It seems to me that the current election campaign exemplifies the commodity fetishism that Guy Debord speaks of in Society of the Spectacle. Our political leaders have become brands, interchangeable icons of representation, feverishly pushing party policy, poignantly executed by the Labor party's ousting of our incumbent PM.
Mr Abbott, in his campaign, has been quoted speaking of 'participation reforms' essentially 'motivating' people around the country into a homogenized mass that is without need of state support. In other words, selling the representation of a better life, when in fact his policies will push people to work harder and for longer.
I had many conversations over the last week about the election, and discovered that many people, like myself had voted for a party not because of what they stood for, but because they disliked what the other parties stood for. It seems to me that our Australian flavor of advanced capitalism is no longer a battle of idea's, and what is on offer ideologically to the Australian public is a desolately homogeneous landscape, so while Mr Rabbit flaps his ears and the Ginger Ninja swishes her hair, maybe Australians can step back from the spectacle and consider what it is they are voting for.
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