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Putting out the fire with gasoline: the Iraq war reveals a deeper crisis whose monumental affect has not yet registered in the consciousness of the electorate.

Article Excerpt
While all elections avoid difficult questions and the 'politics of the possible' is about avoidance behaviour, the 2004 federal election takes the cake. After the ruptures brought about by the global market that emerged 25 years ago, we now face social and cultural issues that go to the heart of how we will live over the next century. The emerging cultural crisis of globalisation is a general background to the campaign, a background that is largely ignored. It only gains specific recognition through the policies stimulated by terrorism and security--and these are forms of avoidance by all concerned. They do not allow even the slightest glimmer to enter public discourse of what that crisis means for the world generally and the Australian public in particular. While these are matters that cannot be properly dealt with in a short comment, one aspect of these global eruptions --the crisis of energy--can be used to illustrate the contradictions at work and the dilemmas avoided during the campaign of 2004.

Whether one agrees with those who have always maintained that the war in Iraq was merely a war of resources,...

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