I’m feeling feisty today, possibly because I’ve just finished rewriting a story set in a future, fragmented, totalitarian Australia.

Benevolent dictatorship could be the way to solve all the stupidity around us.  But I am the only person who could head such a regime in such a way that everyone would be better off, the environment would be cleaned up, species extinction would halt, peace would be the norm.  However, I would no longer have the time to write or walk the dog.

It is a question that continually engages me: why is it so hard for governments to do what is right?  I don’t know the answers.  ‘Right’ does not include supporting buddies and vested commercial interests.

We repeatedly elect governments with the hope (sometimes expectation) that things will change for the better.  They seem to for a short while and then it is almost like watching a brand new car take off on a freshly-laid road, only to soon get bogged in the soggy ruts left by previous incumbents. (more…)