Against The Wind
This relationship began in concentration and frustration. There were token amends.
There were strategic plays. If all war was deception, he was even more wary than usual. But that beginning, that long pounding beginning when he was straight out on a limb and truly frightened, and knew he was alone, more alone than ever, with his dying parent in the next room and the ridicule of the Watchers on the Watch passing for a savant. There were no savants now. They were all simply operatives. Different tunes, different masters. He didn't know, couldn't say, couldn't determine what exactly it was that propelled him so determinedly in those early days.
As if all the prophecies so sincerely, so abstractly made, through automatic writing and through the clanging symbols of a wretched life, through sheer unadulterated frustration at just about everything, at the absolute lack of accord not just among those who he encountered, but the clanging absurdity of a government which kept getting the approval of the voters, despite the sheer absurdity of everything they did.
He was frightened, and gripped by something he did not know what. The glinting edifices that rose and fell at sea in their previous incarnation had gone now. There was no consistency of messaging, of vision. He could feel them gathering in a storm, but his own storm had worn him thin.
So it was that he reached into the depth, and kept working, and could feel the gathering. It was awe inspiring. It was rattle the tea cups stuff. It was a life form that had been forever since and would forever be, but there, there, in those early days, in those early frightening hours, he was just a deranged lunatic or a lonely man bashing away at a keyboard, and for all the ridicule and derision of the agencies, for all the things he heard and should never have heard, for all the comings and goings and the horrid little pygmy gnomes parading themselves as media experts, as professors of journalism, as masters of the flame and controller of the narratives, all distorted, all wrecked, all an abysmal derogation of duty and devolution of form, all a shocking slip into utter irresponsibility, those things, their hapless leaders, the fear in the streets, the consequence of incompetence, the self aggrandising and manipulation; all of it now led him down a singular path.
To a destiny.
To a place.
And in those early days, and in those early hours, his skin tingling as he could feel the year's whale migration beginning, that giant behemoth who he could feel just as it felt him, those wanderers in carnage and survival, in a beauty that marked everything, in quasi-religious language that could barely represent the awe he was beginning to feel, thank god for demarcation and bifurcation and all the rest of the newly applied technologies, because no man could face that loneliness in the face of god. Or the gods. Or the accumulated wisdom of the ages.
And so, in that teacup rattling way, they began to power, began to form through the fabric of everything around him, came to message him, not for comfort, not to provide strength, not for his benefit or welfare, they came because there was a path, they gathered because they had a means of communication, they gathered because the ancient technologies that they were needed application, needed an entry point in the border beyond the real, needed to enter an occult science with the birds flying backwards and time flowing backwards and a voice through the fabric of everything.
So they came to him in those early hours and in those early days, and he assumed, the first of many mistakes, that he was protected, his sins forgiven, the malfeasance and camaraderie, or indeed, in those days when everything was shut and everyone was expected to stay home, the complete lack of companionship, his narrative was not their narrative, their masters were not his masters, their destiny was not his, their opportunism all too hierarchical, military, materialistic, protected, their power belonged to a different realm. And they thought their power was real!!
Well, we would soon find out, as he was spun into another centrifuge. But for the moment, that moment, he pounded away, hoping that the imaginary assassins he dispatched would do their job, that the country could be saved, that democracy, now so imperiled, could be saved.
But it was all a mistake. Democracy had been imperiled form the moment these people took power. The Big End of Town always won. It was winning again. At the cost of everybody's life, their normal lives.
You don't know what you've got till its gone.
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
They took all the trees put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar an'a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
Joni Mitchell.
The scariest bit about the whole damn thing was that the prophecies were all coming true, that the disintegrated future he had written about so lyrically, was suddenly all upon them.
The streets were not just quiet. They were terrifying.
As, indeed, was the obsequious, baying behaviour of the population. Dare to disagree with them, as they embraced their own authoritarian demise, and you were ridiculed, on the out.
In the days when you could actually meet up and talk to people. In the days before barriers went up at the local state park. Before the blizzard of contradictory regulation began.
Before complete confusion beset the country.
And he could feel them coming. And assumed that those who watched could also feel. Would also believe as he did. Would understand that he was not a threat. A clairvoyant, a savant, a witch on the wind and a soldier before Christ, a carrier of messages and genes and a figment of everybody's imagination.
If only those early warnings had been heeded.
If this democracy was not worth saving, then prepare for the alternative, prepare for the future, regress. A terrible casualty of purpose and reason, of that old fashioned to the point of trite phrase, common decency, the pride of labour, the commonality of expression, the commonality of purpose, combined with your fellows to make a better country.
That's not how they saw it. That's not how it went down.
He was as taken by surprise as everybody else.
HEADLINES:
Morrison government risks losing public support over vaccine rollout delay
26/03/2021|3min
The government, so far, has missed all of its own targets for the vaccine rollout - and new research shows it risks losing significant public support. A global COVID-19 survey from Crosby Textor group showed governments in the UK and the United States have seen a significant increase in public support after the vaccine rollout despite early mishandling of the pandemic. The same research shows a correlation between Australia’s slow rollout and a decline in support for both state and federal governments, noting there has been a ten-point decline in support for federal and state governments since last year.
Government proceeding with caution as investigation begins into alleged sexual acts in Parliament House
The federal government says it is proceeding with caution, as the alleged sexual exploits of a group of gay men in Parliament House in Canberra are investigated.
Key points:
Some names have been provided to the offices of Simon Birmingham and Kristina Keneally
One man who masturbated on the desk of a female Liberal MP has been fired
Government sources says the Department of Finance is beginning a formal investigation
One man, who masturbated on the desk of a female Liberal MP and shared the video with a select few, has already been fired.
Some names of other men alleged, or suspected, to have been involved in sexual acts in Parliament have been provided to the offices of Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally.
At least one of the men vehemently denies the claims.
Government sources say the Department of Finance is commencing a formal investigation into the allegations, however, they argue it has been partly complicated by concerns over whether some of the explicit videos or images could be theoretically classified as "revenge porn."
When asked by the ABC, one senior figure expressed his opinion the case could lead to a criminal complaint.
From early next week, it is expected the department will be in a position to receive material – like documents, pictures and videos — from a whistleblower, who doesn't work in politics. He will have to make a formal submission about each person alleged to have been involved.
The Canberra man first spoke anonymously to Channel 10, but has since been tweeting and has expressed concerns he could soon be publicly named by a media outlet.
He has alleged:
One man filmed his sexual "conquests" in Parliament House and shared them, sometimes via the men-seeking-men app, Scruff.
He has videos or images depicting six or seven men in total involved in consensual sex acts in Parliament House, including four who have at some point worked in politics.
One of the men signed a male sex worker from Queensland into Parliament House for a male former Coalition MP
He was involved in some of the sex acts and felt motivated to speak out following Four Corners' Inside the Canberra Bubble piece last November.
Ministers publicly urge men involved to leave
Publicly, several ministers have expressed their fury at the allegations and some have urged any political staffers involved to leave now.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned the behaviour was "totally unacceptable" and "disgusting and sickening."
Bars and clubs turning away thousands because of COVID-19 restrictions
The state government is under pressure to further increase capacity in bars and clubs as JobKeeper ends on Sunday, with operators saying they are turning away thousands of potential customers because of COVID restrictions.
Australian Venue Co., which runs popular Sydney venue Bungalow8, said more than 2500 people who tried to book in the past two months have been turned away from that venue due to capacity restrictions – or one in five bookings.
Long queues of people seeking to enter the harbourside venue typically form at 5pm for happy hour, and again around 10pm.
Other Darling Harbour venues have also been forced to turn away about one in five people seeking to make a booking in the past two months; Cargo Bar has been unable to accommodate 1756 people who tried to book, while Barangaroo bar Untied turned away 1631 patrons.
Party in isolation for Covid contact adds to anxiety
A landscaper who mysteriously contracted COVID-19 in Brisbane could have spread the virus for a week before he went into quarantine.