The grim truth

We live in an age when it is too easy to claim to be something else. We hear of people claiming to be religious and then of them having broken every belief in their systems code of ethical practice. We hear of politicians claiming to be 'economic conservatives' and then witness them throwing taxpayers money around like it grew on trees. We hear the leader of a worldwide religious order claiming to be a Marxist. What we see and hear every day are people claiming beliefs which are completely at odds with their behaviour, consequently we take it as axiomatic to believe in nothing yet consistently vote in politicians who claim to believe in something and act shocked when they prove by their actions that they believe in nothing; other than power at all costs.

Do we truly believe that such people will stand up for us?
Do we actually believe that such hollow people can and will stand up for honour, liberty, and ethical principles when to do so will mean sacrifice and hardship?

"We need fundamental answers. In this respect, politicians should be forced to articulate their bedrock principles, and our media needs to be intelligent and independent enough (pace the useless ABC) to interrogate them in depth. Above all we need an education system that teaches people to learn how to think for themselves and question their own assumptions. At present all our cultural institutions - universities, media, even the church - seem to exist only to bolster the socialist worldview. The result is that at present we live in kind of semi-benign one-party state, under a kind of unconscious Pol Potism. But there is never really any such thing as equilibrium in politics: sooner or later a tyrant arises to exploit the mass' ignorance and accede to real power...."