The PR Blog

Bruce Ruxton is one of my heroes. I never met the man and these notes are drawn from personal recollection of some of his better known controversial escapades with a bit of research added in. He passed on 23rd of December 2011. 

He was born too late to be able to become a hero in the traditional sense. He joined the Army in 1944 and was assigned to the Survey Corps of the Royal Australian Engineers, a natural progression from his civilian occupation. Towards the end of the war, he was transferred as a rifleman during the Borneo campaign.

“We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” 

~ Martin Luther King Jr. 

Amazing things are happening today, but still few are paying attention. This is a travesty, because the importance of any and all resistance to the state, any state, if embraced, can only lead to a freer world. This country and the world, have fallen into slavery voluntarily, and therefore have accepted the status quo that is serfdom, instead of clinging to and supporting all manner of dissent as necessary for the survival of man.

‘We swear by the Southern Cross, to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and liberties’

So said Peter Lalor in 1854 at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat. The Eureka Stockade resulted from resentment.  

On 30 November 1854 miners from the Victorian town of Ballarat, disgruntled with the way the colonial government had been administering the goldfields, swore allegiance to the Southern Cross flag at Bakery Hill and built a stockade at the nearby Eureka diggings. By the 3rd of December, 22 diggers and six soldiers were dead.

As the days pass by, I am increasingly thinking that the world has gone mad. 

Mad. Insane. Where Reason has popped off the perch and idiocy has entered the room and is now holding court.

Life has become so crazy that the old song about the hole in the bucket is now more prophetic than amusing.

It was Christmas Day 2019 Residents of an old folks home were eagerly awaiting their Christmas dinner. Their anticipation turned to regret when they saw the plate set before them. Baked beans and mashed potato.

Here we are, 3 years later and I have to wonder how many older folk and, indeed, younger folk, would be happy to see such a feast placed before them?

Because, let's face it, things are pretty grim this year and not looking as if they will get any better. Maybe a cold can of baked beans and a candle are going to be the least of our worries. 

I have been thinking a lot these days about the dying art of conversation. There are so many topics that are taboo and even talking about the weather has become a no go zone. 

I heard someone say that people are so accustomed to texting that they feel uncomfortable talking face to face. While I freely admit that technology has been an incredibly exciting pathway to opening channels of communication previously unavailable - being able to communicate with friends and relatives in far distant countries - it does have its downside.

People sit down to dine and are busy taking photographs of their meal and posting them on social media. Heads are bowed over smartphones and fingers are busy typing and no one seems to talk with each other.