The Snag in Democracy.

There is one snag in democracy: democratic governments are pressured into doing what is easy and what is popular, not what is right.

For example, an Australian government cannot introduce same-sex marriage, lower the voting age or allow more immigrants (or boat people, if you insist) into the country because, sadly, backwards racist sexist buttheads still vote in this country.

I have a big problem with Australian politics - it's all talk and no play. Sure, most of us aren't starving, but we don't do anything. We are nothing. It's so unbelievably frustrating. What is the point of having a first class cabin on a train that does not go anywhere?

Religion gets in the way too much, too. For a hugely irreligious and supposedly secular country, we are amazingly swayed by religion. Why do we leave it to our imaginary friends to decide who gets married or not? Gay marriage - have you ever actually asked God whether he's okay with it or not? In Australia, civil marriages have overtaken religious marriages. If you want to think of marriage as a holy, sacred, religious thing, fine. I'm not going to try and teach evolution to creationists. But marriage is also very much a legal thing. With marriage comes rights, responsibilities, priviledges - and who are we to deny that to anybody?

Since when has age been a measurement for wisdom? Here I sit, at home, politically nonexistant, ranting on a blog - I have no vote, no say, no weight. Minors here have no legal rights or representation - we are nothing, we are nonentities, we are vassals to The Grown Ups - much like wives lost all sense of identity when they married, in the not so long ago. I am nothing until I turn eighteen - what is so special about a number? I am fifteen, not particularly remarkable, but I still have a better grasp of politics than that bogan who votes.

I am so angry. I am frustrated because I am screaming in a soundproof cage. I can do nothing but throw rocks in a glass house. I sit and watch, infuriated, at one useless politician after another, at one pointless election after another.  I feel like that crazy scientist trying to bawl instructions at particularly useless robots.

I am dying for change - the time is ripe for revolution, but just as the time is right we have become apathetic, nonchalant, complacent. Australia is not so grand it cannot take a little change - change is healthy, even in nirvana, which Australia most certainly is not. I'm running out of steam, here - my life starts later, but the adrenaline has kicked in now. What is the point of talking of change when no change ever happens? Screw thos backwards assholes who can't see past sex and colour! Do you really need their votes?

The sad thing is, yes, you do need those votes. You can either be in power and useless or useless because you have no power. This, my friend, is the snag in democracy.