Tuesday 20 March 2012

My first Blog


Hi - this is my first post in my first foray into the world of blogging – which up to now I have avoided because I am terrible at doing things regularly (as well as a very slow typist) and blogs  I gather should really be updated regularly – so I will apologize up front for the chance that I might not do another post for ages (or ever)

What has inspired me to start to start this verbal masturbation is a political meeting I went to the other night – which is troubling because I usually try to avoid organized politics, mainly because I can’t find a political party – or even an individual politician – who reflects my views – and I am a sook when it comes to conflict – I don’t like arguing with people – though I seem to do it far more often that I would like (though I have noticed I have gotten better at not arguing as I have gotten older – which I suppose is one redeeming feature to the passage of time – if indeed it does pass, or even exist at all – but that is a whole other subject for another post – or even perhaps a poem).

I describe myself as generally a labor supporter and tend to say I have left wing views which is an inadequate description because I think the labels we use (left, right, communist, socialist, democrat etc) are all screwed up and no two people (except perhaps high brow academics) ascribe the same meaning to the same label – for instance I personally think that communists should actually be a part of the right and not the left – they certainly have tended to historically behave like the fascists in any country they ever have had power in (Stalin in fact probably was responsible for more death than Hitler -and death is something  I don’t believe in !)

It seems to me we would all be better off if our politicians could learn to work together across party lines (and within party lines as well). In fact I think our society is currently far to competitive – in all areas not just politics. And competition is far too close to war in my opinion – and war leads usually to Death – which as I have said I don’t believe in.

It is like the story of two people fighting over an orange – the obvious solution would appear the be to get out a knife and cut the orange in half (then they of course they argue over whose half should be bigger) – but if they would only just stop and talk (and Listen) to each other they would find that one wants the orange to use the orange peel in a cake and the other wants it to squeeze for its juice, and both can get what they want if they just co-operate and share the orange with some sort of common sense.

This is what I think everyone not just politicians should endeavor to do, instead of (figuratively) automatically getting out the knives and attacking.

Anyway – since I tend to think that I make more sense writing poetry than prose – here is a poem on this subject:

Traditional Labor Supporter

I’d much rather be a failed artist
Than a politician
And I guess that puts me one up on Hitler

With all the vitriol flying about lately
In the labor party
And elsewhere
You’ve got to think
Is it even remotely possible
To lead this country
Or any country in the western world
Or any country at all
In anything even remotely like the right direction
Or even any stable direction that might be wrong

And that might be a good thing
If the flaws in the political process
Are as universal as the appear to be
Then they must infect the opposition as well
Even though they appear to hide it better

And even if we do end up with Abbot
Maybe he won’t progress on
To become even a Pauline Hanson
And certainly not
A failed artist


-  And just for luck another poem I wrote at the same time:


Schrödinger’s Christ
In our toilet
An evangelical prayer
Has taken the place
Of the sign saying
Please put the toilet seat down
And my wicked sense of humor
Can’t help but think
That at the underlying
Quantum level
They are related
That the things we squabble over
As brothers and sisters
In Christ
Are as trivial
And their origins
As lost in the mists of quantum uncertainty
As the reasons behind
This traditional battleground
Of the war between the sexes
Who the F**k cares
Whether the toilet seat is up or down
It’s a bit like Schrödinger’s cat
You’re not going to know 
Until you open the box
The ultimate box
At the end of time
And by then it’s too late
Too worry
If you’ve left the seat in the right position
Said the right prayer
Prayed in the right church
Supported the right party faction
Believed in the right version of string theory
Sat on the right donkey
Had the right carbon tax
Personally I don’t care
Who wins
As long as they lead well!!!
And there’s the rub
The true leader
Is the servant
Of the servants
Of the Lord
Not just the Pope
The true Christ
Is Schrödinger’s Christ
And the only question
We are going to be asked
When the box is opened
Is did we Love?