The Art Neuro Weblog

Just the Facts Ma'am
Mr. Conservative Weasel is making a lot of noise over at his blog accusing us of supporting the Left, and by his inference (nobody else's) that we support murder and mayhem. These are serious accusations. I guess personally speaking, my support of the war in Iraq ergo makes me somebody who has "decided that it is ok to kill and maim if your (sic) serious".

Dear Mr. Weasel:
For the record, I myself do not support the Left, and no I don't vote Left for being the Left. I have in the past have had sympathies for left-ish causes, but I've long since abandoned them. I have a distaste for the Greens even though I am deeply concerned about issues of Carbon Dioxide; I loathe Peter Garrett, but mostly for his music yet also his spectaculr sell-out in becoming a politician *ugh*; I am hostile towards Greenpeace, even though I like my top predators conserved. I know t's contradictory, but there you go, I'm a complex man of complex concerns. Can't speak for the others as to how they feel, but I think they are equally complex people with complex concerns.
If one thing is a constant though, indeed, it has been at least my long ambition to get away from the repetitive tedium and moronic predictability of the Right-Left, Left-Right exchange of rhetoric.

I know you like that very rough-and-tumble biffo of ideologues Mr. Weasel, but it's really rather boring. I know you think the conservative voice doesn't get voiced enough, but a lot of what you say you have to say, sounds like fascism; and I don't like the prospects of fascism any more than I like the prospects of stalinism. The slogans of the left are not prettier or uglier to me than the slogans of the right; and we know beards can grow longer almost over night. I just wish not to get fooled again.

It's not that we're trying to duck the discussion, but we know where it goes when you start assailing the Left for their corrupt past and present and future while making sorry excuses for the transgressions of the conservatives of the past (forgiveNixon? You must be kidding!). Isn't there a single person from the Left you can commend? Isn't there a single person from the Right you can condemn? I know you will smugly say, "no" to either which proves the point that the conversation is as predicatable as a song that was a hit a long ago that your mother should know. Do we really have to get up and dance to that tune one more time?

Really Mr. Weasel, think about it: Whether it's Piers Ackerman or Bob Ellis, you know where they stand in the political spectrum and you know their take before you read their material; they only re-confirm prejudices for their constituent readers. That's how and why they have their jobs as columnists. And while it may be soothing for some to have their political views voiced out loud by others, it's not somthing I get a kick out of. In fact I don't think any of us at this blog, that's me, Chris, David or James (if I may speak for them) think that sort of analysis or argument is going to give us new insights or break-through ideas or new policy directions to think about. Just the same old answers with the same sort of caveats and same sort of disputes about terms of references and perspectives on historic processes (or if there are indeed any).
To be frank, I just don't see new policy directions coming out of playing through the Right-Left discourse ad infinitum. Let them do that in parliament where it belongs, and watch the gridlock of short-sighted policies. Do you want to know why Australia doesn't have a decent space policy? It's because it got lost in the very Right-Left, Left-Right idiotic exchange of rhetoric, the sort you see every night on Lateline. When's the last time you watched one of those TV debates with a Maxine McKew and saw an issue resolved? NEVER.

At the end of the day if you still think that you can infer from this that we represent the Left and ergo approve of killing and maiming, what can we say? [sarcasm coming... ->] Dave Brew the Leftie? I'm laughing out the side of my head! Do you really think it's worth running the Right Wing analysis machine one more time, for the heck of it? Oh heck, let's go one more time. "Art Neuro is a pinko Lefty who once voted for Paul Keating's ALP! Paul Keating had a piggery; he's corrupt; Art Neuro is corrupt by association and damnit, he is willing to talk to terrorists! He hates Natanyahu and Sharon so he must hate all conservatives; Run, fellow citizens of Australia! Hide your daughters!"
Sure, sure, we're serious murderers and terrorists with commitment, just like Gloria Arroyo. Long Live the Killers and Maimers ("which city do those teams play for again? I hope they make the play-offs!"). Yay. [end sarcasm.]

OTOH we do love you as a friend, and we'll always still link to your blog even though you heap nasty words upon nasty words on our names in the name of the good old fight for the conservative voice. Gotta love a fighter. :)

- Art Neuro