Post-script

In the very first post for this blog, I said that "I am looking to an opportunity to reinvigorate myself."

I can safely say that I achieved that. I am clearer on how I can go about finishing this darned degree and how I can get on with the final half of my life. The blog has been a worthwhile exercise for me and it is something that I do actually look forward to returning to over the years to come. It captures a particular period of my life quite nicely. 

I also look forward to the 2017 Bendigo Writers Festival. I look forward to taking my time and absorbing the sessions and to just loiter in the general ambiance of bookish delight. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I leave this blog with the world looking more than just a little nutty. 

The weekend news sites are filled with stories about an audio tape that has emerged of Donald Trump making lewd remarks about women. (source) 

It remains to be seen whether or not this will finish off his candidature for president. Sadly even if Trump does pullout or is replaced, the celebrity culture that exists that made Trump a contender will remain. The decay of the United States of America and the vulgarity and violence of neoliberal capitalism will just move onto its next freak show. 

It is no comfort knowing that Hilary Clinton moves closer to the White House. A careerist politician and part of an elite that has corrupted American democracy. A war mongering free market fundamentalist. With Hilary as president the rest of the world can look forward to new wars for profit. 

The USA lost out when Bernie Sanders did not get the nomination for the Democrats. 

In Australia, the plight of asylum seekers held in indefinite detention continues. It is not off-shore detention for processing refugee claims, but rather a system of corporate profiteering. It is a disgrace and something one day Australia will have to reckon with. 

Martin McKenzie-Murray has a piece in this weekend's Saturday Paper - 'Leaked UNHCR report: Manus Island world's worst'. It concludes with the undeniable observation

Let it never be said that we didn't know. 

endgame

this is the end

1/ An event 2/ The People 3/ Institutions and industries 4/ Words 5/ Worlds

The West is the Best 

The public space in times of neoliberal induced uncertainty

And how writers festivals might just save us 

Subjective Bias #2

The Happy Song!

I was at the gym early this morning making awkward sweaty grunting noises on the cross trainer watching some sort of breakfast television program that was talking about peoples favourite happy songs.

Well, mine is 'The Great Song of Indifference'. Fond memories of long ago at the Foundry Arms Hotel on a Friday night. 

I don't mind if you go
I don't mind if you take it slow
I don't mind if you say yes or no
I don't mind at all

I don't care if you live or die
Couldn't care less if you laugh or cry
I don't mind if you crash or fly
I don't mind at all

I don't mind if you come or go
I don't mind if you say no
Couldn't care less baby let it flow
'Cause I don't care at all

Na na na, ...

I don't care if you sink or swim
Lock me out or let me in
Where I'm going or where I've been
I don't mind at all

I don't mind if the government falls
Implements more futile laws
I don't care if the nation stalls
And I don't care at all

I don't care if they tear down trees
I don't feel the hotter breeze
Sink in dust in dying sees
And I don't care at all

Na na na , ...

I don't mind if culture crumbles
I don't mind if religion stumbles
I can't hear the speakers mumble
And I don't mind at all

I don't care if the Third World fries
It's hotter there I'm not surprised
Baby I can watch whole nations die
And I don't care at all

I don't mind I don't mind I don't mind I don't mind
I don't mind I don't mind
I don't mind at all

Na na na , ...

I don't mind about people's fears
Authority no longer hears
Send a social engineer
And I don't mind at all

Read more: Bob Geldof - The Great Song Of Indifference Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Save the world and just Say No to Facebook!

Roy Greenslade has an article on the Facebookisation of news that appears on the Guardian. 'Why Facebook is public enemy number one for newspapers, and journalism.' 

Deeply concerning stuff. 

It does confirm my overall distrust of 'social media'. 

The following is from Greenslade's article. 

It has always been the case from the dawn of media that the controllers of news outlets - newspapers, TV and radio, online - make choices about what to publish and, more significantly, what not to publish. So is there a real need to be especially concerned about Facebook?

Yes, writes the Guardian’s Jemima Kiss in the latest issue of the British Journalism Review. In her article, “A giant that may eat us”, she contends that the world’s leading social media site is exerting both an “increasing domination of internet advertising revenue and control of a significant part of a critical distribution platform.”

And further

Users “willingly pour endless personal information about themselves into Facebook” and that enables the site “to sell targeted advertising around them.” 

So what? 

Before cynics shout about that not being a bad thing (while digital optimists assert that independent, and therefore better, journalism will arise in its place), think of the perils we face without a collective of organised, skilled journalists working for organisations large enough to hold power to account.

The Facebookisation of news has the potential to destabilise democracy by, first, controlling what we read and, second, by destroying the outlets that provide that material.  

Yup. Reason enough to stay away from Facebook. 

The funny things that distract me

Distraction. 

The problem with the internet is it just opens up a vast and endless opportunities to be distracted. 

One thing links to another and time just disappears. 

I was checking the Twitter feed of a news service which led me to an artticle by Michael Mann titled 'Michael Mann's Hotlist of the 9 Most Prominent Climate Deniers'. 

Not surprisingly Rupert Murdoch is listed and unsurprisingly it says this.

Fox News has constructed an alternate universe in which the laws of physics no longer apply; the greenhouse effect is a myth and climate change is a hoax... 

I am not sure how it happened but some time later I found myself on Source Watch and was reading this about Murdoch and the Iraq War.

In March 2003, Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Murdoch backed Bush government plans to invade Iraq. "We worry about what people think about us too much in this country. We have an inferiority complex, it seems," he said.
"I think what's important is that the world respects us, much more important than they love us ... There is going to be collateral damage. And if you really want to be brutal about it, better we get it done now than spread it over months," he said.  

And then later I'm on Counter Punch reading 'Rupert Murdoch and the Israeli Genie'  where author Michael Dickinson is asking of Rupert Murdoch

Don’t you want people to learn that you are part-owner of an Israeli-American company which has landed a shale oil exploration and production license covering 238 square miles in the Judean Hills and on occupied Syrian land, even though this is plainly illegal under international law?

And then the next paragraph makes me go a-ha!

Should not FOX News and Murdoch-owned news outlets disclose this hot story to their millions of viewers and readers? Should they not be made aware that the Murdoch-owned news outlets which generally support U.S. military action against Syria, do not inform their viewers and readers that the bossman has a vested interest in war and the overthrow of the Assad government in Damascus in order to further Genie’s oil exploration efforts in occupied Syria? 

And this is happening while I am being further distracted by coverage of Australia's prime-minister, Malcolm Turnbull, telling the United Nations how wonderful Australia's asylum seeker policy is. (Malcolm Turnbull tells world leaders to follow Australia's asylum policies)

And where is it that many of those who are held in Australia's off-shore detention centres are from again? 

Grizzly Jason!

Maybe there's a world where we don't have to run...

Grizzly Adams died the other week. 

I found myself wondering if Grizzly Adams would make sense to today's tech savvy and pop-culture sophisticated youngsters. 

Anyway, I think my daydreams of just vanishing to somewhere 'natural' and simply occupying my time with critters and cloud watching probably springs from watching The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams as a child. 

I guess when that is combined with The Muppets I developed a taste for the fantastic early on. 

Two articles I read today that made me think

Guardian Australia - If Australia had its current refugee policy in 1939, we wouldn't be alive today


International New York Times - Would you hide a Jew from the Nazis? - 

As today’s leaders gather for their summit sessions, they should remember that history eventually sides with those who help refugees, not with those who vilify them.

Nicholas Kristof from I-NYT does some good stuff. See his profile here. 

'Haven't you heard it's a battle of words'

they just don't make them like orson anymore. war of the wolds and citizen kane before he was 30. worlds and words and manipulation and fear and believing what you want to believe. and convincing yourself to believe fear.

and now some music from pink floyd

Us And Them Lyrics

Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men.
Me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do.

'Forward' he cried from the rear
And the front rank died.
The general is sat and the lines on the map
Move from side to side.

Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down
And in the end it's only round and round. And round.

'Haven't you heard it's a battle of words'
The poster bearer cried.
'Listen son' said the man with the gun,
'There's room for you inside.'

"Well I mean, they're gonna kill ya, so like, if you give 'em a quick sh...short, sharp shock, they don't do it again. Dig it? I mean he got off light, 'cause I coulda given 'im a thrashin' but I only hit him once. It's only the difference between right and wrong innit? I mean good manners don't cost nothing do they, eh?"

Down and out 
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about. 
With, without. 
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about? 

Out of the way, it's a busy day 
I've got things on my mind. 
For want of the price of tea and a slice 
The old man died.

Songwriters: ROGER WATERS, RICK WRIGHT

Us And Them lyrics © T.R.O. INC.

International New York Times - Museums Embrace the Unfamiliar

Museums Embrace the Unfamiliar

The curator’s job sounds relatively simple: just surprise us. Show us something we haven’t seen before, or lately, or in such depth, or with such clarity. Try to avoid the predictable and familiar, the market-approved or academically sanctioned, or what other curators have already done. Try to step outside your museum’s comfort zone or carefully manicured institutional persona with something eccentric, an intuitive leap. After all, there is plenty of art out there.

Okay, why have I posted this?  

I am mulling over ideas on how people choose ignorance. That people choose conformity and that people choose division. 

I am thinking that people choose not to be curious and that they choose to hold ill-informed judgments and that they choose predictability over spontaneity and that they long for the bland over the fabulous. 

The flamboyant never stands a chance against the dreary.

I am growing contemptuous of people who choose not to extend themselves and not to challenge themselves and instead choose the safety and comfort of just blending into the bigotry that casually surrounds them. 

And what does any of this have to do with Pauline Hanson? 

Initially I was one of those that explained Hanson in Australia and Trump in America as simply being the consequences of the failures of neoliberalism. 

I am now quietly backing away from my original thinking. Or at least I am starting to view the situation with a bit more differentiation. 

With regards to Hanson she is not overly removed from the sentiments one regularly hears in public places in central Victoria. While her support is dominantly in her home state of Queensland she has admirers throughout Australia. The people that I encounter who express support for Hanson are not people who have been left behind by the economy but rather people with a degree of lifestyle comfort and overall prosperity. 

Admittedly my personal experience is extremely limited, but I suspect that much of what Hanson says is actually closer to the norm, in particularly in regional Australia, of what is believed than some would like to admit. 

Sadly, Hanson is not that removed from what the typical Liberal, National, or even conservative Labor voter may hold as viewpoints. 

Explaining "Hanson" - I use the surname as representing something beyond the particular individual - is now best left to the social researchers and documentary makers and journalists who immerse themselves in the story. 

Fair enough, but what is the point you are trying to make? 


This week Pauline Hanson stood up in Australia's senate and made claims that contained untruths and outright lies. 

And for some people that holds some sort of strange attraction. They can willfully look beyond any evidence that runs clearly against what they hold as opinion. 

How on earth do you counteract that? 

I am not sure but I am growing tired of lazy and stupid people. And people who not only won't embrace the unfamiliar but who won't even consider it. 

And now it's time to play word Bingo!

okay, i confess, I am a marxist... (source here)

They're only words


Celebrity culture
Imperialism
Neoliberalism
Public space
Post truth
The death of expertise
The planned assassination of the expert
Tabloid media
Post modernism
Structuralism / Post structuralism
Journalism
The future of journalism
The obligation of the conscientious writer
The limitations of a deliberately deadshit section of society
Manipulation
Propaganda
False balance

The importance of literacy
The importance of talking about reading 
The importance of talking about writing

brainstorm #34 - the post truth dystopia

Opening: Random observations

The International New York Times is quite a useful publication. In fact, I made the comment to somebody earlier in the year that I thought if the I-NYT ever decided to establish business in a sizeable way in Australia that it would put a lot of pressure on News Ltd and Fairfax - organisations already struggling. 

My casual remark may have held some unintended prescience. Amanda Meade, media correspondent with Guardian Australia, reported a few weeks back that Fairfax was entering into some sort of arrangement with I-NYT. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. (Hopefully something good!)

The world is getting freaky. Alliances need to be made and strengthened and solidarity against a "neo-fascism" - for want of a better term - needs to be planned. 

Why do I say this?

The I-NYT is running an article this morning titled "Donald Trump's Anything Goes Campaign Sets An Alarming Precedent"

Trump is shifting the boundaries of what is acceptable in the pursuit of political power.

In part the article observes:

He seemed untroubled in using an ostensible campaign event just a few blocks from the White House to openly promote his personal commercial interests 52 days before the election.

In fact, this past week offered a vivid illustration of how little regard Mr. Trump has for the long-held expectations of America’s leaders. He is not only breaking the country’s political norms, he and his campaign aides are now all but mocking them.

Besides using his campaign as a platform to make money on a new hotel, Mr. Trump leveled an untrue assertion that Hillary Clinton had been the first to claim Mr. Obama was born abroad. He also boasted about his healthon the show of a daytime television celebrity while releasing just his testosterone levels and a few other details about his well-being.

And this 

Routine falsehoods, unfounded claims and inflammatory language have long been staples of Mr. Trump’s anything-goes campaign. But as the polls tighten and November nears, his behavior, and the implications for the country should he become president, are alarming veteran political observers — and leaving them deeply worried about the precedent being set, regardless of who wins the White House.

“It’s frightening,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. “Our politics, because of him, is descending to the level of a third-world country. There’s just nothing beneath him. And I don’t know why we would think he would change if he became president. That’s what’s really scary.” 

Given that corporate America and the apparatus of state has done so much to interfere in "third world countries" it should perhaps not seem strange that America - and its project of disestablishment and manipulation of chaos - has now turned on itself with a weirdness and ugliness it has normally exported. What goes around comes around. The circle becomes complete. And the tension becomes unbearable. (Or, as Yeats said, "The centre can't hold") 

But why do I say this? 

Hmmm... I am not sure. I am wanting to say something about the importance of the public space, the public forum, that stands as a place of integrity and of reason in the face of 'stuff' like Trumpism. 

Blog posts

1/ The Fifth Estate: part 1 - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/the-fifth-estate-part-1.html


2/ Nationalism: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/nationalism-good-bad-and-ugly.html

3/ Mike Carlton - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/mike-carlton_34.html

4/ snapshot #2 - Being There - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/snapshot-2-being-there.html

5/ The Indira Naidoo Express - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/the-indira-naidoo-express.html is best read in conjunction with Indira Naidoo is #1 on my to do list - http://writerinactionjason.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/indira-naidoo-is-1-on-my-to-do-list.html


Sessions I Attended: 

Friday 12/08/2016 - 09:30 - TMtS Opening Session
Friday 12/08/2016 - 14:45 - Indira Naidoo
Friday 12/08/2016 - 16:00 - Peter Singer

Saturday 13/08/2016 - 11:30 - Mike Carlton
Saturday 13/08/2016 - 16:30 - Nationalism: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Saturday 13/08/2016 - 17:45 - The Fifth Estate

Sunday 14/08/2016 - 09:30 - Kerry O'Brien
Sunday 14/08/2016 - 10:45 - Anne Summers
Sunday 14/08/2016 - 12:00 - Sarah Ferguson with Max Gillies
Sunday 14/08/2016 - 13:30 - Hugh Mackay

The Public Space

Just a brief note to the earlier post on marriage equality.

Writers Festivals and the public space. Ideas and discussion. Tolerance and acceptance - see Hannah Arendt 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' regarding the distinctions she makes between tolerance and hospitality.

Why is it that people who want to "privatise" every goddamn thing are the same people who want to impose their "values" on what remains of the public space?

The democratic state that should be free from the whims and fancy of religious institutions becomes a contested space for the capitalists playing at being christians. (The feudalists playing at being democrats?) (The buffoons playing at being mature?)

Control and domination, fear and submission. Authority and insecurity, mastery and powerlessness.

Is that all not just a bit childish? A bit like the behaviour that is learned in play grounds?

What is at stake here?

What is the Public Space? Why is it important? What is its history? What is its future? Can democracy ever be realised? Equality?

Are we just waiting for Rupert to croak it?

I am in a reflective mood.

The rain has only just stopped. It rained all night. It has been a wet start to Spring.

Australia's federal parliament grinds on. I'm not sure how representative it is. It seems to be held hostage to a bunch of radical thugs - they call themselves Conservatives - but they're more like spoiled bullies. Ignorant people who don't seem to understand that democracy is more than mob rule or majoritarian fancy. There are principles that inform democracy. Human rights and equality should be right up there.

I am not directly affected by the marriage equality debate. It doesn't directly change anything about my life one way or the other. As a heterosexual male it's not personally high on my agenda, but there is something about the fundamental decency of a society that claims to value emancipation, liberty and freedom that is important.

I tend to agree with Mike Carlton but wonder if the plebiscite is a gimmick to avert the collapse of the Liberal Party as much as it is a tactic to facilitate the destruction of the Liberal Party. 

Is this the final revenge for the Abbottistas? Unwilling to go forth and start their own Conservative wonder-party, Rupert Murdoch's sock-puppets instead choose to destroy the Liberal Party...

It is true Turnbull has not just been a disappointment but remarkably gutless and clueless. 

The marriage equality plebiscite is fast becoming an extremely unpleasant albatross round Turnbull's neck. It makes no sense to be holding one and one suspects that deep down Turnbull would prefer not to. If that is the case Turnbull is creating a whole lot of bad karma for himself and that sort of in-congruence can only ever cause a person harm. 

What is it about a Monday that makes you sigh?

Mondays are bad but not really bad enough to be used as an excuse to shoot people.

Most people usually just suck up the boredom and melancholy of a Monday with some sort of self deluding optimism.

But behind the jingly jangly happy hippy boppy pop of the Mamas & Papas is an american gothic brooding...

 Monday Monday, can't trust that day

 Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way

Mondays are just a tool of capitalist oppression! Robbing you of time and grinding you into conformity!

And as T-Bone Walker observed Tuesdays are just as bad. Wednesdays worse. And Thursday all so sad.

Sometimes it is better to just ignore Monday and go gardening - or stamp collecting or whatever your thing thing is - Say No to Monday!

snapshot #2 - Being There

Random thoughts... reflections on the way it felt... 

this is not a picture of bendigo writers festival enthusiasts partaking of refreshments at a view street cafe

There was something nice about the Saturday afternoon sunshine as people milled about View Street. There was still an August chill in the air lending itself to occasional slithers of melancholy. And as Kerry O'Brien quoted of Paul Keating, a little bit of melancholy is a good thing. It keeps you grounded... (But I wouldn't hear that get said until tomorrow)

I had just come from a session at the Capitol Theatre. It was good to stretch my legs. 

The football was also on at the Queen Elizabeth Oval. Bendigo-town was alive with activity today. 

I could have stood and watched the coming and going of people all afternoon. I am a people watcher.I am curious about them and their stories. I like to imagine what lives might have been like and what they may still offer into the future. 

Standing just removed from the cold shadows cast by the the heritage buildings and watching the groups of people and individuals come and go along View Street it is easy to imagine people doing something similar 100 hundred years ago. Gathering to discuss and gossip and swapping points of view. 

It is easy to imagine Indigenous people - this is Dja Dja Wurrung country - meeting on this ground 200 hundred years ago. Before the colonial conquest. Sharing stories, finding meaning, creating connections.

At the moment as I watch people go about their festival ways, I find myself feeling a strange warmth inside. There is a beauty to this... It is more than some sort of sickly sentimentality... Even if there is a twinge of nostalgia, but what for I am not sure of at the moment... 

For something that I am not aware of having lost? For something I am awaiting to discover? 

I then find myself going on a tangent and thinking what did people spend their money on before takeaway coffee? 

Most people were clutching one as they strolled about. Some people even held two. In recent times I have gone old school and resorted to using an old thermos. And a trusty old enamel cup. It saves on waste... (The more I watch the coffee cup clutchers the more I try to calculate the waste...) (Let it go Jason, I think you may be missing the point of the festival)

And of course no outing these days seems to be complete without a dog so people - not many but enough for me to notice - even had one of those along.

But they were probably only passing through. (Aren't we all?)

Perhaps they were just following their usual Saturday dog-walk-routine? 

(I like dogs but I think they are over-represented at public festivals...) 

(Unless of course they happen to be at public festivals for dogs aka dog shows ... but I don't go to dog shows)

But I couldn't spend all afternoon just watching people come and go.

There were other things to do, other obligations to fulfill. Other speakers to hear and other conversations to mull over. 

But I could spend all afternoon just watching people come and go and listen to the football crowd noise behind me and wonder what sort of discussions the festival goers were having in front of me. 

I think that is what I will do next year. I'll take up a spot just up from the old fire station in View Street and for a couple of hours I will just soak up the atmosphere. In a way that would be like being at a festival without really being at the festival. 

snapshot - Harold from Neighbours

I thought it was Harold from Neighbours.

I was sitting right at the back of the theatre and I heard the voice and I thought why is Harold from Neighbours talking to Sarah Ferguson. 

And just after that thought I remembered that the festival guide had listed Max Gillies as being in discussion with Sarah Ferguson. 

I have to get my eyes tested. That doesn't really have anything to do with Harold from Neighbours. But I find myself misreading things and overlooking errors in stuff that I write. 

In a weird sort of way it saddens me to think that I need glasses. It would only serve to confirm that the rot has set in. 

For the Max and Sarah show I was seated next to a woman from Leicester. She arrived in Australia on Thursday - a few days ago. She is in Melbourne for a conference. She is spending the weekend with friends who live in Mandurang. She said she watched rosellas outside when she was having her breakfast.

She said she liked the Bendigo Writers Festival. She said she had been to other writers festivals in Britain but she liked Bendigo because the authors speaking seemed less rehearsed. It seemed a bit more natural and free flowing.  

Review

I don't think my blogs from the weekend really work all that well.

I am trying to do too much. To cover too much. And what I am coming up with just isn't that good. They're of interest - or at least reflect things that are of interest to me - but I doubt they convey that much to anybody else. 

The problem is I viewed a lot of stuff over the weekend but I can't put everything in. 

I think it comes back to the voice thing. I'll probably disagree with this tomorrow but I think I need a stronger voice that is indulging in a more creative use of language and engage with a single aspect. 

The blogs from the festival should have been an opportunity to try stuff out but they seem to have gone a bit nowhere instead... 

It is hard because at some point I am still processing through stuff... and that's how it reads back to me. It is more like a recitation of what happened rather than anything particularly engaging.

The last couple of posts have also been too long. A bit rambling. 

I might take a step back from things and try coming at it using a different tack.  

I need an angle!

The Fifth Estate - part 1

A packed house to hear Kerry O'Brien, Margaret Simons and Dennis Glover in conversation with Sally Warhaft from The Wheeler Centre. 

Power and leadership and the intrigue that goes along with it. The plotting and the scheming and the ambition of certain individuals to hold sway over the consciences of others. The self-belief to put yourself forward and claim a particularly superior understanding of the world and to project a confidence to others that says within yourself are the answers to dilemmas that confront societies. Why do some people pursue these things with such obsessive zeal?

I must admit I don't get it. I don't understand the lust for power. I have never held ambitions with regards to career or career advancement or status. I have never wanted to hold influence and I most certainly have never wanted to influence anybody on anything. I know full well that I am not a "salesman" and I have absolutely no desire to cultivate "followers". 

Sure I have opinions on things but my attempts at advocacy have perhaps been half-hearted and certainly never all that successful. I like to support causes that I believe are worthwhile but I know my talents would never lie in leading a cause. 

Yet, for some reason, politics fascinates me. I am drawn to the intrigue. I am drawn to observing the egos that clash in battles for control of power. I enjoy watching heightened political dramas unfold and I enjoy trying to think-through potential outcomes. Tensions are high and the consequences extreme but there is something about the art of strategy that is involved that does absorb me. 

There is something about the "craftiness" of people who aspire to leadership that I find repellent. Distrustful. It makes it difficult to know when they are being genuine and when they are just saying something for the sake of advantage. 

Power can diminish people as much it can empower them - Kerry O'Brien

(Why do we persist with the idea of the leader? Why can't the position of prime-minister be a job share arrangement? 

I have heard it said that the modern corporation is like totalitarian regime in that it has a pyramid power structure that leads to an apex of a particular individual. Why do we encourage these sort of hierarchies?)

Leaders are also made by there followers - Margaret Simons

What do I look for in a leader? That is a good question and it was pleasing to hear what the panel said with regards to what makes a good leader. And in particular was the observation on what is lacking from today's leaders. Kerry O'Brien spoke particularly forcefully on this.

Life experience. A connection to a belief system that has been tested - that has endured a sustained period of ordeal - to have been allowed the time to develop depth - and that carries conviction and holds principle. It has consistency to it that is is born out of long years of struggle, and self-reflection, and refined through an ability to recognise where improvements can be made. In other words, the maturity to acknowledge when one is wrong and the creativity to incorporate new learning into an existing world-view. 

I am mostly not overly impressed with today's politicians - especially those put forward by the Liberal and National parties. They lack character and they lack substance. They are interchangeable. They've gone to university, probably studied law, joined a political party, worked as a political staffer or for a think-tank, been pre-selected to a reasonably safe seat. And then just churn out endless cliched drivel once in parliament. Because that is all they know. (Of course I generalise but I think I am relatively close to the mark) 

Where is the actual human contact with the broad range of society? Where is the engagement with the wider world? Where is the development of empathy and the ability to place yourself in somebody else's shoes and to imagine life from somebody else's perspective. The sort of stuff that can not necessarily be taught at a university or cultivated within a hegemonic political party social club, but needs to be experienced in the conversations and small talk of varied workplaces, and homes, and a diversity of other social meeting places where the hopes and fears and aspirations of a sweeping range of people dwell. 

It comes from experiencing the anguish of life-choices of those whose lives are buffeted by forces so hopelessly beyond their control. That is when you can start to develop a sense of decency towards others and to forge insight into yourself. Too many involved in politics today "don't live a life of building beliefs." They know what they already know and that is all they need to know and they are right and they don't need to consider anything from any other perspective.  

Decency and insight are in shockingly short supply in today's Australian politics. Obfuscation and recalcitrance rule the day. 

So we have a decaying predominately two party system in an age of rapid technological and social transformation. What could possibly go wrong? 

Nationalism: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

It is interesting and timely that a discussion on nationalism should take place in Bendigo for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Bendigo has been the scene in recent years for protests by far-right groups such as the United Patriots Front and the like-minded Reclaim Australia in opposition to the construction of a mosque in Bendigo. These protests can be seen as part of a precursor to the reemergence of 'Hansonism' and the consequent election of three One Nation politicians into Australia's senate in the federal election held in June this year. 

But it is also noteworthy - probably more as a curiosity for history buffs like me as much as anything else - because Bendigo was the seat held by ultra nationalist Billy Hughes at the conclusion of World War 1. Trying to explain the political machinations of Hughes would take more space than this blog allows but needless to say Hughes held extremely firm views on what Australian identity was. To put it briefly it was uncompromisingly white and masculine. 

In 1919 Hughes, the then prime-minister, had returned to Australia from visiting Europe where post war reconstruction work was commencing. Reports from the period give a sense of Hughes having a spring in his step and convey a tone that while the war had been a great catastrophe resulting in horrific loss of life, it had also been an opportunity for Australia to prove itself on the world stage. 

I have come back as I could have desired, in a manner symbolical of war and the glorious aftermath of war... I could not have fashioned for myself a more splendid and  glorious way of returning to Australia than that which fate has destined for me... It is well that we should remember today, that after 16-months my colleague and myself have landed in Australia again and find it still a free Australia, a white Australia. Australia is free and white today; but it owes nothing to those who, being able to fight, remained behind, and everything to those who, being able to fight, went out and fought. (Source) 

For Hughes, Australia's participation in the war was completely tied to an identity of Australia as being a white man's country. The 'White Australia' policy received overwhelming bipartisan political support and was a key plank of the Australian Labor Party's political platform for a number of decades. The ALP stalwart Arthur Calwell was still clinging to it well into the 1960s. 


This afternoon's panel - facilitated by Louise Adler - consisted of Anne Summers, Benjamin Law and Peter Doherty. It was a wide ranging discussion that strangely enough - given the potentially bleak subject matter - resulted in a number of laughs. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a detailed account of the conversation so I will have to cherry-pick my highlights.  

Benjamin Law spoke with characteristic intelligence and humour of his experiences growing up as the son of immigrants from an Asian back ground and living in a comprehensively white Gold Coast. 

A national history is a personal history - Benjamin Law

Law found himself in secondary school when Pauline Hanson burst spectacularly and controversially onto the Australian political scene in the 1990s. He felt a shift took place with regards to multiculturalism during these years - the "Hanson and Howard years" - and that Australian-ness was an ideal that was recognised by an ability to speak English. Law challenged this widely held mainstream perception - subtly and not so subtly encouraged by the sections of the media and political classes - by telling the story of his grandmother who did not speak English but who worked in Australia, paid taxes in Australia, and contributed much to Australia. 

Peter Doherty spoke of transforming the long-held rifts within Australian society through the emergence of a new Australian identity - a new understanding of Australian-ness - that was removed from a sense of nationalism - as understood as part of the nation-state construct - and based more on a love of country, an appreciation of landscape. 

 Although, Anne Summers challenged this to an extent by claiming that there would be many Australians of a recent immigrant background who would never have ventured far from the cities in which they live and would not have the connection to the sort of natural wonders of Australia that Doherty spoke of. 

Summers makes a good point but I must admit I found what Doherty said to be consistent with my own thoughts. That an appreciation and celebration of Aboriginal culture and heritage - and in particular having that esteemed sense of place - as something intrinsic within oneself - that does allow for the possibility to rise above a narrowly conceived and crudely articulated jingoistic sense of what Australian identity might be - as being crucial to a maturation of both an individual and collective identity. The way in which I experience what Doherty speaks of is as a quietism, that is meditative and mindful, aware and conscientious, that has definite 'spiritual' aspect and if allowed to develop to its potential could well become a way in which one is guided in life. (That would of course become a challenge to finance capital and the expoitative and extractive industries that historically and presently plunder the Australian countryside.) (Perhaps there is an enforced dissociation between Australia and Australian-ness because of this?)

All panelists agreed that there is generally a sense of confusion surrounding ideas of Australian nationalism. 

The fundamental problem is that we don't know who we are as Australians - Anne Summers

Summers remarked  that unlike America whose main days of public celebration were July 4th and Thanksgiving - days that are more inclusive rather than exclusionary as to who can participate - Australia's public days of national celebration were more problematic. Australia Day antagonises many because it can justifiably also be seen as an Invasion Day. And Anzac Day is a commemoration to a World War 1 battlefield that in spite of considerable media attention does not actually hold any significant direct connection to many Australians. 

Is this how we want to express ourselves? - Anne Summers  

We don't have unifying symbols - Anne Summers  

(It is an interesting point, but how would you go about determining a new national day of inclusive celebration?) 

Doherty spoke of the rapid rate of change - technological and economic - that has taken place and the sense of uncertainty that now exists around jobs. For Doherty much of this has been caused by the "toxic religion of economic rationalism" and that something needed to be done about "the bastards" who know about "the commodification of everything and the value of nothing" and that "we need to do something about neoliberalism."

Doherty's comments fitted nicely with a question that later came from the floor regarding the role of 'Fox News' in the impoverishment of American political discourse and the consequent rise of nativism as expressed by Donald Trump. 

Summers viewed 'Fox News' as not just pushing fear that drove a wedge deep into political discussion but also being driven by and actively perpetuating "a reign of terror" through "a regime of misogyny" that was over seen by Roger Aisles. 

Fox News promulgates lies - Anne Summers 

The 'Fox News' mode of operation was then tied back to the reemergence of Pauline Hanson in Australian politics and what Louise Adler referred to as the "incivility of discourse" where the likes of Hanson already have their minds made up and "are not wanting to hear any other views." How can rational discussion take place under those sort of circumstances? 

While there is much to be concerned about there is also plenty that warrants optimism. Public discussions of the sort that this panel contributed to demonstrate there is still a desire of many to engage thoughtfully and constructively in talking through and trying to give sense to complex modern issues. (My account above of the session has condensed much and selectively highlighted the sensational. It was far more measured and issues teased out more gently than I have detailed)

It was stimulating to listen to four highly intelligent and articulate people speak at length on issues that often are reduced to sound bites or vigorous slanging-fests on social media. (Or recounted with extreme discrimination in a self-serving blog!) 

To take the time to be fully absorbed into what somebody is saying does allow you to reflect more thoroughly on what is at stake. It is actually nice to be in a communal public space and be surrounded by other members of society and to experience some sort of pause for reflection.   

Australia is very much at a new part of its history and it is very new to all Australians. We are ground-breakers in this complex multi-cultural place with its difficult history and potentially antagonistically fraught future. (It seems as though at times it is all up for ceaseless contest)

Perhaps there is some confusion and muddling about but we do still retain the possibility to shape our futures. It is very much up to us how we engage with the challenges.   

The beliefs of the likes of Billy Hughes do continue to loom large within the sentiments of many contemporary white Australians and it is noticeable in the attitudes of many who live in central Victoria.  


In other words, something such as Nationalism: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly could easily run at future Bendigo Writers Festival's well into perpetuity.