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.  

Mike Carlton

Mike Carlton, according to his profile that still appears on a web-page of his former employer, the Sydney Morning Herald

began his career in journalism at the ABC in 1963. He has been a war correspondent in Vietnam, ABC News bureau chief in Indonesia, a TV news and current affairs reporter, and then talk radio presenter in Sydney and London.

 In addition to that it is worth noting that Carlton was pivotal to the success of the pioneering ABC television current affairs program This Day Tonight - known for its often "highly irreverent approach to stories". 

I have long held bit of a fascination with Carlton. (Perhaps in a way his is the life I would have once liked to have had for myself?)

He has a cheeky, provocative, quality to him that is not afraid to declare his opinion - often on Twitter using such colourful phrases as "fuckwit" and "clusterfuck" - and generally serving as a source of considerable annoyance to those of a Conservative social and political bent. 

Provoking the somber Gerard Henderson appears to be a particular delight of Carlton's.

And this. (A sentiment that research has confirmed is shared by much of the Twittersphere.)

confirmation is being sort as to whether this is gerard henderson reacting to news that mike carlton is appearing at the bendigo writers festival (gif sourced from here)

During his session at the Bendigo Writers Festival Carlton joked - I assume - that he liked Bendigo and was actually in town for the beer festival. Fortunately, for the crowd of his well attended stint on the main stage where he was in discussion with the ABC's Sian Gard, he had put time aside to give some insights into his new book 'Flagship'

So much was covered during Carlton's one hour talk it is difficult to know where to start  to condense it. But what I found most fascinating was Carlton's obvious love for history and equally his sense of obligation to tell these stories of the sailors and their families who were involved in the war to protect Australia from invasion by Japanese armed forces. 

Carlton refers to that generation of Australians who endured in the aftermath of 'the Great War', the Great Depression and then World War II - his parents generation - as being "Australia's finest generation". And there is an obviously strong tone of admiration in his voice when he recounts meeting the survivors from that period - now sadly diminishing in number - and being able to spend time with them and hear of their lives and experiences.

The fun and privilege of writing this stuff is that you get to meet some of those people who were there... - Mike Carlton

Carlton is a popular history writer in the vein of his great mate Peter Fitzsimons. The focus of Carlton's new book is an area of naval history that has long been of personal fascination to him. As Carlton observes "most naval history is written for specialists by specialists" and in response to this he wanted to write something that was informative and accessible to the lay-person  and to also keep knowledge of the events 'alive'. 

Carlton said he deliberately set out to write something that had the urgency of a page turner, that it it was in some way like a novel in how it engrossed people and drew them into keep reading. This is stylised 'history from the bottom up' that is geared towards a reliable readership. These are stories of the 'ordinary' person aimed towards a market of the 'ordinary' reader. 

In her discussion with Carlton Sian Gard remarked that she learned a lot about routine life on the warships. Carlton responded by saying it was important to him that there was a strong sense of these people - how they ate, what they wore, the context of the period, what else was taking place in Australia at the time etc., - as a way of encapsulating a period that has now mostly vanished. 

It was a different Australia... - Mike Carlton

It was obvious that Carlton had spent his time creating a piece of work that he was immensely proud of and at the same time had been a source of enjoyment for him. Once more referring to the sense of privilege that he felt in putting the book together Carlton remarked on the experience of handling now fragile primary source material such as letters and diaries. The tactile presence of time that had passed and withered and decayed but which still recorded intimate musings of those who once held life so vibrantly was something he cherished. 

Vibrant is also a good word for Carlton himself. In introducing him he was described as being "a vital man with a vital mind". He certainly proved that claim true. 

Having turned 70 earlier this year Carlton remains in fine form. His next project for him to complete is to be a work of memoirs. Something to look out for.

I could have listened to Mike Carlton all day and one suspects that he would have been up for the challenge and happily have talked all day. It was a real joy to have heard him speak.    

. 


  

Indira Naidoo is #1 on my to do list

I am very much looking forward to experiencing the fabulous Indira Naidoo tomorrow afternoon. 

I love gardening.

This is a snapshot of the veggie garden I have been working on the last few years.

jason veggie garden

And this is some of my handiwork from last summer.  

Growing your own fruit and veg isn't just a good hobby but a great way to assert a sense of individuality in the face of the capitalist nightmare of global corporatism. 



In an ideal world I would attend tomorrow afternoon's session dressed something like this.

photo comes from fennel's guide to country living 

Because nothing says up yours global corporate capitalism nightmare like imaginatively connecting to a quaint period of yesteryear... (I am still working on acquiring this wardrobe...)

I have previously mentioned in this blog that in recent times I have developed an interest in the Dig for Victory campaign that was carried out during World War II.

I have managed to track down a couple of CH Middleton's books.

I adore the propaganda posters that accompanied the campaign. 

I love the photographs of the period.

I was so taken by the above photo I managed to track down a donkey jacket - as worn by the gent on the right - from Viper London, and I've also bought myself a collection of cabbie / newsboy style caps. 

I may well be an eccentric nutter but I also have an excellent patch of kipfler potatoes! 

Reflections #1 Day #1 - Rainy Day Woman Blues #13 & #35

the dude 

The day started magnificently. I received a lanyard and a t-shirt. It rapidly went down hill after that. There is actually an expectation that I will actually do stuff. No shit. Actually. (Surely they're not serious? They are serious. And don't call me Shirley.) 

Thinking, is it overrated? It is with a certain Jackie Gleason-bug-eyed-sense of Huh? that I have to now channel my inner stoned Lloyd Bridges and equally stoned Jeff Bridges and see if I can come up with something creative, sort of coherent, and vaguely presentable, so as to address the requirements of this subject... Hmmmmm... this could get ugly... 

First of all, let's step through this. I declare that I am more of a life-stylist than anything else. To suggest that I am a student of any sort would be a grave insult to all the real students. The only real ambition I have left these days is to one day own a coat like this.

This is presently available on Ebay for $135 USD. It is a vintage 1940s Utica DuxBak... It is rather sad but I do honestly metaphorically cream my pants at the prospect of owning something like this. (Even sadder, there is some literal truth in there as well!)

There is a neat website - The Fedora Lounge - that has a really cool history on the Duxbak of Utica. 

Or else I could go with a brand spanking new Woolrich Classic. At $409 AUD it's bit of a bargain. (I seriously can't afford that...) 

Now back to the blog. 

I don't really have any interest in networking. (It just seems unseemly...)

I also suspect social media is simply exacerbating a pre-existing condition within society-at-large of gormlessness that sadly is all too excited at the prospect of any opportunity to publicly express itself. (Blogging is of course excluded from that because nobody will ever actually read this!) (So in this space of privileged anti-social aloofness I can be as fucking gormless as I want...)

The assessments look interesting, but I have to find a voice, perhaps even a persona, to wrap all of this in.  

I am tossing up between going all out gonzo...

And spending the next four days completely off my nut a la 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'...

... or perhaps approaching it with a more sensible-single-malt-Scotch-informed-Martha Gellhorn-inspired sense of heroism. Not that I am expecting a bloodbath at the Benders-bash, but if war does break out between the fascists and the communists I want to be prepared. 

It is all a bit like one of those choose your own adventure books. I now have to start working through options, committing myself to some decisions, and see where it all leads me.

But whatever happens I am claiming this Bendigo Writers Festival as my very own. I am Jason, an anti-writer inaction. (No. I am Jason, an anti-writer inaction...)

Subjective Bias

this is not a picture of andrew bolt hanging upside down in collins street melbourne after unhinged and increasingly disgruntled one nation voters discover that bolt is indeed the neoliberal elite's sock puppet of choice... for more gruesome pictures of executed fascists who are not andrew bolt check out this web page 

Speaking of the unhinged One Nation, I have spent some time this weekend trying to wrap my head around newly confirmed senator, Malcolm Roberts. I must confess I fucking well give up trying to fathom him. All I can say is that neoliberalism is in meltdown and this is the sort of loon we end up with. 

pauline and malcolm in happier days... australia has some seriously bat-shit crazy times ahead of it. (photo taken from here)

Sorry Nat, but we do. Fortunately there are also some good things to look forward to. Like the Bendigo Writers Festival - although I believe an IPA poltergeist has also infiltrated that. It is believed Rod Serling has been conjured from the dead to to properly introduce Chris Berg and give context to the curious audience. 

But let us leave voodoo economics and zombie commentators behind and focus on the life affirming good things on offer at the Benders Scribblers-fest 2016.

My Rough Schedule for the Event - thus far - subject to tinkering

So here is what I am thinking of checking out.

Friday 

Indira Naidoo and Peter Singer

Saturday 

Peter Singer 

Helen Garner

Not sure - I might just get some lunch

Nationalism: the good the bad and the ugly

The Fifth Estate - with Kerry O'Brien

I have a feeling Julian Assange is on at some stage Saturday night so I would like to check that out - just out of curiosity. (Assange sort of irritates me but I quite like Robert Manne)

Sunday

Kerry O'Brien

Anne Summers

Sarah Ferguson

Hugh Mackay

And a great big pint of pale ale at the Rifle Brigade...

  

Once more unto the feast, dear friends, once more

I have previously referred to the Bendigo Writers Festival in terms of being some sort of feast, but is that warranted?

What do I mean by feast?

this is not a picture of me in training for the bendigo writers festival

I must admit that as a younger man I held appetites of King Henry VIII proportion. Unfortunately, not wanting to antagonise the Gods of Gout has slowed me down these days. It sucks getting old!

But surely there can be more to feasting than a corpulent, flatulent, and ultimately vomitous overindulgence.

Surely it is possible to feast in a genteel and refined manner. To savour and find nuance in subtle flavours rather than just overdose on every fucking thing that you can in some sort of orgiastic frenzy stuff into your fucking body.

In 'An Alphabet for Gourmets', MFK Fisher observes

It is a curious fact that no man likes to call himself a glutton, and yet each of us has in him a trace of gluttony, potential or actual. I cannot believe that there exists a single coherent human being who will not confess, at least to himself, that once or twice he has stuffed himself to the bursting point, on anything from quail Financiere to flapjacks, for no other reason than the beastlike satisfaction of his belly. In fact I pity anyone who has not permitted himself this sensual experience, if only to determine what his own private limitations are, and where, for himself alone, gourmandism ends and gluttony begins. 

Yes. That's it, I shall think of myself as a gourmet rather than just a bogan hedonist. I shall be discerning, subtle, and yet still retain some sort of enthusiasm for living.

I have been in training for this new attitude of moderation for some time now. I have given up meat. Although, my relinquishing of dead animals as part of my diet had more to do with outrage at the industrial practices of production that the poor beasts were subjected to than anything else.

My sense of outrage reached its zenith when I heard that there was such a thing as a chocolate sundae topped with bacon bits. That is just the most perverse trivialisation of a sentient creature I have ever heard of. That is just sick and twisted and capitalism has gone utterly fucked up when that sort of bat-shit crazy stuff starts happening.

So I gave up the pig. I must admit I felt much better for it, and not wanting to be thought of as an elitist speciest I gave up all meat over the period of 18-months.

I don't want to sound condescending to people who still eat meat, but I am a superior moral being to you!

And I am becoming a gourmet. A man of such pretentious outlooks I often find myself to be insufferable.

For example I am now going to shamelessly name drop Elizabeth David.

Elizabeth fucking who I hear the less civilised among us wail in unimaginative unison.

elizabeth david 

Elizabeth David was a food writer extraordinaire. (There's a neat bio-pic on her worth checking out if you can track it down).

And she wrote 

And that is the sort of feast that I imagine myself having at this Bendigo Writers Festival. A smug celebration of simplicity (aka poverty) that may or may not (it bloody well won't) have the occasional infusion of truffle.