We were all delighted to see our old friend Bill. After 27 years of globetrotting, this happy soul joined a few mates at the local coffee shop for a get-together.

10 minutes into pleasantries, the smile disappeared from his face. Frowning seriously, he looked around at us and asked: ‘Who stole my country … who the hell stole my country?’

He continued, ‘This isn’t the place I left! I’ve only been back two weeks and can’t believe my ears and eyes! We haven’t got a defence force. Prices of everything including electricity are rocketing, there seems to be millions of people on the government tit, and the system is geared to promote laziness and penalise effort in some sort of class war. Green and red tape have effectively killed the spirit of Australia, the national airline is an international disgrace, and the national broadcaster is openly working against the nation. Women seem to be in charge of everything, men have been emasculated, and I’m seeing young dads pushing prams everywhere. We’re chasing renewables, which other countries have already proven are a fantasy, while actively legislating against the humongous mineral wealth under our feet. There are no national projects of any vision, while our leaders pander to appease angry, minority, fringe groups and our young people don’t see any future. What the … is going on!?’ he shouted, and banged the table. We had no answer.

This confrontation certainly hit home with me. For the following few days, I was unusually melancholy and kept reflecting on what Australia used to be and how nowadays, the dead hand of a socialist-leaning government and the millions of unproductive bureaucrats with their mountains of regulations and fees are just making it too hard to run a small to medium size business.

My ever-happy wife snapped me out of it and had bought us tickets to see Paul McCartney. Within his first two songs, I was mentally back in the Australia of the 60s and 70s. I listened carefully to the lyrics of the many songs that we all knew and loved. This time it was different, I paid very close attention to the heart of the Lennon/McCartney messages, singing of love, joy, relationships, and happiness.

What also impressed me was an 81-year-old doing a 3-hour non-stop performance, playing a variety of instruments skillfully and here was me, some years younger than McCartney, feeling glum about Australia unnecessarily sliding into socialism.

I vividly remember the Paul McCartney in Red Square 2005 musical/documentary video which I watched several times. This is where he and then wife, Heather Mills, were in Red Square and St Petersburg’s Palace Square. He totally filled these concerts where many people were just weeping with joy at finally seeing and hearing a ‘Beatle’. In his chats with local dignitaries such as Gorbachev and Putin, you could see and hear Paul McCartney’s bewilderment at why so many people were controlled so tightly for so long.

Some locals being interviewed said that the Soviet Union’s socialist government propaganda had prohibited listening to ‘subversive’/alien ideology which the Beatles music fell into. People could be fined or imprisoned for doing so. Limited Beatles music was smuggled into the country in innovative ways even embedded in x-rays.

Luckily, the USSR socialist system collapsed in 1991 after 74 long years of hermetically sealing in millions of Russian people. The Beatles’ music certainly helped break the propaganda machine by giving a positive and uplifting alternative to a belief system, thus helping communism collapse without bloodshed.

I had worked briefly in Russia during perestroika, but this Paul McCartney video made me look into the USSR socialist system more closely. It was frightening and I recommend everyone indulge yourselves for a couple of hours in the horror of how the Russian population were ‘trapped’.

After the start of the 1917 Socialist Revolution, between 8 and 12 million people were killed. Brutal murders being a preliminary step to any war to generate mass fear and obtain total control of the participants.

Propaganda by Marxism and Leninism’s economic structure was state-directed communication aimed at promoting class conflict. During the Stalinist era, all opposition leaders were routinely described as traitors and agents of foreign, imperialist powers and ‘eliminated’. Lenin proclaimed that they were exterminating what we would call today, small to medium businesses, potential fat cats whose aims don’t align with a socialist model.

The propaganda relentlessly promoted the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and any dissension would have you locked up or dispensed with. Sounds very much like Melbourne during Covid, even if you posted a harmless comment on Facebook! Now we’re facing the proposed Albanese Misinformation Bill, where you may be penalised if your social media posts don’t align with the State narrative. Dangerous stuff indeed.

The same USSR narrative view of education stated, ‘We must make the young into a generation of communists. Children, like soft wax, are very malleable and they should be moulded into good Communists… We must rescue children from the harmful influence of the family… We must nationalise them. From the earliest days of their little lives, they must find themselves under the beneficent influence of Communist schools.’ Does this sound familiar?

The Soviet Union socialist rulers also tightly controlled media and only one side was allowed to be broadcast. I know what you’re thinking, just like our ABC.

Read also their socialist view on Christianity which they strenuously tried to eradicate.

Hello! Is anyone at home to join these dots of class warfare, penalising small businesses, attacks on religion and education, having a controlled media and relentless promotion of a socialist lifestyle? Does that sound familiar?

Answering our mate Bill, ‘The socialist left are stealing the Australia that we all knew and loved.’

When asked what would he do? He answered, ‘You have to immediately cut this socialist bullsh*t and copy successful nations, re-introduce National Service including skills training, repeal 75 per cent of the green and red tape, downsize the bureaucracies, and have a tax system that incentives small business and let people loose, especially our young people, to chase their dreams and work their asses off 8 days a week!’

I have a spring in my step now, uplifted by the music and freedom of my younger days, determined to ‘help’ the people who openly support this nation and its aspirations, Jacinta Price, Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer, Alex Antic, Matt Canavan, Malcolm Roberts, the Katters, Rowan Dean, Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin, Paul Murray, and Cory Bernardi to name just a few.

Thank You Sir Paul McCartney, for that wake-up call. We have to ‘GET BACK’ our country from those miserable socialist bastards who are stealing it.