Sunday, July 29, 2007

Paradox Australia

The Australian government may be about to legislate away a vast chunk of Aussie folk history and popular culture [brackets mine]:

The Australian government says it will enact a far-reaching law to ban films, literature and games advocating terrorist acts; Attorney General Phillip Ruddock [and puppy killer supreme since this happened - I swear he had an erection when I watched him describe the dire threat a boatload of refugee women and children were to Australia] announced Friday the federal government will unilaterally amend classification laws. Ruddock failed to reach agreements with the state and territorial attorneys general.
The commonwealth will legislate to put in place an amendment to the Classification Act, given we were not able to obtain a unanimous agreement from the states and territories to the proposed changes," said Ruddock on Friday.

Advocates for freedom of expression have castigated the government's proposals to broaden the country's censorship laws.

I guess this means they’ll have to ban this guy from selling his books (popular amongst thousands of violently anti-establishment Aussie youth and wannabes galore), anything ever written or filmed about this guy (all 1 800 000 Google hits!), and maybe even this fictional dude too. All who might be considered terrorists without much of a stretch...

Having lived in Australia for a while, I can personally attest to the mythological status Australian culture assigns to its outlaws and anti-government rogues. Mr. Howard’s government, through this legislation, is clearly trying to destroy a vast component of Australian identity and culture.

Hmmm…I seem to recall something about threats-to-our-way-of-life being a stated reason for Aussie involvement in the War on Terra:

We are dealing with a group of fanatics who have no tolerance for our way of life, who will not be happy unless they have brought down our way of life and imposed their own. That's the dimension of the struggle. And don't, you know, misunderstand what their goal is. Their goal is the destruction of our kind of society.
So following the government’s own logic, wouldn’t this legislation (and perhaps even the AG and Liberal Party of Australia for fucking proposing it) ban itself if it passes as it so clearly represents a threat to Aussie culture and way of life?

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