1 Aug
2005

















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     get up but no go?

Today's papers feature the launch of GetUP! - promoted as offering "an alternative to voters who are concerned about issues but disillusioned with the mainstream political parties".

Founders David Madden and Jeremy Heimans explain that "We want to give ordinary people a voice ... We want the organisation to hold the Government to account in a way that mainstream political parties don't."

GetUp!, modelled on the US MoveOn, is another manifestation of clickocracy - perfect for couch-vegies whose political commitment does not extend much beyond receiving email from the like-minded and clicking the mouse in online polls.

Our enthusiasm for the brave new initiative was not heightened by reading that "Rather than sitting through tedious party branch meetings, the outfit will ask voters to donate to web and TV ads, think up their own campaign ideas and lobby politicians by email and SMS."

Uh ... why bother doing something effectual like meeting your local MP (or wannabee MP) when you can play creative director or send a form letter straight into the MP's 'trash' folder. Perhaps branch meetings would be just that tad more meaningful - and less tedious - if the disillusioned voters got up to venture out into the night rather than sitting at home with a keyboard? Madden commented that

There is a real frustration with institutional politics ... People care about issues, but to busy people with families, going to a branch meeting and listening to the minutes of the last meeting being read out is not a compelling way of participating in the political process.

Madden and Heimans say that GetUp! will not stand candidates in elections: "We want this group to be politically active, but we will never become a political party". Instead GetUp! is "deliberately issues-based and aims to be an alternative to the present political parties", which are dismissed as "not really very inspiring ... There's a certain calcified staleness about institutional politics".

Is GetUp! going to be a meaningful alternative, rather than an indulgence? On first sight it looks as if it's a digital campfire for "like-minded people who want to bring participation back into our democracy": the chosen will sing kumbayah, lament the wickedness of politicians and the media ("the media is dominated by a handful of right-wing voices") and warm themselves with their shared righteousness.

Our study of two online fora - the Australian DNS List and LINK list - suggests that members of some 'online communities' use participation (often a passive reception of insults being hurled by the >5% of members responsible for most traffic) as a substitute for substantive political engagement.

In considering the DNS List, for example, it is striking that the exhaustive - or merely exhausting - laments about auDA and dot-au policies are not matched by people bothering to attend an auDA meeting, submit a proposal or respond to auDA public calls for comments on discussion papers.

MoveOn and its non-US counterparts have emphasised their newness and vitality. So far the GetUp! laments are traditional - "Australian democracy is under threat, and I truly believe that the fabric of our society is going to start changing beyond repair" and "I just reckon this country's not fair anymore. Australia was always a fair country, but I don't think that's true anymore. I've joined GetUp to make this country a fair place again" - a dash of paranoia here, a grizzle there, the odd eschatological flavour that you would have encountered in rural NSW in the 1920s, Carlton in the 1970s or Newtown in the 1990s.

From a historical perspective GetUP! sounds very much like the words wrapped around the Australian Democrats (remember them?), the Greens and even - dare we say it - the DLP. It also echoes Wellbeingmanifesto.net, launched last month for those who are uptight about affluenza ...

Where to for Australia? Many Australians feel that the political system has let them down, and that governments are not responding to their real concerns. We seem to have lost sight of a vision for a better society and to have entrusted our future to wherever the market takes us.

This website presents a new manifesto, one that takes as its starting point the belief that governments in Australia should be devoted to improving our individual and social wellbeing.

We now know a great deal about the factors that enhance our wellbeing and those that diminish it. Increasingly the negatives seem to outweigh the positives, despite our affluence. The Manifesto below is a blueprint for true progress in Australia. After reading it, why not join the other 4492 people and give it your public endorsement?