As a one time regular golfer, not regular in the sense I would take my daily dose of Metamucil then go & hit some balls around a golf course, but a once a week visitor to both the driving range & the golf course, I was a fine exponent of what us hackers sometimes refer to as “Army Golf.” You know, left, right, left, right, hook, slice, hook, slice, get the ball in the hole & repeat 18 fucking times. Every week.
As I become increasingly interested, and dare I say, involved, in both the union movement & politics, I’m starting to think that I’m becoming a pretty fine exponent of Army Politics or Army Beliefs in that I regularly struggle to identify myself as being either Centre Left or Centre Right. I’m fully aware that I don’t actually need to identify myself as being one or the other, I don’t have any party/faction line to tow, after all, and nor do my friends & family really give a shit, but as my interests in the aforementioned areas develop, so too does my fascination with the left & right of the political/belief spectrum.
Some would presume given that I am a card carrying member of, and participate in, both the AMWU & the ALP that I sit quite comfortably amongst the Socialist Left. On this evidence alone, yeah, I’d have no argument; the AMWU are a left wing union & ALP policy is generally Centre Left. However, the left & right factions of these organisations aren’t just terms thrown about by the media for the fun of it; they are formal in that, in the upper echelons, members pay additional membership fees to be a part of either faction dependent on their core beliefs. That’s not the case with the Libs/Nats, or so I’m led to believe, anyhow. I think that’s why, for me at least, it’s so fascinating to watch the ALP tear itself apart & regather it’s composure with the regularity of a Metamucil devotee.
Even one of my best friends with whom I regularly talk politics gets confused, and I can’t blame him. Sometime last year he told me that, excluding my beliefs in the labour/union movement, I couldn’t be anymore right wing if I tried. Then, just the other week as I grumbled about the ALP’s impending slaughter in the NSW state election he asked, “Are you left or right? What do you consider yourself?” I had to think about it. I was feeling conservative that day, so I went with Centre Right. He had a good laugh because he was expecting me to say left. Just a few days later, another friend thought of some comments I made as odd given that I, apparently, “espouse Socialism.” That’s not to be confused with Communism I might add, the two are mutually exclusive & have been for a long, long time. Her comments just confused me further. Urgh.
If you want examples of why I confuse myself so much, then here we go:
- I was christened Catholic, my grandparents would take my sister & I to church on Sundays whenever they visited Melbourne (I don’t recall going too often with them in Brisbane), I went to a Catholic school, my grandfather was an active member in The Liberal Party, yet I am vehemently pro choice & I believe that homosexuals & lesbians should be allowed to marry. My heart used to say no, that was until I realised that I actually had no logical argument against it What. So. Ever. Changing 6 words in the Marriage Act can’t be that hard, surely? I am regularly sickened by Piers Akerman’s apoplectic rage against the idea of gay marriage. He also makes me angry in that he never really argues for his beliefs so much as he makes personal attacks on anyone & everyone in the ALP, as opposed to someone with half a brain like Andrew Bolt.
- I supported, in principle, the invasion of Afghanistan, yet I never supported the invasion of Iraq. It would have been easy to dismiss the Left’s assertion that the effort in Iraq was a grab for oil, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Iraq was invaded after Saddam Hussein floated the idea of trading oil in British Pounds & not U.S Dollars. Saddam was a despicable man, that’s a given, but the invasion of Iraq was based on a lie & I hate that.
- I am not sold on the idea of human induced climate change. I don’t disagree that a reduction in emissions is a bad thing, that would be ridiculous, but I’m not a devotee of “the science,” as it were. It’s a scientist’s job to challenge convention, or the status quo as we know know it, but I’m not sold. I also detest the general political opposition, but especially the opposition posed by The Greens, to at least researching nuclear power as a viable energy source. Uranium is one of our biggest exports, after all & there are a lot of pro’s for nuclear that I won’t bang on about. I get enormously frustrated on this issue particularly.
- I’m not certain we have the infrastructure to cope with the demand for an increased population but I get sickened at the references to “boat people” & “queue jumpers.” It’s not illegal to seek asylum, it never has been. And as for the “queue,” well, the people in places such as Kenya or wherever awaiting refugee status aren’t so much in a queue as they are in a game of glorified stacks on. I’m stuck for an opinion as to how we can best accommodate asylum seekers, but to refer to them as illegal immigrants is plain wrong. And that “desiccated coconut” was a master of manipulating the emotions of the electorate on the issue.
So, yeah, I get confused at times as to where I sit. But it’s sort of fun in a way, after all, it’s not as if it’s my job to have an opinion & offer alternatives (you reading this, Piers), I just like to have an opinion because I’m a closet nerd. I’d be curious to know, if you dare, where you think you sit & why.
