Political rant.

I have an on again/off again interest in Australian politics. I think it’s important to have, at the very least, a vague idea of who is running the country, what their policies are and what progress they have made while serving in office. My knowledge, if I may call it that, is furnished by a daily reading of The Australian (chosen because it is 75 cents on UNSW campus and because I believe it to be superior to the Telegraph except for the impossibility of attempting to read it on the train. Honestly, I could wallpaper half my house with just one page of The Australian) and sometimes switching on ABC1. Yet every time I insist on following politics and trying to develop some concrete political views of my own, I become intensely frustrated. Is it ever possible to find impartial reporting on the government and the opposition? I want to know who is standing for government, what they stand for, what policies they will introduce and what the consequences of their actions will be and I want to hear it from a source that isn’t already polluted by the author’s/producer’s own personal left or right wing bias. Impossible. It is impossible, I tell you. I think I understand where Descartes was coming from...

I also tend to stop following politics when I decide that I’ve just read too much about how flaky and just plain stupid politicians can be. I get disheartened and give up. I think, ordinarily, I’d be coming back to that point after trying to follow leadership fiascos in the federal opposition and state government and in the aftermath of Copenhagen still wondering whether Rudd is full of anything other than hot air and whether or not he has done anything significant since being elected (I think the verdict is still out on whether or not his stimulus package will be beneficial to Australia in the long-term, but even as I type this I’m wondering what source of information has been feeding that thought).

BUT, I have decided this time not to revert back to ignorance. Goodness, I still know very little but I hope to at least be anything other than completely ignorant. No matter how ridiculous and uninteresting politics may seem, I am extremely thankful that we do have a government that, for the most part, works for us. Nowhere in Australia will you find a politician culpable for the murder of 57 political rivals, their families and journalists. Nowhere in Australia will you find images of people fighting for the freedom of a democracy. Nowhere in Australia is the idea of an election synonymous with curfews and intimidation. People in the world today are willing to die for the freedom that we have – for the privilege that it is to scrutinise candidates and keep them honest, enter a polling booth and say without fear “I choose you”. Not to mention the insult that I personally think it is to the suffragettes of the early 20th century to turn around as a woman and care nothing for my vote.

I’m just terrified of being ignorant and taking for granted all of the freedoms that I have and I wish that more people felt the same.