Mailbag Stuff

These pickies came in to show how yesterday's IR rallies went.
I'm not really a class warrior. I haven't got what it takes to be a class warrior. I guess that's why I'm an 'artist'.

It's Hard Being In The Lost Generation Version 2.0

Today's mailbag is from Walk-off HBP.
This is the link.

No words about Freudenberg's career can ignore Arthur Calwell's speech, on May 4, 1965, in opposing the Menzies government's decision to commit combat troops to Vietnam to please Washington. I've quoted it many times. It was, to me, the finest speech Freudenberg ever wrote.

This was his "drum beat" speech, where Calwell concludes, in part: "And I address this message to my colleagues and that vast band of Labor men and women outside; the course we have agreed to take today is fraught with difficulty. I cannot promise you that easy popularity can be bought in times like these. Nor are we looking for it. When the drums beat and the trumpets sound, the voice of reason and right can be heard in the land only with difficulty … But I offer you the sure and certain knowledge we will be vindicated, that generations to come will record with gratitude that when a reckless government wilfully endangered the security of this country, the voice of the Labor Party was heard, strong and clear."

Forty years later we have another "reckless government" that has "wilfully endangered" Australia's security in bending the knee to Washington. And what does "the voice of the Labor Party" say?

Not a bloody thing.

As much as it may surprise people I'm not a Labor Party man. It's hard for me to even sort of try and identify with these people, their passion, their sense of their cause. In some ways I'm a lot more economically liberal and free-trade-sympathetic. This will buy a few words of rebuke from my close friends but it's true. I think free trade is okay if it's genuinely going to be a free trade. My gripes with the FTA with the USA is that it in no way resemble 'free'. Not that some tariffs are coming down. Indeed, the problem is that none of their tariffs are coming down.

Having said that I'm actually deeply uncomfortable with the prejudices of the present Prime Minister John Howard. After all, this is the man who famously said there were too many Asians in 1987; didn't go to censure and clip the wings of Pauline Hanson and has pretty much dismantled any sense in which Australia is multi-cultural. You know, the 1980s are far away, but at least one didn't feel uncomfortable living in this country. These days I'm seriously thinking of leaving in disgust. After all, the people did resoundingly vote back in this poisonous little leprechaun with a majority in the Senate. What kind of country is this?

Now, I've been living here for many years but I have to say the last 10 years have been the most regressive, retrograde, inward looking, small-minded, mean-spirited, and downright nasty that I've seen Australia. It's true, I cringe at our international posturings. It's embarrassing, it's infuriating, it's scorn-worthy and all because the Prime Minister curries favour to the worst instincts of white Australia. Fear, cultural prejudice, racism, and downright petty-mindedness.

That aside, here are some thoughts I've had in addition to the above, and it involves generation conflict. Now I'm not a generational warrior any more than I'm a class warrior, but I have noticed a few things about the passage of the Baby Boomers into retirement age. after all, they are the largest market segment out there. Some of my readers are Baby Boomers and they might be a little miffed by me writing this, but this isn't personal, this is just the numbers, and politics is a numbers game like most anything else.

On the whole these things are fact:

1. It's still the Baby Boomers' playing field.
John Howard versus Kim Beasley is still the showdown between Baby Boomers. John Howard lives in denial that the 1960s ever took place, while Kim Beazley is a net beneficiary of the 1960s, just as are all the old Whitlamites who recently came forth with their 30th anniversary of the Dismissal stuff. And as the Baby Boomers edge closer to the grave, the sheer weight of their numbers ensure politics is going to continue being a Baby Boomer-centred conflict.

Mark Latahm's biggest sin as far as I could tell was that he was Gen-X. When you sit through and figure out that Health and Education didn't make a dent in the election, then you know it's because the electorate weren't interested in Health and Education - because they already 'had some'. That could ony point to one thing; the aging Baby Boomers simply didn't think they were such big issues. Those people were more afraid of *gasp* Al Qaeda and the possibility of other assorted towel-heads coming to our shores *illegally* (as in, 'refugees').

2. If things continue as they are Gen-X will get stiffed even more.
You might not believe it, but it' true: The Baby Boomers got 'free education', comprehensive medicare, and a full pension. The Gen-Xers are having to pay for their tertiary education, less protected jobs, and pay for their own health care, but also having to pay for the system that paid for the Baby Boomer health. Trust me, it stinks.
Less known is this fact: The average age of US senators and congressmen has been creeping up steadily for sometime.
It's a 'First World' trend. In Canada for example, it looks like this.

In Canada, one in five people are between the ages of 20 and 34. By contrast, of the 169 Liberal MPs, none are between those same ages.

There are almost four times the total number of MPs in their 60s (68) as there are in their 30s (18). Only about six per cent of all MPs are younger then 39, while in Australia, that number is almost tripled at 17 per cent.

The average age in Parliament is 54 years old, which is relatively young compared with the average age of Cabinet of almost 56. In comparison, the average age of the Australian Ministry is 50 years old, which is coincidently the same average age as Brian Mulroney's first Cabinet in 1984.

These statistics contribute to the declining participation of young people in politics. It is no wonder many of today's younger generation are disconnected and alienated from Parliament, which is highlighted on Election Day.

For instance, the lowest recorded turnout in a Canadian federal general election as a percentage occurred during the 2000 campaign. These low numbers were repeated in the recent Ontario elections.

Here's one on the UK

Where at Westminster, the average age of an MP is 53 years old, in both the new Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly the average age of an MSP and an MA is five years lower at 48. In Scotland two MSPs were elected for the first time under the age of 30, where in Wales, the Conservative Laura Jones became the youngest MA at the age of just 24.

That's good for Scotland and Wales, but the UK seems to be creeping up at 53.

I'm not kidding. If Paul Keating and Bill Clinton seemed like a vanguard of something, it was actually the stranglehold that Baby Boomers will have over policy for years to come. This means, for good or bad, better or worse, Labor or Liberal, you probably won't see a Gen-X Prime Minister of Australia or President of the USA. If Mark Latham's resounding defeat has anything to show, it's that the electorate are not interested in a younger voice, but an older, more patrician voice.
Expect to hear experience and time-served to be a criterion for EVERYTHING in the future, more and more.

3. Unable to defeat death, they'll punish us for it.
Nobody lives forever. However if there's anybody living in denial of death on the whole, it's the Baby Boomers. And if history of the Baby Boom generation has anything to so show, as death approaches, these people are really going to think "I have nothing to lose, so let's really fuck it up on the way out". The thing is, they will be the longest lived of any generation in history so they're projected to be around for a long time to torment us and then fuck it all up. :)

This stuff isn't personal; it's just the numbers. I have Bbaby Boomer friends, just like anybody else. Or LOL, "Some of my best friends are Baby Boomers". Jokes aside, remember: Kurt Cobain is already dead, but the Rolling Stones continue to tour. That's sort of related to why Mark Latham is gone but Kim Bloody Beazley is the Leader of the Opposition again. Now where is my jar of sleeping pills again?