More than anyone else in history, Karl Marx exemplified trying to fix the world while neglecting to clean one's own room first.
As I make my way through Paul Kengor’s wonderful book The Devil and Karl Marx, numerous things stand out about the father of communism. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s hard to imagine a more wretched human being than Karl Marx.
It was almost as if all of the worst traits of humanity were bundled into this one spiteful man, who then constructed a philosophy based on his own bitterness and self-loathing.
He was lazy but greedy, always begging for money from family and friends who feared for his happiness and sanity. Marx didn’t seem to notice or care. They were simply a means to an end for him. He was so self-centered one wonders if he was on the spectrum. His lechery and drunkenness are well chronicled. But what really struck me is that Marx was a total slob.
Read more: Why Karl Marx Desperately Needed Jordan Peterson’s Advice
Each war seems to produce its own under-appreciated heroes who, for reasons that have nothing to do with their courage, competence or devotion to duty, are by-passed for promotion or otherwise demoted.
In the Boer War it was Breaker Morant, in WW2 it was Brig Arnold Potts and in more recent days Cpl Ben Roberts-Smith. In WW1 it was Brigadier General Elliott, otherwise known as “Pompey”. Elliott was one of the most direct and forceful brigade commanders in the Australian Army.
Loved and admired by the troops he commanded because they knew that he would never ask them to perform tasks that he was not willing and able to carry out himself. He was an outspoken critic of the British Army higher command and of the Australian as well when they deserved it. His belligerence and refusal to kow-tow to British higher authority was the seed of his undoing. He clashed with Kitchener, Haig and Birdwood and the fact that he was usually proved right, probably carried more weight against him that his insubordination.
Pompey Elliott was born in an era when Australia seemed to have an endless supply of natural leaders, adventurous explorers and trail blazers, innovative business people and an inborn ethic that gave precedence to common sense.
Many years ago, a beloved mentor told me a story—a parable, if you will—about a wife who came home one afternoon to find her husband in bed with another woman. She screamed and fled the room, sobbing.
A few minutes later, her husband emerged, still buttoning his shirt, and asked her what was wrong.
“I saw you with that…that…woman!” she sputtered.
“What woman?” replied the husband, calmly tucking in his shirttails.
“That woman you were in bed with!”
“What are you talking about? There was no woman.”
At the time, I found the story mildly amusing. I understood that my mentor was trying to convey some deeper truth, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I was still young enough to believe no one would really lie that blatantly and transparently when the truth was plain to see.
Remember the olden days when you made a phone call on what is called a landline? Or posted a letter and actually received one? You took a photograph using a camera?
Or had a conversation with a neighbour without someone taking a selfie? Remember when a hug was saved in that hard drive called your memory ... not something that was uploaded to a cloud in cyberspace?
Remember when you went shopping and interacted with someone who smiled as they took your cash and gave you change? Remember that? And when you actually trusted your government and you thought that your vote counted? Remember that?
Ahh, the foolish days of days of wine and roses. Or the Salad Days. My, how times have changed. Now, we live in an era where a robot tells us to prove we are not a robot and satellites rule our lives. Our lives are controlled by robots. Which brings me to DARPA..... and my. what a tangled web it weaves.
Read more: The other side of Satellites... Who is Really in Control?
If all satellites suddenly stopped working, the consequences would be widespread and significant. Satellites play crucial roles in various aspects of modern life, including communication, navigation, weather forecasting, scientific research, and national security.
Satellite communication is integral to global telecommunications networks. If satellites ceased functioning, communication channels relying on them, such as satellite phones, television broadcasts, internet services, and GPS systems, would be severely disrupted or rendered inoperative.
In other words, we would be, as our contributor Paddy would say, " fooked. "
It was pointed out a few days ago, that GPS has become very important in today's world. How our food is delivered, our packages make it to our homes and how we even get to visit Grandma; No one owns a map anymore. It is all GPS.
So what would happen if satellites went down? It is interesting to drill down into history and see how it all started. And it all started with the Space Race...
Read more: What if all the Satellites Stopped working? From Space Race to Space Force
A few nights ago, I watched a series on pay TV called " The Mill. " Like so many British period dramas, it was bleak, grim, disturbing and hard yakka to get through.
It took me back to a time, sitting in my country school, back in the 1960's in New Zealand when my country teacher ( later my mentor and all round hero apart from my Dad ) asked one simple question.
" Have you heard of Lord Shaftsbury? " he asked.
Well, of course, I had not. Nor had any of my fellow classmates. After all, we were a class made up of children from widely diverse backgrounds. Most of my friends were Maori, Hindu Indian, Moslem, Chinese and Caucasian, from both sides of the financial divide.
I was fortunately on the kinder side of the line that divided poor white from my white. But my friends came from both sides of that curtain and both sides of the diversity curtain that now seems to hang like a shroud over what we once were.
I belong to the group known as Baby Boomers – the ones that were born in the post war years and lived through the “ burn the bra “ and early feminist days of the pill, the equality of the sexes and the general liberation of women from the kitchen.
At the time, I did not realise that my life had gone from one of comfortable domesticity to one of 5 am starts, 10 pm finishes and a pay cheque that largely went to childcare providers.
As a woman, I was proud of what we achieved then. But now, I am not so sure we did anything other than bite ourselves on the bum. And in turn our menfolk into pawns, pansies and poofters.
'So we marched into the sea and when we got out to about waist level they then machine gunned from behind."
The words of the sole survivor of the horrific massacre of Radji Beach on Banka Island off the coast of Sumatra.
On 16 February 1942, Japanese soldiers machine-gunned 22 Australian World War II Army nurses and killed 60 soldiers and crew members from 2 sunken ships.
From the 22 Nurses shot on that day, there was only one sole survivor, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
As we greet the dawn of a new day, many of us will speak these words. Some of us will stand alone and others will be in the company of patriotic and grateful citizens who have risen to pay tribute on what is one of our most important days of each year.
To attend a Dawn Service is a privilege. Lest We Forget how many perished so that we may do so.
My very first Dawn Service was at St Faith’s Church at Ohinemutu in Rotorua in New Zealand. The steam was rising out of the tombs at the lakeside cemetery as the sun rose over Lake Rotorua. In the Church, the glass window showed Christ walking on water.
He is portrayed wearing a traditional Maori Cloak and it was as if he was walking from Hinemoa Island to Ohinemutu.
It was bitterly cold; the air was still and the mist just starting to lift off the lake.
As the bugler sounded out the Last Post, I felt chills throughout my body – not from the cold, but from the intense emotional atmosphere that surrounded me. Tears welled up from within me and I felt an overwhelming sense of Pride, Loss, Grief, Patriotism and genuine Humility.
I was 15 years old.
The Last Post would be familiar to all Australians from an early age. It is played at every ANZAC Day ceremony by a bugler in an army uniform and frequently at funerals of soldiers and veterans.
Does the average civilian attendee understand the significance of this quasi musical interlude? Is it an entertainment piece that everyone expects to hear because it is always part of the programme like the hymn “Oh God our Help in Ages Past”?
The Last Post is one of the most ancient tools used by modern British founded armies and has its roots in the days of the Roman Empire when horns were used to play the hymn of the Goddess Diana and as signals to command troops on the battlefield. Even to this day, the French term for what we call Reveille is La Diana.
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