Adventures with Ideas: Truth, Beauty and the Paradoxes of Life
Juliet Bennett's Blog
  • About
  • My Story
  • Research
  • Photography
  • Modeling
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • About
  • My Story
  • Research
  • Photography
  • Modeling
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • Home
  • Peace
  • Academic
  • Protests and balls, another Wikileaks rally (Town Hall 530pm TODAY), and the Left-Right Paradox.

Protests and balls, another Wikileaks rally (Town Hall 530pm TODAY), and the Left-Right Paradox.

14 Dec ’10 1 Comment Written by Juliet Bennett

Today the Westminster Magistrates’ Court will decide the fate of Julian Assange, well at least whether or not he will get bail. And so while I haven’t even told you much about last Friday’s rally yet, I had better briefly inform any Sydney readers that there will be another rally at 530pm, again at Town Hall, today. [1]

Professor Emeritus Stuart Rees (from Sydney Peace Foundation, and my friend and mentor) will be speaking,  so if you are Sydney, do come along. It’s sure to be informative, conducive to Assange’s case, as well as a good laugh (if anyone knows Prof. Rees’ humour, you will understand why).

…

Anyway, returning to the story of the 30 hour Peace vs Defense saga that I began to tell you about yesterday in my entry Protests, Balls, Left and Right.

In one day I attended both the first wikileak rally, and then my friend’s army ball, both held at Sydney’s Town Hall – allowing me to directly access the often polarised worldviews of Peace, and Security, and bringing me to what I will from here on refer to as the Left-Right Paradox.

Although separated by a few hours, I was one of the Lefties outside Town Hall by day, a “Hippy/Communist” as the army boys called us (appologising when I owned up); and lapping up the benefits of our capitalistic security-driven Conservative government (at my friend from the army’s end of year ball), by night.

The rally emphasised the cowardous and inexcusable way our politicians are handling Julian Assange: washing their hands of him and feeding him to the lions den, before proven guilty, is not something any citizen would hope from their country.

You would think they would learn from the case of David Hicks… what happened to being presumed innocent until proven guilty?

The rally also emphasised the citizen right to freedom of speech, freedom of media, and right to the truth.

You have probably gauged from other blog entries the value I place on the “truth” – so as you can imagine, my values were largely aligned with the rally’s speakers.

Later that day I gowned up and entered Town Hall, I also came to understand the other side.

“The information leaked put my friend’s lives at risk.” said my friend who served in Afghanistan earlier this year. “There are bigger questions that have to be asked.”

Gulp.

Let’s consider some of questions:

Should all political information be transparent?

Yes, I would like it to be.

What if this puts lives of Australian soldiers at risk?

Then no, it shouldn’t.

Do the public have a “right to know”?

YES, I think they do.

Do governments have a right to hold some information “confidential”?

Paradoxically YES, I think they do too.

Who should decide what truths should be told, and which should remain hidden?

I guess as a democracy this is the people’s decision, enacted through the government we elect to consider the facts and (hopefully) make decisions like this, hence controlling the information we see, for our own benefit.

While I think Wikileaks is a great resource for accessing the truth of the political, economic and social world we are a part of, in my opinion there are limits to what should be published. Namely nothing that puts the lives of fellow Australians at risk.

What if this puts lives of people from other countries at risk?

It is here we return to the Left-Right Paradox – the dicotomy that positions global peace against national security.

If I prioritise the lives of people from other countries, I can jeopardise the lives of people in my own country. In the political games we presently play, sending our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and beyond, information is a weapon crucial to our winning or losing the game. So long as we are playing a global game of chess, can we really afford to tell our opponents our next moves?

There are two sides (or more) to every story, and this complicated debate is not going to end any time soon.

There are no easy answers, and there are an endless number of questions:

Are Australia, America, Britain actually democracies, or does the power of the intimate connections between media, politicians, and corporate elites nullify the ideal?

Can the Australian public TRUST their government?

Will the government one day point their finger at someone like me and yell “witch”, just for asking questions?

I hope Australia is a democracy with a government that can be trusted, who respect our questioning and always put the interests and freedoms of their citizens first.

In my opinion, government information should be as transparent as possible and it is nothing but bureaucratic bullshit if the public is held in the dark while institutions we don’t even know about pull the strings.

If I were to discuss this topic with a particularly wealthy and wise friend of mine, his response would be: “It’s all about maintaining The Pyramid.“

THE PYRAMID is a very illuminating idea – that all civilisations are based on a pyramid structure, with powerful rich at the top, and the poor workers at the bottom. Connected to the idea of maintaining The Pyramid, is the game of chess that those in power are playing with many other’s lives. So the question we must ask is:

Are we happy being pawns in a giant game of chess, or do we want to change the game, for example, from from chess to sex.

I don’t have the answers but I do have hope – hope that with collective creative ingenuity we humans can write some new rules, and start playing a game where both parties win.

In conclusion I wish to quote one of the army boys from the ball:

“Everyone just has to chill – chill out! Have a beer, talk about their issues, and then the solutions will appear.”

Cheers to that!

Thanks for listening to my rant… I’m sure everyone has an opinion and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you care to leave a comment below.

References

[1] http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/12/13/sydney-rally-for-wikileaks-on-14-december/

Some links

This entry is continued from – http://www.julietbennett.com/2010/12/13/protests-and-balls-left-and-right/

My older entries on this topic that might be of interest:

Human Rights or a Collective Future – the Problem with Definitions

Am I a Leftist Idealist or Right Conservative, or BOTH?

A balanced article I quite liked – http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/42140.html

A little video I shot on the day of Lee Rhiannon of the Greens (NSW Senator Elect).

Wikileaks video and site – http://213.251.145.96/video.html

Academic, Peace
Politics, The Pyramid, Wikileaks
Similar posts
  • Business leadership in climate change — I am consistently surprised by the initiative and leadership taken by businesses to address the climate crisis. Not all businesses obviously (e.g. ExxonMobil, the Koch brothers and the other vested interest that have funded climate denial movement and created vast climate confusion), but MANY businesses and business analysts, scholars and consultants are doing a extraordinarily better job than many governments [...]
  • A story of (mis)fortune: the farmer a... — I have been trying to remember where I read or heard this story, perhaps Eckhart Tolle or Deepak Chopra. After a big of Googling (key words like “farmer”, “horse”, “neighbour”, “son”), I discovered this story is claimed by various sources as Zen Buddhist, Chinese Proverb, Taoist and Sufi. The story goes something like this: There once lived a farmer and [...]
  • Why the right (brain) is right… — Are you a right-brain or left-brain type of person? Is there such a thing? Are there differences between our left and right brain hemispheres? Does it matter? Research into the left and right brain hemispheres was popularised in the 1970s, it exaggerated and reified the two sides of the brain as if some people were “right-brain” dominant: creative, image-based, intuitive, emotional; and other people [...]
  • Alan Watts’ ‘dramatic model’ and the ... — My latest academic publication – on the work of my favourite philosopher of all time: Alan Watts, and how his “dramatic model of the universe” can contribute to peace 🙂 Abstract This article explores the contribution of Alan Watts’ ‘dramatic model of the universe’ to the pursuit of peace. It locates Watts’ critique of dominant Western worldviews alongside process philosophers, ecologists and [...]
  • “Seizing an Alternative: Toward... — After two years of anticipation, in June this year I attended a conference called “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization”, which brought together many of my favourite scholars. I was like a teenager anticipating a music festival with all their favourite bands. Such a geek! Around 2000 people attended the conference from around the world, splitting into 12 sections [...]
Protests and balls, left and right…
Preserving “The Pyramid” – the reason things are the way they are…

1 Comment

  1. Greg
    20 Dec ’10    

    I originally believed that the government should have some kind of confidentiality when it comes to military and political action. However, I recently read an article on events that occurred to the detainees at Abu Ghraib in 2004.

    Officers beating detainees, physical and mental torture, and pictures of guards posing near topless, female detainees. Remembering that prior to his inauguration, Obama promised to release all photographs and stories related to Abu Ghraib…that was before he actually witnessed the material he planned to release (which allegedly includes photographs of murdered detainees and female detainees being raped). With full confidence, I am against any form of government confidentiality.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

TRUTH

BEAUTY

ADVENTURE

ART

PEACE

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Comments
  • Is “God” a Fractal?
    15 Feb ’11
  • Is Lindt chocolate slave chocolate?
    11 Sep ’09
  • Creativism – a philosophy for life
    10 Sep ’09
  • Free Documentaries: The Truth Is Free
    17 Apr ’10
  • Coming to grips with the elephant in the room
    28 Jun ’10
  • Optimum Trajectory, swimming against the current, and man who stare at goats.
    4 Aug ’10
  • A short biography
    2 Sep ’09
  • Sex or chess? Peace, the world’s trump card
    13 Apr ’10
  • Alan Watts Fan Club
    3 Dec ’12
  • Big History Blog Series: Chapter 1 – The Big Bang
    25 Mar ’10
  • My policy wishlist for Australia’s response to climate change
    17 Jan ’20
  • Business leadership in climate change
    1 May ’19
  • A story of (mis)fortune: the farmer and his son
    8 Oct ’18
  • What is life really about?
    1 Mar ’17
  • Why the right (brain) is right…
    22 Feb ’17
  • New life: reflections on being a new mum
    29 Dec ’16
  • Orwellian Australia: the “[Un]Fairer Parental Leave Bill 2015”
    1 May ’16
  • Alan Watts’ ‘dramatic model’ and the pursuit of peace
    18 Mar ’16
  • A new lens to view the world: the world as process
    14 Jan ’16
  • 2015 in review
    1 Jan ’16

Adventures with Ideas... on Facebook

Archives

Categories

  • Academic (35)
  • Adventure (119)
  • Beauty (23)
  • Featured Posts (10)
  • Peace (124)
  • Random Life Stuff (102)
  • Truth (164)
Constitutional Recognition

Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Personal Statement

As a "non-indigenous" Australian living on what was once the land of the Cadigal and Wangal Wangal communities, I wish to acknowledge the inter-generational responsibility that I feel toward the colonial past. As a beneficiary of "White Australia", to the Eora people of Sydney, I request your forgiveness. I stand in solidarity with your rightful demands to self determination and active participation in governmental decisions, and I hope I may learn from your eco-spiritual connection. May we, as Tom Trevorrow of the Ngarrindjeri puts it, learn to 'respect, care and share' the gifts that our planet offers us.

Tags

Alan Watts Atheism Big History Bridge Series Central America Chocolate climate change Conflict Transformation Creativism Ecology Europe God Health India India/Nepal inspiration Life in Oz Life philosophy Meaning of life Modeling My Brazilian My Christian Journey Narrative Narratology Occupy optimal trajectory Panentheism peace philosophy Photography Politics population Potentialism poverty religion slavery social construction South America The Pyramid Travel United States War What is God Wikileaks Yoga

Related posts

  • Politics
    • Free Documentaries: The Truth Is Free
    • Coming to grips with the elephant in the room
    • Sex or chess? Peace, the world’s trump card
    • The Spirit of the Times (Zeitgeist)
    • An Aristocratic Future
  • The Pyramid
    • Population Growth and Climate Change – A Debate
    • Legitimate & Illegitimate Authority
    • Hypatia, my new heroine
    • Other Gaps in the Distribution of Knowledge
    • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Wikileaks
    • Pussy Riots and a Government of Pussies
    • Necessary conflict: standing up for what’s right
    • Protests and balls, left and right…

Donation

evolve theme by Theme4Press  •  Powered by WordPress