Monday, July 11, 2016

Monday Forum - Cleverman, videos for kvd plus last election threads

I have been watching Australia's ABC's  Cleverman. IMDb descibes the plot in this way:
In the very near future, creatures from ancient mythology must live among humans and battle for survival in a world that wants to silence, exploit and destroy them.
The series has been somewhat over-shadowed in Australia by what we might loosely call "Aboriginal" issues. I have put "Aboriginal" in inverted commas because so much of the commentary has been influenced by current debates on Australia's Aboriginal peoples, not so much about the series itself. I think that's a pity, because it has actually stopped  people watching it. To attach an "Aboriginal" tag a piece of work today is a bit like calling a film an art film!

There are some specifically New England aspects to Cleverman as well as other cultural aspects that are worth discussing. For the moment, its not a bad dystopian piece. There are weaknesses - it is too slow in the initial phase, and some of the tropes are overdone, jammed in your face. Still, and I'm now thinking of kvd, who finally has decent internet connection, I think its worthwhile watching.

On kvd, the challenge now to find things that he might watch that he has not been able to watch. All suggestions gratefully received!

Staying with kvd, in a comment on Australia's apparent internet woes kvd wrote:

'On my comment 8.55 a.m. Jul 4: "And also, anyone got a reference for even one opinion piece which sought to analyse any LNP or Labor policy proposal?" - to which Jim replied "There actually was quite a lot of policy analysis, more so than in the last election".

Lots of links below, but these relative outsiders seem to be saying in more words what I was simply asking:
  • http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/taking-cake.html
  • https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2016/05/2016/1467688568/impoverished-estate
  • http://failedestate.com/god-is-dead/
  • https://prestoninstitute.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/knott-getting-it-right-why-the-media-got-the-election-wrong/
Each make reference to a SMH article by Matthew Knott so I won't link it separately - but read it if you have access.'

These links pick up a number of threads within current Australian political discussion (and elsewhere, if generalised). Feel free to take one or more for discussion.

I note in the meantime that Liberal Senators Eric Abetz in Tasmania and Corey Bernadi of South Australia, two of the Liberal Party warriors of the hard right, seem to have blamed the outcome in their states (Liberal annihilation in one case, serious defeat in another) on the failure to stick clearly to the Abbott agenda. I suspect that's a serious political misjudgement based on beliefs rather than analysis.

Today, Australia has an elected Government with a small majority plus some potential back-ups from independents.I suspect that things will get back to what approaches normal quite quickly.       

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