Wake up Australia!
This morning I read about Sunday’s events in Cronulla and elsewhere with a mixture of amusement and disgust. I mean who isn’t amused at the idea of the good bergers of the shire uniting under the Australian Flag, the Eureka Flag, and of course, the Bundy Rum flag, resplendent with that great Australian icon, the polar bear!
I really can’t believe John Howard is going to worm out of resposnsibility for this. I remember hearing Keating’s words regarding Pauline Hanson back in 1996, that “a very ugly, resentful and xenophobic cat has been let out of the bag”, and agreeing with them at the time. But I always thought, and still do, it has been the most shameful failure of leadership that this cat has not been shoved back in its bag, (and preferably dumped in the river along with some very heavy stones, if I had my way).
Instead, our leader has played the weasel populist game of never unconditionally condemning rascism, instead covertly affirming it under the banner of “well, it is how some Australians feel”.
I’m not very trusting of “feelings” in the context of national conversations we need to be having. Feelings are what make you a bit nervous when you see someone with a different skin color. Or they might make you bit squeamish when you think about what other people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Or they might make you resentful when you see someone who seems to be having it pretty easy compared to you. But there’s nothing universal about feelings. And feelings are the enemy of reason. A lot of people probbaly think feelings are what make us human, but funny enough I actually think that when we go by our feelings on matters such as this we are at our least human. To be human is, in my opinion, to be able to rise above our basest fears, our squeamishness, our resentments.
It’s not easy to do this, which is why it’s pretty good to have people around who create a culture in which it’s easier to say no to your lowest self, rather than one in which your lowest, most selfish, most vile and reptilian self is affirmed.
