A sense of despair arises as on any metric today we experience (directly or indirectly) and feel the neverending spiral of uncertainty and foreboding in this world.
Richard Jones to his credit writes, ‘The public good in times of private bad’ – a worthy analysis – but abysmally fails in identifying the political agency to change course.
It is fine to remain self-content should you be secure and materially well off, but the reality is increasingly not the case for many, especially younger people.
In 1983 the Australian election of the Hawke/Keating Labor government ushered in the then titled economic policy of ‘economic rationalism’ – financial deregulation of the monetary system, the shift of publicly-owned assets and services privatised for private wealth and profit making.
An effective marketing campaign was delivered ensuring the people that ‘market forces’ meant cheaper services and consumer goods, and that was convincing enough for people to vote Labor.
Now some 43 years later, the Australian people are set to head to the polls and faced with the dilemma of returning Labor or the LNP coalition.
Australian politics are similarly indicative of many Western nations where the incumbents, some of labor social democratic persuasions, are facing the same disillusionment and cynicism of voters.
Social democracy laborite politics and policies have not delivered for the majority – USA is a classic example, and now have a chaotic populist far-right president who is upending the nation and the whole global political order.
Some are turning to far-right populist political parties, or small independent parties, knowing the major two parties are captive to big business and capital.
Understanding the politics is not necessarily siding with either of the two major parties, it’s being able to think critically, and be independent-minded and recognise the drivers and motivation behind their agendas.
Each new election brings new and existing challenges, what is needed is a circuit breaker of political consciousness to chart a new paradigm for humanity for building a new politically humane and democratic world.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
