 Sunday 12th April
Seething hotbed of socialism. Those were the words I used on a FaceBook post in regard to the Northern Suburbs Rent Strike Group that I am an original member of. There are many people like me who have asked their landlords for leniency, or a reduction in rent and have yet to get a clear answer from either the real estate, or the landlords themselves as everyone is waiting to see what the State Government is going to make them do. I heard some horrific stories of people sending lists of homeless shelters to tenants who have asked for rent reduction due to hardship, or suggested tenants could tap into their super (highly illegal says ASIC) in order to keep paying the rent. I also saw how controversial it was in the Rent Strike Group when someone posted an article on how Australians need to Pay The Rent when it comes to living for over two hundred years on stolen land. Far be it for a rabble of socialist inclined people to have to deal with two issues at the same time, defying the owning class, and acknowledging that we too are the owning class when it comes to the original inhabitants. Too much nuance for people to cope with during a crisis. This segues nicely into the second thought that has started to emerge on many platforms, which has very much taken the lead from Margaret Atwood who posted about civilisations meekly accepting the limitation of their personal and civic rights as they moved into their homes and retracted from public spaces, a theme she would have taken from Nazi Germany among many other periods in history. My friend sent me a long-form essay by Charles Eisenstein who captured the nuance of the ‘crisis’ when he said “Now along comes a contagious epidemic, and finally we can spring into action. It is a crisis for which control works: quarantines, lockdowns, isolation, hand-washing; control of movement, control of information, control of our bodies. That makes Covid a convenient receptacle for our inchoate fears, a place to channel our growing sense of helplessness in the face of the changes overtaking the world. Covid-19 is a threat that we know how to meet. Unlike so many of our other fears, Covid-19 offers a plan … We may try to install an enemy, blaming, for example, the billionaires, Vladimir Putin, or the Devil, but then we miss key information, such as the ground conditions that allow billionaires (or viruses) to replicate in the first place.” https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/the-coronation/ My friend's observation is that most people she speaks to are blinded by rising panic and fearfulness that leads to a lack of critical judgement when it comes, particularly, to the changes we are accepting to our civic lives. I was disturbed when they announced that they were closing Parliament until July, and no one said a word. The radio was eerily quiet on the ramifications of having an effective single party lead and control the decision-making in this time, as if the government is making decisions unilaterally, especially when it comes to the amount of money that is getting released, and printed, to throw at the problems that we are now facing. What happens when it is all over and we are saddled with debt? They will pull the reigns back on welfare, and domestic violence and the arts and environmental protection. Even after the devastation of last summer’s bushfires, I bet the funds won’t be made as ‘magically’ available to do the necessary land management and burning throughout the year that was the prime focus for everyone not 2 months ago. What will happen to our Universities? Our public broadcaster? The ARC, and funding for the arts and humanities? No doubt these things will pale in significance compared to science, technology and economic re-building. There will be stacks of cash for those areas, but not the things that are necessary to keep this society truly egalitarian, diverse and creative. Comments are closed.
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