Ambrose Ambles

 

The Tancredi Dilemma.

Tancredi is a character in the Lampedusa novel (The Leopard) about the unification of Italy and the ending of aristocratic governance in Southern Italy … and it was this character who uttered that most famous of lines .. ; “For things to remain the same, everything must change.” … Of course, HE was referring to the aristocratic rulers inserting covert agents like himself into “democratic, middle-class government” so as to keep a hold on any revolutionary changes that would lessen the power (as much as possible) of the ruling class .. of which he was one.

The end of the nineteenth century saw the diminishing of aristocratic power in favour of the rising middle-class political base .. just like now, in the twenty-first century, we are seeing that now old/aged middle-class of high industry/banking losing ground to a rising aspirant/younger middle-class of brash technocrats and entrepreneurs, not necessarily savvy in the complex “rules” of patriarchal networks, military engagements and old-money finance, but more keen on flash finance, fast turnover and short, swift credit transfers based more on the theory of gambler’s luck than a book-keepers reliable ledger account.

Chance of a quick “killing” being the modus operandi of the next generation of players..welcome to the farcical, fragile “Gig-economy”!

And this is where the Tancredi Dilemma becomes interesting … for in the first instance above, the middle-classes that replaced the aristocrats were solid merchants, with investments in solid goods … products from the far east, trading ships and barges up and down the major rivers of the world .. the spices and silks .. the ivory and slaves, manchester and machinery formed the base of their massive accumulated wealth … they were well-placed to challenge the decadent aristocratic class for the top job of sovereign governance … all it took was a wave of the royal sword of knighthood to “legitimise” a swathe of the more wealthy or devious of the crew and they were cemented into the “network”.

Now, as this network gets old and decrepit in a generational sense, we see a new set of eyes peering through the glass darkly, hungry for a grab at that sovereign governance … but these new eyes are not as politically savvy as the old hands … not as patient to wait for the royal dab with the Wilkinson Sword of knighthood … these new kids on the block are brash, aggressive bastards who are breaking the panelled doors down with mace and sledge-hammer … vulgar is not strong enough a word to describe them … barbarian is closer to the truth .. the Visigoths at the gates of Rome ..

How is this new breed of “Bankers on Credit”, “Merchants of internet selling” going to manage the social structures needed to keep a society stable and conducive to good, predictable, long-term governance … in short … they cannot! …. Their failing at even the most simple social programs that we see falling to pieces around us as we go about our work, child-care, health, transport and play demonstrates a cabal of wannaby “leaders” who couldn’t lead a blind man down a wide, empty boulevard without tripping on every slight obstacle in their path .. they themselves being blind and ignorant beyond comprehension.

Since the end of the generations that saw Keating pass the baton to Howard, who in his own mean-spirited way did a “Tiberius” and prepared a “Satyr” for the people of Australia with his paving the way for a far right infection into the LNP that even HE couldn’t see the damage he was inflicting, there has been an endless stream of younger blunt-weaponised LNP members fumbling around The House and the authorities, corrupting without thought on the consequences, every authority, every bureaucracy and oversight office so that now we have no confidence .. and rightly so! … in any judgement brought down on any investigation of possible departmental fraud or high political office corruption … the individualistic operations of many members of the parliament to feather their own nests or those of their backers has totally corrupted the system … so that even our voting system, once the yardstick of safe, secure and fair elections copied around the world, is now tainted with an air of doubt .. if not absolute distrust and scorn!

Even those of us on the left of politics have had to watch unbelieving as we see our representatives go to water in the face of right-wing wedging and bluff … their fear of a MSMedia attack on their persons driving them to shelter and hide .. Their now plump and shiny selves, from the largesse of many years in office losing that “lean and hungry look” so necessary in a political animal needed to shift the corpulent carcass of LNP dead-weights so welded to their seats.

And what of the so-called base of left-wing supporters of the socialist side of politics?…THOSE “finishing-school financiers” have now embraced the infantile “soft-cuddly” political toy of “identity politics”…giving them a safe-harbour platform to speciously condemn or cancel out the more broader political ideals that would assist in the preffered party of the left gaining office…their screeching for “a fair go” for their preferred political/social flavour of the month drowning out or successfully wedging all other reasoned claims for a hearing, so that in the end there is little more than a cohort-grumble of multi-topic discontent to combat an onslaught, come an election, of right-wing, singular-targetted propaganda.

The Tancredi Dilemma is needed again to have the middle-class burn some of its own … be that middle-class of the left or the right, they have to waste some of the dead-wood and decrepit stooges laying like rotting logs across the path … The new aspirants of responsible/reliable IT techies, semi-professionals and self-employed tradies have to wade into the fray and with metaphorical laser, scalpel and hammer carve and smash away those who would never want change … and it has to be done soon and with extreme prejudice before we all burn in our beds from a destroyed environment!

For things to remain the same … ie; the “ruling bodies” to hold position of power in the parliament with orthodox structures securing their authority … everything must now change .. just as Rome had to fall so that Europe could rise,the dinosaurs in our politics must “die”.

To “Change the rules”…We must change the ruling class.