Our third, and more on Morrison

I've realised that any time I refer to evil Australian politicians, I should mention that I consider the third is former Senator Fraser Anning, who I mentioned when considering whether Scott Morrison, Australia's current neoliberal Prime Minister, is evil.

I am still inclined to consider neither Morrison nor Peter Dutton to be evil - nasty people, incompetent politicians (particularly Morrison's latest response to the climate bushfires crisis) who have and are doing incredible damage to Australia and the world, but not quite evil.

This morning I've read an opinion that the climate bushfires crisis gives the Morrison "government" a "political out" - a way to change policy on the climate crisis without losing face. That is true, and, in fact, one of the many articles I am trying to get time and energy to write is about the under-appreciated issue of face in the West.

In my experience, many of the critics of public figures who want them to admit error, apologise and seek to do better, are the wort of people who would do that if they were in a similar situation - they would openly apologise for their error and seek to make amends. While that is admirable for them as human beings, it doesn't necessarily help in all political situations.

In human rights situations, such as the past and the current, ongoing abuses of Indigenous people in Australia, an apology is essential to healing the victims, the perpetrators, and the society.

In politics, where image is, sadly, a major problem (just look at Australia's election of the Morrison "government" in 2019 and the election of POTUS45 in the USA if you doubt that), image, or "face", is a central consideration.

There is also the issue of the incredible expectations put on politicians, expectations which directly lead to the health problems, loss of family life, and loss of quality of life of politicians (see here), that directly leads to politicians leaving, and to other people choosing not to get involved in politics.

In fact, much thought I dislike the person and detest his neoliberal politics, I have concerns about Morrison's mental health as a result of this current disaster.

That interest in not solely humanitarian, by any means: if Morrison resigns, we are likely to get Dutton.

So the question of the day remains:

until we have a change of government, how do we get the neoliberals to behave as rational, decent human beings on the climate crisis and it's related bushfire crisis - which is a different matter to "what makes us feel good".