Turnbull has made a Mephistophelean covenant with religious extremists. If there is such a thing as a soul, he has likely sold his in an exchange that benefits himself to the detriment of the young. Surely it must be clear by now to even the most optimistic that Turnbull is no improvement on Abbott, indeed, there’s probably an argument to be made that he is at best, little different and possibly worse.
Turnbull will continue to capitulate to the demands of the extremists in his party, to the detriment of the country and the majority of us living in it. He is a man without courage, and his ideology is personal ambition, and he is blinded by these factors as much as is any other ideological extremist.
No Place For Sheep 
I can’t even begin to express how angry I am with what has happened to Safe Schools. The extremists are a lost cause and all Liberals and Nationals have to have a good hard look at themselves and take responsibility for endorsing the Christensens, Bernardis & Abetz in their party.
BUT Malcolm Turnbull has ALWAYS presented himself as a moderate type of man, so his condoning of this bullying bigoted attitude within his own party is beyond reprehensible. It was weak as piss that he folded to these extremists to even have a review of Safe Schools, but to tacitly condone recent homophobic comments by members of his own team really (all for the sake of keeping the peace and therefore his job as PM) is just utterly despicable 😦
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Yep, the man is destroyed by his ambition.
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Reblogged this on Townsville Blog. and commented:
The LNP have factions within factions. These people are in the extreme right wing of the Liberal Party, but at the same time are members of the extreme religious right wing, it gets very complicated, when blogging about the Liberal Party as part of the LNP.
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The extreme religious right wing faction within the Liberal Party within the LNP are dangerously out of touch with the modern reality. I have just had a look outside, and I couldn’t see the 1950s anywhere. Sorry Cory you have missed your time ole’ mate.
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Now he’s hating on single mothers…
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Totally agree, Jennifer.
Turnbull’s Mephistopheles agreement with the loony rightists should be obvious to all. In (slight) mitigation he has shuffled off their concerns to an inquiry, which in the fullness of time will find nothing much to object to; but it will waste funds better used elsewhere.
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It’s the optics, as well DQ. They aren’t good.
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I haven’t liked or trusted Truffles since he claimed Howard had killed the heart of the nation after he helped to rig the republic debate to fail, then he joined the party.
Before he was in parliament he and Lucy worked in a most vicious way to try and prevent Hanah Ashrawi from receiving her Sydney peace prize by blocking venues and working with the Zionist lobby to demonise her.
Then we had the Grechgate affair where he used the poor sick fool for years as a spy, used a faked up email and the scumbag Steve Lewis to try and bring down Rudd and Swan who went on to save the nation from the GFC and actively averted the recession Abbott, Truffles and co are now inflicting on us.
And he was the first rabid dog in the LNP to start demonising refugees again way back in 2009.
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He really has a bad history, when you list it like that, Marilyn. I think the man is gutless and has over-reached himself this time
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You can also add the apparently questionable activities of Macquarie Bank, some thing pointed out on tv shows like 4 Corners over time, as to infrastructure policy and financing.
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Marilyn has the right of it. Turnbull’s caring sharing affable persona is cracking, to reveal the ayatollah within:
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2016/02/26/the-ayyatollah/
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Another one who needed to grow a pair.
He should have stood up for himself but has just stood there, instead of getting out while he might have still had some self respect and the gratitude of the nation for having us rid of Abbott.
I think something interred deep within him might have subscribed to human values once, but the opportunist check-jacketed used car huckster aspect has been too strong.
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It is really sickening and depraved that he just sat there while arseholes demonised young gay kids for sport.
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Yep. Totally in agreement with that observation, Marilyn.
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Ah, DQ, nobody can say it quite like Bob.
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Mal, a man without courage, conviction ,compassion… Three Cs adds up as F for a failure.
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Yes! Well put, Helvi.
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I think you are all correct in your assessments, which makes a comment from a US friend about their bizarre politics seem the more relevant for the question it raises.
That is, are we talking about individual anomalies within a healthy system, or has the system itself ruptured to the point of dysfunction, perhaps deliberate dysfunction, in the interests of a few. In other words, has the mechanism for a civil society been “captured” and turned back on the public and by whom and for what reason?
Perhaps not and perhaps human societies have always been misruled, at best. Perhaps we were just brainwashed as kids. I must admit I don’t feel like I’ve had a hard life, but it has taken a lifetime’s work to roll back some of the bullshit I was brought up with and some stuff is so inscribed as to be as part of me, perhaps.
One thing we can be sure of: that this latest incident confirms once and for all how badly dislocated from both self and others these extremists are. You could additionally wonder what is wrong with the system that it keeps (creating?) picking duds for serious jobs, for the alternative is to wonder instead how deranged YOU must be, which is why Jennifer’s Nietzsche para is so important, as to relativity.
But I think the difference between us’n them is that “them” can’t accept that their ideas are contingent on unproven and likely unproveable assumptions, some thing my idea of a rational person is entitled to query, demonstrating through exercise that rationality and why rationality is healthy.
In a funny way, this pairs nicely with a thread starter at Bob Ellis, who has also been provoked to query the rationality of current politics:http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2016/02/25/36806/
His brand of rationality relates to another fumble from the government involving housing policy, for the madness is compounded in the announcement of astronomical new figures for monies to be splurged on the military and it’s a take that goes back to Aristotle, the differentiation between exchange value and use value, need and greed, sanity and insanity, something the Nauru metaphor typifies also as to fear and madness.
And if people in key positions are not amenable to reason does that not become a worry, if human history has been laid out before people like us correctly?
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Beyond actually trying to discuss the anomaly that is Turnbull.
All I can add is to ponder the LNP/Greens push towards a blander (whitebread) senate, while (the LNP) consists of a collective of the most extreme nutters in politics in my lifetime.
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We desperately need meaningful constitutional reform and what we get is de-formity.
This is the sort of result we get from dysfunction:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/defence-public-servants-beggars-on-a-beach-of-gold-20160225-gn3mb3.html
All is relative, but this doesn’t preclude or forbid or obviate a need for critical thinking…like, the coil on the stove is red but I mightn’t get burned if I put my fingers on the coil?
As for the Senate Indies, there are plenty in Parliament with much more to be ashamed of than that little group.
As for Labor and the Greens, the infighting is actually an example of a wider split in non rightist politics left festering for too long by both sides and now Australia pays the price. There are serious differences as to principle, but surely good faith should have been present in resolving the relationship difficulties for the good of all…. where has been the political “consciousness”?
United we stand, divided we fall, as Dougie Cameron or Lee Rhiannon might rightly say.
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Paul
The division between Labor and the Greens is like some perverse wish fulfilment for the Libs.
Imagine if all the progressives supported each other?
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I believe you are right in general and am no fan of the “new” Greens.
But to some extent, the Greens have been pushed to this after decades of ridicule as pariahs on issues they were usually right on.
I think Labor also did damage in supporting some dreadful legislation from Abbott last year, so its pot, kettle as far as both lots are concerned,
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I agree, PW
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But the so-called progressives in the ALP are extinct and have been since the far right shoppies took it over.
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This just turned up in my Twitter feed; Ricky Muir asking righteous questions:
http://www.senatormuir.org.au/news/the-greens-desert-their-supporters-and-democracy
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That man is the best thing to come out of that tablecloth we all had to write on.
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It is delusional to think that rationality is the antidote to the insane political policies foisted on us by religious bigots. A quick glance at the history of political power shows that reasonable thinking people usually lose. Religious movements have always realized this. Real power comes from the ability to successfully wield and control violence. Power is found in the barrel of a gun which one thing crazy Americans have got right,
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Yikes, Melly. I do not wish to take up arms, except metaphorically, against my sea of troubles.
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That Bonhoefferesque comment ended up no help whatsoever, for he who made that comment. Don’t worry though. You have to live with yourself and sometimes even quiet people may cry “enough”
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“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”
– Mao Zedong
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PW I keep remembering these last few days, how Shakespeare said just about everything first. Am I inviting dissent from DQ? Is it he who argues against the authority of Shakespeare?
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He will respond by observing Shakespeare to be a fraudulent plagiarist who stole the Earl of Oxford’s plays.
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Very funny, Guinevere, and PW. At this stage I would merely note that a large number of the biblical allusions which Shakespeare made are from the text of the Geneva Bible owned by Edward De Vere.
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DQ, I love it when you call me Guinevere.
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abbott was at least honest in his extremism. turnbull is supporting extremism out of expediency – the despicable refuge of on the make cowards.
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Yes, which actually makes him worse, I suppose.
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No Fiona. Abbott was so stupid he just didn’t know the difference.
But Turnbull and others do and that validates your comment.
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I semi-agree, Paul, to this extent. abbott is incapable of accepting the possibility that a different point of view might be valid. His honesty lies in his ability to stick to his point no matter what.
You and I quite properly regard that attitude as unadulterated stupidity. However, rank though it is, it is almost sweet compared with turnbull et al.’s expediency.
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I know, dear friend. The blackness is very thick and yet we soldier on.
I still think there is something wrong with political systems in the so called advanced west that can do no better than Turnbull and co here, Cameron in Britain and a whole parade of macabre bizarre types involved in US politics, let alone Murdoch type figures skulking in the murky background pulling strings, who are acccountable only ever to their shareholders and their own egos.
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Oh, what a state we’re in. Forced to argue which of the worst is the worser. This is what it’s come to. Or was it always thus?
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WE have been lucky compared to most. How would you be living in a mud hut in Ethiopia eating grass, or living the life of some Bihari peasant perpetually up to her knees in mud trying to cultivate a crop of rice?
I think history does look pretty Hobbesian and it may indeed take the species a while to break out of its tutelage at this stage in its evolution.
Can we be human without being brutal?
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Nope. Not at this point.
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“Can we be human without being brutal?”
Hmmmm, most of us already are humane and peaceful – how else would the deliberately brutal manage if we were all the same? We would never have made it out of the caves/trees/hole in the ground.
What we need is courage – I believe there are more peaceful types than not.
Never before in history have so many people had such instant communication AND the education to benefit. You think our uberlords aren’t terrified of the thought? They operate on such basic emotions of fear and greed, and dress up their intentions with rhetoric stolen from others – just as long as it sounds like it works.
These parasites do not appear in lists of the creative – unless by fraud. They let others do the work and take the credit.
And we let them (in the past) but the playing field is difference – I wonder if the latest global episodes of nut-baggery (Trump, ISIS) is a sign these maggots know they can’t keep fooling all of us all of the time for much longer.
We have started outing sexual predators – no matter how well regarded.
We must keep the momentum going.
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Statesmanlike, forward thinking, strong, inclusive and wise. These are words that should not be used to describe Malcolm Turnbull.
Sigh. I was initially very enthusiastic about MT, simply because he wasn’t Abbott, who had driven me to anger and despair. Not any more. What a fucking terrible disappointment MT’s turned out to be. A vain, weak and untrustworthy chancer. Those are some good Turnbullian adjectives, right there.
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Yep, absolutely right LSWCHP. I too felt a sense of relief when Abbott was dispensed with, sadly short-lived. Who knows what happens next?
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That is right. After all that time feeding out the impression that he was the outsider who understood and wanted to sort out the underlying objectivity problem within the Liberal party, he became paralysed from day one as PM.
It’s moved from that point through a big mutual sob about the right-faction downing him to this stage, where he is now seen as having backed off standing his ground against those vegetables who keep undermining him and upheld the worst of Abbott-era policies, knowing quite well the likely consequences for less well off people.
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An afterthought:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-26/dunlop-the-great-unsettlement-that-is-dogging-turnbull/7201646
Personally, I think Tim Dunblop has actually been a bit kindly.
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That’s a good analysis PW. A legless horse. Indeed.
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Jennifer & Paul
I found Tim Dunlop’s writing astute.
Particularly when he voiced this truth/elephant
“this is the great Australian Unsettlement, a disruption that comes from the collective decision of the political class to throw their lot in with the global economic order in the hope that such integration will ultimately benefit the local economy.”
If our government (past and present) really believed grasping the tail end of the leviathan ‘big money’, would they not be trying to convince us of this belief? Yet they persist in a tired old fantasy of the trickle down effect – a duplicity of thought and belief, where the losers are the majority.
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Yeas, in the end it is usually easier to just shut up, take the money and run.
As Jennifer asked earlier, is it really worth it, to take up arms in a sea of troubles.
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I’ve come to think they don’t know what they believe. I thought the ALP were a mess, but this lot take mess to a whole new level. The divide in the LNP is an abyss – ideologically and every other way. So how they can ever come together enough to form policies is beyond me.
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I wonder if (some) of the divide is along religious and libertarianism lines. For example, I am not surprised at the division created by someone like Donald Trump – a capitalist and libertarian – many of his beliefs clash with the religious right on matters of abortion, divorce and so on.
I have been wondering for some time if these fundamental differences would eventually cause the type of problems we are now experiencing.
In Labor – the divide is among the more money/pragmatic oriented towards the more idealistic – the difference for progressive parties is that they have acknowledge their many factions – the conservatives have not been able to admit to any division until now when it is too obvious to deny.
I have a hope that Labor’s more true liberal ideals will win out over a mess of right wing zealots. May the LNP self-destruct.
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Amen to that last sentence. Turnbull has just informed us in question time on the Safe Schools controversy, that all members of parliament must be respected. Excuse me while I throw up my lunch…
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Apologies – I thought the idea of the LNP dispersing into the atmosphere like a cloud of blowflies, never to be seen again, was a happy thought.
😦
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It is!! Amen, and hallelujah
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Only joking – I agree Turnbull has turned a nasty situation into a nauseous one.
Respect the homophobes? Not bloody likely.
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