I was completely shocked by the furore that erupted over their ‘Make A Realistic Wish Foundation’ sketch, especially considering all the other potentially offensive material in that particular episode.

Okay, I’m the first to admit I did laugh at that particular sketch. It was wrong on so many levels, but damn did I laugh. Still, I do think it could’ve been executed better. This doesn’t make it an offensive sketch, it makes it one that was just done badly. There’s a difference.I was most angry at the Prime Mininster casting judgement on the sketch without having seen it. It felt like the whole Bill Henson bullshit all over again, with our PM acting like the nation’s moral compass and criticising art as if he’s got a mandate to do so and tell us what’s acceptable because he knows best. Christ, it’s like a Father Knows Best state here.

I, for one, don’t accept that, and I think there are better things for him to be focussing on than a comedy sketch gone wrong.

I was also angry at Amanda Duthie losing her position over this. Nothing said scapegoat more than that, and I was actually ashamed at Media Watch for calling her out on it. One bad decision shouldn’t have been enough to warrant her removal, and I think it was totally unfair to do that, especially when she’s one of their most valuable assets (in my opinion).

In all of this, though, I”m not the sort to defend every Chaser sketch they’ve eber done, just becase I think they’re beyond fault. That isn’t true. There have been things they’ve done that I’ve disliked or hated or not laughed at. Has that changed my love for them? Not really. I think it’s disingenous to say you can’t criticise them as a fan, you have to love and adore them, no matter what.

However, this, just like all the other things that have caused controversy over the last few years, I think a lot of people have completely missed the point and were merely looking for a reason to get angry at The Chaser.

Acknowledging that this is just my opinion and might differ from the way it was supposed to be taken or how others took it, I saw the sketch as a comment on, well, lots of things. Not just the foundation, but the way we lavish all this shit on dying kids and it doesn’t actually solve anything. The pointlessness of it all.

Perhaps this is just my expreince talking, but I suppose because I’m aware the rest of the health system is fucked and the elderly and the mentally ill especially don’t get the same sort of sympathy or funding. I suppose I wish there were better things to do with that money than keep paying for every kid to go to Disneyland because they’re dying.

I think especially with mental illness there’s a certain stigma attached to it, and there’s little compassion for them. I think there’s a certain dismissal of them and their issues and a reaction like ‘get over it’ rather than a genuine concern for their welfare and a desire to help. And I know this is a tangent, but compared to all the sob stories on TV of some kid who’s dying, stories of people with mental illness don’t get the same treatment.

The bloke who was Tasered to death in Queensland recently comes to mind. The attititude of the cop who was describing him didn’t seem to care. There was a certain disdain/dismissal as he talked about him that I thought was completely unnecesary. It was like, he was mental, we were perfectly justified in Tasering him.

Tangent aside, yes, the sketch itself perhaps could’ve been executed better, but I don’t think that just because it was a bad sketch that meant it was made to be offensive. That’s not the same at all and anyone saying so has completely missed the point.

Either way, that’s what I took from it. I’m not trying to be callous, nor am I trying to say that dying kids isn’t bad. I suppose I’m trying to be realistic myself. I just remember all the kids dying of starvation in other countries and wonder why we can’t spare the money to help them.

Perhaps I’m overanalysing or overthinking it. I don’t know. They’re my thoughts on the sketch at any rate. Feel free to disagree.

Now, I’m not saying countries shouldn’t wish to develop their own economies and become better off. I just think we’ve lost sight of all those social aspects of life in the race to become hideously wealthy.

Think about it.

The main issues of the campaign are job- or money-related. We’ve got WorkChoices to contend with, flame wars about union bosses, Rudd and Howard trying to convince us they know how to run the economy best… The issues of health and education are less prominent. All the talk of hospitals seems to be tied in with their funding. Education is all about preparing you for working life. The Government’s handing out tax cuts to just about everyone.

It’s all about money and work.

Is this what we’ve become? Is this really all that matters to us anymore? What happened to community? What happened to people caring about the society we live in and the people themselves? When did we become so fucking selfish?

I want a campaign on social issues, on things that matter, not just how much money Howard can bribe us with. I want us to start caring about each other again, to stop being so terrified of each other, to want to learn for learning’s sake, not just because you have to to further your career. I want less emphasis on the economy and more on the people.

The social well-being of the people should be a government’s main priority. They are there to look after the country and the people. Managing the economy is part of that, sure, but it is not the only job.

At the moment, we have two leaders who are willing to support blatant discrimination against same-sex couples in legislation. If the Liberals want to run a scare campaign about Labor union bosses, then if Labor had any spine at all, they’d run a campaign on all the right-wing Christian organisations and big business influences behind some of our Federal Ministers! That I find far more scary than union bosses.

I hate Howard’s rhetoric on unions, how he seems to say he’s all for unions when WorkChoices is aimed at getting rid of them altogether. The people are much stronger as a group. This is why unions work and are important in workplaces. I doubt Howard would even care if all the unions disappeared overnight. I think he’d laugh with glee because he’s got what he wanted. We all become human machines, working far too many hours for not enough pay in a bid to keep Howard’s Economy booming.

Boom times do not last. It’s going to end some time, probably when we run out of things to dig up. What happens then? Have we even bothered investing some of the funds for a rainy day when things aren’t as strong? This is what the Government should be doing. They should be investing in our future to ensure that we can still survive when things get tougher. We should be investing in humanity, to better ourselves spiritually, socially, mentally, reconnecting with each other again. We should not be wasting $34 billion on election campaign tax cuts that ultimately do more harm than good.

What sort of society have we created? Is it really healthy? Or are we all too afraid to admit it has problems?

Just this week, President Bush welcomed the Dalai Lama in a way that Howard was too cowardly to do. If Bush has done one thing that’s worth remembering in his 8 years in office, I will remember that, because it was a disgrace that Howard was too afraid of upsetting China to meet with him. Once again, the economy was an issue. China buys our coal, therefore we shouldn’t piss them off, because then they’ll take their money away. It’s all about the fucking money!

Gah! We do not bow to China! We should not bow to any sovereign country, not even the USA or the UK. We are a strong nation. Why must we run around like a lapdog and try and placate all the Big World Leaders™ in a bid to convince them we’re allies and friends and they should let us play with them? It’s sickening. It’s degrading. It makes us look pathetic.

Our lack of care for our fellow humans is clear from our continued flouncing of UN Charters we’ve signed on to. You can’t just pick and choose which UN Charters to take on board and which to dismiss. You sign on to it, you abide by it. No exceptions. We should not be selling our uranium to India either. We should not be selling uranium to any country that hasn’t signed up for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Hell, we shouldn’t be selling uranium full stop.

We need to stop caring about The Market and focus back on the people. If you rule a bunch of sheep, you are nothing more than a dictator. The politics of fear lead down this path. We should all be afraid of where it might take us.