THE LEMMINGS ARE COMING!

Lemmings don't commit suicide. They panic. They overbreed creating food shortages and overcrowding, then they stampede and some of them get pushed over a cliff. Humans do the same thing, except they drown.

There is no "boat people" crisis. It's a media beat-up. The controversy keeps politicians employed. What's a few thousand people here or there to an economy the size of Australia's? Australia has money to burn. Billions of dollars spent on dopey politicians. Billions of dollars on speedy internet. Billions of dollars on leaky submarines. Billions of dollars on American wars that have no hope of success. Billions of dollars on private schools, including cult schools whose function it is to keep their pupils immersed in a swamp of superstitious ignorance. Billions of dollars on airport security to protect us from the "religion of peace". Millions of dollars in overseas aid that ends up in Swiss bank accounts. Millions of dollars on prestigious United Nations wanks. Millions of dollars on religious chaplains. Millions of dollars on so-called "white papers" that get largely ignored. All up, billions and billions of dollars, chucked down the drain, but unfortunately not much money in the kitty to house the homeless. Fuck 'em. Bunch of wankers.

Why should we worry about Australians sleeping under bridges and in shop doorways? "You wanna roof over your head, you useless wankers, well there's a fifteen year waiting list." And no, Sarah Hanson-Young is not on the list. She is securely ensconsed in her own home. She has a roof over her head. Everybody who favours flooding the country with so-called asylum seekers has a roof over their head. They are safe, comfortable and secure. The more crowded the country becomes the more their property increases in value.

And so where am I going with this? Is there a boat people crisis or not? Not at the moment. We can easily find homes and hospital care and education and spending money for the few thousand people who are currently calling Australia home. A few billion dollars extra – no problemo. And if you disagree, tough luck because 99% of those people on Christmas Island will be accepted whether you like it or not. We will pay for them out of our taxes and we will survive. We will build temporary homes for privilege seekers on Nauru because let's face it, we can't have our new arrivals sleeping rough, and soon they'll be on the mainland living the life of Reilly. And although Australia will end up with the sort of racial and religious hatred experienced elsewhere, we will survive.

But what of the future?

THE BIG THREE

There are three problems facing us now that will continue to haunt us well into the future. They are Religion, Overcrowding and Greed. We need to stop fussing about a few thousand infiltrators here and there and concentrate on the future. The big picture, I think it's called. Did you see Dick Smith's chart about global population growth? Most growth has taken place in the last hundred years. Humans have been slumming around on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years and population growth was minimal. In the past hundred years we've leapt from one billion to more than seven billion. The Catholic Church and some American razzamatazz churches forbid the use of contraception in countries where population growth is out of control. The continued survival of these parasitical churches depends upon population growth, regardless of the suffering.

RELIGION

So let's look at religion, in particular the Abrahamic religions. God instructs Jews to slaughter Palestinians, or Canaanites and Hittites as they were called back then. "Slaughter man, woman, child and suckling (baby), let none survive, saith the Lord." Between 1947 - 1948 the Jews obeyed God and slaughtered thousands of Palestinians. Why not? God had promised the land to them so they had an absolute divine right to slaughter anyone who dared to occupy "their" land. A duty in fact.

I visited Lebanon in 1970 and was astonished to see mile upon mile of tents on the outskirts of Beirut. "What are they?" I inquired. "Palestinians" came the reply. These were the families driven off the land they had occupied since pre-biblical times. The new Nazis had bulldozed their homes, burned their olive groves and orchards, slaughtered their cattle, murdered old people and children. God must be obeyed.

There are thirty million Palestinian refugees spread around the middle east. Why not offer them a home in Australia? What say you Hanson-Young?

Saddam Hussein drove out thousands of Christians from Iraq. They have been rotting in refugee camps in Jordan this past twenty years. They are the wrong religion, no way could they be tolerated in Iraq. Sunnis are the wrong religion, they are being murdered by Shiites. Shiites are the wrong religion, they are being murdered by Sunnis. A bombed mosque here, a bombed mosque there, who cares? Everyone's carrying out God's will. Allah loves a winner.

In Afghanistan the Taliban are murdering their own people because they can. God instructs them to. Brothers murder sisters, fathers murder daughters, it's all the go when you're a God-loving devotee. Everyone's murdering everyone in Muslim countries and so it's no wonder the lemmings are on the move.

THE GLORIOUS VICTORS

Afghanis have beaten the British, twice. They've beaten the Soviet union. They've beaten the combined forces of the USA, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, and Uncle Tom Cobley an' all. They've beaten everyone. Two years from now the United Nations will run with it's tail between its legs. The United Nations has already lost the war but it won't admit it. A few thousand rag-tag Taliban assassins have beaten everybody. When the UN retreats it will do so with feigned dignity. It will pretend it's leaving the country in the capable hands of the freshly trained Afghanistan army. The UN will leave behind untold tons of military equipment that will change hands in under a year. We will arm the Taliban like it's never been armed before. Thank you President Reagan for the Stinger missiles, thank you President Obama (or whoever) for tanks, helicopters, cannons and thousands of M60 and M240 rapid fire rifles. Very generous of you. Now we can slaughter every woman who has ever appeared in public without a burqa. Wait till we get our hands on those young women who appeared on television's 'Afghan Star', singing and dancing without so much as a head scarf. Death to everyone who disobeys Allah. God is Great!

The lemming are already panicking and running and leaving their daughters and sisters behind to face the music. Let 'em die, they're only women.

Religion is wonderful and we must show cultural sensitivity towards the "religion of peace". Anyone who criticises Islam is a hate-monger, a racist, a Nazi. Allow the Taliban to slaughter Afghanistan women and look the other way. We must remain culturally sensitive.

POPULATION GROWTH

In the Sudan, in Somalia, in countries throughout Africa, the refugee camps are filled to overflowing. Hundreds of thousands of starving people are grateful for a handful of rice each day. Millions more are desperate to reach a refugee camp. Many will be raped, robbed and murdered along the way. Their children will be kidnapped and sold into slavery. But what the fuck? Why should we care?

GREED

Look, I can get cheap jeans from Kmart. Just $7 a pair. Wow, I might as well buy six pairs, all different colours. Am I bothered that Asian workers are being paid less and less to produce more and more? No, I don't give a stuff. Not my problem. And yes, I'm aware that $30 could save a child from starvation but I need a new pair of shoes. I've only got 28 pairs, I need another pair. And a new handbag or two. And some new jewellery. And a new TV. And a new smart phone. And some new T shirts. A new suit or a dress or two. A new watch. A new car. A new hand drill. Anti-wrinkle sludge – guaranteed to reduce the visible signs of ageing. Restaurants. Pokies. Beer. Ciggies. Hey, I need thousands of new things and to hell with the children who are dying in refugee camps. Fuck 'em. Let 'em die. I work for my money.

Tell you what though, I'll attend church on Sunday and pray for the poor. Yes, that's what I'll do, I'll turn the problem over to Jesus.

AND SO...

Fortunately for us those people in African refugee camps have no way of raising $10,000 to pay people smugglers. They couldn't raise $10 letalone 10,000, so we can forget about them, let 'em die. All we have to concern ourselves with are the relatively well-off privilege seekers who can raise $10,000. The lucky few. At very best, even if we double our refugee intake, or quadruple it, we'll still be helping fewer than 1% the terrified and starving people in the world. And the more we take the more will come. The population of Pakistan is greater than 700 million. How many of those people would choose to stay in Pakistan given the opportunity to move here? Government funded housing, free hospital care, free education and free money. Chances are we could empty Pakistan, Africa, Afghanistan, Palestine, Gaza and Jordan. They would all love to come here if only they could raise the $10,000 for the people smugglers. And wait till global flooding gets under way. Pakistan under water. Whoa baby... you reckon we've got problems now? Hah – you ain't seen nuthin' yet!

My question to Sarah Hanson-Young is, where do you draw the line? How many do we take? One million? Ten million? Twenty million? Fifty million? A hundred million? Give us a figure. Don't just rail against injustice from the safety of parliament. Give us a figure. And tell us what you say to those people who get knocked back.

The lemmings are reproducing at an alarming rate. This planet will soon be hosting eight billion, then ten billion, then fifteen billion and so on. And the righteous will drive those whom God disapproves of from their land. Heretics must be slaughtered because that's what God thrives on. He demands it. It is written, kill anyone who doesn't worship the correct God in the correct manner. And fight against contraception because it is evil, a sin against God. Keep on reproducing, reproducing, reproducing. Let's hit thirty billion!

From time to time we'll be struck by major flu epidemics, plagues even, and they'll cull a few million here and there but we'll quickly replace the dead with newer, hungrier babies. Billions and billions and billions of babies. The Catholic Church insists on it. Keep on multiplying, suckers.

Peak oil and the end of the "green revolution" will kill off a few more but we'll find a way around it. Growth! Growth! Growth! – it's the Torah Torah Torah of our time, our war cry as we plunge relentlessly towards our ultimate destruction.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

And so is there a solution? Yes there is but it's a tough one. We must remove our blinkers. We must start taking notice of what's going on in the world. It's known as the broader picture. It's known as reality. And then – here's the biggie – we must take what is known as action. So long as we insist on keeping our gods and gremlins and insist on everyone's right to worship their own gods and gremlins there will always be Saddam Hussein's, born-again Nazis and the Taliban. There will always be massacres, terror and mass migration.

So those of us who acknowledge the madness of religion, all religions, should spread the gospel of reality like never before. We must wage war on religion. It's urgent.

But then, we should admit that we really don't care. Some of might care a tiny little bit, the Sarah Hanson-Youngs among us, but most of us don't give a damn. Given the choice between saving the lives of a thousand children or holding the Olympic Games most of us would say, "Fuck the children, let 'em die. We demand our Olympic Games." Mind you, we wouldn't say it like that, we'd find a politer, less confrontational way of expressing ourselves. Like, people don't have sex, or fuck, they "sleep together". We do so love our euphemisms. But however we express our lack of concern, let's stop bullshitting each other and let's stop bullshitting ourselves. We demand our luxuries and to hell with the suffering of others.

Fact: 24,000 people starve to death every DAY!

So long as we make choices that doom millions of starving people to a fate worse than death followed by death itself there will always be atrocities, terror and mass migration. Presently we are witnessing the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg is melting, the land is shrinking, the oil is exhausting, the lemmings are breeding, the righteous are empowering and the nuclear powers are emboldening. With our current blinkered outlook on life only one thing will put an end to the boat people "problem" and that's global nuclear war.

The problem with that is it will kill us.

Bruno McCartney