By Peter Boyle
[Thanks to Alex Bainbridge for doing the photoart. The actual Liberal billboard can be seen here]
In his notorious Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler explained the political device of the big lie:
The big truth that Turnbull's big lie seeks to obliterate is that the $315 billion debt is just part of the social cost being forced on the Australian public to bail out capitalism from a crisis that follows decades of greedy speculation and social and environmental vandalism.
Since the late 1970s in Australia, both Labor and Liberal governments alike have been culpable in feeding capitalism's profit frenzy by pursuing a common neoliberal economic and political agenda. The culmination of this frenzy of greed and speculation is the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. And now the public is being forced to pay.
Despite all the spin about economic recovery, 21,900 full-time jobs went in just the month to June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, ordinary families are being hit with bigger bills for childcare, rent, health, water and electricity.
Around the world, many trillions of dollars of pain is being inflicted on ordinary people to pay for unbridled capitalist profiteering.
At a time like this, capitalist politics becomes increasingly a campaign to shift the blame away from the system itself. Scapegoats are set up. And given Australia's racist history, it is not surprising that underbelly of capitalist politics today is the targeting of racial minorities. Mass SMS messages inciting violence against Indians, Lebanese and Muslims sweep through the most recession-hit suburbs of the big cities – sometimes with bloody consequences. Sly racist tracts work their way into email inboxes.
Small neo-Nazi groups are fanning racial hatred against immigrant communities and are trying to regroup and relaunch themselves as an electoral force under the name “Australia First”. These far-right goons have taken heart from the rise the the electoral support for anti-immigrant parties in Europe and they seek to capitalise on the deepening recession.
[Thanks to Alex Bainbridge for doing the photoart. The actual Liberal billboard can be seen here]
In his notorious Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler explained the political device of the big lie:
“...in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously...”If Liberal federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull wasn't consciously taking Hitler's political advice when he unveiled his party's new mobile political billboard blaming Labor for building up a $315 billion debt through “reckless spending”, he was acting on a similar political instinct.
The big truth that Turnbull's big lie seeks to obliterate is that the $315 billion debt is just part of the social cost being forced on the Australian public to bail out capitalism from a crisis that follows decades of greedy speculation and social and environmental vandalism.
Since the late 1970s in Australia, both Labor and Liberal governments alike have been culpable in feeding capitalism's profit frenzy by pursuing a common neoliberal economic and political agenda. The culmination of this frenzy of greed and speculation is the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. And now the public is being forced to pay.
Despite all the spin about economic recovery, 21,900 full-time jobs went in just the month to June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, ordinary families are being hit with bigger bills for childcare, rent, health, water and electricity.
Around the world, many trillions of dollars of pain is being inflicted on ordinary people to pay for unbridled capitalist profiteering.
At a time like this, capitalist politics becomes increasingly a campaign to shift the blame away from the system itself. Scapegoats are set up. And given Australia's racist history, it is not surprising that underbelly of capitalist politics today is the targeting of racial minorities. Mass SMS messages inciting violence against Indians, Lebanese and Muslims sweep through the most recession-hit suburbs of the big cities – sometimes with bloody consequences. Sly racist tracts work their way into email inboxes.
Small neo-Nazi groups are fanning racial hatred against immigrant communities and are trying to regroup and relaunch themselves as an electoral force under the name “Australia First”. These far-right goons have taken heart from the rise the the electoral support for anti-immigrant parties in Europe and they seek to capitalise on the deepening recession.
With such menacing developments afoot, a publication like Green Left Weekly, which is committed to exposing the big lies that permeate capitalist politics, is essential. Please make a donation today to the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund at: Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992. You can also post a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007 or phone in a donation through on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia).
