Blog Archives
INDIGENOUS VOICE OF A REPUBLIC
Australians will vote in a referendum, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to enshrining in Australia’s Constitution an ‘Indigenous Voice’, to function alongside Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary.
A different idea is for Australia to become a republic independent of the British Monarchy. It has been delayed by failure to agree how to appoint a government leader, possibly a president.
The two reforms coincide in seeking new national leadership for Australia. In theory, the same leader could serve both the Indigenous Voice and the interests of other Australians. The role could merge to represent all Australians equally.
In my book ‘The Grass Is Always Browner’ (Zeus 2011) Australia 250 years in the future, is governed by a democratically elected Prime Minister, Abajoe, whose family are a respected dynasty of Aboriginal Australians. His government manages the nation’s problems, including famine, floods, immigration, religion, threat of foreign invasion and civil insurrection. Abajoe is able to arbitrate disputes and intervene from national heritage and traditional rights positions. His elected duty is to hold in custody the land and resources of Australia for all Australians.
If the Voice speaks for all Australians, not just Indigenous ones, perhaps it could be welcomed for leadership of a Republic, denying partisan interests intractably opposing national unity. An objection to the Voice I have heard is that it would serve Indigenous Australians unequally. Can this be overcome by enlarging its domain? For example, could the Voice inherit the sovereign interests of the British monarchy?
The book ‘The Grass Is Always Browner’ is on Amazon.
For reviews see martinknox.com

FUTURE OF THE PASTORAL IDYLL
In 1995 Theodore Kaczynski wrote Industrial Society and Its Future in which he proposed overthrowing the economic and technological basis of the present society. His reasoning was that individuals had become over-socialised, pursued false goals and lacked autonomy. Scientists and technologists were culpable of pursuing surrogate goals and marched on blindly regardless of the welfare of the human race. His evidence of the failure of the industrial system is leftism, which he regards as a symptom of the disruption of the power process. His solution after revolution is to disperse technologies and organisations, with most people accepting hardships to live idyllically close to nature, feeding themselves as peasants, herdsmen, fishermen or hunters. His paper is available on the Internet.
My novel The Grass Is Always Browner (2011) tells a different epic fictional political thriller of several generations of a people, beginning in the year 2237, based on current technological trends, including climate change. Independently of the Kaczynski analysis, industrial society collapses after famine and coastal flooding, with the population dispersing from urban centres to grow their own food and self-sustain on acreages. Political organisation is led by a dynasty of Aboriginal people, who arbitrate in religious conflict between the descendants of European settlers and immigrants from Asian countries.
Both works forecast attempts by ordinary people to regain the idyllic state of nature idealised by the Romantic poets and later by hippies. To reach it, dystopian transition conditions could be necessary. However, lives could be improved by it and this story enables us to consider modifying the direction of technological development or even rejecting it.
The Grass Is Always Browner is on Amazon. Further information: https://martinknox.com

FUTURE OF THE PASTORAL IDYLL
In 1995 Theodore Kaczynski wrote Industrial Society and Its Future in which he proposed overthrowing the economic and technological basis of the present society. His reasoning was that individuals had become over-socialised, pursued false goals and lacked autonomy. Scientists and technologists were culpable of pursuing surrogate goals and marched on blindly regardless of the welfare of the human race. His evidence of the failure of the industrial system is leftism, which he regards as a symptom of the disruption of the power process. His solution after revolution is to disperse technologies and organisations, with most people accepting hardships to live idyllically close to nature, feeding themselves as peasants, herdsmen, fishermen or hunters. His paper is available on the Internet.
My novel The Grass Is Always Browner (2011) tells a different epic fictional political thriller of several generations of a people, beginning in the year 2237, based on current technological trends, including climate change. Independently of the Kaczynski analysis, industrial society collapses after famine and coastal flooding, with the population dispersing from urban centres to grow their own food and self-sustain on acreages. Political organisation is led by a dynasty of Aboriginal people, who arbitrate in religious conflict between the descendants of European settlers and immigrants from Asian countries.
Both works forecast attempts by ordinary people to regain the idyllic state of nature idealised by the Romantic poets and later by hippies. To reach it, dystopian transition conditions could be necessary. However, lives could be improved by it and this story enables us to consider modifying the direction of technological development or even rejecting it.
The Grass Is Always Browner is on Amazon. Further information: https://martinknox.com
