Be scared...be very scared.
Because if you don’t, well, you’ll be really scared when the finger of scorn is pointed at you and the old fall back, over used and abused frightener, that you are unAustralian, is invoked.
You see, the politicians and the boffins use the scare tactic to a) win elections; b) have excuse to peel more money off you; c) to take away more of your civil liberties; and d) (the most important of all) to hide their own inefficiencies, uncertainties and incompetences.
The conservatives are the masters of the art.
In my time, I can remember that the “yellow peril” were going to get us.
Now their dollars reign supreme over all of their other perceived nasties...the “Reds”.
That was a big one.
The Petrovs showed just how much peril we were in.
We asked to be asked to be involved in the Vietnam War.
If all was lost there, all would be lost here.
Other mothers’ sons can go, no probs.
A new ice age was imminent, important parts of our anatomy will be frozen off.
Hide your money under your bed if Labor gets elected.
And so on.
And over the 50 years or so of my political awareness, education and certificates for walls to say so, have made giant steps.
Yet the punters still fall for the old scare tactics.
Fast forward to the recent past: “kids overboard”.
Not even the Nazis thought of that one.
“We’ll choose who comes to live in our country.”
Has it ever been otherwise, post transportation?
But anyway, the Pacific solution complete with a couple of gulags should solve the problem and impress the masses.
And who could forget “weapons of mass destruction”, at least as a starter, for a real scare.
We can go to reason “B” if that don’t work.
We can thumb our noses at the U.N. and get some brownie points with Dubya.
That will really show the proletariat how tough we are.
And in Fawlty-esque manner, I won’t mention terrorism because I still have my fridge magnet to repel that lot, particularly if they are of middle eastern appearance.
The lock down for APEC, and the Dodge City presentation of Sydney for the recent religious gathering, makes you proud to be Australian.
Never overestimate the gullibility of the Australian electorate, another maxim which is, unfortunately true.
But why do I, now, look at this history you may well ask?
Well it’s because of climate change.
Now if I and others appear sceptical, it is with good reason.
We have been filled with experts’ opinions and that of boffins and pollies so many times before, for no good reason, it begs why should we accept that which is dished up to us now?
Sure, I’m more than aware that there has been an extended drought.
I’m fully aware of the mismanagement of our river systems by the same boffins and pollies as I am of the polar melts.
I have no doubt of the toxins we have put into the air.
But I am equally aware of the experts.
Even as I write, the money experts are seeing their immanent parity prediction of the Aus/Us dollar under 90 cents, the oil experts seeing $200 a barrel in the immediate future, now staring down the barrel of $115.
So who’s to say the climate change experts are correct?
Different argument? Yep. But haven’t they all been?
A footnote to this story: Always look for the escape word “could”. While it “could”, at times, be missing from forecasts, it is mostly there, though the theory is sold in a manner appearing to be a definite.
“If it happens.”
“We told you so.”
But if whole thing falls out of the air, the “could” parachute drawstring is pulled.
You know, nothing was ever stated as definite.
I write because I feel a scare coming on.
I’ve got my chequebook hidden while thinking of how I might make a book on which of our liberties will be curtailed.
Be scared, be very scared and make a pollie’s day.