The Technologizing of Inhumane Practices.

Australia's aggressive foreign policy stance, particularly on the refugee / illegal immigrant issue has been politically successful. This paper attributes this success to a two-part strategy. The first, using the theories of Said and Barthes, is to create a "ubiquitous semiotic" that plugs into Australia's invasion myth. Founded on fear and ignorance it demonizes a recognisable "other", the "oriental" refugee demonised as a queue jumper. The second part of the strategy responds to the daily news and public affairs programs, which scrutinize government actions, but also provide the locus of contesting political discourses.The paper deals cursorily with the first part, the ubiquitous semiotic. The tactic of technologizing the inhumane is examined using sociolinguistic analysis of a television interview involving the Australian Immigration Minister. From this, it becomes evident how the process of classification into "other" allow the logic of technocratic processes to treat people inhumanely. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]