Was talking to a friend before, who rolls her eyes when I talk international geopolitics, and this morning specifically the Iraqi elections to happen later in the week, and we got onto the whole 'how will the Iraqi elections affect us' debate.
Not wanting to go all social liberal in the conversation at that stage, by happenstance on Video Hits The Clash's Rock The Casbah came on - I used this as an example of how the MidEast affects us - I think the song is about either the Arab Israeli wars or the Iranian Revolution, one of the oil shocks in any case - that when OPEC turned the oil taps off for the West, prices skyrocketed.
It didn't work, the retort was that it happened in the seventies, ancient history - I took a different tack, that Australia does have troops in Iraq right this minute, and if things go wrong, oil prices could go up. Why would I worry about oil though, I don't drive - well, the economy could go pear shaped, still the argument didn't work.
I took another different tack - how did you feel after September 11, when people in another Western country got killed in an attack, were you more scared after the WTC and Pentagon attacks than you were on September 10. Well, if you were too scared after that, you wouldn't do anything, wouldn't leave the house would you.
I didn't say too scared to do anything, I said more scared than September 10 - well, yes, but that has gone away now, and is history, what affect does it have now. Umm. anti terrorism laws passed in Canberra just this past week? Surely that is related to what happened in New York and Washington? And how do those affect us - well, according to the government, they will make us safer - by this stage, I knew if I was going to bring up the curbing of civil rights I would just lose it.
And how does that affect us came back to me again.
I had to leave the call otherwise I may have said something I would regret later.
Completely different mindset - and if she was just playing devil's advocate, hmm not a topic that I can just easily agree to disagree - well, maybe I could have agreed to disagree, but pressing all the wrong buttons.
And then later on this morning, talked again, and the question had turned from how does this affect us to what can I do about it, why should I show an interest - those two were not the question in the earlier conversation though.
Eh, quite frustrated now.
Pauly
Not wanting to go all social liberal in the conversation at that stage, by happenstance on Video Hits The Clash's Rock The Casbah came on - I used this as an example of how the MidEast affects us - I think the song is about either the Arab Israeli wars or the Iranian Revolution, one of the oil shocks in any case - that when OPEC turned the oil taps off for the West, prices skyrocketed.
It didn't work, the retort was that it happened in the seventies, ancient history - I took a different tack, that Australia does have troops in Iraq right this minute, and if things go wrong, oil prices could go up. Why would I worry about oil though, I don't drive - well, the economy could go pear shaped, still the argument didn't work.
I took another different tack - how did you feel after September 11, when people in another Western country got killed in an attack, were you more scared after the WTC and Pentagon attacks than you were on September 10. Well, if you were too scared after that, you wouldn't do anything, wouldn't leave the house would you.
I didn't say too scared to do anything, I said more scared than September 10 - well, yes, but that has gone away now, and is history, what affect does it have now. Umm. anti terrorism laws passed in Canberra just this past week? Surely that is related to what happened in New York and Washington? And how do those affect us - well, according to the government, they will make us safer - by this stage, I knew if I was going to bring up the curbing of civil rights I would just lose it.
And how does that affect us came back to me again.
I had to leave the call otherwise I may have said something I would regret later.
Completely different mindset - and if she was just playing devil's advocate, hmm not a topic that I can just easily agree to disagree - well, maybe I could have agreed to disagree, but pressing all the wrong buttons.
And then later on this morning, talked again, and the question had turned from how does this affect us to what can I do about it, why should I show an interest - those two were not the question in the earlier conversation though.
Eh, quite frustrated now.
Pauly
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