Honest work, fair reward, that’s the way to please the lord

March 26, 2007 on 11:10 pm | In Uncategorized |

I’ve written before I think about the poverty of Howard’s vision for Australia and indeed the world. He reminds me of the Health and Temperance Society that made kids’ lives a misery 50 years ago, or at least the kids who had to go to Sunday school in the Sydney Church of England diocese. The Health and Temperance Society’s mission was to brainwash kids against having fun when they grew up. I can still remember how they preached about the evils of alcohol. ‘Paralysis begins at the first drop,’ they warned. I won some sort of prize in one of their tests, so I’m living proof that their program didn’t work all that well.

Anyway the Health and Temperance Society - now apparently defunct, alas - had a motto that seemed to encapsulate the boring attitudes of the time: temperance in all things good and abstinence from all things bad. I suspect Howard would applaud, subject to being able to slip grog into the ‘good’ category and give ‘temperance’ a flexible interpretation. Another relic of the 1950s that I’m sure he treasures is a belief in the virtue of hard work.

The poor old bugger’s been under a bit of pressure lately and he’s responded in a way that he presumably thinks is admirable but which I find frankly puzzling. For example in response to Maxine McKew’s intention to stand for the ALP in his electorate, Howard said:

…when I get news like this it only steels my resolve to work even harder for the people I have had the privilege of representing for the last 30 years.

That was in February. Then a couple of weeks ago when the polls suggested that his government was in deep trouble, he was at it again:

Paul, in the past when I have confronted a bad poll, I have said that it only encourages me to work harder and walk faster in the interests of the Australian people and that is certainly my response in relation to this.

To be honest I never realised that he was walking in our interests and quite why walking faster will do us any good is beyond me. However his idea that in times of trouble you should just work harder was very 1950s. It provides the illusion of constructive action while avoiding the need for reflection.

Whether it’s a suitable response for the 2000s is a moot point. I rather think not. If we have to resort to trite cliches I think I’ll go with the ‘work smarter not harder’ one thanks. But it’s a revealing clue to the man’s basic conception of how the world functions, because when you think about it, that’s pretty much what his whole 11 years in office have been about. Making people work harder.

Howard and his business mates dress it up with euphemisms like flexibility and competitiveness and increasing productivity but what they really mean is work intensification. That’s what WorkChoices was all about. They spend virtually all their waking hours obsessing about their jobs and they don’t see why everyone else shouldn’t do the same. They rationalise this obsession with work and materialism as being necessary to stay ahead of the pack in the great global rat race - the interminable competition to see which country can have the highest economic growth, the lowest unemployment, the least government debt and so on. For Howard, that’s what life is all about. Oh, and cricket of course.

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see any evidence that Kevin Rudd is any different. There are worrying signs that he’s also deeply committed to the uplifting value of work as an end in itself.

In the immortal words of Peggy Lee, ‘Is that all there is my friends?’ When she answered her own question in the affirmative, I recall she suggested that we should just keep on dancing. I don’t think either John or Kevin would approve.

10 Comments »

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  1. Ah, but perhaps there is method in his intuitive responses. What point is there in walking faster you ask? It’s not just that wowserish work ethic, even though that has the virtue of not having to think or reflect.

    No, I suspect it’s a subconscious way of planning for political oblivion. If he can continue walking faster and faster he’s a good chance of representing Australian at the Veterans Games. He’d even get a GENUINE Aussie tracksuit. It doen’t sound like much of a retirement to most people but it may wean him away from polling and studying by-election swings.

    Since Howard’s only knowledge of history is confined to whatever variables may explain particular election results, it is surprising how often he has hit onto some genuine historic traits and turned them to advantage. One is just that point you make: that despite our fair go belief there is an undercurrent whose aim seems to be to deprive others of pleasure. Wanting us to work harder and have less fun is part of it. The Temperance movement was a major part of it.

    My youthful origins also go back fifty years to the pre-Dunstan era days of SA. Though I avoided the direct contact with Temperance or others, their influence was everywhere, not least in SA’s absurd liquor licensing laws.

    Another group from that time I remember (through the Letters pages of The Advertiser) was The Lord’s Day Observance Society. The Secretary, one K F Kitto, would regularly write complaining of people he’d observed in the Adelaide parklands on a Sunday playing and enjoying themselves! I could almost picture him wandering round in a black frockcoat and one of those Pilgrims hats with the beltbuckle band assiduously taking down notes of the offenders.

    The fact is, of course, that there’s always been support for sinking the boot into the less powerful and defenceless - as we saw so vividly during the Hanson era. Howard somehow knew this intuitively and cashed in on it.

    Fortunately I think he has seriously overreached with Workchoices - well at least I hope so.

    Comment by Don Wigan — March 27, 2007 #

  2. Important post Ken.

    BTW I am proud to admit I ranked last (out of around 500 students) in Yr11 for religion.

    Allow me to repeat that, last.

    And it was a catholic school.

    Oh yeah, they loved me. :D

    Comment by Invig — March 30, 2007 #

  3. Well Ken, working harder and more productively and smarter and all the other words is very important. It’s the only thing, because the economy benefits and it’s very important that we all work for the economy rather than ourselves (random cheap shot: try that on a Mac Bank exec, eh?). The PM has no playtime because he gets that provided for him. Why on earth would someone ask him today about the “Ian Thorpe drug scandal”, for god’s sake?

    And Kevin’s no different, it’s the same worshipping the economy songbook. He’d be shot-sacred to deviate or he’d be tarred with destroying Australian jobs. Jobs are important, we all need ‘em, some lucky people get to love theirs no matter what they do, but I would think the majority of us accept them as necessary in providing the wherewithal of life but would prefer to be playing in the park and heckling the Health and Temperance League.

    Comment by phil — March 31, 2007 #

  4. …that wasn’t eactly meant to be “shot”…

    Comment by phil — March 31, 2007 #

  5. interesting

    Comment by Kostas — May 5, 2007 #

  6. Sorry :(

    Comment by Iannis — May 18, 2007 #

  7. Cool…

    Comment by Agapios — May 22, 2007 #

  8. Sorry :(

    Comment by Demetri — May 22, 2007 #

  9. Interesting…

    Comment by Kyriacos — June 7, 2007 #

  10. Hi, there!..f3488d93d38a9b616311208fa833a12b

    Comment by limewire — September 30, 2007 #

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