Comments on: Joh Blogging, Culturally Of Course

By: cMc

cMc — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:09:54 +0000

I read with some sadness the comments of CL.
His/her display of ignorance was truly lamentable
Do you realise what Joh Bjelke was?
A Fascist.
Why don’t you read
“The Deep North” by Deane Wells???
Then perhaps you might lose the flowery language e.g. Raffish youth
I mean that is laughable!
Who the hell talks like that?

Memorise “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell.

By: Michael Carden

Michael Carden — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:09:26 +0000

My memories of the Joh era are part of this article in the Sydney Star Observer

http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=4246

And I’ve put up some more on my own blog

http://www.sodomology.org/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=19&blogId=1

By: Niall

Niall — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 10:42:41 +0000

The evil old prick is finally dead. Why extend the time the smell has to linger by constantly bothering to write about him. The world is now a better & brighter place for his passing. It took long enough.

By: Evil Pundit

Evil Pundit — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:20:20 +0000

The other reason Joh survived so long was because the Labor Party abolished the Upper House of the Queensland Parliament in the 1930s. With a majority in the Lower House, nobody could stop Joh rorting the whole system.

That’s a word of caution to the unicameralists of today.

By: C.L.

C.L. — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:11:53 +0000

Stick to WA Rob. You really don’t know what you’re talking about.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:09:12 +0000

Wow, now Joh’s corruption was Labor’s fault! Nice one, CL.

By: Mark Bahnisch

Mark Bahnisch — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 04:45:20 +0000

ps - you’re right about the Libs, Homer.

By: Mark Bahnisch

Mark Bahnisch — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 04:44:03 +0000

C.L., what I wanted to get at in the post was two things -

(a) the paradox of creativity being encouraged by an anti-intellectual repressive climate;

(b) how events like Joh’s death resurface memories - not just mine, I’m sure.

I really didn’t intend to comment too much on his politics. The links were there because they were relevant to other coverage of Joh - for those who wish to debate his politics. You’ll recall that I linked to your post in an earlier post. The ones I added on this one were new.

By: Homer Paxton

Homer Paxton — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 03:13:13 +0000

CL is correct in that the corrupt systen he inherited was designed by Labor and that should NEVER be forgotten.

I think the reason why he survived so long was the weakness of the Libs.

He is the most successful socialist we have seen.

By: C.L.

C.L. — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 03:05:36 +0000

A lot of country folk, including Aborigines, remember the superior health system they once enjoyed before that was destroyed by two metrocentric Labor governments.

Rob’s rhetorical excesses, ‘quoting’ me: “terrorists.” Try ‘terrorise.’

Mark, yesterday I posted on the Bali nine and I don’t think one of 40 commenters agreed with me. So what? How can anyone, cognitively speaking, meaningfully comment on your memories? If you’re talking more broadly about Joh as cultural anti-icon, I’ve contributed by questioning the very theory of that. That’s on-topic, surely.

I’m more interested in the culturally significant fact that the heartlessness of Joh is the same as the heartlessness of his leftist critics - as Rob and Liam’s necro-heckling demonstrates.

That, in turn, points to a couple of things that were always culturally notable about Joh: first, his unrivalled capacity to divide people, passionately; and 2) the extent to which the left in Queensland was never much better, morally speaking, than the right. That, in fact, is how Joh inherited a compromised and corruption-friendly polity in the first place. It was gifted to him by Labor. He was never great and shouldn’t be remembered as great because he did nothing about that. But Franco he wasn’t.

By: Homer Paxton

Homer Paxton — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 02:29:35 +0000

my lasting memory og Joh is him banning Fred Hollows to treatment of trachoma on Aboriginals because they were supposedly getting to register to vote at the same time.

They must now say thanks to him for their blindness!
He was lucky he was able to bring in his own resource rent tax in term of coal on the railways.
It was this that led to the Qld government finances being debt free now.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 02:14:53 +0000

If anyone’d like to talk about the issues I actually raised in the post before C.L. derailed the discussion before it started, that’d be nice.

Incidentally, C.L., not having grown up in the bush I’m unable to see how I could incorporate that perspective into an assessment of Joh when what I’m writing about is my personal memories and the Brisbane cultural scene.

By: Jason Soon

Jason Soon — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:57:25 +0000

“I think he should be dipped in concrete a la Han Solo in Return of Jedi, then mounted on a plinth at Southbank facing Canberra, to be slowly polished smooth by the weather, crapped on by gulls and photographed by curious Japanese tourists”

Were you drawing inspiration from what the Papists did with your ancestor Cromwell’s head, Nabs?

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:54:34 +0000

I’m with Liam. I reckon the old bugger would loved a farewell demo broken up by a ceremonial baton charge. And plenty of tear gas so there’s not a dry eye in the house.

I think he should be dipped in concrete a la Han Solo in Return of Jedi, then mounted on a plinth at Southbank facing Canberra, to be slowly polished smooth by the weather, crapped on by gulls and photographed by curious Japanese tourists.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:42:53 +0000

All this is quite moot as the link I posted shows, the protesters have decided not to go to the funeral and hold a protest in Brisbane instead in King George Square.

So I can only assume it’s “conspicuous indignation”.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:13:11 +0000

I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate it, but if you consider a bunch of people waving placards to be “terrorists”… well, let’s just put it down as another of your rhetorical excesses, shall we?

By: C.L.

C.L. — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:49:46 +0000

May I suggest we drive them straight to the Grassby State funeral where they can accuse Mrs G of bumping off her husband. The Mackays would appreciate the gesture.

By: liam hogan

liam hogan — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:03:49 +0000

…a kind of terrorisation…

Oh, please, won’t somebody think of the children?
Come off it CL. It’s not a private funeral. It’s a State event, gun carriage, flags, salutin’ and all. A few protesters whacked in the guts, CS gassed and packed bleeding and broken into divvy vans would be a proper send-off for Joh. Everyone would be happy!

By: C.L.

C.L. — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:30:18 +0000

You’ve got more in common with Joh than I have Rob. If you don’t consider the picketing of a funeral where hundreds of family members - including children and the deceased’s elderly wife are bereaved and suffering to be a kind of terrorisation, than you can’t be a whole lot better than Terry Lewis.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:53:09 +0000

terrorise a funeral

What a wonderfully loose use of the term! That’s precisely how we end up with a police state like Joh’s.