The Caterpillar or the Butterfly

I read this yesterday. It's a metaphor of a world in transition and I think it's brilliant. It was highlighted in an article written by Mary O’Malley  titled; How To Come Together To Heal The World. 

The best way to understand what is happening in the world right now is through the story of the butterfly told by Evolutionary Biologist and Futurist, Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. 

The caterpillar is a destructive animal relative to its size. It can mow down the branch of a tree in one day. It eventually goes into a cocoon and becomes goo, and out of this goo begins to appear what are called imaginal cells. This is the beginning of what is to become the butterfly, but the goo always kills the first wave of imaginal cells! The old in any evolutionary shift always fights to stay in control, but this causes the imaginal cells to come together. In the community of imaginal cells, the urge of the new is stronger than the pull of the old, and out comes this magnificent creature, the butterfly. The butterfly is not a “taker” like the caterpillar; it is a “giver.” It pollinates and gives beauty to the world. It also has a bigger view of Life than the caterpillar. Just think about the Monarch butterflies that travel all the way from Canada to Mexico and back every single year. These truly amazing creatures were once destructive caterpillars!

I think that is an inspired desciption of what is happening in our world. We each have a responsibility to strive to find ways to heal the world. Violence, hatred and divide are not the answer. This just results in more violence, hatred and divide.

We should repel and condemn the atrocities carried out in the name of religion. Indeed we should condemn any reason given by others to kill and maim innocent people. We shouldn’t however tar everyone with the same brush based on the faith they follow, the colour of their skin or ethnicity. 

We are going through a transition and as with any change for the better the road will be painful. Many will fight against the change. Now more than ever it's important to stay positive and to remember.  

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly" ~ Richard Bach 

We each have a choice. We can be a caterpillar or a butterfly. I have chosen butterfly.

18C & The Rise of Pauline Hanson

There was a very interesting column in The Australian today. It was written by Matt Ridley titled- Stop the shouting: if we don’t tame Twitter, we’ll face mob rule. The first line in particular resonated. 

“Schisms of hatred seem to be fracturing the political landscape wherever you look.”

How true. I would add, destroying tolerance along with it. Every word is analysed by someone looking for something to attack or have a go at others over. 

Like many I’ve been disturbed by the rise of Pauline Hanson in the political arena.  I personally don’t like her brand of politics. If we had to have an anti-Muslim party in Canberra I think we would have been much better off with the ALA. At least the ALA representatives understand the issues. They have done their homework on topics such as Halal. Hanson’s knowledge when tested is very thin in all areas related to Islam, Halal and Sharia law. Hanson trades on fear on not facts. 

After reading another column in the Australian today related to Hanson, “Distortion of rights ‘helped Pauline Hanson.’ I posed this on Twitter. “If Tony Abbott hadn't wimped on 18C I wonder how different the outcome might be.” I was accused of Abbott bashing. Seriously. 

Many Liberals were very disappointed when Mr Abbott wimped on proceeding with 18C legislation. Fact. It lost him support. Also fact. So rather than ‘bashing’ Mr Abbott I suspect if he had proceeded with changes 18C he may still be in Government. The debate would certainly be different and people would feel free to speak their minds on topics that concern them. 

Then Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson said at the time he was: ‘‘Disturbed to hear the government has backed down on 18C and will keep offensive speech illegal. Very disturbed.’’ 

He also stated source Fairfax media: 

“The racial discrimination act significantly restricts free speech in a way that all other anti-discrimination laws do not and the government seems to foolishly think that backing down will assist them or be in the best interest of the Australian population.”

Mr Wilson said there should not be a situation where select legal privileges are enjoyed by some and not by other people.

“The Prime Minister said that he wants to unite team Australia. I agree, which is why we should have laws that apply for everybody consistently,” he said.

“There is nothing more dangerous to a multicultural Australia today than the idea that some people have legal privileges on the basis of their race which do not exist for other people.”

This is where the likes of Pauline Hanson rise. She did it before by inciting people's fear over Asian gangs. She is doing it in 2016 in capitalising on people's fear of Islam and Muslim’s. When people feel they can’t openly voice their concerns they turn to people like Hanson. 

I still believe in Free Speech. I will continue to voice my opinions (perhaps forthright at times) and if others choose to look for reasons to attack and admonish me, that is their problem. But I will call them out. My tolerance level is shrinking at a rapid rate when people try to turn comments into something they clearly are not. 

I suspect I won’t receive any acknowledgement when I pointed out the obvious in stating I wasn’t bashing Abbott. I was merely posing a question.  I do think the situation might have been different if Mr Abbott hadn’t reneged on the promise and backed down on 18C. It certainly would have removed one of the major opportunities for Hanson to capitalise on.  The suppression of the right to speak your mind regardless of perceived ‘hate speech.’ 

I read this, this morning. “The challenge is not just to kick Hanson out of the Senate. Her political career is mostly unsuccessful, and it is unlikely she will be there for too long. The goal should be defeating her agenda.” We do that by allowing people to speak openly and freely about the things that concern them. By having sensible debate and not making people feel threatened or excluded. The question is, are we adult enough to do that? At times I seriously doubt it. I hope I’m proven wrong. 

18C needs to be back on the agenda. 

The Election Is Over, The Battle Begins

The election is over big sigh of relief. But the stress and worry begins. This election was never going to be easy. That said, the result is much worse than I expected but very close to what the pollsters were saying. 

We now have the recriminations, finger pointing and blame game following tight outcomes. The anti Turnbull voices are loud in their proclamations Tony Abbott would’ve romped in. Well, they don’t know that.

“The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always so dead sure.” 

I like to think I possess more than one grey cell. So as I sit and ponder on the wreckage that is before us, I do wonder. I wonder how different it possibly would be if Tony Abbott hadn’t been so pigheaded and made Malcolm Turnbull Treasurer. I wonder how different it might have been if the voters in 2013 hadn’t been so stupid in backing people like Palmer. If they had given Tony Abbott, a workable senate and stopped playing this game of political senate Russian roulette. I wonder what the outcome would look like if  Malcolm Turnbull had brought Tony Abbott into the fold. But, that's the past we can’t change it. All we can do is focus on now and try to influence the future outcomes. 

I am very disappointed in the Liberals campaign. Whilst some of the blame for our poor result rests on Malcolm Turnbull’s shoulders, he isn’t responsible for everything. It's obvious our inexperienced campaign team in comparison to Labor’s well seasoned and experienced attack squad were totally out-played. Wrong strategy, wrong tactics and not nimble enough. Despite what the likes of Bolt say the Medicare scare campaign resonated with the electorate. It should have been stopped dead. It wasn’t. On polling day Medicare signs were everywhere along with GetUp spreading the fear message. As one journalist said, people were already scared about health. So you can see it wouldn’t take much to scare them even more.  

I will say again, I’m not a huge fan of Malcolm Turnbull. But the personal stuff being levelled at him is nasty. I suspect a lot is tinged with a level of envy but that's the attacker’s problem not mine.  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to learn more about the man. From where I sit he's a decent bloke who has made a success of his life. He's got a lovely family who he adores and who love him. He’s been accused of disloyalty. That's debatable. Politicians first loyalty is to the voters. We’ve got to stop the personal attacks. They serve no purpose other than feeding the attackers revenge and hurting people. 

The only questions we should ask now are. (Assuming we do manage to retain government)

Is he a good Prime Minister? On current form that's questionable and, it depends on what measures we use. Using the election as the measure you’d have to say no. We may scrape in and whilst a win would be a win Turnbull’s authority is weakened.

Is he capable of leading a marginal Government and becoming a good PM. He should be. Others have in the past and I’m a believer that “when the chips are down” a person’s true skills and abilities comes to the fore. 

Calls for his sacking are ludicrous. People whinged ad nauseam over Rudd/Gillard/Rudd and then Abbott/Turnbull. Then before the ink is dry, they're screaming for another head. The party room appoints the leader. Not social media or bloggers, journo’s or radio hacks. The party room needs to do the right thing and give Turnbull the opportunity to turn this mess around. The chopping and changing has to stop. 

As for Mr Turnbull. It's OK to blame Labor's disgraceful campaign but, it's been said. Move on. You need to stand before the Australian voters and admit ‘we’ did a poor job and as leader you accept responsibility for that. Then tell us how it will be different. What are you going to do and if it means amending some policies fine. If it means doing a few deals to get key policies through do it. But explain the what why and the impact. That's the only way to bring people on side and for them to understand the cost of their decisions in voting for minorities. Last, bring Tony Abbott into the fold. He passed the test during the campaign. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Labor is the enemy. 

It will be an interesting if somewhat tense few days and potentially a very rocky road ahead. But voters planted the seeds and we all better pray really hard that the crop we all reap sustains us. 

We Live The Soap Opera

Why are people so intent on living a soap opera? Is it because the social engineering experiment to dumb down society has worked? 

Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull held a press conference. He tried to project a positive outlook. I consider it’s important given the current state of play and the fact there are more important things than us. Things like market and business stability. Turnbull  stated (in trying to calm the electorate) "Australians seek greater certainty, greater clarity and, stability in their govt." 

Perfectly sensible statement I would have thought. Given how people voted the complete opposite appears to be the case. I find it astounding when you consider the turmoil of the Labor years. Followed by the struggles of the Abbott years and the disruption of yet another leadership change. Australians seem to prefer chaos and calamity. To make matters worse, the media stokes that fire. 

The results were not even settled and on queue on Sunday morning the media went into overdrive with stories of leadership challenges. People on social media were calling for the same. I should add many who were chanting for spills are the selfsame ones condemning previous changes. Stoking the fire? Yes. 

It's about time as a nation we grew up and focused on what matters. Growth and prosperity for all. People via the ballot box are played Russian roulette with that future. They shot the rest of us who voted responsibly in the head. It's got to stop. 

We've lived the soap opera for far too long. That is unless personal vendettas and destruction is the agenda. In that case the behaviour makes perfect sense. As for those ringing talk aback radio today stating they've always voted for the Liberals but didn’t this time because of one man; Tony Abbott.

How naïve are you! Even Tony Abbott pleaded with people not to seek revenge. Why? Because he understood what the likely outcome would be. I hope those who ignored his plea are happy with themselves. I personally think it's shameful. 

Rant over. 

The Level Playing Field

As Australians we always took pride in our legacy of the 'level playing field'. Where everyone had a fair and equal chance of succeeding. 

This legacy has well and truly been trashed by politicians and their supporters; unions, Get Up, members and leaders of the Australian Labor Party. Yes, I am disappointed the party I support (the Liberals along with the Nationals) is struggling to retain government. But to be in this position because of the reprehensible behaviour of the Labor party in duping the electorate is a tragedy. 

Should the LNP not be able to form government, we have lost far more than an election. We have lost the legacy of decency and honesty. That is a far greater loss for the nation and us than any election. Because Labor and their leaders have set the benchmark. From this point forward any lie and scare campaign no matter how outrageous is OK. That is the end of our proud legacy of “the level playing field.” I for one mourn that lost.