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Politics: the drama of our lives

By Lyn Bender - posted Wednesday, 3 July 2013


Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale¨told by an idiot
Full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare's Macbeth utters this lament upon hearing of the death of his queen, Lady Macbeth. This is the final result of their blind greed and murderous plotting.

In Australia the political sphere has produced a spark in the dark, briefly sizzling on the customarily dull political terrain. We have had a week of political engagement. More suspenseful than the soapie days of our lives, it has been an enactment and intrigue played out before us. What has followed, are the ongoing dissections and reviews, of the events leading up to and resulting in, the deposing of our former leader Julia Gillard and the reinstatement of the leader she deposed: Kevin Rudd.

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This is the sequel to the first political play of three years ago : the fall of Kevin Rudd.

It has all the complexity of a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy: ambition, deceit, treachery, tragedy resurrection and ultimately the human flaws in the idealized hero that may prove his undoing.

The media are the Greek chorus who are chanting the tale of triumph and woe to the populace.

The polls decreed that the voters were displeased and the axe fell, but has this answered any of the important questions of our times?

Not the least of which is the one posed over aeons of human existence. What really matters in this brief life, and on this particular part of the earth and time, that we are privileged to inhabit?

The great writers and poets still speak to us and have done so for centuries, unlike the short term political commentaries and slogans distilled from the focus groups and snap surveys.

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These are indeed full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I am disappointed. Not because there has been a leadership change. This can be argued as having at least raised the bar on the political contest. Now there is at least a real fight brewing and this is surely in the best interest of democracy.

But for me the expectant excitement has too soon been diluted. I have admired and respected Kevin Rudd for his intelligence and depth, and have held out hope for his commitment to the greatest moral challenges of our time. Firstly the treatment of those arriving on our shores and fleeing war and persecution; and also the global warming, that if unchecked, will bring massive death and destruction to millions.

It seems that our politicians and the media, who operate consciously on a split screen of these two 'political issues' know on an unconscious level that responding to refugees and to the climate emergency are increasingly entwined issues.

When the temperature of the earth rises beyond two degrees the world will see massive displacement of people whose lands can no longer support them.

Crops will fail and animals will die, as extreme climate disasters, disrupted weather and increased desertification will force mass movement of people.

An estimated 31 Million people were displaced by natural disasters in 2012.

This is just the beginning.

In a thinly disguised contrived prelude to a toughening refugee policy, Australia's Foreign Minister, Bob Carr has paved the way for a new version of berating the refugee. Not just focusing on 'evil people smugglers'' or merely decrying refugees as queue jumpers'. Carr is asserting that the majority of people arriving on boats from Iran and Sri Lanka are not true refugees but economic migrants. In fact Carr has implied that the independent Refugee tribunals will need to be enlightened [and therefore reassess refugees] by the up to the minute foreign dossiers provided by 'the department.'

Carr and Shadow Foreign Minister Bishop and shadow Immigration Minister Morrison visited Sri Lanka. All declared it a safe place to which to return refugees. This argument is easily discredited but that does not seem to be the point. Its electioneering time, and it is therefore open season on denouncing refugees, as invading our borders and our lives. The second, nudge hint wink policy, intimated is on climate change action and the price on carbon.

Rudd has indicated that he will not 'lurch to the left' on either of these voter and lobby group concerns. The denigration of the motives of refugees is aimed at the populace , and the fear of Muslims and loss of jobs to economic invaders. The second is a shout out to big business implying that my government will reduce your carbon pain rather than lowering our emissions[too much].

Asylum seekers arriving by boat and climate change, like indigenous inequity, have become our wicked problems.

These are the seemingly insoluble dilemmas that do not have a simple single answer. We have framed these problems ineptly and therefore find only ineffectual solutions that create more problems. We declare refugees as attackers refusing to recognise that they are vulnerable and suffering. We blame them for fleeing. We might shed a tear when women and children drown, but then we redouble our efforts to repulse them. We see the climate and earth as juxtaposed against our economic growth model and therefore neglect to move to renewables instead a supporting the fossil fuel industry. Like the drug addict who deals with practical emotional and psychological problems by eclipsing them, we only manage to distract from, but not to resolve these crucially wicked predicaments.

These quandaries pertain to nothing less than human viability on this planet.

Will the election debate and conversation hover around petty fears, and selfish concerns , or finally address the great moral challenges of our time? Will we confront the famed Hamlet question?

To be or not to be, and finally decide to 'take arms against a sea of trouble and by opposing end them'. Only then might we enable the continuity of our civilisation, and our planet earth….

That is the question, as yet,not being addressed by our petty politics.

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About the Author

Lyn Bender is a psychologist in private practice. She is a former manager of Lifeline Melbourne and is working on her first novel.

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