Fantasy has a strong following in movies, books, games and TV. J K Rowling became a billionaire writing entertaining fantasy stories for children that encouraged reading, yet, I feel, may have undermined capacity of children to deal with reality. No magic wand to wave over work to be done to care for yourself or attain success.

Just how capture by fantasy can overtake fact was revealed on an occasion when tutoring writing to two primary school boys. I asked the boys to write an historical account of Captain Cook’s discovery mapping eastern Australia searching for a suitable place for sustainable settlement. In response the boys related the “gem” of his discovery (Sydney Harbour), as treasure on a map that disintegrated when found by French Captain La Perouse. Cook’s maps focused on Botany Bay, omitting Sydney harbour from the map in keeping with British Admiralty’s orders for secrecy.

Characteristics of Unicornia

So that you might recognize the fantasy world of Unicornia when you encounter it, be alert to the characteristics, readily recognized in hindsight of the groundswell of public capture in Covid and Hitler’s Germany with rampant hatred of the Jews. Watch for:

• Governing ideas derived in the minds of elite, who accumulate wealth and comfort.
• Cost and burden imposed on the less powerful, their money, businesses and lives.
• Mobs under capture: individual responsibility and capacity to think foregone.
• People categorized as either oppressor (bad) or oppressed (good) to warrant appropriate moral response.
• Malevolent menace of violence; dire outcomes exercised to maintain control.
• Truth becomes as scarce as humour, when misinformation/disinformation rule, betraying prospects and freedom for people
• Destruction – of the best of western civilization; of buildings, ecology, people, communities, families and faith – to be subject to some ancient, unreformed belief or newer global Gaia.
• No generative plan other than domination
• Oblivious to past tragedies following the same scripts: Nazism, Fascism, Marxism, Communism, Islamism. We’ve seen the end of this movie before: hundreds of millions die, sacrificed to the new and old deities.

Now let’s explore a few Unicornian fantasies currently ruling our lives:  

Aboriginal Dreamtime Unicornia

As far as I can glean from prominent activists, Aborigines want to turn back history, take us back to the stone age of Dreamtime mythologies, yet do so by obstructing western capitalist development that pays for them. Legal systems protecting them are used for destruction. Confused!

Aboriginal Dreamtime mythologies handed down orally anchor cultural values and spiritual and kin-based relationships in the land. Aboriginal people know that sacred sites can be dangerous places and believe sites play an important part in their health and well-being. Never mind sanitation and modern medicine.

Straddling the barbed wire fence between mythology and modernity is fraught with risks for all parties. Educated activists have exploited modernity’s legal systems, as well as respect for Aboriginal culture and financial largesse to disrupt development, claim harm and win financial recompense for the “oppressed”.

Claims of “secret women’s business” that delayed for years construction of a bridge to Hindmarsh Island in SA disintegrated when revealed to the Royal Commission as a fabrication.

As an example, more recently, proposals for development of offshore gas from the Burrup Hub in WA have been delayed by custodians of the rock art petroglyphs who want to be able to say no, as climate change caused by development miles offshore will fade the rock art that is said to have lasted thousands of years.

The Aboriginal industry already receives $33billion annually, additional to a National Indigenous Australian Agency funded for $2.1billion to manage services, education and culture. Legal protests are taxpayer funded.

People must apply for access to the 55% of Australia already under aboriginal control, while mythological sacred sites are being locked up at an alarming rate, with huge penalties for default: Uluru, the Grampians, Mt Warning, and soon Glass House Mountains. Makes a farce of the smoking ceremonies and “welcome to country” diatribe when we are increasingly made unwelcome in our own country while being expected to pay for it.

Recent failure of the voice referendum shed a light on the intentions of the 4% Aborigines, many       lighter skinned than I am, to control us all by way of modernity’s constitution. Many supporters voted yes and protested, under capture of the vibe, never missing an opportunity to display pretentious moral superiority.

Hamas Islamic Unicornia

Hamas terrorists are presently living their Unicornian dream of death and martyrdom, invited by decades of conflict against Israel, culminating in a barbaric attack against Israeli citizens. As common with Unicornian dreamers, Hamas leaders live in billionaire luxury in Qatar and elsewhere, while their foot soldiers face Allah and the IDF in the tunnels under Gaza, hiding behind Palestinian civilians.

Despite repeated offers of land for peace, Palestinian leaders have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. A two-state solution will never be agreed upon, because Hamas and Palestinian protocols require the extermination of all Jews and elimination of them “from the river to the sea” (i.e., from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean Sea on the west). Apparently one Jewish state is too much amongst 53 Arab states.

For over a hundred years, Arabs have cultivated a hatred of the Jews, seeking their extermination in collaboration with Russia, Nazi Germany and other rogue states. That is why the “final solution”, the holocaust, that cost the lives of over 6 million Jews, was kept hidden for so long and even today is often denied. Neither are Arabs averse to killing other Arabs: in recent times, half a million have been disposed of in Syria by Assad, violence, death and starvation flourish in Yemen.

Islam, established 1400 years ago by an uneducated charismatic leader Mohammad, now has an estimated 1.8 billion adherents and is the fastest growing religion in the world, mainly throughout the Middle East. So much for genocide. Although claiming to be a religion of peace, interpretations of Islam have lent readily to dishonesty, brutality and slaying of infidels (us) and Jews in countless terror attacks, like the twin towers in New York and barbaric slaughter of 1400 and kidnapping of 240 innocent Jews on 7 October 2023. Cries from terrorists of, Allah is great! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse the Jews! Victory to Islam! Are hardly the stuff of peace. Where’s their sense of humour?

Christian religions went through the Reformation to produce exceptional science, music, art, culture and development that has brought so many out of poverty and disease. Philosophical debate and free speech honed laws of respect and equality. Aboriginal Dreamtime and Islam similarly need thorough Enlightenment to reconcile beliefs with modernity, whose tools they use against the people who created them for everyone’s benefit. Not holding my breath.

Global threats of jihad against anyone depicting Mohammad or defiling a Qu’ran, demonstrated in massacre of French cartoonists, has meant that people are reluctant to criticise Islam. Yet more recently scholars following historical timelines of the evolution of Islam reveal that the Qu’ran was not written till a couple of hundred years after Mohammad’s death and, with the Hadith (Mohammad’s sayings), has been edited since. No excuse then for not undertaking an holistic review of current beliefs and practices given the horrendous outcomes. Reformation of the Unicornian fantasy would seem better than taking over the world by violence and outbreeding.

Net Zero Unicornia

Without a scrap of evidence that global boiling is occurring, or that humans cause it, global religious zealotry has taken hold in a wave of onerous pressure on the productive west, to take us back to medieval times.

The Unicornian fantasy of Energy and Environment Minister Chris Bowen is that Australia will reach the promised land of Net Zero by 2030 dedicated to the global Gaia in the UN of failed predictions. We’ll do so by destroying the landscape ecology and productive land, paving the country with unrecyclable giant windmills, acres of solar panels, tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission lines, with energy lost in transmission over distances, all subsidized by mug taxpayers.

According to Leninist diktats of Klaus Schwab of the WEF, we’ll own nothing and be happy. Once a few centuries ago, coal saved the west when trees were being cut down to fuel the furnaces to make glass. Industrial use of coal saved the trees while raising billions out of poverty and starvation. Getting rid of coal and other fossil fuels will take us back to poverty and starvation, our energy and national security sacrificed on the holy altar of the Unicornian global boiling fantasy. Sri Lanka and California are precursors to our coming fate.

Pandemic Unicornia

Hardly have we emerged from the farcical Orwellian controls of COVID that ruined so many lives and businesses, than we are threatened with a replay for any future pandemic. So enamored are the elites with the power they were able to exert, that Australia is being asked by the WHO to sign up to global pandemic controls to which we will all be subject, under severe penalty. Seems there is no end to unelected bureaucratic stupidity.

China Dream Unicornia

President of China for Life, Xi Jinping, has a Unicornian dream that China will rule the world (under him). His strategy is to dominate the planet by focusing on six spheres of influence: the economy, military, global diplomacy, technology, education and infrastructure has been brilliantly crafted and executed.

Already forcibly taken under China’s control are Tibet, Hong Kong, the LAC region in northern India and the South China Sea, with ominous threats against Taiwan and islands of Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia. The Belt and Road initiative uses cheque book diplomacy to gain access to assets in failing economies to spread influence around the world. The Ukraine war provides cover for currency movements where the renminbi will replace the US dollar as the global standard.

Supposedly Xi’s strategy redresses the 100 years of western dominance of China, unsubtly brushing under the carpet, the 40-60 million killed by their own during Mao’s rampage to Communism, as well as the intelligentsia killed, jailed, humiliated or sent to re-education camps on farms during the Cultural Revolution. No wonder China had to steal IP, cheat and lie to make good on opportunities lost. Woke Marxist indoctrination in our education system ensures Australian education goes backwards, ripe for China pickings. No Net Zero then!

Recognised as China’s Solzhenitsyn, author Ma Jian crafted an insightful dystopian novel, China Dream, a play on Xi’s own China Dream. In the book fact and fiction are woven into an expose of the damage inflicted on a nation’s soul when authoritarian regimes, driven by an insatiable hunger for power, seek to erase memory, rewrite history, and falsify the truth. China Dream is a dystopian vision of repression, violence, and state-imposed amnesia that is set not in the future, but in China today.

What’s next for us?

We should wonder what’s next for us at a time when the Unicornian fantasies of vain and avaricious men want to take over control of the world via destruction of their own people and others:

• Putin going to war to “restore” Russian grandeur.
• China to dominate the world.
• Islamists to dominate the world of infidels, free of Jews, with the help of Iran.
• North Korea to dominate North Korea (not hard to do when the people are ignorant; obedient and starving) while tossing a few rockets to the USA.
• At home, Marxist Greens to dominate the Australian polity.

We in the west are seen as racist oppressors while providing the benefits of Enlightenment for all. The “oppressed” seek revenge for knowledge made generously available, earnestly trying to take us all back to antiquity, where they’re comfortable, rewriting history.

Trouble is, had they thought it through, they would realise that intelligent innovation developed in the west, which they use while turning against us, will dry up like an Arab or Gobi Desert once deprived of freedoms – of thought, capital, science, education, movement.

As low affection between Arabs and Chinese is mutual, perhaps they will continue to destroy their own and each other and leave us in the west to clean out destructive weak, woke policies and restore the grandeur of our culture and faith.

The Nobel Prize winning author and astute observer of human nature, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, believed,

“The line separating good and evil does not pass through states, classes or political parties. It passes through the human heart”.

In my blogs I try to relate how high-level policy affects us personally, as well as how our personal inclinations affect policy.

For instance, the global renewable energy crusade for ‘net zero’ pumps up our energy bills to be unaffordable at home, increasing costs of all goods produced. We get inflation.

At the same time, light is shone on individual responsibility for contributing to that policy by supporting cults, corporations, policies and political parties capitalising on the farcical hoax of catastrophic global boiling. Getting your rocks off on the heart’s store of moral passion while dealing out contempt for denialists contributes to the global groundswell that consumes resources and harms the poor. We are culpable.

 According to Martin Luther King, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.

In all this, an activist media lazily fails to seek and report facts, instead promoting the narrative approved by ruling elites, usually from the left, mostly seeking destruction of western civilization.

Yet we could be enlightened by the wisdom of ancients to look to our heart’s store:

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

Hatred and love are both treasures of the human heart, multipliers of evil and good. We can examine our own responsibility for manifestation of these for good or bad in our own life and the broader society by looking at how we deal with hate and love personally, as well as on a global scale as depicted in prevailing global topics such as Trump, Israel, Covid and global boiling.

Trump

For all his personal failings and fragility, former President Donald Trump did a might of good in the USA and in the world. Furthermore, he did so while under constant, egregious assault by the Washington swamp, mainstream media, a DOJ weaponized by the Democratic party. TDS Trump Derangement Syndrome became part of the lexicon. Few people could have withstood such attacks to remain functioning.

TV commentator and author Mark Levin, outlines in his book Unfreedom of the Press, pages of slurs slung at Trump in the media: that he was a drunk, deranged, demented. Trump does not drink and has easily passed physical and mental tests affirming his sanity and capability. Mostly, judgement of Trump has been based on his Twitter excess to 80 million followers and failure to accept the outcome of the very questionable 2020 election.

By comparison let us examine a few of the things done by Trump, reversed by the Biden, and the impact on the USA and the world. Our view of Trump may be challenged.

Trump	Biden
Made America energy independent, filled oil reserves at low price, shoring up national security; encouraged further exploration.	Diminished national security by cancelling the XL pipeline nearing completion, putting ally Canada offside; now buys oil from rogue states Venezuela and Iran; sells off some oil reserve to China, depleting stock; prevents exploration for fossil fuels in the interest of net zero fantasy.
Built the border wall; negotiated with Mexico to stand 28,000 troops on the border with USA to enforce “stay in Mexico policy”; dramatically reduced illegal immigration.	Diminished national security: stopped building the wall; allowed illegal immigrants and drugs to flood over putting enormous pressure on border officers, towns and ranches; over 8 million illegal immigrants have crossed during Biden’s term; southern border now run by Mexican cartels; over 100K young Americans die in a year from fentanyl poisoning.
Showing peace through strength, maintained relationships with global rogue leaders Xi Jinping, Putin, Kim Jong Un. Put the wood on the Mullahs of Iran, cancelling Obama’s farcical nuclear deal; changed the dynamics of the Middle East by establishing the Abraham Accords, working relationships between Israel, Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, with Saudi Arabia in the offing. Moved the US embassy to Jerusalem; no new wars started; no American soldiers killed.	Biden’s weakness has been catastrophic for the USA and the world, emboldening global rogues: the horrendous exit from Afghanistan costing 13 soldiers their lives and 200 injured, leaving behind $84bn military assets and lives of people in danger; Putin emboldened to invade Ukraine; released $6bn frozen assets to Iran, which uses the money to fund terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah to invade Israel; US apparent weakness incentivises Xi Jinping to move on Taiwan.
Renegotiated the NAFTA agreement for more beneficial terms for US; renegotiated trade deal with China for $500bn improvement, allowing better returns to mid-west farmers for their production; tightened copyright laws to minimize China theft of IP.	Maintains most of Trump’s policy, yet soft on China.
Attained the highest ever employment of blacks, Latinos and women; provided secure funding of black colleges and charter schools; enacted the First Step Act, a pathway to release for non-violent felons.	Biden’s policies spiked inflation putting pressure on families, small businesses and jobs
Accepted $1/year pay as President, sending his salary to charity.	Biden and his family have grown wealthy on “pay for access” from Russia, China, Ukraine, Romania, risking security of the US.

We would do well to reflect on whether our own opinions of Trump, fed by a fetid, prejudiced media, contributed to the global groundswell of individual hatred and the impact it has had on the current world order.    

Israel/Palestine

Seething antisemitic hatred of Jews and Israel has a 3500-year history in the “promised land”, marked by invasion, exodus and return, along with many attempts at genocide of the Jews. In the 1930s Hitler’s emerging threat of extermination led many Jews previously exiled to Europe and Russia, to buy up land for settlement in what is now recognized as Israel, then controlled by Turkey, and after the war, by Britain.

Following the holocaust that cost the lives of 6 million, Jews declared never again! Determined at last to fight back, they established their own land and laws under the UN/British brokered Balfour Declaration in 1948. Arabs declared war on Israel the same day.

Jews exiled to Eastern Europe, Russia and north Africa who survived the holocaust, gravitated to their origins, joining those who had remained in Israel under Arab colonization. Jordan then controlled the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza.

In his book, The War on the West, Douglas Murray examines the work of great philosophers who find that “ressentiment” is one of the greatest drivers for people who want to destroy: blaming someone else for having something you believe you deserved more. I know from personal experience this happens often on a personal level. The term justice is used to sanctify revenge, the ultimate form of revenge being to turn happy people into unhappy people like themselves.

How true is this of the Middle East! Under the vision and drive of PM Netanyahu, Israel has made the desert bloom, to become a technology powerhouse, an attractive trading partner amongst oil rich nations of the Middle East. As living standards in Israel rose, 20K guest workers a day also prospered crossing from Gaza to work in burgeoning industry, earning higher wages and making a better living. Reason enough to destroy the people, the promise of good and potential peace with ever festering hatred in the heart of Palestinians.

Dangerous “conscientious stupidity” of ‘useful idiots’ rallying for Palestine at the Sydney Opera House commemorating Jews massacred, calling for extermination of the Jews and Israel from the river to the sea, show a level of irrational hatred in the hearts of people to whom has been extended generous hospitality of free settlement in Australia. Historical illiteracy abounds – never mind the facts. Not difficult to see from such objectionable behaviour in this country, why Israel has such a problem with the Palestinians no matter how much concession is made to them. Land for peace? No! Just Jews dead and gone from the river to the sea. Those rallying for Palestine are welcome to try their luck in Iran, the biggest sponsor of Hamas terrorism, to see how much freedom they would have there.

For entertainment our children watch videos such as Bluey at the Beach. Palestinian children are indoctrinated with hatred and death against Jews and Infidels. Small wonder the heart’s store of hatred eventually overflows in horrendous depravity experienced by 1400 peaceful Jews massacred and 220 hostages taken on 7 October.

Global boiling

The false narrative of global boiling is kept alive by the UN, WEF, State, Territory and local governments, under the guise of unattainable “net zero” ambitions, all the while failing in delivery of primary responsibilities taxpayers rightfully expect, like energy security, lights on, rates, roads and rubbish. Virtue signaling in the extreme comes at the cost of contempt for the poor who pay. Predictably the poor also are expected to stump up for the cost of destruction of landscape ecology and disposal of windmills and solar panels as they become obsolete. Solutions are yet to be found for disposing of toxic materials.

As MLK insightfully asserts, sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity rule.

Covid

It will be some time before we recover from the physical, financial and psychological harm caused by COVID. Imposition of mandates for masks, vaccinations and isolation brought out unnecessary hatred for fellow humans not seen to be doing their bit, no matter how foolish (and wrong) the edicts and controls turned out to be. Fights over toilet paper and the hording of essentials was incomprehensible, as was condemnation of others who believed differently. Differences are allowed in a free country. Police brutality against those protesting seemingly endless lockdowns, especially in Victoria, didn’t extend to Palestinian protests against Israel, threatening genocide. Occurrences such as these are indicative of an inverted justice system, protecting hatred and the accepted narrative. Never mind the law-abiding public.

Small wonder righteous haters feel affirmed in their passion, in their mindless obedience to new gods, soon to be legislated globally by WHO in their pandemic plan. Once Australia signs up, we will have no democratic health rights. Check out an explanation of what awaits us on the following link. https://youtu.be/kCoFLhDKlA4?si=RX-9NJBbziMypvWR

Love

The antidote to hate is love. Good and evil pass through every human heart, as Solzhenitsyn said. Each of us should be mindful of our own heart’s leanings.

Love is the foundation of our being, and love is what sustains us. Our identity is derived from love. The opposite is true: hatred never stops. It takes time before ignorance and a desire for things that will not be in the best interests of the individual are all that are left. Love fights against hatred in three ways: via forgiveness, compassion, and—most importantly—by staying in love. Anushka Joshi @keverythingJ

Love of family and country inspired near 400,000 Israelis with toughness to fight for their existence. Palestinians’ hatred of the Jews is greater than love of their own children, driving them to sacrifice innocents to the cause.

Australians have become so soft. Should the need arise, maybe we could marshal a fighting force from the army of welfare dependent people.

The title of this blog, “Let them eat cake”, is a quote attributed to French Queen Consort, Marie Antoinette who lost favour with the French public with extravagant displays at a time of severe hardship. Misreading the public mood when support for the monarchy depended on them, brought on the French Revolution and cost her head in 1793.

While Australians have never resorted to the guillotine for elite arrogance, ignorance and inconsideration of human struggles, they have been known to protest disruptively. Irish political convicts protested over-authoritarianism of British protestant military administration, erupting into riots such as Vinegar Hill (1804) and Eureka Stockade (1854). The shearers’ strike (1891) established power of unions and Catholic schools protest in Bathurst (1955) asserted the right of Catholics to educational funding from the tax pool to which they also contributed. Many rioted over Premier Daniel Andrews overreach, violent police controls and extortionate penalties during the world’s longest COVID lockdowns in Victoria.

Today many of us are struggling to meet the increasing cost of energy, mortgages, inflated prices for food and fuel. At the same time, we are subject to ever increasing intrusion into choices in our lives: what we eat, drink, what type of housing and where, no gas stoves, pressure for solar power and electric cars, control over children, their education and gender, what we say, think and practice faith.

Being told what to do suits some people: it means they don’t have to think too much and can exercise conspicuous virtue lording it over the rest of us. In doing so they fail to mature, fail to use their gifted intelligence for society’s betterment, at the same time as clouding the “light” of others.

In each of my blogs, as a policy tragic I try to link the impact of policies with what happens in our daily lives, as a service to those without the time or interest to do so. Until, of course, they come under pressure of hardship, like now, resulting from elite policies.

Let’s look at why people can’t pay their power bill, have to sell their house because they can no longer afford increased mortgage rates, and have difficulty feeding the family. Shamefully, many of the policies are founded on the sand of lies, poor basis for building a secure, flourishing nation.

Energy bills

The poor pay many times over for switching on their TV, cooking a meal, cooling/heating their home: in energy consumed; subsidies to suppliers; construction of additional transmission grid; and ultimately, for disposable of ‘unrenewables’ yet to be dealt with.

High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
‘Net Zero’ to address global warming, driven by the UN and WEF, populated by elites	Save the planet Phase out coal and gas for “cheaper” renewables, and cars for electric	Elite get rich on subsidies Poor can’t afford to pay their energy bills. Small business closures, job losses, Transport costs increase, inflation rises, Energy supply becomes unreliable, patchy, pushing up prices Landscape ecology destroyed by wind and solar farms affecting food production and environment. Coal and gas, major export earners, demonized. Poor to pay additional costs for new transmission grid and yet to be resolved, waste management of ‘unrenewables’.	Stop believing the unproven ‘carbon’ cult fantasy. Newer gods can’t change the climate or part the Red Sea. Back coal, gas and nuclear energy, which are cheaper and less harmful. Vote accordingly.
Housing Buying your own home used to be a reasonable expectation, made affordable by considerate governments who understood the financial and social benefits of home ownership and produced policies to strengthen that knowledge. By contrast, today’s government, populated by elite politicians with multiple homes of their own, appears hopeless in empathizing with half the population who have no home and little likelihood of getting one. Social housing as a solution, centralizes housing policy to control the people.
High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
No coherent policy to manage housing, population and immigration other than to avoid recession	1.5 million new immigrants planned; 464K already this year Social housing scheme planned will be mugged by reality of supply issues.	Pressure on housing supply; increased housing prices to unaffordable; people living in cars and tents; builders going broke. Supply failures: State government release of land, local government slow approvals; not enough tradies; increasing costs of construction materials. Per capita recession already happening.	Coordinate between local, state and federal governments on population, immigration, housing and essential infrastructure. Apply cost penalties for slow LG approvals, to be paid to developer. Speed housing development design with appropriate infrastructure
Fuel prices Inflated petrol prices for our cars are yet another function of high level policy, part of the “Net Zero” global fantasy, pushing electric vehicles, another unrenewable.
High level policy	Intention/action	Impact	Solutions
Net Zero policy of Australian government, UN, WEF	Remove all petrol and diesel cars from operation. Make all on/off road vehicles electric. Prevent exploration of minerals	Inflation increases as costs rise on everything transported. Price of fuel rises, putting pressure on budgets Elites become incredibly wealthy from government subsidies paid for by the poor. Additional infrastructure necessary to service electric vehicles, at cost to the poor. Pressure on electricity supply derived from unreliable renewables leads to blackouts (see California experience)	Stop believing the carbon cult fantasy. Plant trees. Protest policy stupidity that hurts the poor, enriches the elite and renders our national security vulnerable.

What we are facing is a distinct trend towards socialism with central control basic to Labor ideology, anchored in the belief government knows what is best for us. Large and expanding government bureaucracies seek to influence every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave, exercising authority and administering harsh punishment for non-compliance. The Palaszczuk government has added 50,000 more bureaucrats with no appreciable improvement in services. Big corporate and technology firms have been enlisted to collaborate with government. Corporate compliance is deemed essential, as favour is critical to winning work from government. Failed Marxist, Socialist and Fascist dictatorships are mere expansion of this model.

Conservative belief holds the individual, family and small business central. Freedom of speech, faith, thought and initiative are core values. People should be free to choose how and where to work, build businesses and homes, how to manage their food, families and body. Out of such dynamism and individual responsibility innovation and progress occur.

Australia’s “mixed” government model is a function of the size of the country to be serviced and the constrained finances of Britain at the time of colonization. Government needed to take over delivery of services such as roads, railways, water and communications, as private capital was constrained after the war of independence with the US. Extensive social services which evolved to support those  experiencing hard times, seemed to grow organically out of Indigenous “confidence in the hunt” – that there will be enough for everyone.

Families have their backs to the wall trying to manage the confluence of so many kitchen table issues, every one of which has its origins in bad government policy, taking a lead from bad international policy agreements, without responsibility. For instance, John Kerry, Biden’s “Climate Tzar”, has become a billionaire cruising the world in his private jet, even as none of his predictions over a couple of decades has been met.

Those less well-off have reached a turning point, having been crushed under the weight of stupidity and lies. Time to revolt in whatever way possible. At least support those who do protest. Demand that Australians be freed to explore, exploit and develop our god given natural resources to our own benefit, instead of the craven elite. We don’t want cake. We want wholesome food produced on our efficient farms, not plundered by green gods for solar, wind and transmission lines. For that we will have to become revolting.

For a culture and economy that seemingly had no currency for 65,000 years, Aboriginal Australians have certainly twigged to the power of money. As benefits, privileges and priorities to advance aborigines increased, so too has the number of people claiming aboriginality, up 25% to over 900,000 between censuses. Whether or not all are genuine Aboriginal people, many have committed to cash in on taxpayer (gubmint) largesse.

Should the “Yes” vote get up, intention is for “Voice, Treaty, Truth” and whatever that may mean in terms of racial discrimination, additional bureaucracy, entrenched guilt and reparations. One percent of GDP in reparations (annually?) is being claimed by activists, whether on top of the extraordinary current investment, we do not know, as it is not spelled out. Power is paramount: power to influence the direction of Australia over and above Constitutional governance.

Funds specifically assigned for Aboriginal needs already cost the taxpayer quite a lot. With the aim of “closing the gap” between Aboriginal life metrics and the rest of the population, around $33billion is directed into the Aboriginal industry annually. A further $2.4 billion funds the National Australian Indigenous Agency, with 1400 staff to service the very objectives of the closing the gap initiative, virtually rendering obsolete stated objectives of the Voice referendum: health, housing, education, jobs.

Recognition of first inhabitants in the Constitution is acceptable, so long as the efforts of British settlers and immigrants who have enriched Australia are also recognised. Former PM Tony Abbott suggested such a change to the Constitution.

Recently I felt discomforted and sad having sat through a lovely school grandparents’ day ceremony spoiled by indoctrination of passive small children with Aboriginal welcome to country and recognition of Aboriginal elders, rather than the elders of the children present. Gross distortion of reality occurs when no recognition is afforded to the extraordinary efforts of British settlement, the Enlightenment, the soldiers who died for our freedom and migrants who came after – from which comes the very science and industry essential to closing the gap.

Context

In my book Becoming, the crucial importance of context is emphasised when making major decisions, otherwise outcomes are flawed and costly. Cost is key to our future InVoice.

English author and columnist, Douglas Murray, also specifies that “Context is everything” in his article in The Australian, “Sorry, but can we all please move on from the guilt trips for non-Aboriginal Australians?”

Guilt and victimhood have increased, says Murray, yet most serious ethicists of the last century, believe,

“An apology can work only when it comes from someone who has done a wrong and is accepted by someone who has been wronged. If it comes from someone who has themselves done no wrong and goes to someone who has not actually been wronged, then the deal is a fraud.

Instead of appreciation for having the country to themselves uninterrupted for 65,000 years, Australian Aboriginal people experienced the inevitable humanity of having others settle in this vast land at a time of expansive European exploration and conquest.

In her brilliantly researched book, Beating France to Botany Bay: the race to found Australia, Margaret Cameron-Ash outlines the fierce competition to acquire new settlements, especially between Britain and France, but also Holland, Portugal and Spain. Would others have done better settling this country? Perhaps China, Germany or Russia?

As it was, Captain Arthur Philip who led the first convoy of settlers to Australia, beat French Captain La Perouse to Botany Bay by a mere five days. Messages had been directed to La Perouse from France, across Asia to Kamchatka on the east of Russia, ordering him to hasten to Botany Bay to claim Australia for France. Subterfuge between Captain Cook and the British Admiralty had kept secret the “gem” of Cook’s discoveries, the best deepwater harbour in the world in Port Jackson, now Sydney. Botany Bay was a decoy.

At great expense of ships and personnel, Britain had at that time, fought grand naval and political battles to stop the terrible slave trade. British orders to Philip were to establish a settlement where all people were equal under law and to respect the native inhabitants. Philip proved to be the man for the job, holding true to his orders and his beliefs through the arduous first years of settlement, to establish an imperfect, yet admirable system of justice.

Botanist on Cook’s ship Endeavour, Sir Joseph Banks, was ever an avid promoter of settlement in Australia, especially following the American war of Independence (1776). An associate, Prof Heyne is cited by Cameron-Ash, in 1791, explaining that:

 “The colony was a new concept, from which a new human culture may arise and develop its distinctiveness out of this island, which could be sowing the seeds of a great empire which will come along centuries later”.

Heyne showed amazing prescience. Australia has evolved to become one of the least racist countries in the world, with reliable democratic governance systems, if imperfect, attracting migrants from all corners of the globe.

Understanding the context from which settlement arose demonstrates how the seeds of a free, democratic society, in which all people are equal, were sown in 1788. ‘Yes’ to the Voice would mean reverting to a society in which grievances of an ancient culture dominate and divide. And it will cost us dearly.

Getting value from our InVoice

All of us want Aborigines to succeed, to close the gap. The question is how that may be achieved where positive initiatives and an estimated $trillions have so far failed the 25% who exist outside mainstream Australia. The other 75%, mostly of mixed race, lighter in colour than I am, have attained educational, health, job and housing objectives similar to other Australians.

If “Truth” telling is to be an outcome of the Voice, then we need to recognise that, skilled as Aboriginal people were, they lived short, brutal lives in a nomadic economy and culture. Isolation from other cultures ensured their evolution in 1788 was pre-medieval. Modernity brought by settlement would have been a shock causing crisis.

Any psychologist worth their salt recognises that the way out of crisis is assertive action, working through the tunnel of the wave of turmoil, letting go of what is no longer relevant and adapting to the best of the new culture. Individual responsibility is key; blame and guilt merely hold back evolution. No one else can pave the way out of crisis: it must be undertaken by the individual/group. Compassionate others can merely support along the way.

My own inexpert feeling is that too little account is taken of aboriginal anthropology developed over tens of thousands of years, ingrained in their way of life, hindering the way forward. Marshall Sahlin’s 1966 essay, The Original Affluent Society, a comparative study of nomadic people, understood basic practices, some of which are tabled below. Some differences to be bridged to transition to a modern society are suggested.

Anthropological understanding	Gap to be bridged
Need to work only 3-5 hours a day to attain adequate nutrition	Modernity expects greater work disciplines to pay for static modern housing, food, health, education (providing that is what they choose).
When travelling, they took only what they could carry; tools and weapons could easily be crafted (hence no building or storage)	Living in modern housing anchors Aboriginal people in one place. Regeneration is not possible, maintenance not understood, unsanitary conditions develop, and health conditions decline.
Constant moving meant the land regenerated seasonally.
Plenty of time for ritual	In this area of modernity, aboriginal skills excel, are applauded and rewarded: in sport, theatre, TV, radio, politics and leadership.
Aboriginal ‘confidence in the hunt’, meant food caught or collected was consumed on the day	Deferred gratification evolved over centuries in modern societies, as did agricultural cultivation and storage. Remote community reliance on welfare too often means most expenditure occurs on the day of payment, leaving little for food and essentials later, impacting nutrition and health, especially of children at vital early life stages.
In the tribal society, everything is shared	Entitlement to housing, food, bed and earnings of others in modern society becomes problematic; overcrowding houses, leaving children hungry with nowhere to sleep, vulnerable to predators, humbugging working people, making it hard for them to get ahead.

Solutions

Adjustment of expectations is necessary. Closing the gap between Aboriginal life metrics and the rest of the population as a reason for changing the Constitution is a folly, when progress on education, housing and health for the rest of us has been attained only over recent decades. Realistically, a lag for very remote communities living pretty much traditional lifestyles should not be surprising. In fact, vast improvements have been made on all fronts, thanks to the efforts of many who have put their lives on the line to work in the remote communities, a lag that will eventually be bridged (without the Voice and racial division it will entrench in the Constitution).

Reasonable expectation is a crucial factor in engendering progress and harmony between people (see my Maturity Model for decision making). Unrealistic expectations burden others, causing disharmony, fragmentation of individuals and groups, resulting in high social and economic costs, just as we are seeing. All parties become less mature. Blame is a function of immaturity.

Solutions to bridging the gap between anthropology and modernity may be found in more practical ways, additional to those generated by the community (cashless debit card, alcohol restrictions). Roving teams of young Aboriginal tradies on three-month circuits, maintaining and repairing housing could spark business and employment, similarly with health and education.

A sunset clause on all Aboriginal policies and programs would demonstrate seriousness for resolution by expecting Aborigines to be able to care for themselves in a way that they claim for over 65,000 years. Should certain funding programs cease, say, after five years, others after 10, and all after 20 years (one generation), then there would be an urgency to lift performance and welcome them to modernity. Traditions and language can still be conserved, yet in the context of irreversible modernity.

A ’Yes’ vote will divide Australians on race in the Constitution, betraying the hard-won sacrifices and noble intent of the founding settlement, which set out to ensure all people in this country would be free and equal.

We could accept the wisdom of Douglas Murray, who believes that:

Australia has the choice of conceding that it is wicked and that all failures of the Aboriginal peoples in the past and present are directly due to the “settlers”. Or it can concede that one of the least racist countries in the world should at some point give itself a break. The English did nothing wrong. Neither did any of you.

As Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price says, for the “NO” vote, “If we don’t win the day, our Constitution will forever divide Australians by race”.

Nothing like crises to precipitate growth or decline at any age. In later years crises tend to occur in clumps, catching us by surprise, so we are left floundering to catch our breath, hard to find a way through.

Should the trajectory of decline take hold, it can lead to the mortal end that awaits us all. Sadly, my sister Janice passed away this year, as did several other friends. May they reap their eternal rewards.

If we are to live, we might as well live life to the fullest. As age and diminishments compound, working out what “living life to the fullest” means is a constant challenge of adjustment: in relationships with families and friends, in interests and issues of importance, in ability to participate in previously valued pursuits; as well as what is affordable on a retirement income.

While challenges manifest, so do opportunities for changes in direction that can prove enriching. Not the same as before, yet age appropriate. Relaxation of the need to care for others allows us to be open to help from others. Both become more mature in the process: elderly becoming gracious receivers as younger people step up to care for them.

Gratitude and grace are endearing qualities, especially in the aged. Nothing so unattractive in an older person than bitterness, criticism, and petty picking on “the young”. Tolerance and flexibility are tasks of adolescence. Perhaps those entrenched in bitter, unpleasant ways in later life have not adolesced, or have regressed, rather than advanced to a more favoured state.

Over the three crises I’ve confronted this year, are many learnings how to continue to grow in grace and virtue. You are invited to add your own from your store of wisdom.

Hip replacement

Having already had one hip replacement, I knew what was coming for the second. Still didn’t make it any less difficult, painful or challenging, just more ready to work through to independent, pain free mobility. Pre-surgery exercise and a strict post-surgery rehabilitation regime proved really beneficial.

Friends and family were crucial to support, encouragement and perseverance through the frustrating patches towards independence. Am especially grateful for those who visited, prayed, brought gifts, flowers and meals, did shopping and phoned to help pass the time to recovery. It was a blessing to be so supported.

Of course, Netflix and Foxtel got a flogging as I trawled through offerings of interest. Netflix series The Patients of Dr Garcia was one that appealed to me, being an historical Spanish WWII drama about the resistance to Nazism, Franco’s fascism and communism.

Learnings from surgery:

Reading filled other moments as I took delight in the dozen books borrowed from the library before admission to hospital. Churchill & Orwell: the fight for freedom proved an engrossing read about the enduring legacy of freedom from courageous yet flawed men, especially in the context of today’s political pressure to control so much of our lives. Albo’s Misinformation and Disinformation Bill seems a direct lift from Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in his book 1984, which was a dystopian novel, not a manual for governance.

• Apply oneself diligently to prescribed exercises to restore the body to full use;
• Keep the mind active with interesting pursuits;
• Plan company to help maintain social skills and avoid becoming depressed or demoralised; and
• Be grateful and gracious as recipient of the care of others and for the privilege of modern medicine.

Turning 80

Turning 80 stirred reflection on my life, its worth, as well as about people who’ve shared the journey to earn my admiration and gratitude. Above all, gratitude for the privilege of living so long in good health (matching pair of metal hips aside). Deep gratitude for our service personnel who’ve fought and died for our freedom, the veterans who returned. If you can read this thank a teacher; if you can read it in English, thank a soldier.

Gratitude to the health workers, researchers, educators and the parents whose collective efforts have extended the term and quality of life in this marvellous country, so that we live around thirty years longer than 100 years ago. Great strides to be proud of!

Okay, present governments and bureaucracies may leave quite a bit to be desired: more of that in blogs to follow.

Gratitude for having survived to live a full life: to parents and family, to my late husband Evan, now 25 years departed, to my five adult children who are ever striving for good; to my ten grandchildren beginning to show sparkle and talent in diverse fields.

I’ve realised my life has been very much one of ‘loaves and fishes’ kind of significance. Just as the boy in the story in the New Testament (Matthew 14, John 6) had only five loaves of bread and two fish, with Jesus’ blessing, the crowd of over 5,000 people were miraculously fed and satisfied. We learn there was food left over, though not much more of the boy who contributed what he had.

Like the boy with the loaves, I’ve given all that I had. Survival balanced the threat of abortion, poverty, chaos, dysfunction and acrimony, against the gifts of health and intelligence. At an early age I worked out that the only way to make progress in life was to deal with the reality (however dreadful) and develop methods for being generative. My book Becoming with the Maturity Model for decision-making is an expression of that.

The surprise and delight of celebrating 80 years was to hear those who meant much to me express how I influenced their life, without my ever being aware. For so many decades I battled against adversity to get a mere toe hold on life. Positive affirmation was scarce.

Mostly, I was driven to ensure the five children we produced were provided a platform from which they could launch into the world of their choosing, with sufficient grace and competence to be effective at any level. Each honoured the effort with dedicated hard work resulting in varying levels of success in this country and overseas.

Having gained a Bachelor Commerce degree at 50, once again I set about to support scientists, engineers, academic, government, community and Aboriginal groups to realise their potential by producing strong business cases to warrant funding.

So, you get my drift: I didn’t make a fortune for myself, yet like the boy with the loaves and fishes, helped facilitate the careers and financial prospects of so many others. Along the way, the few opportunities for me to share ongoing financial rewards were dashed by greed and stupidity of others. That’s bureaucracy and business!

Learnings from turning 80

• See to yourself first: love thy neighbour as thyself, means looking after self so you can look after others. I could have put more priority on building my own financial capital.
• Be grateful for what we have, rather than hankering after what we fancy, however unrealistic. Express gratitude generously at the time.
• Take joy from small things: they may be all we have. Big things are often beyond our reach.
• Make the most of each day: it maybe the last.

Moving

Like childbirth, moving is a crisis we must work through, whether we like it or not, to produce the desired joyous outcome of new life.

Moving late in later years challenges us on so many levels. As mostly we are moving to smaller spaces (coffin ready) letting go (of houses, clothes, furniture, artefacts and equipment) becomes remote preparation for the ultimate letting go in death. Virtue in practice.

Not sadly. Much joy and freedom can be derived in release from the burden of care and maintenance of “things”. Memories that we can hold onto brighten the quiet moments. Marbles as well if we continue to work at it.

Having a clear plan and being organised is most useful when moving, especially for those who help us compensate for our diminishments. Moving so soon after surgery, I was particularly grateful for my sister Kathy and daughter Macushla who drove the packing, cleaning and purchasing of more suitable furniture and equipment to make the new place “work” for me. They did not rest until I was set up for my “future”, whatever I make of that.

Psychologically and physically, moving is hard graft. It takes time to readjust to a new setting amongst different people, to develop a fresh routine. Patience and energy are essential to any measure of success.

Learnings from moving

• View moving as an opportunity to ‘let go’; take forward only those things you will need in the next stage of life.
• Have a plan and be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Understand your limitations: allow/invite others to help.
• Be patient, yet assertive in resettlement in order to live later years to the fullest.

These are just a few ideas gleaned from my experience. I am not the entire fountain of knowledge, so would welcome comments and ideas from faithful readers from your own experience.

The Voice: plenty of talk, not many listening.

Principles for Major Decisions

The coming referendum on the Voice is a major decision for each of us that has the potential to change the culture of equality and procedural fairness in Australia. When voting on the referendum to change the Constitution, each of us needs to consider responsibly the merits and implications of the Voice.

My Maturity Model for decision making was designed to help people become confident in making decisions important in their lives when the consequences of decisions must be lived with. The referendum on the Voice is one such critical point in time. Results factored into our Constitution will have to be lived with.

Elements of my Maturity Model balance choice, responsibility and expectation to maintain harmony. Once expectations increase, responsibilities increase commensurately, and choice diminishes. Such a situation is unsustainable, resulting in fragmentation of individuals and groups, leading to immense social and financial costs. All predictable.

Measured against my Maturity Model, the Voice has the potential for distortion of equality accepted by all. Anyone claiming to be aboriginal will have additional power over choices that affect us, at a time when eleven aboriginal representatives have been elected to stand in federal parliament alongside all others.

Defining the Problem

In Business 101, the first task is to define the problem before seeking and proposing a solution. We should be asking for what problem is the Voice a solution? Will the Voice solve the problem? And how?

According to proponents of the Voice, “Closing the Gap” is the intended purpose of going to a referendum to change the Constitution to give Aborigines special recognition, and it seems, special governance power.

Efforts to close the gap life metrics between aboriginal and others have now been ongoing since 2008. A lot of money, effort, good will and consultation has been invested to advance the wellbeing of Aborigines. Progress has been achieved in some areas yet remain stalled in others. Education and incarceration rates remain fraught. Outcomes in both are linked. Low educational achievement tends to result in poor health outcomes, unemployment and incarceration.

If ‘closing the gap’ is the problem, what difference will the Voice make that has not been achieved already after 14 years concentrated effort? Just as importantly, will a change in the Constitution recognising the importance of Aborigines as original inhabitants satisfy aboriginal demands going forward? Already moves are afoot to change place names for aboriginal ones, generate treaties and claim reparations. Seems there is no end to expectations. Remember using the MM, increased expectations from Aborigines means increased responsibilities and costs for us, along with diminished choice – not sustainable.

Inevitably Australia would have been settled by a foreign power; thankfully it just happened to be the British who brought universal equality in law and language. Over the last 50 years, despite innumerable special days acknowledging Aborigines, culture, apologies, flags, welcome to country, acknowledgement of elders at every session of every event, special indigenous sporting events, festivals, their radio and TV, equality in law and $33billion invested annually, racism is claimed at every turn. People of goodwill become weary when there is no end to demands.

The Voice demanding to be heard may find people of goodwill weary of listening to victimhood, racism, blame and guilt. Australians just want to move forward together.

Context and Facts

Without an understanding of context, poor decisions will inevitably be made. Rarely are facts allowed to get in the way of a political concept like the Voice.

Facts providing context for the Voice are not limited to:

• 120 years ago, lifespan for Aborigines and whites were roughly the same – around 48-50 years
• In the intervening years improvements in health, education and sanitation have extended by around 30 years the lifespan for most of the population, including 75% of Aborigines integrated into the wider community. Difficulties in attaining uptake in health, education and sanitation means 25% Aborigines on homelands now lag whites, despite extraordinary efforts and investment to ‘close the gap’. Unacknowledged is the 20-year increase in lifespan for Aborigines already attained through respectful efforts by people of goodwill.
• Infant mortality and morbidity were also similar between races. Again, concentrated extraordinary efforts have improved metrics for all, though not quite as much for Aborigines. Furthermore, parental alcohol consumption during pregnancy has resulted in too many aboriginal babies born with FASD (foetal alcohol syndrome disorder), condemned to a life of poor learning, intransigent behavioural problems and crime affecting themselves and everyone in the community.
• Education: it has only been since Labor Science Minister Barry Jones encouraged higher education in the 80’s that more students continued to Year 12 and University. Opportunities for aboriginal students are not so far behind so long as they engage in elementary education, an aboriginal community responsibility.
• Aboriginal culture and economy defined anthropologically by nomadism, have not done well when confined to western style housing on homelands. Sanitation and health suffer when historical nomads remain stationary. Overcrowding and alcohol disrupt social order. Violence and sexual abuse compound dysfunction. Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from Alice Springs believes that changing the Constitution will not address the scourge of alcohol, sexual and physical violence and low education attendance demoralising remote communities.
• Storage, non-existent in nomadic culture, is difficult to inculcate in a traditionally nomadic culture that essentially consumed available resources on the day.
• In his book Whiteman’s dream(for aboriginal self-determination) Gary John’s believes that progress has been hindered by findings of the three major enquiries over 30 years that fostered aboriginal victimhood: Deaths in custody, Stolen generation and Hindmarsh Island. No claim has been proven. Yet ensuing policies continuing the disproven narrative have fostered victimhood, depriving Aborigines of responsibility for determining their future, loading whites with bottomless guilt, shame, racism and demands for reparation. Ultimately Aborigines must pick up their bed and walk, or else call an uber.

Walpiri/Celtic woman Price seeks real solutions for indigenous people that will help all Australians, echoed by Johns’ insights and solutions have little relevance to the Voice:

Land rights, welfare and culture have locked Aborigines out of the good life. Land has become a burden, welfare has become disabling, bad behaviour is mistaken for culture. There is a way out. Aborigines must abide by the same rules as every other Australian — seek out opportunities, study hard, and free themselves from a culture of bad behaviour. 

The way to go

As changes to the Constitution have major ongoing legal implications for us all, it’s best if we identify the problem to be solved by the Voice and determine whether the solution offered in a “Voice” is the way to go.

A lot of people are talking, few are listening.     

Alfredo Ortiz’s provocative new book, The Real Race Revolutionaries, provides genuine options based on facts. Oriz explores the debate contested between two African American thought leaders a hundred years ago. WEB Du Bois argued that activism and political power were the best pathway to racial equality and that capitalism was inherently racist. In the interim political activism has embedded racial division. Whereas Booker T Washington believed black Americans should harness the power of capitalism to become economically independent, pursuing an agenda of education, industry, thrift and ownership. Ortiz details black entrepreneurs who have been successful in building businesses, employing their peers.

Former tennis champion Yvonne Goolagong’s workshops for aboriginal entrepreneurship seem to be on the right track. My white woman’s dream is for teams of aboriginal tradies to rove remote communities affecting repairs and maintenance of properties, local aboriginal run bakeries and cafes to thrive, butcher shops and community gardens producing vegetables. At least such a dream, in concert with Booker Washington’s inspired idea, would be much better than the nightmare of violence, alcohol and racism inherent in the Voice.

Acceptance and forgiveness are the greatest gifts for Christmas.

Christmas traditions derive from the very beginning with the birth of Christ – travelling long distances to be with people we love, bringing gifts as did the wise men from the East. Family members will often cross the country or the globe to be with those special to them at Christmas time.

Repeated in families of every kind are welcome festivities with lashings of special foods, exchanging gifts thoughtfully made or purchased. Other traditions like the evergreen tree decorated with promising fruit, topped by the star shining the way to new life envisioned, symbolically for the new baby, in fact for us all. Peace, new hope, replenishment and restoration fill the air with the sounds of music inspired by deep spiritual significance of the occasion, whether believers or not, in the original true spirit of inclusivity.

Achieving Christmas Harmony

Bringing a lot of people together for a short time can result in a measure of disharmony, as people assert themselves, unaccustomed cordially to accommodating different points of view. Then there are those who sit back and expect to be waited on, contributing nothing to the bonhomie of the occasion. Others can be outright aggressive, unwilling to put aside differences for a day out of respect for the hosts and those who have contributed much to the occasion.

In Paul Theroux’s novel Motherland, the seven adult siblings, even as they aged, consistently resorted to patterned childhood behaviours when getting together for a family gathering. Never did they seem to grow on or grow up. The inevitable result was friction, unpleasantness and blow-ups, at the very time when rejoicing and gratitude were warranted. Don’t let this happen to your Christmas celebrations.

In recognition of the reality of how fraught family gatherings can be, a local radio station has been offering callers the opportunity to assist with peace negotiations to help ensure such a special occasion this Christmas generates the harmony intended. Now that’s a practical idea!

Christian churches offer peace at Christmas. We share gifts in love. Rule 12 of the Fourteen Teachings of Buddha invokes: The greatest gift in life is acceptance and forgiveness, two priceless and costless gifts, crucial to peace and harmony at any time, and especially at Christmas.

Acceptance and forgiveness can be hard to come by in families fractured by hurt, real or perceived, judged by today’s standards against what happened (or not) decades ago, stories of woundedness cultivated in self-pity, so practiced that they’re hard to let go of to grasp the hope and promise of renewal inherent in the season. As the statement from the Royal palace enunciated regarding Harry and Meghan’s claims of racism, recollections may vary.

Yet forgiveness may be hard to muster for those who have been subjected to vicious and unwarranted hatred and vitriol from those who they loved. Isolation and humiliation as means of domination are unworthy of the simple Buddhist invocation to acceptance of people where they are at, whatever their condition.

Acceptance of Self

Few of us lend to the magnanimity of the Abdallah family who lost three children and a cousin in an Oatlands tragedy. A group of cousins innocently walking to the shop for an ice cream were hit and four were killed by a drunk, drugged driver. Though grief stricken, this deeply Christian family accepted the reality of the tragedy, absorbed their grief in faith and forgave the perpetrator. This could not have been easy.

On the anniversary of the children’s death, the family launched ‘I4giveDay’, encouraging others to forgiveness in the interests of peace and harmony. Life is short. Why make it more unpleasant than the daily life struggle faced by us all? In doing so the Abdallahs spared themselves years of self-consuming hatred, resentment and desire for revenge, none of which was likely to bring peace or satiate their grief.

Oh! That we could marshal the Abdallah spirit this Christmas! Begin by acknowledging our own grief and hurt, mourning our losses. Then, by allowing acceptance of ourselves, we can forgive ourselves and forgive others who have hurt us, for they know not what they do, even if what they do has been deliberate.

We matter most. None of us is perfect. Over a long life, flaws can percolate and break through to hurt others. Unlike religious cults of environment, race, gender and colonialism now dominating the nation’s agenda, it’s okay to acknowledge faults, make reparation and seek forgiveness. We can also forgive others.

Taking a cue from the Buddhists, acceptance and forgiveness, beginning with ourselves, are the greatest gifts we can give and receive this Christmas. Extended to others, the spirit miraculously conjures up the warmth, love, peace on earth to people of good will so long promised.

A very happy Christmas to you all. Blessings!

It’s more offensive to name what is wrong than do wrong. (Paula Collins)

Over the last couple of years George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, seems to have come into its own as a manual for governance. Prols of the novel (people like us) could not think, ask or speak for themselves or their experience: they had to obey unquestioningly the narrative put out by Big Brother who watched constantly. Sounds familiar to recent experience of COVID and climate change.

As global tensions between autocracies and democracies play out to determine the better form of running a country, autocracy (Big Brother) seems to be creeping ahead as most favoured by leaders. Left leaning media largely fails in its job of calling government to account, having aligned themselves with Big Tech and Big Corporations in holding power with government of the day, influencing rather than enquiring.

Courage to question or voice an alternative point of view can end up costing legal process, reputation, job, career, house and friends, cancelled from social media and disparaged as a disrupter. Pregnant Zoe-Lee Buhler found out how damaging speaking up can be when she was handcuffed in her lounge room in front of her children and partner when charged with incitement merely for posting a lockdown protest meeting on Facebook. Trolls on social media piled on criticism of her.

In the USA people who had the gall to support Trump or hold pro-choice views have been raided by the FBI, arrested in front of their families, their electronic devices confiscated. A Canadian café owner was shut down, charged and bank accounts seized for donating coffee to truckers protesting vaccination mandates.

Conversely, second biggest donor to the Democrat campaign, FTX Cryptocurrency operator, Sam Bankman-Fried remains free, swanning polyamorously in the Bahamas, while people lose their life savings in the US$40billion collapse of his scam. His saving grace? Effective altruism, using promotion of accepted woke narratives to escape scrutiny.

Weaponising the police against dissenters is just so “Big Brother”, breaching as it does the separation of powers between governing and legal arms of administration, undermining institutions of democracy. It is also a function of fascism and communism.

After a big news splash, public humiliation and extortionate costs, all too often these politically motivated actions fizzle to nothing once political advantage has been secured. Still the point has been made: ask questions and speak out and you will be punished.

Firm and Family controls

If you think Big Brother controls exist only in government, you are wrong. In many families and firms, similar autocracy prevails. The boss or some other crazy maker can be forever “herding” workers into compliance with their diktats, allowing no other point of view. Work becomes particularly unpleasant and unsatisfying. Bureaucracies in big firms and public service are infamous for it. Compliance with the rule of the day prevails, though emphasis and orders may change. Rather than put up with it, long sufferers leave for greener options, unfortunately taking with them the chance of organisational renewal. In his book Beyond Order Jordan Peterson details the psychological distress of a client under capture to a crazy maker and how, with counselling and support for a new direction, alleviation and escape were attained.

In families things can be little different. Traditionally older parents exerted stern controls over children and others. Since Dr Spock’s book Baby and Child Care popularised child-centred care, respect and power in families and community have inverted. Indulged children are negotiated with rather than disciplined. Now it’s parents and elderly who are more likely to run the gamut of disapproval, cowed into silence for daring to question or speak their piece, forever walking on eggshells for fear of offending. A dominant sibling can assert similar inordinate power. Positive progress stalls when discussion is stymied. Ostracism once metered out to children for poor behaviour is shamelessly foisted onto elders for existing and having a point of view. Options for alleviation and escape for them are limited, though not exhausted.

Effects of power and control

Controlling the narrative to exert power and control over others has multiple effects:

• Responsibility is foisted on those less able to bear it as expectations increase and tolerance of dissent declines. Fragmentation of individuals and groups invariably occurs, with high social and financial costs.
• Naked emperor syndrome, as no one is allowed to say the narrative is baseless, because of the effect it would have over prevailing power and control of the populace. Sham is ultimately exposed. (Think COVID mandates without a scientific base and treatments refuted).
• Unsustainable, autocratic power has a lifecycle unrenewed through evolution, ends up consuming itself, even though many suffer till the end (think North Korea, CCP, Daniel Andrews).
• Truth has a way of emerging, eventually, as Orwell’s character reflects, “They can make you say anything – anything – but they can’t make you believe it.” (p192)

Autocrats rob individuals of responsibility and choice. For those pursuing forever infantilism over maturity, living or working under tyrannical rule may suit. Never will they be held responsible for what happens, sad though it is to encounter one late in life who clings to child-like ignorance.

On cult like issues orchestrating mass fear such as Climate Change and Covid mandates, the irresponsible, cloaked in the virtue of compliance with the narrative, assume virtuous, dogmatic judgement on those daring to raise an alternative position or failing to comply.

When people are silenced and herded into compliance, democracy which has been honed by freedom of speech and respectful debate loses out to autocracy.

Personal solutions

Most of us are powerless to influence change on a national or international scale unless we band together with other like-minded individuals. We are best able to exert positive influence our own lives (hard enough) and perhaps ripple out to others within our sphere of influence.

The Maturity Model for decision-making outlined in my book Becoming emphasises individual responsibility and management of expectations in making confident choices one can live with. Jordan Peterson also focuses on responsibility for taking charge over one’s life, no matter how unsatisfactory things may be. Responsibility (rather than blame) is the way to maturity and wholeness as a person.

To reduce fear, deal in facts, not fantasy of the doomsday cults. Cultivate a sense of humour and gratitude for what we have. Enjoy the present. Celebrate the wonders of innovation that solves so many of the world’s problems. Support those who carry heavy loads. Be kind.

Where relationships are intractable, take Jesus’ advice, “Shake their dust from your sandals and move on.” Or don’t go as often or stay as long.

As former PM Malcolm Fraser said, Life wasn’t mean to be easy. Asking questions and speaking out aren’t easy either, as so many have found out. Yet context is critical. Satisfy yourself your contribution has value in the overall scheme of life. Ask and speak up.