17 January

An observation. It’s very difficult to get people to engage with ideas, unless they see it as a battle between two sides. Left versus Right, Trump versus just about anything, Migrants versus home-grown, Men versus Women, etc. People will go hard in battle for their chosen ‘side’, but quickly lose patience with ideas themselves. I think it’s partly because we’re a rich society. People choose comfort over debate. Rich and privileged folk tend to assume that the happy peaceful lives they live are somehow the natural state of things. And so they don’t discuss, they don’t debate, that all seems so unpleasant and yucky. We like holidays, and booze, and our favourite bands, and having a good time. We mostly have no idea how our own society even works. By not debating and discussing with others, all the underlying differences of opinion between people end up escalated to the ‘top’ of society - government and politicians. Who then have to fight doubly hard, to try to resolve these differences. And we, the smug peaceful and comfortable public who don’t deal with our own shit amongst ourselves, then sit back and take endless pot shots at pollies, telling them to sort things out. We become exactly the crowd at the stadium, watching the sport, cheering on our ‘side’. Spoiled, hypocritical spectators to our own lives.