Distributing opinions is a risky game. Artwork: ‘Alan’ by Bernie Slater.
Having now run my first piece on RiotACT 2.0, welcome friends and frenemies to the second of what I hope will become a weekly feature here at my new sweet home, RiotACT.
The old adage is that opinions are like a***holes in that even the Queen has one squirrelled away behind the obligations of her regal office. If this is the case, what then can I hope to offer that you can’t get from the water cooler or the backbar at the local?
Well, firstly, some polite percentage of you will be public servants, for whom a latent fear of public expression is often a legal obligation. And likely heightened, since Tony Abbott introduced security-escorted involuntary redundancy for the crime of posting about our offshore refugee facilities (this happened to someone I know – but don’t worry, not someone I like very much).
Secondly, nobody seems to leave the house much since Netflix was invented; so let’s not pretend that we’re out in real irl for much more than bad Tinder dates, activewear-requisite brunches, ferrying the kids between activities they suck at, or the bloodsport of avoiding our nearest and dearest dullquaintances at the hottest hangout in town – Dickson Woolworths. (Shun the farmer-squeezing pokies-owning duopoly!).
My chief hope is that this will be an interesting place for us all to exchange ideas on the world we share because I am, by and large, extremely wary of the craft of opinion writing. Turning opinions into careers has incentivised otherwise functional thinkers to produce shriekpieces in a vaguely pointless effort to be heard above the already disproportionately shrieky news cycle™.
The spoils clearly go to those on both the right and the left who best induce the rage-share ‘THIS.’-posting response, ideally from the headline alone. Where possible, I avoid these things like the plague (or Dickson Woolworths).
So, to help protect us all from more of the same toxicity, I’ve mapped out some ideas to discuss before I actually have either a topical event to respond to or even a readership to sustain. Undoubtedly to the dismay of our sweet publisher, many of these interests are neither topical nor particularly popular.
But hopefully, with a bit of effort, they will be rewarding points for us to discuss together as we navigate both instinct and culture to forge a uniquely-civil salon and explore how we might reconceive our lives, society and time.
- Tired? Busy? The deficit of time is completely artificial
- The cost of the erosion of community
- Why our venues keep closing
- 10 reasons Australia/Canberra/Braddon isn’t as sh#t as you think
- 10 reasons Australia/Canberra/Braddon is sh#tter than you think
- Everyone involved in the JSF should have their super stripped
- The case for working less
- List of tram stops they should’ve had
- The major absurdities of our time
- We are failing to transcend our evolution
- I implore you to create and consume local culture
- The upsides of the housing crisis
- Is our Government more likely to kill us than foreigners are?
- Artists are subsidising society
- What the hell is going on with the PCYC?
- Public Advertising is a curse to be rejected
- Our democracy is lagging
- Campaign Finance is the soft corruption of everything
- Learned Cultural Helplessness – ‘I wish I were creative’ – we all are
- My Grandparents Are Needlessly Terrified
- Prosecute Those who Induce Wind Farm Disease
- The Government will never ‘fix’ the environment
- Jevons Paradox and Artificial Meat
Does any of this tickle your fancies?
Are there any other insights you’d love to hear from my considered perspective as an artist of luke-cold renown?
Let’s have a nice and enlightening time together, and I look forward to seeing you in the comments.
xx
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