The Assault on Reason

Published in 2007, Al Gore's book is a passionate indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration and its subversion of the Unites States Constitution. While the issues raised by these actions are of their time and have their repercussions even today, the other main thread of the book is the perilous disconnect experienced by the American people from the political process and the information they need to make a reasoned and considered contribution to the national debate.

Gore identifies the major culprit as the rise of television which subsumed the public space previously occupied by the press. He claims that what was previously a conversation, or at least a debate, has turned into a lecture, where people passively consume editorial, confected news and 30-second political ads and have no avenue to question or interrogate what they see.

This is an issue which resonates today, especially in the wake of the election of President Obama and the recent battle to pass the health care legislation in the US. The fury with which opponents of Barack Obama greeted his election and inauguration has not abated and the outright falsehoods about him propagated by the Republican Party and fermented in right-wing crucibles such as Fox News and conservative radio have now taken on the status of received truth by some sectors of American society.

A frightening number of American people believe that Barack Obama a) is a Muslim, b) was not born in the USA and therefore not eligible to be President, c) a socialist or d) all of the above. None of these things are true yet they continue to have currency among sectors of the community. Similarly with the debate on health care. Sarah Palin and others invented the scurrilous charge that the legislation contained a provision for “death panels” who would judge whether someone got life saving health care. Never mind that currently commercial operations, i.e. insurance companies and HMOs, act in just that fashion when doling out health care to those people relying on health insurance. Death panels were a lie, but a lie which was taken and spread by the same conservative media outlets mentioned earlier until it had currency in the political debate.

With the passage of the bill, the situation has only deteriorated, with Legislators having their offices attacked and dire warnings of retribution, either electorally or by some darker means, popping up all over.

The irony is that the legislation passed by the Congress is very similar in effect to Republican legislation passed in Massachusetts several years ago, and compared with other health care systems in OECD countries it has barely the right to be called universal health care. I don't regard Australia as a bastion of socialism, yet something like our Medicare system could never be introduced in the USA as it would be too “socialist”.

That the public debate in the USA has become so degraded is a warning to us in Australia. There are major differences in our political systems, and we have a strong public broadcaster, but the right-wing shock jocks are here, the concentration on media is probably worse than in the USA and the blatant falsehoods which get into the media by climate change deniers such as The Australian and the unholy trinity of Andrew Bolt, Piers Ackermann and Miranda Devine show you just how it can all work.

Shopping Mall: The Game

Walking through the Watergardens Shopping Centre I realised: there's a video game in this.

You see, I normally don't go to shopping centres except when absolutely necessary but where I worked meant I had to walk through Watergardens to get to my office building. Hence, my profound and exquisite knowledge of the perils and pitfalls of shopping mall navigation.

So, a video game. I don't profess to be an expert on games—I think the last game I played was Doom on my old Play Station 1—but from what I can gather things like a goal, obstacles, levels and a world in which to do all these are key ingredients.The game, Shopping Mall (original, I know) would have those ingredients. It has the goals; shopping for different things. Some levels could be time-based; how quickly can you get in and out with the required purchase, for example.

Then there are the obstacles and challenges. Finding a car park is always a good challenge. Following that woman with the shopping trolley and hoping that she is leaving rather than just dumping her shopping before returning to get her nails done the colours of the Western Bulldogs. Grocery shopping with a three year old, who has a tantrum in the supermarket. How quickly can you get the little bugger to shut up? Of course, the kid could go missing, then you will lose precious minutes trying to find it. Or, even worse, you stop to look at a nice bowl at House, grab the kid's hand and proceed on your way. How many minutes go by before your realise that the kid you grabbed is not your own and yours is nowhere to be seen? Even worse if you are a male playing the game. Those kidnapping charges are going to be hard to live down.

Finish your assigned shopping task and you think you are heading down the home straight, but no! The level doesn't finish until you have actually driven out of the shopping centre car park, which is about the size of Luxembourg. So actually finding your car is the first hurdle to achieving shopping Nirvana—or at least the next level of the game. But finding your car is only the start of your epic journey to the exit. You actually have to find the exit. No shopping centre on earth is designed to assist you to leave, and so goes the game. There are the non-standard signs. I particularly like the one I saw reading “Slow Hump Ahead.” The anticipation alone that it meant exactly what your prurient mind is conjuring up is worth the inevitable disappointment; only in the game, you can never be quite sure...