By Jo Nova
The Class with No Name
Martin Durkin’s latest video exposes the stealthy rise of a secret new ruling class in society.
The most powerful class in society has been anonymously invisible, unnamed, and unnoticed, and this is key to its success. If the ruling class is named, the masses would be able to discuss the common motivations and interests of its members. While it has no name, it can disguise itself as separate neutral parties working to help “society”.
“An entire social class that has steadily grown in size and power over the past century — whose very existence, whose jobs and income depend on depriving the rest of us of our money and freedom.”
That this cloak of invisibility, it turns out, is exactly the way the Soviet bureaucrats worked. We know this, because, as Martin Durkin explains, it was described in 1957 by a man called Milovan Djilash in his book called The New Class. His book was smuggled out of Yugoslavia and printed in the US. It earnt him 15 years in jail — obviously he was speaking a dangerous truth.
Djilash had become appalled by the socialist system he helped set up. He had come to realize it did not represent a victory of the working class, but of a new oppressive parasitic, bureaucratic class. And for this New Class, he said, it was vital that it must deny its own existence. This, he said, was the biggest deception it must accomplish.
” The source of power for this new class was public administration — its power to regulate and control everybody else. The new class, he said, finds itself unavoidably at war with everything which it does not administer or handle and must deliberately aspire to destroy or conquer it. “
Gorilla Science
The New Deal in the 1930s led to an explosion in alphabet agencies and regulators and planners. Understandably, the people inside the class are only human, and they like their jobs and their junkets. Thus they become “a bureaucratic solution in search of a problem to solve”, in order to grow their own power. Verily, the bureaucracy expands to fill as much of the economy as it possibly can (and then some).
The New Class is at war with the free individual:
The new class, by definition, is absolutely at war with laissez-faire free market capitalism.
For the new class, lower taxes and less regulation are a direct challenge to its livelihood.
The new class, though it does not say it outright, is implacably against the notion of private property.
It ought to be up to the state, the state run by them, to determine how much of our money, our earnings, and savings we will be allowed to keep.
And so for the new class, it’s axiomatic that capitalism is cruel, oppressive, inefficient, corrupt.
Martin Durkin points out that the State calls itself “democratic” to soften up the awful truth of the authoritarian power. “Instead of calling something “state control” it’s called “democratic control”. This mirrors what Mike Benz talks about with the US State Department and its “Whole of society censorship framework”. When we protest and complain about a state institution we are “attacking democracy itself” which justifies calling for censorship. It is as if democracy means the Institutions of a democratic country, rather than the power of the voters.
Part of the reason the New Class has stayed so well hidden is because the very academics and people who define the Classes of society are a part of the New Class, and there are no benefits to them in being exposed as a class that serves itself.
And of course, in an unholy alliance, the bureaucrats align with the corporate predators who are folded into the New Class too. The Big Pharma Giants work with the regulators they capture in a symbiotic parasitic relationship.
I shall continue to call this new class The Blob, for want of any better, more apt sounding name. But we must have a name, for we cannot fight a vaporous foe. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help tell the world about the new ruling class. Everything they want to hide, we must expose.
My draft definition:
BLOB (The) — The parasitic unholy alliance of Big Corporations, Big Government, Big Bankers and their entire fan club and cheer squad of supporters. Dangerously, this also includes the watchdogs: the Spy Agencies and large parts of the media. The Blob takes money from citizens, pays other parts of the Blob (eg USAID, The UN, The BIS, The World Bank etc), pretends to “help” some token victim group or environmental cause, or even to monitor or audit The Blob, but the outcome benefits The Blob more than the victims. They line their own pockets and increase their own privileges.
The Blob also includes a special category of “useful idiots” who naively assist them in looting Western Civilization. These people are paid in status or an illusory sense of purpose rather than money. They may not realize they are part of the self-serving Blob, and in the long run are not only harming the trees, birds and whales they say they want to save, but are harming their own health, wealth, national security, and worse, that of their children.
From the joannenova.com.au site list of Abbreviations and Terms.
The pushback is coming. Any word that gives power to the individual will be subsumed, relabeled, distorted and misused by The Blob in an attempt to neutralize it. I’m sure I saw the ABC mention it recently…
This, according to Marxist theory is state capture, and it’s not really secret, just follow the money, for an example, hydrocarbon producers are getting what they want in the US, or how the great big beautiful bill favours the 1% at the expense to the bottom 50%
[As usual Peter Fitzroy’s job is to distract people with a strawman, and defend the communists. State Capture is just one small part of the New Class. And the secret that matters here is that the existence of this parasitic class itself is kept hidden. Who benefits from Hydrocarbons — individuals more than The Blob. – Jo]
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The hydrocarbon producers have something WE want and need. They wouldn’t be in business if they weren’t producing a product vital for our Civilisation.
And in the BBB, as far as I know, the tax cuts from the first TRUMP administration which were temporary (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017) are being made permanent and were never rescinded by the Obiden Maladministration. And tax cuts benefited all people, not just the top 1%.
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Great response David,
PF and friends actually serve a purpose here by expressing lefty ideology or talking points.
The best response is not to get involved in lengthy debates but to expose the logical fallacies or ideologies to us other readers.
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The BBB was set to sunset this year not as Mr Maddison claims. but diversion is the name of the game here, blame the blob, not the main players like Musk, Diamond, most of congress and all of the senate and the president. follow the money
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Peter, you didn’t watch Martin Durkins excellent video. Thank you for turning up to prove Durkin is right about how The Blob or The New Class will always try to distract the crowd with the old Class War trope, the anti-capitalist narrative; pretending that they are on the side of the workers, while they screw them. The Blob wants to us to think a few corporate giants are the source of evil, but which industry giants did they pick? — The industry that gives people freedom to move, to heat, to cool, to make products and grow food.
As Durkin said, the New Class is at war with individual freedom. They want to control the workers, not serve them. Who benefits from the Climate Crisis — there’s a million new Blob jobs, in renewables, carbon accounting, legislation, research, monitoring, UN junkets, whole Ministries. Notice how The Blob choices (regardless of their own so-called “Science”) always promote the industries that are dependent and controlled by Big Gov, and always shrink industries that are self-sustaining and independent of Big Gov. EG, low emission nuclear is ignored, and perpetually useless wind and solar are a Win. Holy Batteryman!
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Jo,
Having just watched the video, I reckon Peter Fitzroy
is the public front FOR The New Class.
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I love it when these trolls try to argue as they really don’t have a clue but some of the answers really strike a chord and make me think and put my thoughts in order and give me a better idea of how to answer them. Thank you trolls.
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Components of The Bblob are supposedly USAID, which has been disestablished despite some fine humanitarian work and a vehicle for US soft power. The UN has proved to be powerless to stop conflict and humanitarian disasters.All the World Bank does is provide loans for third world development projects, some of which are controversial. The Blob lies elsewhere.
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Did you have a look at the many links from USAID to NGOs, and the cross-linked money flows between these NGOs? BTW, USAID does not stand for U.S. aid – the organisation was originally setup for a different purpose, and was subverted over the years to channel millions of govt money into some very dubious organisations. I’m for one am very glad that it was shut down.
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mind you Trump has increased his net worth by around a billion with the introduction of the Crypto Bill, nothing unusual there. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1EbBV8YzSg&ab_channel=WorldAffairsInContext
[Dear Commenters, notice how Fitzroy is here to distract us away from Durkins video points and back to TDS red herrings.- Jo]
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Trump represents, at best, crony capitalism, where favour has to be purchased and competition is suppressed. It’s the very opposite of laissez-faire free market capitalism. Let’s take away the hidden subsidies, make users and polluters pay, let the market determine the winner. At worst, Trump represents fascism or national socialism, where the state is nationalised into businesses owned by cronies. Those that object will be put in concentration camps.
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Take away the “hidden subsidies” on replaceable solar and wind, and make them pay to remediate the land they wrecked, and watch them sink like a stone.
Oh, and fine them for the wildlife they kill.
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Trump threatens The Blob, that’s why Blob spokesmen have turned up to attack him — hoping they can stop us discussing the New Class itself. They project their own flaws onto Trump to blur and muddy up the conversation. They are the crony capitalists, and Trump is cutting their lifeblood — the climate subsidies and the USAID “charity” money. Trump risked his life, and Elon risked his companies. Doc’s comment below #1.1.2.2 is a winner.
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LOL. So how did ‘Oh Bummer’, Pelosi and others along with Fauci get so wealthy?
Corruption comes to mind.
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Donald The Great promised to go after members of Congress who seem to be fabulously wealthy from no apparent source. I know he is very busy but I hope he has not forgotten to go after corrupt politicians and on that note it will include Obummer, Shrillary & co for their Russia collusion hoax. Somebody suggested removing their passports so they can’t flea the country while they are being brought to justice.
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Yawnnn….. Zzzz, your partisan diatribes are boring and stupid since you ignore the amazing wealth growth of many politicians mainly democrats in the congress who have a modest salary that couldn’t possibly turn them into multi-millionaires.
Meanwhile Trump as he did in his first term doesn’t take any of his presidential salary.
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It would have cost Trump almost that much in defending himself against the hoaxes of the Democrats.
Those hoaxes allegedly go back to Obama receiving an independent report on Russia NOT interfering in the election Trump won in 2016. That report wasn’t released but papers just released by Tulsi Gabbard show the report was sent back for ‘rearrangement’ to report there WAS Russian interference. That went hand in hand with the construction of the Russian Collusion document allegedly funded by Hilary. That was the blob in action, allegedly involving POTUS along with all the main security apparatus of the US Democrats led government. Truth and principles are totally absent in the US blob.The supposed ‘will of the people’ is a total nonsense in leftwing politics.
It’s all about ultimate POWER. We’ve seen the reality of the same type of cabal that leads us here. Big Media! Oligarchs few in number but rich to an extent we have never witnessed in Australia! Leftwing politics destroying or seeking to control all major enterprises in this country down to a Treasurer seeking all major businesses to be combined government -private enterprise entities. Big Banks, Financial Institutions, AFL. All combining to control more and more of the country, even to the extent of destroying our food production which seems the sole push back faced by the ‘blob’.
You can see the blob blubbering about the Trump demolition of their power bases every day of the week on CNN and MSNBC. It’s a joy to watch the exposure and complete melt downs. Suddenly its all about Trump ‘seeking revenge’ – as if they are above criminality charges; charges that anyone else could label as treason against an elected President.
You talk of hydrocarbons that got us to where we are now, which have been shown to still be vital to keeping our lights on. But you have carefully avoided the disgusting subsidization of an over the top replacement energy system that even the European sources of AGW theory have shown cannot work. Those huge subsidies are paid by the poorest and middle class people that cannot afford solar panels on their roofs. The left talk of nuclear power being too expensive over a few billion when their own system costs cannot be revealed but are estimated at over $1T. That’s the blob at work!
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The benefit of freedom of choice is that you have the right to purchase the goods of your choice or not.
Do you despise the hydrocarbon industry but actually support them in your deeds?
A true believer would forego all hydrocarbon products and never look back. Do you know what your world would look like if you took that step? The simple outcomes indicate no plastics, the more complex links, (the secondary effects of your prohibition), include the cancellation of all secondary goods that used plastic in their production. So you couldn’t even wear tanned leather, since the tanning process used chemicals that were at least transported in plastic, if not indeed made from hydrocarbons.
Or are some hydrocarbons okay and other not?
Maybe you could send us a list of the good ones and a list of the bad ones so that we can follow your logic.
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you seem to misunderstand, the roll back of legislation benefits the extractors, it is the roll back that, in the terms of this post, is a function of the blob. I’m not debating the means of energy production, and I am mysterfied why this is your (and Mr Maddison’s) response.
I will say it again, look to who benefits, they are the blob.
That is better described as state capture
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No Peter, the biggest beneficiaries of the roll back of creeping pointless climate regulations are The People who regain access to cheap electricity and fuel.
Sure, some corporations benefit too, but only those that serve the people. Does Trump’s new rules encourage more corporations to provide energy (drill baby drill) and thus increase competition and reduce profit margins. I think it does…
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And the people are definitely benefiting. One example was the significant expansion of a works that was now able to employ a lot more staff as it had received a lot of new orders. This was directly related to the change in tariffs. The state of Pennsylvania has received new work proposals to the sum of US$92bn, in many cases proposals to build new data centres. Why? Because the state has greatly benefited from the expansion of cheaper electricity from fossil fuels.
As distinct from California, which is drowning in its bid to become a place powered by expensive, unreliable renewables.
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In the US, the LANDOWNER owns the minerals under the person’s land. If the big, bad, oil company wants to exploit those minerals, they have to PAY the LANDOWNER for that privilege. A legal contract, binding on both parties.
I know, I have producing minerals, and negotiated the contract. (It took 4 years. . . )
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Unfortunately in Australia, property “owners” do not have mineral rights on their land.
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The ‘Crown’ gets it all.
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… unless native title is involved?
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Nope. The State Govts own the mineral deposits. Tested in the High Court ad nauseum.
Native Title does NOT confer Royalties from mining onto Native Title owners, despite the MSM constantly lying about it. This is done by quiet State Govt deals, hiding the fact from view that re-distributing Royalty income reduces the pot for schools, hospitals, roads etc.
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The Crown gets it all, but practically gives it away for a few meagre political donations and a few promises of later jobs and perhaps boardroom seats
(and none of that seems enough for the scale of riches given away and the blatant imbecility of the contracts signed, so a vision of frequent handing over of brown paper bags to individuals comes to mind)
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In all of this argument there’s never admitted that computer models only work with empirical data.
Once subjective data are admitted it’s all downhill for Science.
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One more reason you should have kept your guns (and ditched ‘the Crown’).
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Still got mine, Steve.
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Mmmm me too. I’m guessing Steve is an American that has bought into the “they confiscated all the guns” myth.
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Getting “tricky” in WA now
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David in NSW there were areas where the property owner had rights to minerals below the surface. This was mainly concerning coal in the Lithgow area and the Hunter Valley. I understand that the Catholic Church had considerable rights in the Hunter valley. The company I was working for had rights for their land on which the Mt. Piper power station now stands and also at their colliery near Kandos. Nifty Nev Wran stole the rights and after long arguments (with all participants in court) provided compensation for reserves in the ground of a bit over $1.00/tonne which was less than the royalty being charged by the government to others that did not have royalty rights.
I think mineral rights for owners has some benefits as it would encourage better mining and better environmental outcome as well more open competition. I believe it is better than giving claimments who have no tradition of legal ownership and no proof of having an interest to receive royalties or to prevent development.
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We used to have it to about 200 feet.
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In Australia all property (land) belongs to the state, which grants ‘Titles of varing rights’. The highest Title is freehold, but the State still imposes limits to your rights of what you can do with it.
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The top 1% can afford anything. The bottom 50% welcome cheaper energy.
Well done Mr. Trump.
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” The source of power for this new class was public administration — its power to regulate and control everybody else. The new class, he said, finds itself unavoidably at war with everything which it does not administer or handle and must deliberately aspire to destroy or conquer it. “…..You Pete, have just proven this quote. The BLOB vilifies “Hydrocarbons” and promotes ruinables at the expense of the poor that can’t afford sun mirrors, big batteries, and further down you about Trumps crypto boom. How many of the
BLOB are heavily invested in RUINABLES???? The BLOB (politicians) destroying its competitors, OIL,COAL,GAS in favour of RUINABLES that they all heavily invested in. Isn’t that illegal. You and your leftist loonies are absolute Hypocrites.
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So somehow during your ramblings failed to actually address the posts content in some detail, could it because you are too lazy or is it that really believe in your absurd and shallow propaganda?
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Once again Orwell, in his prophetic work, Nineteen Eighty Four got it right.
In Australia we have a dramatically expanding public “service” to control us with ever more inane and freedom-depriving rules and regulations. Incidentally, the expanded public service also hides unemployment.
The bureaucrats in Nineteen Eighty Four are mostly members of the Inner Party (INGSOC, English Socialism) and are ruthless and power hungry and will do absolutely anything to keep the Party in control and are also responsible for limiting or controlling the flow of information and for the manipulation of language (Newspeak) to control and limit thought.
All these behaviours can be identified at the senior levels of Australia’s public “service” and the politicians they control and tell what to think and say. Needless to say these Inner Party members all have their snouts in the trough and are massively overpaid.
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It’s amazing how prophetic that book was. Or was it just a training manual, not forecasting the future but prescribing it?
We have a public service intent on keeping their team in power. Done.
We have rules designed to extinguish opposition to their plans, eg laws relating to offence. Done.
We have rules to control the media, preventing the free release of an unbiased news service. Done.
I think Orwell wasn’t so much seeing the future, he’d just had a bad day dealing with some local blob and put his experience to paper hoping to change the world. Instead he produced their manual.
Sometimes it’s just better to think the words and hope the thought police don’t come knocking.
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David,
As we speak there is a public service employment freeze. They are reducing the number of public servants not increasing them, I am certain Orwell never predicted that.
The people you speak of “controlling” our politicians are not public servants as in they are not the same as the ones you will find at the tax office etc.
The people you speak of are the Senior Executive Service, these are the connection between the politicians and the departments or the policy development people, these are the people you see sitting behind the minister at the senate enquiries whispering in their ears and they are paid handsomely.
Your average public servant gets paid very little compared to their peers.
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You speak of the Sir Humphrey Applebys and Sir Arnolds of this world?
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In regards to the SES I suppose I am.
These positions are not the same as “public servants” but people always lump them all together.
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Who pays them? they are public servants, although I am sure they have a much higher opinion of themelves and the value they bring.
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They are essential for the smooth running of government.
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Crackar24 — I can find no news stories of a freeze in the public service.
But there are many stories saying the public service continues to grow. Australia now has 1 million public servants and there was a jump of 50,000 in the last year. (June 26, 2025)’
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-now-has-1-million-public-servants-despite-government-vows-to-cut-red-tape-20250626-p5maj8.html
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davids stated low 200k which is pretty accurate, one million, really? Don’t believe everything you read Jo unless you have evidence beyond someone’s unverified numbers?
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Crackar — The government controls a quarter of our whole economy (26.5%). The one million figure is far too low. Our workforce is about 14 million. Thinking there are only 200k “public servants” is … seriously?
These are ABS stats from the link I provided:
I think some people forget there are both State and Federal public servants. Police, nurses, teachers, as well as defence etc. I would also count employees of dependent subsidized entities as “public servants” (EG like Australia Post, as well as wind and solar companies) but they would not be included in the million…
PS: Where are the stories of freezes to the public service?
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Your link is paywalled, it could include everyone State PS, Fed PS, ADF, cleaners, contractors who knows. The link David supplied was for the fed PS which is low 200k
I think we are talking about two different things.
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Sorry forgot to respond to your freeze question, I don’t know why the feeze has not been declared on the internet. Regardless it’s still real I see its effects almost every day.
You can either believe me or not, it won’t change the reality of things.
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Crackar, you may be feeling it in your corner of the public service, I don’t doubt that. But I’m not the one making claims with “unverified numbers”. Pick your fights carefully eh? Even without reading the SMH, just knowing the size of the government spending makes “one million” an underestimate.
If the government spends 26% of the GDP it probably influences 26% of employees in Australia which would actually be more than 3 million people.
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You want to argue about mundane topics then go ahead but don’t waste any more of my time.
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https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/public-sector-employment-and-earnings/2023-24
I reckon Jo’s finger in the air estimate of 3 million is pretty close. If there were 2,517,900 public sector employees in the month of June 2024, with growth, it is by now going to be around the 3 million mark.
It all depends where you draw the boundary of public / private of course – “Government owned corporations and notional institutional units engaged in market production” are not within the public sector boundary https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/standard-economic-sector-classifications-australia-sesca/latest-release
I’d reckon there are enough people employed in that type of institution to easily take it over the 3 million mark
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If a PS leaves the position will become vacant you need to get approval from your department heads before you can advertise for that position. Unless it’s a priority position your application will be rejected so most get rejected.
That’s how gov freezes work now days.
They are at the point now were departments are so desperate to recruit they now send emails to everyone on the gov email with expressions of interest requests for their vacant positions.
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As I read this article I tried to imagine what a typical work day would be like for a public servant. Would it be anything like what Rob Sitch and WD productions depicted? Would it be like Yes Minister? Normalising theBlob with satire?
Albo and his mate Jim talk endlessly about productivity. Is that like walking the Great Wall of China?
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As one who worked in the PS for 19 years, there are the good and great workers and there are the drones. Unfortunately, the PS is a great leveller, who doesn’t fire the drones for poor performance, and often rewards them for doing nothing. I used to delight in finding ways to work around the stifling bureaucracy, but in the end resigned to find my way in private enterprise.
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Imagine the Public Service as a legacy FORTRAN program, with 50+ years of hacks, bugs and GOTO statements.
The focus is on what to do and how to do it (policy and procedures), rather than “why” or “is it still relevant?”.
Staff (permanents and contractors) are resources, just like office space, computers, or funding. These tend to be regarded as interchangeable in the medium term.
Each new manager at each level must put xir own stamp on it, so changes something. It doesn’t matter what, or how well or otherwise it works; that was the old way.
Of course, each manager at each level has limits on what they can change, and is stuck within that level’s procedures.
The end result is that the latest and greatest changes are only partially implemented by the time that manager is redeployed or promoted, and the new manager puts xis stamp on it, as does the previous manager in their new role.
As Graeme said, there are some excellent people in the system, who do their very best to perform their tasks.
The incentives at management levels seem to be for “process improvement”, and any “improvement” which fits the management fad du jour is rewarded.
At “droid” level, being excellent and conscientious runs the risk of becoming indespensable in that role. Guess what happens 🙂
“Just followink orters” meets all of the KPIs without being indispensable in the role, so promotion awaits.
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FEEDING THE CHOOKS
Mike Kaiser’s golden handshake revealed after he goes federal
Anthony Albanese’s latest bureaucratic recruit – Mike Kaiser – was disappeared by David Crisafulli pretty much as soon as the new Liberal National Party Premier got his feet under the desk at 1 William Street.
But his sacking wasn’t without a silver – or more accurately, golden – lining.
Even though all the opinion polls agreed the Labor government was headed for defeat at the October 2024 state election, Kaiser was hired on a five-year contract, in accordance with a provision in Peter Coaldrake’s public service review.
Chooks hears Kaiser left the employ of the Queensland government with a golden handshake worth about $400,000, the equivalent of about six months’ pay, after his five-year contract was abruptly cut short
Kaiser’s also on a good wicket in the nation’s capital.
As newly hired secretary of the Albanese government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, he will command a fairly tidy annual salary of $932,120.
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Just backing up OldOzzie. Kaiser is the only person to ever be convicted of electoral fraud for branch stacking in Queensland
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As always with Labor Failed Upwards
But don’t feel too sorry for the former ALP state secretary, who had to quit as ALP MP for Woodridge in 2001 over historical branch-stacking allegations before serving as chief of staff to Queensland Labor premier Anna Bligh and NSW ALP premier Morris Iemma.
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You are so correct David, That is why I coined the phase “public serpents”. Whether it is local, state or federal governments, there is a big tier of the serpents bent on red tape, hindrance and worse still being ignored or ever belittle by the powers that be. State health is another monster. Here in Qld. I was waiting for micro surgery for over 12 months and was advised to give a courtesy call see if I had moved in the que. After regular polite calls I got a rude arrogant responder who threatened me if I called again I would be put back to the end of the que. I went over their heads and called the hospital head who seemed shocked at situation but eventually intervened. One story of many, many examples. Local governments being the worst.
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Not just in Australia. It’s worldwide. Rule by ‘Experts’ who consider their ‘right to rule’ based on their academic/professional credentials every bit as sacrosanct as the old nobility felt their ‘right to rule’ was based on the Divine Right of Kings.
In the USA the bureaucracy has massively expanded in the 21st century, and any effort to rein it back in is met by catastrophic caterwauling. Marco Rubio cut 1,300 jobs out of the State Department’s 2025 budget and you would have thought he gutted the place from how much howling there was in response. Never mind that the those 1,300 jobs only represented about 1.6% of the total State Department staff, or that the staff had expanded from 57,000 in 2007 to 73,000 in 2015 to 80,000 in 2024. Are we really supposed to believe the world will end if the state department claws back 1,300 jobs? How did the world manage to keep spinning on it’s axis when it ‘only’ had 57,000 employees a mere 17 years ago?
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— Oscar Wilde
— Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy
— Frank Herbert
— Hannah Arendt
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David, this story was dated in March 25 so now out of date information.
Labor increased the public service because they stopped employing contractors and let them go when the contract expired, this act will save the gov money overall by reducing wages bill of the contractors but then you need to employ more public servants to fill the vacant contractor positions.
Public servants get pay rises like every other sector, but their current pay rates are very low. For example 3 PS that worked for me were paid $85k and they resigned to work for a civilian company, basically the same job but getting paid $110k plus super plus bonuses.
Because the pay is is so low I could not recruit new PS workers to those positions and as the gov are now looking to reduce the amount of PS through attrition the 3:vacant positions were taken off me and now I have to do the same job with 3 less people.
This is happening across all sectors of government but the big boys at the top end of town keep their jobs and over inflated salaries
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Pay may be lower in some cases in the PS and higher in others but in any case is compensated by far better job security, better conditions and better superannuation as well as less stress and more flexible arrangements with hours and more holidays.
The contractors don’t HAVE to be replaced. The bureaucracy is far too big anyway and needs to be downsized. Its ongoing overall expansion under all Uniparty Governments is not justifiable or sustainable. And it’s no point massively expanding the public service and claiming you’ve achieved something by stopping the expansion. Those extra numbers (and more) need to be removed as well as a reduction of the size and scope of the PS.
Also, I have personally observed Government contractors paid ridiculously high amounts of money, plus also items of hardware getting procured for ridiculous amounts of money. The public servants signing off on these contracts just had no idea or simply didn’t care what the actual market value of these goods and services was.
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David,
Pay is lower across the board, as the pay does not vary from one department to another.
Not much more job security than other areas but let’s say it a little better.
The better super was abolished about 15 years ago and replaced by a standard industry super for both ADF and PS. It’s actually a little better at 15% but that is not enough to retain staff.
Not less stress I know a guy that works for AGSVA and he is so over worked he had a break down.
ADF get 5 weeks AL PS get 4 weeks maybe an extra 3 days around Xmas?
Some ADF and PS WFH because there is not enough desks to sit at so they hit swap desks during the week.
You can debate the size of gov if you want but I only see one department so can’t comment on any others.
And to your last point, yes could not agree more, the level of waste is very high but that is due to gov red tape and incompetence not a reflection on numbers.
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It’s a bit of a laugh to hear that PS staff feel insecure in their job. In private enterprise, one’s job was ALWAYS insecure – you ever knew from one day to the next whether you would come in the next morning and find that you had been made redundant. I worked for both the PS and private enterprises for many years, narrowly avoided sacking twice, went through wholesale section shutdowns a few times, but never felt threatened in the PS. In private enterprise, it was a totally different matter, and you had to learn to cope.
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“Incidentally, the expanded public service also hides unemployment.”
Yeah, 80% of all Airbus Albos new jobs were magically created out of thin air in you guessed it, THE PUBLIC SERVICE NDIS…LOL. How dumb is Australia.
130
Government agencies are the opposite of invisible so I do not understand this stuff. They are in your face all the time.
82
They may be in your face, but they remain faceless.
190
So are all the people who make and sell all the stuff I buy. Are they an invisible class? Or are the dairymen and egg men two invisible classes?
EPA alone has 18,000 employees. Does the fact I have never met one make them an invisible class? The concept is absurd.
If the claim is there is some small invisible group controlling these federal employees outside of their chain of command i would be interested. But to call government a somehow new invisible class is ridiculous hype.
72
It depends on how they operate. eg, are they colluding or competing with each other. Faceless and competing is ok, faceless and colluding less so.
20
David, one of the biggest forces shaping our lives and personal wealth and health today is a group of people who all have the same shared interest — these people profit from regulations that limit your choices, and cost you money.
What do we call the class of people who belong in that group? In a dark moment I call them parasites, but mostly I call them The Blob. However, I acknowledge that some of what public servants do is useful, and some of them work hard and have great ethics, but how likely are they to vote for “small government”? Why would they choose “less regulation”? There is a big vested interest here that is unnamed in most conversations.
We talk about the Working class, or The middle Class, and the Upper Class, but these are old terms, not the main issue anymore. We don’t have words to classify people into groups that either live off income earned via voluntary transactions versus people who live off money taken by force at the point of a gun (eg through taxes, fines, subsidies, etc).
We need that language. What is the word for someone who stands on their own two feet? Is it just a nothing word like “independent” meaning “not-dependent”. A weak negative, not a stand alone real word of an ideal our children want to live up to.
We don’t even have a word to teach children…
200
In your draft definition you mention an alliance between “Big Corporations, Big Government, Big Bankers” – aren’t Big Bankers just Big Corporations? Wouldn’t history suggest that these Big Corporations generally want less regulation and “smaller” Government in order to increase their profits? And what of the formation of organizations like Trade Unions? Like others have mentioned, I’m finding your logic hard to follow. To me it seems that you’re conflating the size of Government with the amount of regulation which might be related but is not necessarily the same.
I also find it interesting that you frame your analysis in terms of class which is one of the central tenets of Marxist theory i.e. “Marxist class theory argues that society is divided into classes based on their relationship to the means of production, primarily ownership. This relationship determines individuals’ social and political consciousness and creates inherent conflicts between classes”. From this “Marxist” perspective, saying that public servants vote in their own interests is not surprising!
I’m not sure what you mean by this – is it an “either/or” proposition? For example, what of the taxation that creates the roads that enable people to complete their voluntary transactions? Or the law that ensures that people aren’t cheated in their voluntary transactions?
Cheers!
01
Big corporations want more regulations and more big government.
Working alliances are made between big business and government to design the regulations.
These make functioning of small businesses and new entrants harder, some will close down with consequent reduction of competition.
Economist Peter Brain called this trend ‘the Corporatist State’. It is really just Thascism.
10
In response to Lucky (#3.1.1.1.1)
Despite what they profess publicly, Big Banks lobby for less regulation and financial oversight.
And if what you’re saying is right, then isn’t this State Capture as Peter Fitzroy pointed out above?
00
Two points from Dry Liberal-
1. Hypocrisy is no impediment.
2. Could be, or the reverse, simpler to say they are just different factions of the same class as Jo describes.
00
And Officeless – WFH (usualy on NSW South Coast, judging by Barking Dog and Sound of Surf in background, after 1 hr 12 mins of “Your Phone Call is Really Important to Us”, when finally answered, and No could not answer the problem – solved by Brave Leo – should have started there in the 1st place!)
60
Power without Glory
00
Their main source of power is robbing the future.
Perhaps the first functional Time Machine.
Create a plausible but greatly exaggerated existential threat … or two, or three.
Convince the tax base to acquiesce to massive debt in hopes of saving the Earth and all the grandmas on it.
Collect real cash in this time line.
Leave the credit card bill for the children and grandchildren of the marks (taxpayers).
190
And as we know, foreseen in the Python Prophecies.
‘Time Bandits – Robin Hood’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh17LbB8pU8
111
My bad. Accidental red thumb, Honk.
31
Yep. we’re all bad.
And for others…. If you press the red thumb you can’t ‘unpress’ it. Even if you then press the green thumb, the results won’t change. Your vote HAS been counted. Locked in forever. So don’t bother testing this theory, I’ve done the hard work for you.
110
Those fine documentary series, “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” covered this back in the 1980s.
220
Yes, it was so true in every way. It’s certainly applicable to Australia apart from the UK. I often wonder how it would translate to the US Civil Service.
120
No , please. You are tempting another bad US remake. They are much better when they do their own stuff.
10
Because of the blob most Western countries with the possible exception of the United States, have increasing numbers of wealth parasites and decreasing numbers of wealth producers.
240
I noticed in a recent RBA press release that they are proposing to extinguish bank fees on credit card use. This would obviously remove the user pays concept that underpins the fair charging of fees for transactions.
So, will the banks find another way of making money from the consumer transactions? Of course they will.
If the fee isn’t user pays via the vendor, then it will likely be user pays via the consumer. That can take the form of actual fees or higher interest charges on credit. Maybe even the instigation of interest payments calculated on the purchase from the date of purchase rather than the balance owing after the month.
One thing for sure, those that use cash will be hit by this, or an associated change. Every government action has one purpose, it must provide more control/less freedom.
How long before they instigate cash transaction fees or reduce the cash purchasing limit down to an impracticably small number?
You know they will, it just depends on timing and a ‘good’ reason for doing it. It’s for your own good.
170
‘Scott was shafted’: what really went down in the Atlassian fallout
They were once the country’s most famous, and inseparable, ‘tech bros’. But tensions at work that not even a counsellor could solve – and wives who ‘couldn’t stand each other’ – led to one of the biggest break-ups in Australian corporate history.
Atlassian’s “flywheel” distribution model for growth, where products could essentially sell themselves without an expensive sales and marketing function, proved a point of friction.
“There was a question around: was the growth of the company based on that flywheel model and acquisitions like (team collaboration software firm) Trello? Or do you deeply innovate and do actually build new stuff? And I think that there was tension around that within the business.”
From the Comments
– Has it ever made a profit?
– apparently not ( and therefore has not paid tax)
– Unlikely ever to do so. Nor does Atlassian pay dividends. Net debt over $3 billion. Certainly very good, extremely good, at spin.
Excellent capital gains for early investors. Not so much for later investors.
A classic ‘know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em’.
It will be interesting to see how long MC-B can keep the dream alive.
120
It seems to primarily be a lifestyle funding organisation, that somehow conveys climate preaching rights on an annointed few.
20
still building the 42 storey hybrid/timber Atlassian tower in Sydney…
https://youtu.be/NV2SV_MMZcY?si=egUStuyq6gKMq4Il
10
Was never impressed by their products – one of them I used to call “effluence”.
00
Was that “Constipation”?
It integrated quite well with “Dearer”.
They actually weren’t too bad early on, but suffered bloat and cloudification. Doesn’t everybody want their internal documentation held on somebody else’s servers?
00
I strongly disagree that there is a blob in western societies, its more a bulge and its called the middle class.
By comparison autocracies and theocracies are breeding grounds of filth when feudalism collides with capitalism. China is a perfect example.
05
Meet the new class,
same as the old class.
Give me control of a nation’s money,
I care not who wins the election
(loose translation thereof).
90
I do not know what “a nation’s money” means but are you claiming that some small group controls it? Who might that be?
31
Not so secret. DOGE showed how it all works and some of the characters involved. More to come says Q.
110
Is Q still a thing I thought hopium died out years ago.
20
I shudder when I think of the damage Labor, Greens and Teals will do to our country and environment and with TRILLIONs of $ wasted on unreliable, toxic W & S energy as a result.
Of course these con merchants always yap about their “clean energy” and most voters haven’t got a clue and will probably vote for these parasites again in 2028.
With a 50 seat buffer these donkeys could easily control us for a decade or more and the damage will take a long time to fix.
I’ll have a look at the Martin Durkin video when I have the time.
110
This is a vital topic to explore, understand and expose.
Local politics is easier to see through and begin to understand the systems that control us, and worse.
60
Yes Neville,just look at the fiscal mess the RGR years left us with. The NDIS ,the School Halls, the NBN. Not to forget the Pink Bats.These are all critical failures of that Administration, all off Budget, and all Black holes. Not to mention the infancy of Bowen’s Energy Net Zero, another uncosted, unmitigated financial and environmental disaster.
131
Excellent point-
and now he has been encouraged by his preference vote landslide,
Abalone is reprising the RGR shit show.
I wonder what is the cost to taxpayers
of all the off balance sheet disasters you list?
71
Sorry , red thumb error..
20
Hard to believe , Rudd inherited zero debt, the $69B bequeathed by the Hawke Keating govt was paid off over ten years by Howard/Costello, and look what RGR left us.
90
Yes, just look at any world map and you will find The Democratic Peoples Republic of (Add name). Be it theCongo, Korea…….
50
FWIW
Today’s “Coffee & Covid Newsletter” seems to fit here
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/honeypot-friday-july-18-2025-c-and?triedRedirect=true
50
More around that
“The Epstein Enigma
“It would make [Epstein] a story with which we have to be persistent and steady in our demands; but also cautious, and methodical, and discerning.” —Naomi Wolf”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-epstein-enigma
“Naomi Wolf’s piece on Substack can be found here: “The Network” in the Worlds of the Elites.”
https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/the-network-in-the-worlds-of-the?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=676930&post_id=168516979&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=64uoj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
20
Instead of “The Blob”, what about “The Green Slime”?
50
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
60
The Blob, especially in the fanatically woke, UN/WEF One Party States like Australia, is pushing harder and harder for full digital currency, no cash and ALL financial transactions fully traced and tracked. This of course will enable them to build a comprehensive view of your financial and social network, apart from existing monitoring of phone calls, emails, internet access logs etc.. (Logs kept for at least 2 years by law.)
They will use the data to create a social credit score, just like their beloved Chicomms. (Why do you think Albanese is spending six days in China, fourth or fifth visit, and makes no effort to meet TRUMP?)
Plus Australians also have laws in place for a digital identity, supposedly voluntary- for the moment.
Under the e Safety Kommissar we will soon also be required to attach our identity to social media accounts further enabling The Blob to detect and punish Thought Crimes.
There’s even been a proposal* to put “use by” dates on currency to stop people holding cash.
All this done by The Blob with full cooperation and agreement of the useful idiots of the Left and Leftist indoctrinated youth who don’t even value or appreciate freedom.
I have previously posted references for the above, e.g. digital ID, phone and internet access logs etc.. SEE https://joannenova.com.au/2025/04/sunday-104/#comment-2842779
The Left always say all this surveillance is to fight crime but despite thst the more surveillance we get the more ctime and violence we get. All it means is that freedom-loving law-abiding citizens suffer.
I have a friend that moved from Canada, which is an extreme Nanny State almost as bad as Australia, to the US and he wrote on the mail list which I am a member of:
Younger Australians and others don’t miss freedom because they’ve never really had it although we did once have relative freedom in Australia.
And many Australians love the supposed security of a Big Nanny State Government that tells them what to do and think. Why else to they keep voting Labor/Green/Teal etc.?
And if you think such things could never happen in Australia, we’ve already had a trial run with covid and the world’s most draconian lockups eagerly, brutally and sadistically enforced by police who proved themselves not a force of good for the people, but a private army of Dan Andrews or other Australian dictators. They even patrolled the streets of Melbourne in armoured personnel carriers, just like a Third World dictatorship.
Most present company excepted, a majority of people don’t have a clue about this, nor do they care or they willingly accept it.
*PAYWALLED
Missing $100s ‘under pensioners’ beds’ | The Courier Mail
Tax guru and barrister Michael Andrew has outlined the controversial option, plus a proposal for an expiry date on the currency, to help fight organised crime
130
An somehow Australians have given Labor a 50++ seat Parliamentary majority to rule us for the next three years
70
“Missing $100s ‘under pensioners’ beds’ | The Courier Mail.”
More like the drug dealers cash.
51
As if to illustrate the point David makes at #13 above, I received the customary annual tax time email from my accountant yesterday.
Every year, they offer an ‘Audit Shield Service’, basically, I can pay an insurance premium to cover costs incurred if the blob decides to investigate my financial position. Bear in mind, if the blob requests assistance from your accountant, to provide financial information, you are liable for the costs to said accountant.
Anyway, what got my attention this year was the opening line of the email; ‘With government revenue agencies using data matching, artificial intelligence and even social media, they can compare disclosures made in your lodged tax returns to those of other taxpayers or benchmarks.’
The net further tightens.
60
As Sir Humphrey would say “Yes Minister”
60
My name for this class is the governing class. It was once termed the public service but that notion is long dead.
Who does their ABC represent – the government class. Certainly not the people who fund the government. And definitely not any political party that would cut their funding.
Who does the BoM aim to serve? Certainly not farmers and the general community. They are the peak climate scam body.
What does the CSIRO do? Long ago lost anything to do with Insdustrial Research. Australia has given up its industry so why maintain an industrial research organisation?
Canberrans have the highest disposable income of any city in Australia. The blazen takers and grifters in the government class are winning in Australia.
150
Canberra has no soul, which is why the grifters are paid a bonus to work there.
11
It’s a Western world wide phenom.
Primarily government, media, and academia.
An absurd quasi religious belief system is required for admission.
Net Zero, reproductive biology is a social construct, everything is racist.
They are all deathly afraid to express the slightest disagreement … the Emperors outfit is exquisite.
The difficult thing for me is why Australian leadership fawns so hard over the UK and Canada.
Appearing to try to out Trudeau Trudeau and out Starmer Starmer.
If anyplace on the planet should have the freedom to be its’ own thing, seems like it would be Australia.
20
“What does the CSIRO do? Long ago lost anything to do with Industrial Research. ”
Anything the taxpayer funded CSIRO discovered was just given away to anyone and everyone, mostly our competitors, nothing worthwhile was ever patented, Australia just has no idea how to do business.
90
Well, the government agencies certainly don’t. Even the ABC. Been hearing how the ABC’s children cartoon series “ Bluey” was so popular in the US. So popular that some US kids are using Aussie slang. “ Just going to the dunny mummy” and similar. But did the ABC make money from US licensing ? Nope, apparently the BBC bought the rights to the program and they’re making money from it. Lucky country indeed, but not smart.
40
“Lucky country indeed, but not smart”
Mmmm sort of what he meant in the first place.
20
Kesey was onto The Blob: Language.
30
The actual “secret” of the Ruling Class is this:
Passing along the costs of their schemes onto future generations and avoiding sunset dates upon legislation.
Things would be quite different if the populace demanded and legally enforced, balanced budgets and all passed legislation expired after 2 years without re-affirmation.
The Pollies bear no responsibility for failure. That’s the real issue.
If the Pollies were held accountable, then if the national debt went up in 2 yrs time, the pollies ought to lose all salary and benefits. Performance and results matter. In a real world, most Pollies would be fired for lack of results.
80
And isn’t ‘The Blob’ the same as the ‘Deep State’?
50
Naa, that’s the Deep Blob.
30
Jo – have you tried the Australian dictionary? 😉
“Rise over the past century”? – shadowy hidden power groups litter history!
Ze Blob is the public facing aspect.
Deep State is the power behind them.
But what is the power behind Deep State?
Saturday poser.
32
Can you be more cryptic.
Clarity and Brevity are Virtues.
60
BTW Lance can you comment about my past references for Aussie W & S capacity factors?
If W is about 30% CF and S is about 15% CF doesn’t that mean that W only generates ( ? ) about 3.6 months every year and 1.8 months for solar? Any comments?
I don’t know what part their blob plays in ignoring capacity factors but 90% of Aussies don’t understand any of the very low returns for super expensive W & S.
30
Yex, Wind can produce power some 30% capacity factor, but the question isn’t that, it is WHEN.
The grid is not an “averaged” supply. It is an instantaneous supply. Averages do not matter.
Supply must match demand within seconds to minutes, or the entire grid collapses. That event costs billions or trillions of dollars in lost productions, lost foods, hospital deaths, etc.
Unless AU wishes to go back to 1870 type lifestyles, they ought to enjoy hauling water in buckets and gathering firewood for 12 hours each day. And skinning squirrels and rabbits for food, and shoveling horse manure or cow dung. Cholera and other diseases also manifest without sufficient power to modernize waste handling. The point is: everything in your current life depends upon stable power supply. intermittent power is useless. Grid scale power is Gigawatts at constant voltage and frequency, not Watts or Kw at wandering availability. Imagine if your internet was only available 30% of the time, and that was random. Imagine the same if you needed a heart machine or lung ventilator, or if your glass/silicon chip/steel/aluminum/pharmaceutical/aircraft/traffic/lift/ or other necessity was only available some random 30% of the time. Yes, imagine that.
60
John Conner, Que?
Neutralize = American English. Neutralise = British English.
As an Australian I am fluent in both. But I like z, it is a forgotten neglected letter.
90
‘But what is the power behind Deep State?’
Is the US deep state hiding the truth on UFO?
In China people are disappearing all the time, haven’t seen Xi’s wife in yonks, its the Deep State on steroids, but in the West there is no Blob.
35
Do you come here to write mysterious meaningless fog to junk up the conversation or is it just hard for you to write a coherent sentence? I’m genuinely curious.
80
Jo is dealing with an international clientele, which is more used to the American spelling. I notice it, but then I write a lot of tech docs.
20
Our Blob Leader Anthony Albanese’s AKA Mr. cellophane’s self-indulgent visit was propaganda gold for Beijing but did nothing for our Australian interests but a major disservice to our USA interests. Make like Dick Widdington and “Turn Again”
50
Here’s how I’m dealing with this invisible scourge. I invoke my only dignity: The dignity of risk. Be the power of one. I resist their onslaught whenever and wherever I can.
70
And hence the war against privately owned transportation, through the war against FF. Nothing has been more liberating or equalizing in society to indviduals, and individuality, than the privately owned automobile. It frees the indvidual to go where he/she wants, whenever they want, and how ever they want. It symbolizes the rugged indvidualist.
Taken on environmental grounds, the war against the private automobile doesn’t make much sense. It’s not 1970. They are relatively clean now. Even if co2 emmisions are a factor, the world’s cars are only a fraction of a fraction.
But as the freedom creating machines they are, and the symbolic value of taking that away, it makes sense when viewed in that light.
100
Hear, hear!
I still consider FDR as the most destructive of American Presidents. Worse than Obama or Wilson.
50
Nothing gives greater insight into the extent of the Blob’s intrusion into our lives than reading DOGE’s greatest hits:
https://www.doge.gov/greatest-hits
Just the first example:
It would be heartwarming to see the Australian Federal, State and Local governments DOGEd.
The way the government class talk about taxation is that everything is theirs. They do not view it as taking but, rather, leaving you some for your own spending. The rhetoric around the BBB that it will increase government debt. As if the government expenditure is locked in
70
It’s a great shame that no-one can come up with a better name for this insidious entity than “the blob”. Something with some gravitas rather than this inane comical moniker.
20
I seems you’re saying that it is the best name possible for them, given you’re saying no-one can come up with a better name. So well done Jo.
As for a name with gravitas. Why would you give them a name of some status they don’t deserve?
Jo has used the term The Blob for many years. It’s even in the list of terms.
Homer Simpson thinking of a title …. with gravitas.
https://youtu.be/yemjuMX_x5U?si=A_RGmj-8ZZZRzZKp
50
I have at times also referred to them as The Machine — which has some gravitas, but doesn’t include the soft Blob — the silly dills swept up into religious fervor about the State control. The Blob is insidious, and also creeping, fussy around the edges. The Machine implies a very strict defined entity.
I didn’t like The Blob when I first came across it, but it has grown on me, because it’s so easy to add it as a prefix to all the many Octopus arms of this creature.
I’m open to suggestion. Perhaps there is a better term. But when I write that the Blob-Media helps Blob-Academics, who work in concert with Blob-Bankers and Blob-Bureaucrats, the term has useful flexibility to connect groups that are not normally placed in the same basket. It’s also short.
Many parts of The Blob would not even be aware they are part of it. Not realizing they all share similar incentives and motives to cheerlead for the rest of the Blob.
121
It already has a name – Corporatism.
https://sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm
Then Fascism grew out of Corporatism as a more extreme version, but with largely similar overall structure.
It’s just that people don’t like using the proper names … the other names are euphemisms.
40
But Tel, this is so much bigger than corporatism. How does that convey the vested interest of public servants, or the academic and media pools? How does that split up the corporations serving the customers compared to corporations serving Big Gov?
110
The Corporatists themselves were never in any confusion about a hidden seat of power … the State was always understood to be at the top of the food chain. You might have a corporate entity (could be a union, a bank, a factory, or a church) but it exists at the pleasure of the State and only within the parameters defined by that State.
Thus, there is no separation ultimately on the question of what any corporation serves … they serve the State.
As a secondary matter, each corporation might also represent the desires of some sub-group of society … the union makes representations on behalf of the workers, the bank represents the depositors and it’s shareholders (possibly both the same in some cases) and the church stands as a delegate for certain moral principles, the factory owners might be part of some industry body representing manufacturers, etc.
That’s the whole point of going down the path of Corporatism … no one serves anything other than “Big Government” but since the fundamental purpose of Government is to settle the differences between competing interest groups, the mere act of making a decision (the bank wins, the factory loses, or whatever they do decide) … by making that decision they resolve the conflict and society moves on. Therefore Government can simultaneously serve the corporate entities.
That’s the theory of how it’s supposed to work.
I’m not making the claim that it does work.
Read the link … Corporatism was a reactionary movement rejecting Adam Smith and his theory that the each individual will automatically contribute to the common good, merely by making a profit. It also rejected the egalitarian idea that the same set of rules should apply to everyone.
30
OK. Thanks Tel. I was unaware of this philosophy, but it seems to me if The State is the main customer and also the decider of differences, then this is just a form of fascism? And it seems like a disadvantage to have a system where the state is on top of the pile, but the corporations are the named “ism” — it’s almost like the authors don’t want people to see where the real power lies? If the state is No1, shouldn’t the system be named after The State?
To quote your link: “The central core of the corporatist vision is thus not the individual but the political community whose perfection allows the individual members to fulfill themselves and find happiness. “
Is this not just the communist vision? The perfection of the political rulers?
And isn’t it true that some corporations are trying to serve customers primarily, not the government? Given that the government is a quarter of the economy, by definition, in many instances it will be the largest customer. But yet there must be corporations selling cosmetics or shampoo or cat food that are serving the customer, not the state?
30
[Meant to be a reply to mikek #26]
Big Brother has been used, unfortunately. Big Sibling would be the woke version, but maybe we don’t want to be woke.
Ministry of Dystopia is I think too long.
AA or AAA – Absolute Authority (Aholes) – have been used for other things.
The APC – Absolute Political Control – lacks punch?
I asked Grok for some suggestions, and got:
The Glom – Suggests a sticky, engulfing mass that clings and overwhelms.
The Slurge – Combines “sludge” and “surge,” evoking a relentless, oozy force.
The Gloop – A gooey, all-consuming blob-like entity.
The Quagmire – Implies a messy, inescapable morass of control.
The Jabbergloop – A Carroll-inspired mashup, blending “jabber” and “gloop” for a whimsical yet ominous vibe.
50
A great article Jo, thank you.
You may also like to check,
The World Economic Forum and the ‘Volk’ movement
By Alistair Crooks – July 19, 2025
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-world-economic-forum-and-the-volk-movement/
30
A Dutch satirist long ago wrote a story figuring the bureaucracy. The Latin motto of this organisation was
‘Quisquis sibi proximus’, nearest to itself.
40
Jo,
For decades I have recognised the Blob that I named The Establishment.
Many commenters here are wringing their hands with prose. What is needed is action. Readers have to walk the walk as well as talk.
For example, I have a case going with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority about some huge deficiencies in the typical “agreement” between big banks and clients. They “allow” banks to study your personal details to depths that most here would deplore. But, how many readers have ever read their agreement? What should I respond to AFCA wanting my medical records so they can dismiss me as insane for questioning bank methods?
In the mid 1980s I got my employer company to go to court when the United Nations world heritage mob combined with our Fed Govt to deprive us of legally granted mineral leases and exploration licences in the Northern Territory, without even a mention of compensation per Constitution – land with high potential for new uranium deposits. Eventually got to Full Bench of High Court who declined to find, saying it was too complicated.
Time after time I have challenged The Establishment, time after time challenges have become drawn out, weeks become months become years as folk get paid to obfuscate until the matter dies, sometimes with the sentence “No further communication will be entered into”.
There is a big problem of accountability. These Establishment people have expressed no concept that their failures should cause their punishment. Instead, they spend years playing the blame game, turning an objectionable matter into the complainant being the cause of the problem. Wordsmithing at public expense dominates over making the Nation more prosperous.
The broader public has to stand accused of being too ignorant and/or uninterested to address the harms caused by The Establishment. Never mind the windmills, they are someone else’s business.
Geoff S
70
When you are old like me, you have had time to experience and to study the finer points of Blob excellence. Let us look at accountability.
You are a senior Blob person, but you have remnants of a conscience. You know that you are about to do new, bad things to the mass of other people, a thought that might bother you. So, you create and enforce new approaches to punishment. You use as an example the locking up in jails (that used to be goals) those who offend badly against society, for example by home invasions with theft and violence and optional car theft and fire. As a Blob regulator, you promote that judges and magistrates should not jail these offenders. Let bad individuals repeat the crime 20 times or more each and just bail and forget. No punishment is now common.
Another example, my young school education had a strong fear factor. When I was bad, I would get whacked on the fingers or the bum with a cane. My parents said if they heard I had got the cuts, they would double the pain when I got home. The electric cord for the kettle was popular for whacking. But now, the Blob prohibits this and other forms of punishment in schools (as if it was any of their business).
So, overall, the whole concept of punishment has been changed in about 4 decades. I submit that this was done by the Blob to avoid punishment being considered when they, the Blob, were intentionally doing bad things to the rest of us.
As I noted above, accountability is a key. This is but one small part of a large problem that confuses belief with reality in the minds of many.
Santa Claus is a real, living person.
Geoff S
50
Yeah, They think they’re powerful, and tough, and many in number. They are going to learn mathematics the hard way. There are about 7 billion of us, and maybe a million of them? Maybe it’s 10 million. It doesn’t matter. We outnumber them by orders of magnitude.
10