I really love Q & A on the ABC so was surprised to see a special Q & A on last night after Dick Smith’s documentary about resource waste/management and population control. As usual they had a loudmouth on the panel, this time in the form of John Elliot, who with his tiny world view blathered over others who actually had some idea of what they were talking about.
The entire show seemed to be a battle between capitalism and everyone else. Capitalism demands growth, it doesn’t require it, and we cannot sustain the growth capitalism wants without wiping the planet out and killing ourselves. I think the issue is that the coming disaster being referred to is not going to be in our lifetimes so it’s easy for capitalists, who are focused mainly on money, to act like it’s not a problem or worse – that it’s someone else’s problem.
It was nice to see the debate steer away from immigration for once, I just hope that last night wasn’t the beginning and the end of the discussion. The politicians were in particularly good form last night with very little point scoring occuring, giving me hope that there are solutions coming that we can all strive for.
