false pretences

I'm thinking what's wrong with me. This current government reminds me of an incident that occurred in the late 70s at the Largs Pier Hotel. They put on a band one Saturday night. The feature band was called "free Grog". So the venue pumped out plenty of posters featuring "Free Grog". Due to my mis-spent youth, I happened to drive by the hotel at 6am the next morning. The pub looked like a war scene. The doors were opened and a mini skip had just finished shovelling broken glass into a cone shape. I am 6 foot tall and the cone of glass was taller than me. I asked someone what had happened. They explained that every drunk in SA and a lot of bikers turned up to watch the bands and drink 'free' grog. They rioted.

Now I'm thinking that if I advertised free I pods and say changed the 'I' to a '1', a similar thing would occur. I suspect people would call the police too who would probably charge me for false pretences and causing a public nuisance.

Our current government advertised what it would not do. It won an election based on those promises. Who ever thought that stopping the boats meant handing the job to the armed forces then imposing a silence in the national interest. No new taxes, so let's impose levies instead. Petrol, already taxed 2/3rds including GST is on its way upwards.

Just like the GST, they sold the idea that everything would be taxed to the value of 10% of GDP. Then another LCP government landslided into government and touted the same old chestnut. First we didn't read the fine print, Petrol would be still taxed at around 55% plus GST. Due to the fiscal crises created by the previous (labor) government they had to abandon the bill of goods that got them elected in the first place and pretty well do the complete opposite.

Now if I advertise certain goods at an unbelievable low price, attract a large crowd to become the number one retailer in the country, I will be hunted down by ASIC (eventually) and made to pay the consequences. If I am a UNion man, and I am caught fiddling the books and standing over people, I will be publicly shamed and made to pay the consequences.

If I am a LNP man, this kind of behavior will be regarded as noble, a necessary evil. It will all be done based on obligations inherited by that evil other party. Not only will I get an amazing pension but all kinds of lurks n perks. I may even be knighted or become a great 'dame'.

This current government thinks we are all stupid. They would prefer we all became "bogans" drinking, smoking, gambling our selves to death. Working for a pittance in a factory, in a master/servant relationship. That the masses are to be manipulated and controlled because they are mindless. As we retreat toward the Iron Curtain of old with a traditional enemy in Russia, it is great to be Orstrain with the land of the free.

This current government came to power under false pretences. Telling porkies and using confidence trickster techniques. Their successive governments have used the same excuse every time they swing back into government. Most people do not know what an ad hominem argument is. Windschuttle and Eliot in their wonderful book "Professional English, for an information age" not only explains it, but why it is used. It is called the attack the man argument.

For instance, when an underperforming worker says "I couldn't do it because your dog was barking, you were yammering and your office is cluttered", well that is an attack the man argument. Or we can't perform as advertised because the previous government left us with a disaster. Windschuttle and Eliot go on to explain why that technique is used.

Simply put it is used to neutralise the truths that are being spoken. The truth is The Labor government inherited a collapsed economy from their predecessors. With a surplus they invested heavily in peoples jobs by employing tradesmen in the building of schools, insulation schemes, supporting manufacturing and handouts through Family Tax benefits. They put that money into circulation and literally saved the economy because the bubble of expensive wars had burst.

Labor did not use the argument to gain power nor did they break their promises. The hung parliament and Carbon Tax and Mining Tax was the deal imposed by the greens. Labor could not govern in their own right and was obliged to form a stable government by accepting Green conditions.

So this ad hominem argument that the current government is using is exactly that. By not following through with their contract and blaming their predecessors is an attack the man argument designed to hide the fact that Labor had insulated Australia from the GFC. If it wasn't for disunity in Labor Ranks they possibly wouldn't have lost the election. The Libs didn't win, Labor lost