As I have indicated in my blog on various occasions, whilst I am far too conservative to participate in demonstrations, I do very strongly believe in the right to protest as part of what makes for a healthy democracy.

That people (bogans are people too) have been arrested in their own homes for simply advocating holding protests in the current state of disaster in Victoria, under emergency powers which suppress freedom of speech, makes me very concerned about the conduct of the technocrats currently ruling Victoria.

So, I am not going to do anything to break the law, or to encourage bogans to do something stupid.

What I am going to do is express my dismay with the technocratic and authoritarian conduct of Premier Andrews by placing my boots at the front of my home. “Give Dan The Boot” is a civilised and lawful way of protesting, as it is to discuss such passive protests online.

Whilst we still have some freedoms, let’s use those that we still have to advocate for the return of those which have been taken (hopefully temporarily) from us as soon as possible. Especially the freedom of speech and the right to protest.

About 15 years ago, an acquaintance of a friend ran for the Maribyrnong Council on a mostly sensible platform around cutting waste and rate payments. I say mostly, because he had a fixation about permanently reopening the public toilet on what was then platform 4 of Footscray Station.

The one time I met this prospective civic leader and he launched into his tirade about this, I did mention that this was not a council issue, it was possibly a state issue, or more likely a metro trains issue, as they manage the station (and you can’t have an open toilet on an unmanned platform, particularly at night, without spending on the salary for at least one station attendant). He ignored this, and continued a rant about how people need that platform 4 toilet reopened immediately.

Sadly, he did not win, and Maribyrnong City council rates remain proportionately much higher than most other council areas in greater Melbourne.

And that toilet remains shut. (I did wonder about his obsession with public toilets.)

It is approaching council election time across greater Melbourne, and the campaigning has started already. Compared to fifteen years ago when contests were rather tame, property developer related interests means that in some areas (like mine), council seats are more fiercely contested than seats in state or federal parliament.

But that distant acquaintance is not the only prospective councillor with an overreach as to where his area of municipal responsibility may lie. My mother has started receiving campaign leaflets in Maribyrnong, including from the endearing Marxists at Socialist Action, whose platform appears to consist solely of two planks – retain and increase JobKeeper, and increase childcare.

How demanding those will translate into civic leadership in the city of Maribyrnong will probably transform Footscray into the sort of annoying woke hub that Brunswick is (I got delayed by a big climate protest in Sydney Road 13 months ago one Saturday).

But I cannot help but like the policies of one candidate for my ward here in the City of Moonee Valley, whose leaflet was placed in my letterbox today.

His public transport policies include:

. extending the Route 57 tram over the bridge and up Military Road til Buckley Street (excellent idea, which has been talked about since I was in high school and ignored by local state politicians almost as long)

. digging a tunnel under Avondale Heights and having several underground rail stations en route to the airport (another excellent idea, which the Federal Government supported, but which was kiboshed by Chairman Dan a couple of years ago in favour of the Sunshine route).

These are excellent policies, although not exactly within the ambit (or budget) of local councils to implement. I have given up hope of course of having a rail tunnel under Avondale Heights, although it still seems like a fantastic idea to me, even though I would be long retired before it could come to fruition, but I do still think that the extension of the Route 57 tram would not be anywhere near as expensive and really should happen (I do love trams).

His nature and biodiversity policies are also welcome. He wants a 50% canopy cover over Avondale Heights by 2050. I love the idea – why else did I plant two gum trees (as well as my many citrus trees) when I moved in? His website talks about encouraging native fauna back into the suburb and limiting development so as to preserve green space and wildlife. The website also has a photo of that monstrous development on the west ridge of the Maribyrnong, overlooking Solomon’s Ford, which is currently being built (I see that eyesore every time I walk to the corner of Canning Street).

I wish that candidate luck. It is almost 15 years since I last saw a live kangaroo near the river, and although I have seen a kookaburra and and owl this year, I cannot take those for granted in the future.

Let me start by saying that despite self-identifying as a Catholic every 5 years on the census, I am not a superstitious person.

However, since Sunday morning, something strange has happened five times in my home. My shaving handle (Gillette Fusion Power) is battery operated, and it has somehow turned itself on five times in the past 60 hours. Quite strange. Once it happened just as I was walking past the bathroom.

As I am now five months into growing an isolation beard, I am not shaving at the moment, and do not plan to until some sanity returns to daily life. Perhaps the spirit world is telling me I should shave.

In any event, if this is the only nuisance that this poltergeist is going to cause in my home, they are welcome to share it with me.

I, Robot is the sort of movie you watch once in the cinemas and then mostly forget about. I cannot remember too much about it except it had Will Smith in it and that actress who was one of the barmaids in Coyote Ugly (yes, I have high brow taste in film).

With the restrictions that have been imposed on Victorians by Disaster Dan, and which continue to be imposed on us for the next few months, I cannot help but harken back to when I saw I, Robot so many years ago.

From memory, I believe the sinister agenda of the Artificial Intelligence controlling all the robots was to ensure that no harm came to any human – resulting, in this case, in Asimov’s Laws of Robotics taken to a logical extreme (suffice to say that my working knowledge of science fiction writing is at nerd level). So, at a pre-determined moment, all the robots trigger their secret agenda and place all humans individually under some sort of house arrest.

After all, if you keep people confined to their houses, they can’t go out and get into traffic accidents or murdered by street thugs, or any of the other things which create greater risk than staying home.

These atypically non-killer robots do not appreciate that in keeping people safe in that way, they are depriving their wards of any joy that they may have in their lives – such as the ability to lead a life. No frolicking in the park, or eating high cholesterol food in steak restaurants, or drinking fine wine in a bar, or going on a date to the movies, or the simple meaningfulness that comes from having a job.

And I wonder about how long, without being able to go to the supermarket or engage in any economic activity outside the home, before all of the humanity guarded by those robots would starve to death. The freedom granted by the robot-protectors is only Hobbesian in its nature – the absence of actual physical restraints (and that itself is arguable).

The premier of Victoria, with the unprecedented technocratic emergency powers which he is now exercising through his minions, seems to share the same agenda as the robots in I, Robot.

And the same amount of empathy as those robots.

Essentially he wants to protect people from themselves and from living their lives. Freedom of movement, of religion, to earn a living through normal economic activities, and now even of speech have been suppressed to a very large degree.

The only freedom is to stay in one’s home, a very Hobbesian form of freedom.

And that itself is limited. Those bogans who have been ‘inciting’ public protests on Facebook etc have been arrested. After all, freedom of speech and the right to protest has been severely curtailed under emergency powers. A pregnant woman has been arrested and handcuffed in her own home for simply putting something mildly stupid on Facebook. Two elderly ladies sitting on a park bench have been arrested for sitting on a bench.

After the Hotel Quarantine failure which caused Victoria alone of all states to have the Covid pandemic resurge and take on new hideous momentum, the technocratic architect of this debacle has been accelerating the use of the agency of state power to restrict the freedoms of his victims, the citizens of Victoria.

This is all to keep us safe from the Covid. For how long? Do the measures now imposed by this unfettered technocrat in the past few days amount to a road map to the economic and social ruin of Victoria?

Let’s face it, we will be locked in our homes for the next three months at this rate, possibly longer. The metrics which have been proposed to end this lockdown (the harshest in Australia and possibly the world) are very hard targets to achieve. In the meantime, people are losing their livelihoods and many of the more economically and psychologically vulnerable are losing the will to live.

And people have lost the right to protest. Taking away the right of dissent, and to protest and express legitimate concerns, is the action of an autocrat, not of a democratic elected government. That last week cross bencher Fiona Patten was foolish enough to entrust the Premier with six more months of unfettered emergency powers was immediately revealed to be a huge mistake.

I must admit that I was looking forward to seeing the live action remake of Mulan in the cinemas earlier this year, until the pandemic resulted in the closure of cinemas. Mulan, the latest Bond film, Black Widow, and Bill & Ted 3 are all films I have been keenly awaiting.

Mulan has a great trailer, promising an action packed and inspiring story, with great visuals – perfect for seeing in a cinema. And it is, whilst set in China, in English, which makes it easier for me than having to concentrate on subtitles, like I did for Crouching Tiger and Hero (incidentally, Hero is an amazing story told extremely well – do yourself a favour and watch it).

However, Liu Yifei, the star of Mulan, has made various comments in support of the Hong Kong police during the civil unrest last year. Now, with the communists on the mainland causing more withdrawal of legal protections from the people of Hong Kong, the subject is becoming a hot one, particularly as concerned people all over the world are starting to see the secretive communist regime as a threat to world peace and freedom. not just to the people of Hong Kong.

The release of Mulan on Disney+ for a premium fee of $34.99 in Australia does now mean that it is available to watch in the comfort of your own home. However, does a couple of hours of enjoyment of such a film warrant overlooking the stated views of the star, which are very un-Mulan-like in their apologetics for a repressive regime?

Sadly, I will not be watching it. I am too worried about the state of the world and the potential extension by stealth or aggression of tyranny. If not watching it is one small step towards causing business and political leaders in the western world to wake up about the menace the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China presents to the world, then it is well worth it.

I fear the introduction of Yar Yar Binks into the Star Wars Franchise is the moment that Star Wars jumped the shark (and they did have a lot of shark like creatures on Coruscant in Episode One).

Through the good fortune of meeting two fugitive Jedi, Yar Yar Binks is turned from an outcast exile into an upstanding citizen and accidental civic leader. As Lucas did not feel he could write Mr Binks out of the second prequel entirely, he turned him into a member of his home planet’s senatorial delegation, deputy to Padme Amidala.

In that episode, the moment when the Sith start to get the upper hand is when Yar Yar Binks, way out of his depth in Senator Amidala’s absence, is persuaded by Chancellor Palaptine that supporting the creation of a ‘Grand Army of the Republic’ comprising clones created by aliens from outside the borders of the Republic is what Amidala would support.

[The questions of governance are totally set aside in that moment. One obvious question is that it is totally impropriate for a democracy to buy an army of clone-slaves from some foreign source. Another is that if the Republic is worth fighting for against various secessionists, perhaps it needs to get its member states to levy troops to wage that war. The Senate and the Jedi are more culpable in not discussing these issues than poor confused Yar Yar.]

Yar Yar Binks at least had the decency to ask himself ‘What would Padme Amidala do?’ even if he came up with the totally wrong answer.

Another, real, accidental civic leader, the Hon Fiona Patton MLC, has chosen instead to ask herself ‘What would Yar Yar Binks do?’ and come up with the totally accurate (if not right) answer.

I am talking about her support, along with two other cross benchers in the Victorian Legislative Council, for granting to the government an extension of emergency powers for a further six month period.

If emergency powers are to be granted, they need to be subject to constant parliamentary review. A six month term is excessive and allows for an unfettered period of potential abuse of those powers, as has been seen since they were granted with the Police arresting various people, including a pregnant woman, for the crime of ‘instigation’, ie placing comments on social media calling for people to publicly protest against the various very tough restrictions that are currently imposed on Victorians.

With the wave of a hand, not even the stroke of a pen, Fiona Patton has caused freedom of speech to be the latest freedom which we have lost in Victoria due to unfettered use of emergency powers.

Fiona Patton has also abdicated her duty as an upper house parliamentarian to review and scrutinise legislation and the actions of the executive government of this state. What more use is she for the next six months, until the next time Chairman Dan asks for another extension of emergency powers?

The hypocrisy of Ms Patton, in supporting these powers, is more sad than disturbing as she is leader and representative of the softy libertarian Reason Party. This party started out as the Sex Party, as a voice for the sex industry in lobbying against censorship and prudishness, and has since sought to broaden its appeal to a wider audience by promoting secular values and freedom.

Ms Patton, you cannot have freedom in a technocracy where you have the duty to review the powers and actions of the executive, but instead choose to enable a government who does not wish to be accountable even to its own rank and file party membership or parliamentary party room.

As a civic leader and legislative councillor, the Hon Fiona Patton MLC now has as much credibility as Yar Yar Binks.

The next Act in this sad story is for her to walk, like Yar Yar Binks beside the coffin of Padme Amidala, beside the coffin of freedom of speech in this state – something for which she obviously (despite the rhetoric of the party she has created) has no genuine regard.

One of my more juvenile pleasures is to watch the current season of The Masked Singer, a show which best demonstrates the rapid decline of Channel Ten in recent years. D-list celebrities perform in masks to provoke the supposedly funny reactions of mostly appalling B-list judges (except for Dannii Minogue – she has always been my favourite of the Minogue sisters).

It is car crash TV which is so bad that it is good, and hence I have been watching it.

I was disappointed during the week to be proven wrong when the Wizard was unmasked and the identity was that of some D-list singer of whom I had never heard. The cryptic clues given during the performances had me convinced that it was ex-Senator Sam Dastiyari who was behind the mask.

After all, he is probably rather strapped for cash after leaving the Senate rather ignominiously, and he did appear on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Year last year (along with then fellow ex-senator Jacqui Lambie in a recent period of transitional unemployment).

A new career of appearances on ersatz reality shows as a celebrity appeared to beckon for him, in my mind at least (it is probably just as well that I am not a TV producer).

Senator Sam had a promising career in front of him in the Federal Parliament not too long ago. He was one of the few people who could constructively deal with Jacqui Lambie in the Senate, and he played a key role in getting the pressure on the government to institute the Banking Royal Commission.

However, whether he really believed it or not, he was recorded at some function or meeting expounding a view of the sovereignty of the South China Sea which was more in line with that of the architects of recent discussion on that topic (ie the Communist regime that currently tyrannises main land China), rather than the stated views of his own party or the interests of the Australian people.

With billionaires (and their emissaries) donating money to both parties, many politicians, both past and present, appreciate their generosity, and seem to feel some sort of moral obligation to return the favour in some way. That a lot of those billionaires are from main land China and are billionaires through the gift of the Chinese Communist Party is often overlooked.

Sam Dastiyari is the only politician who has paid the ultimate price of political death for his dalliance with communist China. There are many others, particularly ones who are retired on generous superannuation pensions, who now sit on boards of or as consultants to companies based in communist China. Their interests, and their utterances, are not always going to be aligned to the best interests of the Australian nation.

The Victorian Government’s agreement with communist China to unilaterally join the Belt and Road Initiative is one where the interests of the Australian nation have been utterly disregarded by the Premier, Chairman Dan. This is an agreement which was entered into with no transparency but with various Chinese communist apparatchiks who have clear access to the corridors of power in Spring Street being able to lobby the government. This is privileged access available to the rich and powerful, but not to the average citizen.

We do not know who is doing what, or with what motives. Sam Dastiyari has been unmasked, but who are the others who are wearing masks, and who are having a more sinister impact on our democracy?

The late Dr Hal Colebatch and I had at least one close friend in common, as well as many friendly mutual acquaintances. We also had one close ex-friend in common, who chose unilaterally to fall out with each of us separately (myself in 1998, Hal in 2012). I am fortunate that I had the opportunity, several times during the past few years, to spend a few weeks working in Perth and reacquainting myself with Hal over a long lunch at his favourite Italian restaurant in the Nedlands shopping strip.

On the weekend, I finally got around to reading Steadfast Knight, Hal’s biography of his father, Sir Hal Colebatch, a two times WA Legislative Councillor, long serving state minister, one time Senator, two times WA Agent-General in London, and briefly, in 1919, Premier of Western Australia (Hal himself was the son of Sir Hal’s late life second marriage).

Having gotten to know Hal fairly well over the years and our long lunches, there were some passages of the biography towards the end where I had to wryly smile and see Hal’s unique personality shining through.

A few observations in the biography prove particularly salient to life today in Melbourne, on the other side of the continent from Perth, and the other side of the world from Sir Hal’s two postings as Agent-General for his state. In 1927, relatively early on in his regime, Italian Dictator Mussolini granted Sir Hal a private audience whilst he was visiting Italy. At that time, many people, both inside Italy and elsewhere, saw that regime as full of energy, determination and effectiveness. The trains ran on time after all (actually, this is, I believe, a myth stemming from the wife of the British Ambassador observing Mussolini on the platform when he was summoned to Rome to first form government).

During his second term as Agent-General, Sir Hal visited Italy again in 1939, and found Mussolini’s achievements of the 1920s seem to have collapsed and popular enthusiasm for the regime had been lost. The general aspect of the people ‘had changed from confidence and hope to poverty misery and despair’.

My mother, who was born in 1937, remembers the night curfews of the fascist regime, and finds the recent introduction of the 8pm to 5am curfew in Victoria to be rather reminiscent of that time and place.

I am not going to trivialise things and make robust comparisons between Premier Daniel Andrews and Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was a thug and a committed opponent of democracy. Chairman Dan, as we now call him, might be a member of the socialist left, but I would be extremely surprised if he did not have the rudimentary commitment to democracy which all sane and decent Australians hold.

Sadly, Chairman Dan does have a serious autocratic streak, which is becoming more and more self-evident with each passing day, and which does not bode well for the health of civil society or the functional workings of parliamentary democracy in this state, and this is something which I feel needs to be unpacked and discussed.

He has, prior to this crisis, achieved a lot as premier, which resulted in his resounding re-election victory two years ago. His work to remove level crossings and to spend on infrastructure has won him considerable popular approval. This has made his position as state premier almost unassailable.

And this is the rub. He seems to have a strong preference for governing by decree, without answering to anyone or being accountable, except at the ballot box once every four years.

Several months ago, he took steps, when the branch stacking scandal inside his party (which, no doubt, I am confident he would have been aware of, if not complicit in, for many years) finally saw the light of day, to have the state party’s democratically elected officebearers at all levels suspended for the next three years, to be replaced by administrators appointed by the federal executive of his party.

This means that all the members of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party have been disenfranchised from selecting the people who are to represent them in elections, and from running their own party. This leaves Chairman Dan without the internal party mechanisms to hold him to account.

He has also, since the pandemic crisis began, been ruling through a crisis cabinet, a smaller group of ministers than those who comprise the regular state cabinet. Decision making is confined to this group, rather than to the broader cabinet or to his parliamentary party room.

The technocratic decrees which have emerged, via either his police minister or Chief Health Officer, are based on various emergency powers contained in certain pieces of state legislation and vested in these officials. Those are powers which could, in most circumstances, be considered draconian and should be used sparingly, if at all.

Such powers have led to the night curfew, compulsory wearing of masks, closure of most businesses, the suspension of the right to protest, and the general limitations on the freedom of movement of most people in most circumstances.

Despite the early adoption of harsher measures than other states, it appears, due to the sad and tragic mismanagement of hotel quarantine in this state compared to elsewhere in the country, that Premier Andrews has presided over a disaster greater than elsewhere in the country.

Two months ago, we had 7000 cases in Australia and about 100 dead. We now have 25000 cases and over 500 dead. This is no laughing matter. The people we love are hostages to this plague.

These are extraordinary times, and I concede, reluctantly, that such coercive powers might need to be used in the public health crisis caused by the pandemic.

However, Premier Andrews is seeking to extend the sunset clause on the legislation which enables these emergency powers from the six months which is about due to expire for another 12 months.

That’s right. Not for another 6 months, or for another 3 months perhaps. For 12 months.

In that time, the rule of law will continue – all the draconian powers which could be used (and potentially misused) by the police minister and the Chief Health Officer will be legitimised through an Act of Parliament.

However, where would the role of parliament be during that 12 month period of technocratic rule by decree? There would be little need for it to meet, except to pass supply bills for the government, and it could otherwise be prevented, legally, from meeting.

I do not trivialise things. The Weimar constitution was eradicated by an Enabling Act at a time of supposed national emergency. Premier Andrews does not embody the evil of the perpetrators of that. He is merely a technocrat who does not like to be held to account, either by internal critics in his own party nor by opposition politicians. It is far easier for him to rule if parliament does not need to meet.

But that he is merely a technocrat and not a would be despot is beside the point. When we give up our liberties uncritically to someone, regardless of whether they are trustworthy or not, we have no guarantee that those liberties will be returned. It is important to scrutinise and be critical of Premier Andrews’ power grab, simply because whilst he is not a totalitarian opponent of democracy, no one is to be trusted with such power. He is not something wicked which this way comes right now, but there might be someone else so wicked in future. We have the lessons of the past in other countries to guide us as to what we should avoid for our future.

Thankfully, the state opposition seems to have grown a backbone on this issue, and is attempting to limit the term of any extension of such powers. Whether the cross bench in the Legislative Council is willing to oppose a 12 month extension is another matter. I hope, for the continued health of the parliamentary democracy in this state, that it does so, and that the parliament is recalled frequently to review such emergency powers, before they are renewed.

I’m the sort of person who tends to cope better than most with the lockdown which has been caused by the current plague. Living in a house with large front and back yards suits me, and in early February I had the foresight to get my NBN installed and my internet plan upgraded to unlimited data.

In the age of Ubereats and Netflix, coping with a lockdown is not so difficult if you have sufficient space to prowl in.

I am currently rediscovering SBS On Demand, which seems to have many more shows to interest me than either Netflix or Amazon Prime or Disney+ or Apple TV+.

One in particular I am enjoying greatly is Kirsten Dunst’s latest work, On Becoming A God In Central Florida, about the misadventures of a widow of a man who had gotten inveigled in a multi-level-marketing scheme called FAM (short for Founders American Merchandise) which bears more than a passing resemblance to Amway.

It is set in 1992, which is quite appropriate, because it was around the end of that year or the start of 1993, during what I call my ‘airport summer’ (I spent five months as a shift worker at the airport) that I had my own personal brush with multi-level-marketing.

I got a call out of the blue from a perfect stranger, who used his association with an acquaintance of mine from uni whom I had not spoken to in a couple of years as an introduction to what he called ‘a business proposition’. I suppose from what I know now, he was the ‘upline’ to George, my acquaintance.

Out of politeness and some sense of loyalty to my not-quite-friend George (well, I did feel that I did sort of owe him a favour), I agreed to meet them some summer afternoon for a chat. I am to this day not sure that the word Amway even came up, so I am not 100% sure what exactly they were trying to sign me up to.

I do know that it was some sort of multi-level-marketing scheme, and that they used phrases like ‘they were looking for sharp people’ (‘sharp’ being something which comes up time and time again when MLMs are being pitched to the punters). They also explained how it was a great way to distribute all sorts of quality products.

I was more interested in the idea of access to quality products than I was to the idea of actually going forward with signing up other people – I really do not have the sort of thick skinned personality which would make me good at sales.

The upline, who did most of the talking, kept throwing lines at me about what did I want the money for, because I was definitely going to make a lot of it, so I needed to think up front what I wanted it for. I have since heard that this sort of sales pitch is frequently used to keep people off balance and to stop them from focusing on what the short comings of the MLM might be.

They also, I recall, played me some of motivational tape of a husband and wife who were involved in this MLM and who had been failures in life previously and now had become great successes such that they were called ‘diamonds’. Unlike the motivational tapes featured on ‘On Becoming A God In Central Florida’, this recording did not sound particularly inspiring.

George did say something which struck me as rather bizarre, that there was a guy involved in the MLM in the USA who was so persuasive that he had been able to persuade several people into committing suicide. Looking back in retrospect, I am a little ashamed that I did not feel disgusted at that, but when we are younger, we do not quite value human life as much as we should.

Anyway aside from a follow up meeting with George, where he got the general gist that whilst I might be interested in the products but not in becoming a recruiter of more people into this chain, nothing more came of it. Sleep deprived from shift work I might have been at that time, but I was still ‘sharp’ enough to see something which was really not for me.

In the weeks or months after that, I got approached by two other random strangers (a taxi driver and a security guard) about their business idea, but thanks to my experience with George, I was able to politely decline without investing more than twenty seconds of time in doing so.

Even my brother got approached twice around that time. Once by the daughter of his former (not very good) driving instructor who was looking for ‘sharp people’ (that phrase again), and once by one of his own uni friends. We are a polite family, I suppose, because my brother went to a group presentation on the say so of that friend. At that one, the presenter started talking about how you needed to decide what you were going to do with all that money – like buy your dream car.

I am proud of my brother’s level headed response. “I already have my dream car – a 1977 Kingswood”.

The presenter dismissed that with “Yeah, that’s the 20 year plan.”

Happily, I have not been approached since then, except in 2005 when a newly married close friend tried to get me along to a presentation on a business proposition (his new wife’s brother was very high up in Omega Trends, an Australian splinter from Amway which is now defunct). Happily the friendship survived my declining the opportunity to attend the presentation.

Quite separate to that, there was a rather silly fellow in the office who invested years and years (at a time when 99% of people give up on their MLM scheme inside 2 years) in trying to sign people up to Omega Trends and retire early and wealthy. I suspect that if he had invested half that level of energy in his actual job and in trying to get ahead in that, inside of skiving off every chance he had to scout ‘prospects’, he might have retired a couple of rungs higher, and not have had to use his superannuation to pay off all the debts he had incurred.

Since then, like the fascination with a slow moving train wreck, I have read the Amway expose ‘Merchants of Deception’ and recently become a fan of the hysterically negative Married To An Ambot blog.

So I know enough about multi-level-marketing schemes and how they function such that I can take a knowing chuckle every few minutes whilst watching On Becoming A God In Central Florida. The use of the term ‘Just Over Broke’ for job is familiar to me and where, without irony, one of the supporting characters and his son do a ‘FAMbot’ act is equally amusing.

But the pilot episode has one of the best scenes in it. The still living husband, against Dunst’s orders, decides to ‘retire’ from his job, under the misguidance of his upline. He shows up on his last day of work in a tuxedo and tails, makes a bit of a dick of himself as he walks out, and then gets into a hired limo to be carried off into his bright future. After changing into his own car, he crashes into a swamp and is eaten by an alligator.

Alligators eating people alive aside, this sort of scene is apparently something which really happens when people get too carried away with the potential in their MLM scheme. They do walk out of their office in a tux and drive off in a limo. The MLM itself is what eats them alive, not an alligator, which I suspect is allegorical.

I hope George did not stay long in that MLM, whether it was Amway or something else. He would have been two years out of uni with an accounting degree when he approached me with his ‘business proposition’. By now, almost 30 years later, I hope he has been able to have a successful accounting career.