It's Friday night!!!

And I'm feeling rather mellow. Some germ (no doubt a conservative germ) has managed to invade my throat, making me cough so much that I didn't get much sleep last night. You can see where this is heading, can't you. I posted this earlier in the week. I think the guy who wrote it has nailed what it is to be a "liberal" pretty well. So, I want to shout it from the rooftops. I.am.a.liberal! I'm so tired of the disparaging put downs by conservatives, all of whom supposedly laud freedom of speech, and most of whom busily deny that right to those who dare to differ.

And how do they do this? By making the term" liberal" an object of derision. Anyone who dares speak for the underdog is labelled a "bleeding heart leftie". Anyone who dares speak out against mindless killing is labelled "an appeaser". Anyone who dares say that governments should act in the interests of the weak is labelled "a socialist". And this, from a mob who profess to be Christians. But this isn't so surprising when one observes that Christianity has been redefined by them to serve the interests of the rich with whom conservatives identify. Even working class conservatives, who really should know better.

But it isn't so surprising that the working class have been recruited to the conservative cause. The rich have used their information channels to convince the middle class and working class that it is in their interests to support the interests of the rich. Nowhere was this made more clear to me than in this article. It's long, but well worth reading if you want to know how the information flow from which you derive your opinions has been so sanitised to convince you that corporate interests are in your interests. Alex Carey wrote, 'The twentieth century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.' And then Carey went on to explain that in democracies like Australia or the United States, it's really advertising and public relations through which corporate propaganda is waged." 

So, we shouldn't be too surprised when we learn that every newspaper in Rupert Murdoch's media empire around the world editorialised in favour of the invasion of Iraq. One man used his power to manipulate the opinion of hundreds of millions to his view. I think we need to ask ourselves just why we should think that the interests of Rupert Murdoch should line up with our interests. Does anyone really think he cares whether we live or die? Does anyone really think that he would happily volunteer one of his sons to fight in that disastrous war? So why is his opinion any better than ours? The same question could be asked of any of the rich. The truth of the matter is that they consider that our lives are expendable. Well, they do. And that, in my opinion, defines the real conservative. Pure, unadulterated, selfishness, as so eloquently put by J.K. Galbraith at the top of my blog. So, I think it's time that we liberals had something to say about that.  We only come this way once, just like the conservatives. Isn't it time we told them that their precious lives aren't worth more than ours? Nope, sorry, they just aren't. So fucking get used to it. Add a new word to your limited conservative vocabularies. It's called "empathy". Go look it up.

But the tragedy is that the conservatives have so manipulated public opinion that many of the very people they are manipulating are their willing foot soldiers. It is they who so ridicule liberals. It is they who ridicule thinking people as "wishy washy liberal academics".  It is they who have  manipulated so many followers of Christ to be mindless automatons blindly following their dehumanising conservative megalomaniacs into condoning killing, neglect of the poor, discrimination against gays, discrimination against women, denial of climate change, and even denial of evolution as science.

So it is that liberals should  go on the offensive if we want to survive in this world run by conservative corporations. We can let the conservatives continue with their mindless killing and twisted morality, or we can challenge them by speaking out against their ignorance, and bloody minded arrogance. I see encouraging signs of that happening here on Vox. Indeed, I see signs of it happening right around the world as thinking people reject the lies of the conservatives. Blair is gone. Howard is about to go, and Bush is a lame duck President struggling to regain credibility. The pendulum is swinging back to the Left. Bring it on. Bring.it.on.

So, go for it, liberals, and throw off those stifling conservative chains. We have a world to win! (apologies to Marx and Engels)