Around the world this week pundits will be reprising Tacitus’ comment – “They made a desert and called it peace”
He was paraphrasing Galgacus, the chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy chieftain who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland.
In an ideal world politics would focus on rational and intelligent debate between enlightened people – just like in Ancient Greece –without, of course, the exclusion of women and slaves. Albeit there are some serious doubts about the Liberal Party’s commitment to advancing women.
But sadly, we don’t live in an ideal world. Instead, it is a battle between competing groups – both run by apparatchiks – focussed on forgettable ‘announceables’. The politicians keep up the pretence of high-minded debate, but the real campaigns focus on offending as few people as possible and not frightening the horses by campaigning on issues about real reform – like negative gearing, capital gains tax and climate change.
The most comprehensive study of Australian social cohesion – The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Social Cohesion Mapping 2024 Report – has highlighted strains on Australia society which are not yet dire but are disturbing.
The Institute is an annual survey which gauges Australians’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviours across 1000 indicators of social cohesion, multiculturalism, wellbeing and other topical issues. The sample size is more than 8,000 and features additional surveys of people from Indian, Middle Eastern and African backgrounds.
Everyone has the odd ‘if only’ thought from time to time.
If only you had made a different career choice, if only you had not said the things you have said, or if only you had not done some of the things you have done. All those done and not done moments – those decisions and those things you did which, when you wake up at night, have you squirming with anguish and/or embarrassment.
From the time news media formats were invented – from cave paintings to social media – there has been dissatisfaction with what people see and read.
Activists have also often seen the media as the most significant part of the problem of politics. In January 1965 Malcom X – anticipating the impact of the Murdoch and other media – said: “If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man was a Jesuit maxim attributed to Ignatius Loyola. It is probably apocryphal, but it is an approach many have taken over the years to implant ideas in young minds.
The Australian War Memorial however is yet another organisation which appears to be testing its validity. Ironically, however, it often justifies its approach with language which Jesuit opponents would have dubbed ‘Jesuitical’.
It is now abundantly clear that the Albanese Government is gutless. But what’s worse is that – as recent events demonstrate – it’s also politically incompetent.
When the Commonwealth Bank announced new withdrawal charges of $3 on customers withdrawing cash from branches as opposed to ATMs any reasonably competent political party – particular one threatened with defeat – would recognise what a great opportunity this presented.
Every year or so Australia gets a bulky new book about an Australian war, military action, hero or some other military matter written by what is known as ‘storians.
They are seen as ideal presents for Dads and Uncles and you generally see them turning up in second hand bookshops and school fetes a year or so after they have been gifted. Most of them show little evidence of intense – or any – reading.
When Marx wrote “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce” he might as well have been talking about the recent spat between former Treasurer Peter Costello and the Albanese Government Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
The Australian War Memorial oscillates between seeming to be ready to admit that Australia’s Frontier Wars ought to be commemorated in the AWM and then leaping back in fright at the thought of backlash from the RSL and others.
Among the hopeful signs is the Memorial Chair, Kim Beazley’s, intimations that something should be done. The latest annual November 11 Didgeridoo playing may be another tiny clue.