Have you come across the Post Turtle meme? It’s been around for a while now, but I suspect many of you wouldn’t have come across it. For those people, it is worth sharing. For the others, it is worth repeating. I include here a version with a distinctly Oz flavour that I came across in mid 2020.
While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, whose hand was caught in the squeeze gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.
Eventually the topic got around to politicians and their role as our leaders.
The old farmer said, “Well, as I see it, most politicians are ‘Post Turtles’.”
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was.
The old rancher said, “When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.”
The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor’s face so he continued to explain. “You know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he’s up there, he’s elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb arse put him up there to begin with.”
There’s only one thing wrong with this analogy. The turtle is probably keen to get down, but the politician will give his right arm to stay up there. Apart from this, I can see a great deal of merit in the analogy.
You don’t have to look far to see an example of a post turtle. We have one of our very own in Rome at the moment, about to head on to Glasgow. For those of you who have been living on Mars, his name is Morrison.
Reflect on this if you will: when the issue is our survival on a dangerously heating planet, our representative in Glasgow is this post turtle. Would somebody like to lend a hand, help the poor bugger down, and put him back where he belongs?