In which the pond cuts its reptile content down to WWHET so it can fit in some WWTT ...

 

Today became an exercise in the pond reminding itself that there was another world outside the land of the reptiles, so why not start with Cathy Wilcox, celebrating the cockroaches voting for leader of the cockroaches? 

It's a tad academic for the pond, having voted last Monday - instant access but no fundraising patticake - but you see, this day in bizarro reptile world, all they can blather about is the voice...

There were these items at the top of the digital page ...

 

The pond has a passing fair contempt for simplistic "no conflict of interest here" Simon, and ditto Warren "I'm just here for myself" Mundine, and it was typical of the reptiles to brand a democratic exercise a brawl, and so there was nothing to tempt the pond there ...

The tree killer edition was full of it too, where the brawl became "all or nothing change" ...

The pond has more than passing contempt for what the Nine papers have become - tragic, pathetic - but see how they framed the debate at the top of the digital page ...

There, right at the bottom was the cawing Crowe, late of the lizard Oz, and he appeared in The Age's digital edition, but you had to squint a little to spot him in the throng of the passing parade  ...

Ah the footy. how could the pond have forgotten the footy?

Meanwhile, back at the lizard Oz, they were obsessed in the commentary section as well ...

The craven Craven? George pandering to the reptiles by appearing behind the paywall? The meretricious Merritt carrying on in his usual way? Talk about Sophie's choice. At least she had a choice ...

Gone was the chance for the pond to discuss other matters, the situation wth Boris, the devious behaviour of the mango Mussolini, or even WaPo, at last talking to actual trans people ...

It's the pond's experience that few people have actually talked with a trans person, let alone understood the how and the why. 

The pond's trans friend isn't out, and rarely talks of the humiliations endured at the hands of the Catholic church, uncomprehending parents, a brutal, bullying school system, a brutal, bullying institutional psychiatric mob, electric shock treatments and so on and so forth, yet finally emerging to lead a life at one with inner self, and to all external appearances, successful at work and in a long standing relationship ... and distinctly non-athletic, which makes the latest barbarism and persecution at least irrelevant, if nonetheless hurtful to others ...

But the pond knew that it had to feature at least one reptile to stay true to its mission, and so it decided on a "WWTT" approach, or if you will, "What Would Thucydides Think"?

But the pond decided on a spoiler by way of starting with a guessing competition...

Which pompous reptile with his head stuck firmly up his arse would end his piece this way?

If anything, that experience should inspire extreme caution, while also highlighting the importance of fully disclosing to the “sleeping sovereign” the dangers that lie ahead. Blinking in the sunlight, we may be about to make another fateful error; let us at least do so without being blinded by illusions.

Yes all this puffer fish has got is fear mongering, and a goodly dose of cant, and WWTT?

“Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay. ” 

It's not the best translation, but it's the thought that counts, and so, having set the scene, on with the hole in the bucket man ...

WWTT?

“Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.” 

“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” 

Of course the pond could have quoted the immortal Rowe ...

Ah, but that would make the tremulous, fearful, spineless, gormless, fear mongering hole in the bucket man blink in the sunlight ... while the pond might revert to its hippie days and start singing about letting the sunshine in ...

The bloody Germans? Thomas Hobbes? Canadians? Europeans?

Bugger it, WWTT?

“When will there be justice in Australia? There will be justice in Australia when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.” 

Okay, he meant Athens, but inspired by the hole in the bucket man's irrelevant bullshit, the pond felt up for a little historical revisionism ...

“When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.” 

Speaking of shackles, on with another gobbet of a shackled mind ...

Put it another way ...

“Men's indignation, it seems, is more excited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.” 

Sure, it should have read "men's and women's" or a more inclusive "people", but it took a long time for pompous asses to even begin to consider women as equals, or discuss notions of inclusivity, as opposed to treating people as property ...

Meanwhile, the fear mongering continued, the smug anticipation of defeat, the celebration of hopelessness ...

WWTT?

“A collision at sea will ruin your entire day” 

Perhaps he foresaw the future, and meant "a collision with a holey Henry will ruin your entire day ..."

More seriously there was this assessment of the ways and means of the whole colonial enterprise ...

“They stood where they stood by the right of the sword.”

And there was this ...

“If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.” 

And as for all that reptile blather about unseemly brawling and an all or nothing war?

“Think, too, of the great part that is played by the unpredictable in war: think of it now, before you are actually committed to war. The longer a war lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents. Neither you nor we can see into them: we have to abide their outcome in the dark. And when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Action comes first, and it is only when they have already suffered that they begin to think.” 

So much more interesting than WWHET ... but there's only a short gobbet of that left, as he blinks, as bats always do when exposed to sunlight ...

Really? All he's got is fear? A quavering, whimpering, craven fear? If the pond wants craven fear, it'll head off for a dose from the craven Craven, and if it wants death by legal sword, there's always the meretricious Merritt. But this pathetic blinking?

If anything, that experience should inspire extreme caution, while also highlighting the importance of fully disclosing to the “sleeping sovereign” the dangers that lie ahead. Blinking in the sunlight, we may be about to make another fateful error; let us at least do so without being blinded by illusions.

Really?  But we know the answer ...

“Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay. ” 

And so all we're left with is fear itself ...

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. (Roosevelt)

WWTT? In the sense of Thoreau?

Miss Martineau’s last book is not so bad as the timidity which fears its influence. As if the popularity of this or that book would be so fatal, and man would not still be man in the world. Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself.
What shall we say of these timid folk who carry the principle of thinking nothing and doing nothing and being nothing to such an extreme? As if, in the absence of thought, that vast yearning of their natures for something to fill the vacuum made the least traditionary expression and shadow of a thought to be clung to with instinctive tenacity. They atone for their producing nothing by a brutish respect for something. They are as simple as oxen, and as guiltless of thought and reflection. Their reflections are reflected from other minds. The creature of institutions, bigoted and a conservatist, can say nothing hearty. He cannot meet life with life, but only with words. He rebuts you by avoiding you. He is shocked like a woman...

Did Thoreau just call our Henry a girlie?

Ah well, Thoreau was scribbling way back when, in the days when women were property and the notion of inclusivity certainly didn't extend to those who had lived in America before the invaders arrived ...

And so here we are, back where we started, on a suburban lawn, concerned about mowing the grass ...

The pond can't believe it's doing this, but what the heck, in for a penny, in for a pond, and the effects are so gormless and Countdown, it's impossible not to be charmed by the innocence, as the pond heads back to the days when it danced on the stage at the Metro and blissed out ...