Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
John Stuart Mill (1867)
This is quite the opposite from “the best advice I can give is for good men and women to bite their tongues and to carry on”.
We live in the best civilisation the planet has yet been able to construct – more free, more prosperous, more tolerant than any that has ever before existed – yet we are very near to descending into a dark age none of us or our children or our children’s children will then ever live to see end of. Just this, going on right now, should scare you into some clear thinking about what is before us and what we need to do: BA BANK HOLIDAY CHAOS British Airways cancels ALL flights from Heathrow and Gatwick after systems go down across entire world causing havoc for British holidaymakers – but airline denies cyber attack. Nihilism is a genuine force in the world. This lovely life we have constructed has enemies as depraved and determined as any we have ever faced, some outside the wall and some within, who would see our way of life obliterated. And make no mistake, they will do it if they can. And they can and will if we let them. And unless we become determined to fight them at every turn, we will lose.
In the world we are in there is one big issue, so large the others near enough do not count.
Donald Trump is our last line of defense. Tony Abbott was on the same path but without the strength of purpose. The Coalition is now led by its own version of Tanya Pliberseck. An inane incompetent fool without a single feature worthy of respect. He is now being pushed against his will to do what needs to be done by others who see what needs to be done. Peter Dutton is emerging from the pack as our own man of vision and character. Our own domestic political miracle, like Trump’s win in the US, was that the Coalition did not lose the last election. We, too, will have one more try.
And it’s true, it’s not anger we need but a clear-headed resolve. We need this to be just the start: Dutton says ‘best outcome’ for Australians fighting in Syria is to get ‘killed over there’ and he didn’t mean our soldiers. I am happy to welcome Janet onto this side of the fight. This was the pull quote in The Australian:
Trump offered up the kind of moral clarity that drove the West to defeat Nazis and Soviet communists.
Trump has offered moral clarity and much else. He offers a will to resist and the means to fight back. We will not get a second chance.