Last week.

My first Snowy village was Khancoban where two power stations were being built on the headwaters of the Murray River. For the first time in my life I was in a minority in my own country. Workers came from all over the world to build the Snowy Scheme. Some Brits who had fought against Germany in the Second World War now found themselves taking orders from German supervisors; something that didn’t sit well with them at all. I have to say that I found the Germans quite OK as bosses. I found that the opportunity to speak with people from all over the world was a rewarding one, and went some way to broadening the outlook on life of this boy from the bush..

Khancoban only had one pub, and the beer was terrible. So, any remaining work, pub, work inclinations that I might have had were extinguished. But I doubt that it really made any difference, because I was becoming more introverted, and preferred my own company to others. I really reached rock bottom in Khancoban. My world just didn’t make sense to me any more. I wasn’t depressed so much as confused as to just what this world was all about. But I stayed, mainly because I didn’t know what else to do. I rationalised that at least I was saving more money than I’d ever saved, and so my time wasn’t being completely wasted.

I developed an interest in Amateur Radio for a while.  And I tried religion. I tried reading the New Testament, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. So, I tried reading philosophy. I didn’t really understand much of it, but bits of it rubbed off. I was reading everything I could get my hands on, such as Reader’s Digest (I loved the Quotable quotes) Time, Newsweek and The Australian newspaper.

Then I read an article in Readers Digest about the size of the Universe. I forget the comparisons now, but, to me, it was just so mind boggling that the universe was so big…..and that Earth was so small, by comparison. So, I ordered an astronomical telescope, and started to read all I could about astronomy and cosmology. My knowledge of astronomy was minimal to say the least. I didn’t even know the difference between a star and a planet. Then, at last, my telescope arrived, and I was able to see for myself much of what I was reading about. I’ll never forget the first time I swung my telescope onto Saturn, and saw the beautiful rings for the first time. I had taken another small step towards developing a new philosophy of life for myself.

This was in 1968, when the world was preoccupied with the war in Vietnam, and the hippie movement. As the war progressed, and more and more people became disillusioned with their governments, many just “dropped out”. I could understand their reasoning, as I was having difficulty coming to terms with the reasons why we were fighting a supposed war against communism in Vietnam. It more and more seemed to me that we had involved ourselves in a civil war in a country that would never be a threat to us. Why were we there?

So, while my mind soared as I discovered more to marvel at in this universe, so did my heart sag at the actions of those in our government who I trusted to lead us wisely. As the death toll increased every week, and the war increasingly seemed so senseless, I thought more and more about just who was our Federal Liberal/Country Party Federal Government looking out for. It certainly wasn’t the conscripted 20 year olds being sent off to fight their war.

Then I was transferred to Blowering Dam on the Tumut River side of the Snowy Scheme, and met Sam. I never quite knew whether Sam was telling me the truth or not. I know he lied when he started work with SMA, as he told them he was 55 years old, when 70 was closer to the mark. He told me he was originally Irish, but had lived in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and then Australia. Maybe that was true. Then again, it was Sam...

Sam was the most cynical person I ever knew. Yet, the more I looked around me, the more I was to discover that he had reason to be. Sam’s observations of how some humans and animals manipulated others rang true to me. He showed me a Time Magazine he had brought with him from the Phillipines that had an article by a liberal U.S. journalist on why Kennedy took the U.S, into war in Vietnam. The journalist was Drew Pearson. His reasons had nothing to do with the infamous Domino Theory at all. He said Kennedy was smarting from the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion, and that he was influenced by the Catholic Cardinal of New York, Cardinal Spellman.

When I thought about it, it was true that the Diem Government supported by Kennedy in South Vietnam was Catholic. It was true that the Catholic Church was paranoid about Communism because of Communism’s disdain for “the opiate of the masses” as described by Karl Marx, and it was true that Kennedy was Catholic. I’ll never know if Drew Pearson was right, but I learned a very important lesson. Never trust the stated reasons for governments taking you into war.

I was to see the people again lied to when we were taken into Iraq. It was also true that the neocon urgers of Bush to invade Iraq were predominantly Jewish. No mere coincidence, I think. This is to not to say that I am anti Jewish. It has been my experience that Jewish people are predominantly liberal in outlook, so I have no doubt that they are just as horrified as I was. But every religion has its fanatics, and neocons believed that religion could be used, even if they themselves didn’t really believe. Such was the cynicism of those who Bush listened to.

I was to learn years later that then leader of the Country Party during the Vietnam years, "Black Jack" McEwan, was to say that the reason we were taken into Vietnam was an “insurance policy we had to pay”.  He meant that by blindly following the U.S. into its wars, we could be assured of their support if we were ever attacked. No doubt, that “thinking” by the Howard government took us into Iraq. The paucity of this argument is that in any future conflict the U.S. will do whatever is in its interest at the time, and who can blame them. That’s just the way it is. Meanwhile over 500 young Australians were to die in Vietnam, and thousands more returned, some physically or mentally maimed, to spend the rest of lives reflecting on their role as “insurance premiums”. And that, as much as anything, is why I remain a passionate Australian Labor Party supporter to this day. When a government sees the sacrifice of young lives as insurance for some vague future threat, then that government shows its moral bankruptcy. More about that in later posts where I discuss how I came to my political views.

As a postscript, U.S. Secretary of Defence during the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, was to write in his memoirs that the U.S. was wrong to go into Vietnam. To his credit, the then Army Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was to subsequently admit that we were wrong to follow them in as well. What else could they say? We lost. The infamous Domino Theory was shown to be a nonsense, and the Vietnamese people set about rebuilding their country with no thought of invading anywhere else. Yet, over 500 young Australians, 54,000 young Americans, and three million Vietnamese men, women and children had to die, because a few men in grey suits, and an old man in a dress, thought it was a good idea at the time. I wonder how the Vietnamese can ever forgive us. And how we can ever forgive the perpetrators.

When I transferred to Talbingo in 1970, I bought a small TV, and my world got bigger again, as I watched such classic ABC programs as Bill Peach’s “This Day Tonight”, “Four Corners”, “Checkerboard”, A Big Country” and “Monday Night Conference”. Those programs in those days were far more radical than the pale imitations of today. I will be forever grateful to those who made them possible, as this country boy was exposed to a completely different intellectual world than he had previously lived in.

I was to spend five years working on the Snowy. I returned to my little home town in Western Queensland when my mother developed breast cancer. She was to live another eighteen years, but I wasn’t to know that at the time. I was a different person than had left seven years earlier. I was much more self confident and self reliant, so much wiser, and so much more assertive. There, I was to subsequently marry the sister of one of my friends with whom I worked on the Snowy, and we were to later raise three beautiful children in the lovely city of Toowoomba.

So, my journey through the orchard of knowledge continues. Next week I will share some of the fruits with you. I hope you find them to your taste. I will try to assemble in some coherent order the pearls of wisdom, as I saw them, that were to lead to my forming a coherent philosophy of life. Well, coherent for me, anyway.

 Last week.

Looking back, it isn’t surprising that I became so depressed. The life I lived revolved around alcohol. It was an empty life. But as for so many living in those small towns, there was little else to do to fill our lives. If you did not have a family to provide for, then the options to fill the void were very limited indeed. Remember, that this was in the days before TV had reached my little town. In the mid 60’s, for information about the outside world, one had to rely on a rather ordinary metropolitan newspaper that arrived the day after it was printed, and the radio. And of course the local picture show, where generations of young adults were fooled into thinking that fantasy was reality, and felt cheated when they discovered that it wasn’t. I do wonder if that contributed in some way to the high youth suicide rate in country towns.

I was never suicidal, but life certainly wasn’t working out for me in my mid twenties, and I knew it was time for me to move on. I had known that it was time for a few years, but lack of self esteem had held me back. During my apprenticeship years, my plan had been to join the Navy as so many of my friends did. How I envied them their adventures in the big cities and overseas. Yet, by the time I finished my apprenticeship, my friends were no longer so enamoured of the Navy, or big cities, so the doubts arose. And, in truth, I think I was a little scared to flutter those wings out into the wide, wide world.

My self esteem had taken quite a battering from the lunatic boss who delighted in putting all employees down. He was to die of a heart attack at age 36 a few months after I left him. He left a wife and three young children, for whom I felt very sorry. I have come to forgive him in later life for his ill treatment of his staff. He had his own demons to confront which affected his behaviour towards others, and they ultimately destroyed him. I was to learn in later life that we are all products of our environment and genetic inheritance, and there is nothing to be gained by apportioning blame. So much better for us all to try to understand.

So, I muddled on, until events forced me to make the timely decision to leave. The power house where I worked was to close down. A power line was to be built, and we were to be supplied with electricity from another town. I made some enquiries as to what was planned for me, and received no reply. So, I started applying for jobs. And that’s how I finished up in North Queensland.

My navy friends had spoken well of North Queensland, so I decided it was as good as place as any to try. And after a couple of hiccups, I was on my way. I was also on my way to self discovery, but I didn’t know that at the time. So it was that in March 1965 I set out in my 1956 model Holden FJ for Mackay. And how good it was! All the depression vanished, never to return, along with my self esteem issues. I met new people, broke the work, pub, work habit, and simply soared.

In the next few years I worked in a sugar mill in Proserpine, and later in Mount Isa Mines. Looking back, there were two occasions that were seminal moments in my quest for self discovery. The first was one early morning at the sugar mill in Proserpine. I was a shift electrician there, and had to change a blown lamp on top of the boiler house just on daybreak. As I looked towards the east, there was the most glorious sunrise I had ever seen. As I stopped to admire it, I was overcome with a feeling of peace and contentment such that I had never felt before. I will never forget that moment for as long as I live. It was when I came to appreciate the beautiful world in which we live….and to take a tiny step towards a higher truth.

The other moment was not so soul enriching, but nevertheless life changing. It was the moment when I became aware that my knowledge of events that impacted upon me left much to be desired, and that it was time for me to do something about it. It would have been some time in 1967 that I was lying in bed one night, and the thought occurred to me that if I had been born a few years later I could have been conscripted into fighting (and maybe dying) in a war in Vietnam; a war we were told by our government was being fought against communism. And that if we didn’t fight it in Vietnam, then because of something called the “Domino Theory”, we would sooner or later be fighting communism on our doorstep. It occurred to me that I knew nothing about communism, so maybe it was time I found out just what it was that was so bad that our young were dying fighting it. So, my self education in politics began…as did my education in manipulation by my fellow man.

I was to find there were so many more questions that I had no answers for, and yet which I had to answer if I was to ever regain control of my life. To do so, I needed to venture deeper into the orchard of knowledge, and sample the fruits it had to offer. And for a while, I was to wander aimlessly in that orchard in my search for those elusive truths that seemed to be forever just beyond my reach. It was a very confusing time of my life indeed.

But I got there eventually, when I spent five years working on that icon in Australia’s history, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.

Hat tip to Inspirational Place. I wish I'd read this fifty years ago.

The Awakening”,

A time comes in your life when you finally get it...when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out...ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening.

You realize it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon. You realize that in the real world there aren't always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of "happily ever after" must begin with you... and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are... and that's OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions. You learn the importance of loving and championing yourself... and in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.

You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you - or didn't do for you - and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that everything isn't always about you.
So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself... and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.

You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties... and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.
You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.

You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you've outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with.

You learn that there is power and glory in creating and contributing and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a "consumer" looking for your next fix.

You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.

You learn that you don't know everything, it's not your job to save the world and that you can't teach a pig to sing. You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

Then you learn about love. You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You learn that alone does not mean lonely. You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO. You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over and ignoring your needs.

You learn that your body really is your temple. You begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin to eat a balanced diet, drink more water, and take more time to exercise. You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty and so you take more time to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play. You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you believe you deserve, and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen.

More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline and perseverance. You also learn that no one can do it all alone, and that it's OK to risk asking for help. You learn the only thing you must truly fear is fear itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.

You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn't always fair, you don't always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people... and you learn not to always take it personally. You learn that nobody's punishing you and everything isn't always somebody's fault. It's just life happening. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you. You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.

Then, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never, ever settle for less than your heart's desire. You make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility. You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind.

Finally, with courage in your heart, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best you can.

And so to another Friday night, with Chopin doing his level best to soothe my soul, accompanied by a glass of my vintage $1.99/bottle red. And, as usual, they've been successful. For I am sitting here savouring this moment. What's so special about it? Well, I'm alive. That's special, don't you think? And worth taking a few moments out of a busy life to give thanks. But who to thank? Well first, my parents. They did, after all, give birth to me, nurtured me, and did their level best to give me a better life than they had. So thanks, Mum and Dad. I hope I made you proud, and showed my gratitude for the many sacrifices I know you made. I know I could have done better, but you always understood. And I have to learn by your example, and understand when my kids behave exactly as I did.

But who else to thank? I suppose all the selfless teachers, ministers of religion, and others who cared enough about me to try to teach me what they thought was of use to me in this great adventure we call "Life". You tried to instil in me the lessons you had learnt in life; about how to survive in it, and beyond. So, thank you too. I'll be forever grateful. As I venture further in this life I may have come to a different understanding of it than you had, but I know you did your level best. You tried to pass on the knowledge you had accumulated in your lifetime to me. Because that's what we do in this life. We try to make sense of it, and pass that knowledge on to those who follow us.

So now it has come to my turn; time to pass the baton on. I turned 69 recently. The next one is 70. And I do wonder what I have to pass on. Have I anything of worth to pass on to those who follow? I don't know. I guess that is for others to judge. I've tried to understand it all, but it is no easy task. There's just so much knowledge out there, isn't there. It's like a great, ever increasing  orchard of knowledge. We sample a fruit here, another there, and at times wander aimlessly in that orchard, wondering what fruit to sample next.

I've looked to other humans whom I think may have sampled better fruits than I, and wonder if I have chosen the right fruits. I now know the answer to that question. There isn't any right combination of fruits. We each have to choose those fruits for ourselves. For there is no perfect life. Just the one we cobble together for ourselves according to the dictates of where fortune may take us. And if we are to have peace of mind, we must gracefully acknowledge the truth of this.

So, for a while, Friday night philosophy will track my search for a consistent philosophy of life. I think I finally got something workable for me. All I can hope is that it is of some help to you, for it is no easy task this journey we travel together. Till next Friday night..

.

As part of the health kick that Mrs Snowy and I have embarked upon, we walk for 45 minutes a day. Not together, though. Mrs Snowy likes to do her walk first thing, while I like to do mine later in the day. Being retired, we have the luxury of being able to do that. So, on my solitary walk, I like to spend the time just looking at the world about me, and marvelling at it all. It's such a thrill to just be "aware" of the enormity of it all. Every step that I take, I am conscious that it is taken on planet Earth. I am drawn to that planet by a mysterious gravitational force that I will never understand. Yet, more enquiring minds than mine have delved into that mystery, and have been able to relate it to a mathematical formula that can predict the magnitude of that force relative to the distance separating the objects producing that force, and the mass of those objects. For these men to gain the credibility of their peers, their theories had to be testable, and if those theories didn't stand up to the rigours of that test, then they were discarded. That is what we call "science". 

I also pass a church on my walk. They have a little notice board where they have a poster with their message to the world. The latest one shows the planets all lined up with an arrow pointing to Earth with the caption, "God's favourite". Below is the biblical verse commencing, "And God so loved the world...".

Sorry guys, but I just can't agree that Earth is "God's favourite". That just doesn't line up with what I know about science. For me to agree with you, I would have to ask that your statement be testable too. I know it isn't. You will only tell me that I just have to have faith that what you say is true. I don't have that faith. I know why you say these things. The men who wrote the book you refer to, thousands of years ago, did not have the knowledge of science that we have today. They had to explain the world in human terms. They believed that the universe revolves about man. We now know that it doesn't.

 Time to move on, don't you think?

I've been thinking some more about the "right" of those, who hold certain religious views, to impose those views on those of us who don't hold to those views. Put simply, some choose to believe the thoughts of other humans concerning the possibility of life after death (and what has to be done to achieve this), and some don't. Many of those who believe feel that their eternal life is dependent upon imposing their beliefs, through legislation, on those of us who don't believe. They never do accept that they may just be wrong. Their fear of death transcends all, and that's all that really matters. It's all rather insulting to those of us who don't hold to those views, don't you think?

The reality is that we are all groping our way through this great adventure we call "life". At some point in our lives some of us tire of the uncertainty of it all, and declare to ourselves that we "know the truth". And to reinforce that truth to ourselves we then feel that we must defend it, no matter what. To do otherwise is to admit that we secretly fear that it isn't "the truth" at all. And if it isn't, then we are cast adrift in this confusing life with no anchor to cling to at all. I understand all that. But there are those of us who are mindful of Voltaire's "better to walk in darkness than to be guided by false light". Far better to accord those who have found their truth the courtesy of living their lives according to it, while the rest of us are allowed to live our lives according to our truths, imperfect though we recognise them to be. It's called "tolerance".

So it is that we, who know that we don't know, believe that all should decide for themselves in such matters as abortion, euthanasia, and sexual preference. By doing so, we are according the ultimate right to our fellow man, and that is the right to decide for themselves in such matters that do not impact on the rest of us. We only have one life to live. It's quite enough to handle for ourselves without telling others how they must live theirs. For those of us who say that we know it all, that is not only an arrogance, it is also an illustration of our ignorance, and I'm so tired of seeing it paraded before us as "the truth" every other day. It may be your truth. It isn't mine.

Tolerance - a word that just doesn't yet seem to be in the lexicon of so many.  Time for the rest of us to change that, I think. 

http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/04/08/poor-little-rich-kids

Poor Little Rich Kids

By Gina Marich

Doin' it tough

Tags:

• yuppies
• satire
• money
• interest rates
• economics

Why have years of tax cuts, baby bonuses and rebates not helped them keep their heads above water? Gina Marich on the plight of Australia's middle class battlers

Despite a few hiccups and burps from that jittery little market, few would argue that Australia is in a state of economic bliss and prosperity. The Australian Bureau of Statistics finds that we are richer and more educated than ever before; there are more jobs than there are locals to do them and despite increased interest rates you don't see many families sleeping in their cars or rummaging barefoot through Salvation Army bins. On top of our good fortune, we are about to receive Kevin Rudd's promised tax cuts to the tune of $31 billion.

Nonetheless, one in four people surveyed by Sensis consider themselves financially worse off than last year, and many are losing confidence in the economy. Australian society is cynically described as a divide between the "haves" and the "have mores" but for some reason, people on the street aren't feeling it.

A 2007 study by the McCaughey Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing highlighted a disturbing trend. In a survey of 24,000 adult households in Victoria, 6.1 per cent said they had run out of food in the past 12 months and had no money to buy more. RAN OUT OF FOOD! In a country where there is such an excess of food that corporations are falling over themselves to invent new ways of making us buy it. (Passionfruit Tic Tacs? Cornflakes frosted with chocolate? Mint banana anyone?) This is an appalling state of affairs.

The most surprising aspect is almost half these respondents were employed. Are we seeing the emergence of a new working poor?

Put your ear to the ground in any bar or other meeting spot and you'll hear the same story - everyone seems to be struggling. From the far flung outer ‘burbs of Kath & Kim to the inner city, people seem to be running out of cash and are crushed by debt - many of them on salaries that are enough to feed a Rwandan village. So, where are these new "Aussie Battlers" and why have years of tax cuts, baby bonuses and rebates not helped them keep their heads above water?

I recently met Kat, a stay-at-home mother from Yarraville in Melbourne's inner west. Her husband and two young children live on his academic's salary of $75,000, but by the time the mortgage repayments, HECS debts and household bills are paid off, the family often find themselves with nothing to live off.

"We've never run out of food or anything," says Kat "but we pretty much have to live on credit."

Another friend, Max, is in circumstances that appear as dire - he earns $65,000, pays $180 a week rent and has no one to support. Yet Max complains about struggling and is considering moving to a place where the rent is cheaper.

Max says he doesn't buy a lot, but admits to living a lavish lifestyle - dinner at a restaurant becomes a feast where the old vodka tonic is replaced by boutique beer or cocktails at $17 a pop and appetisers as well as desert and entrée are mandatory. His very suave appearance incriminates him as an obsessive clothes buyer.

Max doesn't see these as luxuries; they are necessities if you want to fit in, have a good time and see your friends.

The Household Expenditure Survey, conducted over 2003-04 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, reveals some interesting trends in the spending patterns of Australians.

For a start, we really are richer than ever. Over the past 20 years, household expenditure and income increased by 147 and 148 per cent respectively but inflation was lower, at 117 per cent, meaning there's more money in people's pockets.

Apart from a dramatic increase in what we spend on housing - which the ABS attributes not to rising rents but a trend towards bigger houses with fewer people living in them - we're spending a lot more on "wants".

Since 1985, the amount we spend on eating out has risen by 30 per cent. Spending on furnishing and household equipment rose by 80 per cent, partly due to the fact that more houses now have dishwashers, air conditioners and two or more fridges.

Having more money means we take non-essential items to be absolutely indispensable to our well being. People may find they wake up in the middle of the night screaming and in a cold sweat because they don't have a stainless steel kitchen. So while we have enough to spend, many people feel the pinch more than ever.

Professor Bruce Heady from the Institute of Applied Economics at Melbourne University says the connection between national prosperity and individual poverty is not hard to draw.

"A boom in housing increases confidence ... people take on the highest value house and they can afford it unless something goes wrong," he says, "and often it does go wrong."

Nothing could be truer in these gloomy times of credit crunch and rising rates.

Heady believes consumer confidence as well as middle class subsidies such as the Family Tax Benefit and rebates on private health care have made people cocky when it comes to borrowing. And how we have borrowed: in 2007 household debt averaged 160 per cent of household income around the country.

This increasingly "struggling" middle class explains what Clive Hamilton, former Executive Director of the Australia Institute, describes as "the transfer of welfare payments from those in genuine need to perhaps those who don't need it".

Hamilton argues that tax benefits and other subsidies aimed at middle income families were a political ploy that panders to whinging "battlers" who aren't battlers at all.
"It's a way of pandering to that sense of grievance which is held by people who are relatively well off," Hamilton says.

These numbers and testaments point to one thing: we expect too much. There is no denying that some people are genuinely struggling, and they'll probably continue to struggle as the full force of rising interest rates hits.

But the issue is that we are constantly told to keep spending. Slower economic growth is confused with complete downturn - as the sallow faces of the Reserve Bank board when they forecast only 2.2 rather 2.4 per cent growth in GDP will demonstrate.

When we are bombarded by messages about falling retail spending or a downturn in the housing market, the implication is that spending is not our choice, but our duty.

We live in a warped culture where, as Oliver Stone said back in the 1980s, greed is good. Spend not for yourself we're told, do it for your country.

It seems to me that for most religions to have any credibility at all, we humans must have a soul. Otherwise, there would be nothing to be judged as to whether we had earned our place in heaven, or not. So, without a soul, religion has no power at all. Nil. Zilch. This is why the Roman Catholic church so vehemently denies stem cell research. They say that stem cells have a soul, and therefore must not be destroyed, conveniently overlooking the fact that unused embryos are destroyed anyway. And also conveniently overlooking the fact that millions of potential souls never even get to be judged because of clerical celibacy restrictions. No, we humans definitely have souls. And how do we know this? Because the priests, who just happen to have a vested interest, say so. That's how.

For myself, I really couldn't give a rat's arse what anyone wants to believe. So long as I am given the same privilege. And by insisting on this soul business as a reason to deny stem cell research, the churches are infringing on my rights to benefit from that research. Sorry, guys, but enough is bloody enough! If you don't want to benefit from research then so be it, but don't deny it to others just because you want to cling to your dwindling power.

So, the battle for our souls is the last ditch stand for the religions. Without our souls to save, they are nothing. But just when did humans acquire this soul? The mainstream religions, having reluctantly accepted that evolution is a fact, are very quiet about all the life forms from which we are descended. Do they have a soul too, or don't they? If they do, then every time we enjoy a steak or a fish, or even a vegetable, we have destroyed a soul. Further, every time we take an antibiotic, we have also destroyed a soul. If this is not to be absurd, then we have to believe that only humans have souls. Yet, this too is absurd. If we must believe this, then we just have to have faith that it is so. And having this faith also gives power to the men who say it is so. That is why they have defended the soul down through the ages. They are defending their very reason for being. They must have souls to save. But only human ones. Sorry guys, but it just doesn't gel. You're going to have to get a real job one day.

I know that religion is a source of comfort for millions of people who want to believe that there is life after death. Yet, as a part of the universe, we have always had eternal life. We are but bundles of energy, and when we die our bundles of energy just go off and form bundles of energy elsewhere, just as our fellow life forms on this planet do. We've always been here in some form or another. We always will be. So, enjoy your stay in this life without fretting about the next one. One life at a time is quite enough, when it's all said and done.

Just follow these two links from Stumbleupon.

	Watch The Elegant Universe (full-screen version)		The Elegant Universe homepage
	The full-screen version plays the programs at double the regular playback size. Because this requires additional processing power, some older computers may not play the full-screen option smoothly. For technical reasons, full-screen is only available in QuickTime. If you experience difficulty viewing, it may be due to high demand. We regret this, and suggest you try back at another time. Note that NOVA programs are not available for downloading due to rights restrictions.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program_d.html

The size of our World

Puts it all (and us) into perspective

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

I went to a funeral today. George was a man I had known all my life. He lived two thirds of his life in the little town where I grew up, before retiring to the city in which I now live. He had a good and productive life, and he epitomised the values that made life in that little town so pleasant. He was, simply put, just a nice man. In that little rural community, we all knew each other, so the need to put on airs and graces was not a social skill to be cultivated. Nor were the nasty skills. That little community saw co-operation as a superior life skill to competition. And being nice to each other was so much easier than being nasty, anyway. It was in these little rural communities that the much talked about Australian tradition of "mateship" was cultivated. It eventually led to the formation of the Australian Workers Union, and then to the birth of the first Labour Party in the world, the Australian Labor Party.

But George was not one for politics. Oh, he served on the local council for a couple of terms, but he was never much interested in party politics. He just loved to work with his hands. George was a practical person. He fought in a war, married, raised two kids, and worked. He was a placid man, who accepted life on its terms, and just got on with living. He was 99 years old when he died, not having attained the last goal in his life which was to reach 100. I still think he did pretty good.

So, today I said goodbye to my old friend. Sadly, I also said goodbye to a way of life that I will not see again. And the world is the poorer for the loss of both.