Talk about the rat cunning of comrade Bill … how is the Catholic Boys' Daily supposed to respond to this ploy by the satanic Adani-hating commie pinko pervert?
How soon before dashing Donners rushes into print to rail at comrade Bill and spurns the funding and thereby averts a funding war?
So many wars, so little time, is it any wonder that the pond sought refuge with the Speccie mob, and a new old favourite, Giles …
Now before getting underway, the pond should confess that the idea of a dictatorship for life, and the notion of Xi Jinping's thoughts being embedded in the constitution in the manner of a Mao leaves the pond cold, and anyone wanting further reading might revert to Graham Allison in the New Statesman way back when … though it might be paywall protected …
At the same time, the pond couldn't help noticing the similarities in visual flourishes between old-fashioned communism and the Speccie mob …
What is it with fundamentalist totalitarians and their love of the iconographic hammer?
And so to Giles, and the real interest, which is the way that Giles and Clive suddenly seem to be on speaking terms…
Paradoxically, the pond must preface its remarks about Giles, remarking about Clive, by reverting to the Bolter from way back when, remarking on Clive …
Ah but that was then, and the Bolter and Clive were in furious disagreement about everything, but suddenly Clive has come inside the tent … so far inside that Liberals were entranced, if Colin Robinson in Overland is a guide …
That ABC link is here, and Robinson, who wanders off down the path of the KMT in Australia - and an interesting path it is, can be found here … and now it's back to Giles and his newly minted greenie buddy ...
It is like a boy scout dealing with Don Corleone …? The pond immediately had an acid flash …
… and that was before the pond even reached Giles pondering about the reptiles and daring to publish two different articles with different viewpoints, resulting in a "weirdly ambivalent" view of the world.
How much simpler, how much clearer it would be if the rag had the one overriding, overarching blinkered ideological view of the world, as you might find in Xi Jinping's China … instead of this feeble attempt to allow some divergent thoughts to enter the bubble …
How much better the lizard Oz would be if everyone thought and wrote and viewed the world like the Bolter …
Ah but that was then, and anyone wanting the links should google the Bolter, and this is now, and Giles has another view of Clive … as Giles gravely wonders how welcome he would be in Peking …
The pond hazards a guess that anyone still blathering about "Peking" might be viewed as some doddery old fart from Britain who still thinks the Poms are in charge of Hong Kong, but that's only a wild guess ...
At last we're getting somewhere … Giles' taste in art revealed …
Indeed, indeed, and there are many more great works to be discovered online, and anyone wanting to discover an alternative to degenerate art can do a Greg Hunt here, though what it all says about Giles' leanings the pond must leave to others …along with his fantasy that the stodge favoured by Stalin remains fashionable in art circles …
Perhaps in Giles' world, but then that rarely intersects with reality ...
Never mind, after this conflation of Giles, Clive and the Bolter, it's time for a Pope … with more papal insights here …
Yes I was a bit surprised with Clive Hamilton comments because when you consider how many countries America have invaded. China are providing finance to underdeveloped countries not only in the Pacific but Africa. And it is not clear at the moment if they are trying to subvert the governments in those countries.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is a bit rattled by how effectively China has exercised soft power in the third world. Additionally, I don't think there is any secret about them securing access to natural resources by direct purchase or equity stake in other countries (Andrew Robb could probably help explain this).
DeleteThe influence they have bought looks cheap compared the cost of 12 nuclear powered carriers.
This is a pretty polonius-level quibble, but I have to say how much it irritates me when people like Giles say things like this:
ReplyDelete"It strikes me sometimes as a fortuitous coincidence that the word communism shares its start with the word compulsion because the two concepts are inextricably intertwined."
Using 10 dollar words to develop a 10 cent idea, the absence of a comma after "compulsion" creating a certain ambiguity, both minor annoyances. But "coincidence"? No, not a coincidence. They "share a start" because they both use the Latin root cum-, meaning with or together. Compulsion = "together-drive", communism = "together-duty". But of Latin roots in English, cum- is one of the most common (ooh, there it is again). Giles uses it again in the same sentence - concept = "together-understand" (coincidence is slightly different, but = "together-happen"), and repeatedly through the article - compare, contemporary, accompaniment. Are these things also bad because they share a root with Communist?
But for all that, Giles is a special read; calling the Australian weird, reminiscing about European jaunts ("oh, there's my mate Arno, second from the left") and ending with one of his "I had an onion on my belt, as was the fashion of the time" stories - tick, tick, tick!
Yeah, I think that Giles' wiffle-piffle contributions (with or without 'I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze') and your 'more in sorrow' style responses bid fair to entertain us for some time to come.
DeleteI have to say, though, that I think "Ned" Kelly will fairly soon provide some competition for the Flighty Auty - he just needs a wee touch more senility and a more or less permanent orientation to clouds, and he'll be there.
What can I say ? After looking at this morning's (Sat 10th) "Ned" then "...Kelly will fairly soon provide some competition for the Flighty Auty" looks like an extreme understatement.
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