None of it was spiteful, there was no anger, just a disturbing abyss between the views of some like myself and a few older people. Our world views started similarly, but thereafter headed in opposite directions, and it is a snippet of our conversation that I'd like to recall for your enjoyment.
Prologue
Sitting in the tastefully decorated and designed courtyard of the party-holder, people gather in groups, catching up on news, meeting new people and picking finely at platters of finger food. Over towards the glass wall that opens the house onto the courtyard, a student discusses his university course as older people reminisce and lament their lost youth, innocence and optimism.
One particularly hearty soul, going by the moniker of Phil, then introduced his thoughts on the manners, or lack thereof in many young people. He had thus started a campaign, Mind Your Mouth, to promote the value of simple etiquette in creating a nicer society. Replete with passionate gesticulation, considered pauses and floating eye contact he made quite a convincing case, drawing enthusiasm from the nodding group.
The conversation
Then, quite suddenly in fact, he took a deep breath and scanned the group, pausing at the younger people; "I can't believe those bastards killed our children in Bali. Kick them all out, send them back to where they belong. They can't fit in with our, the Australian, way of life, they don't assimilate. None of them are worth sh#$ as far as I am concerned!"
Silence enveloped the group, a slight shifting in the seats accompanied by avoidant glances. Could they, could we, could I, let this through to the keeper (to use an Australian expression). Did I care enough about this issue to say something completely contrary to what Phil had said. Yes I did.
"So Phil, you're saying that we should deport, kick out, detain every single Muslim and person who doesn't fit into our society? You are telling me that all Muslims are terrorists and all of them hate us?"
A glance at the table from Phil, his eyes then fixing on mine. "Yes"
So I hadn't misheard after all. Well, if that's his point of view I've got a couple of ways I can try and see where it came from and how it's justified.
"Phil, there are over 1 billion Muslims in the world, 190 million or so Indonesians, most of whom are Muslim, 6 million plus Muslims in the United States of America. You cannot possibly generalise to say that every single one of them is 'evil' and we should hate them."And the considered reply - "Simon, we should hate them because they hate us." sigh "With so many of them, all of them hating us we must do everything we can to protect the Australian way of life. They let Bali happen, they didn't care when he (Ambrosi) laughed, they are the only religion to think we are infidels and demand our deaths."
I really had hoped that such xenophobic, mistrustful and aggressive beliefs had disappeared hundreds of years ago with the Crusades, but obviously I was wrong.
"Hang on Phil. We're the ones who called them infidels and invaded the Middle East in our religious zeal. Their reference to us as infidels was a response to our (western) slaughtering of them over hundreds of years of crusades. And anyway, those who seriously believe in our being infidels aren't all Muslims, certainly none of the ones I know think that. They are extremists, fundamentalists who drive their own lust for power through quasi-religious justifications. Usama bin Laden, Abu Bakhir Bashir, yes they are Muslim, Saddam Hussein, well, not really, Fred Nile, Pauline Hanson, Pat Buchanan, definitely not. Extremists have to come to exist in all religions, all cultures and countries."
"Simon, I don't know if you quite grasp what I'm saying here - they want to kill us! All I want is for our children to be safe."
Hmm, sounds to me remarkably like what Mungo Macallum wrote in his satirical "How to be a Megalomaniac" - safety of our great nation and of our children's future. What future I wonder, when such hate pervades wealthy suburbia, far removed from the lines of conflict. It's an outdated set of values that sees security obtained through aggression - in our world of instant communications, global media and mass migration such actions inevitably lead to hate, mistrust and conflict. Well, I'm obviously hitting my head against a brick wall here, let's try something slightly different.
“Phil, what is it to be Australian, please, tell me what an Australian looks like, what they believe in.”
“Well, an Australian is someone born here”
“umm, excuse me, I was born in England, I’ve lived here for 38 years, does that make me Australian” My dad, interjecting.
“Yes, it does make you Australian, because you’ve assimilated, you fit in. I’m talking about Muslims and their like who come, take our jobs, kill our children”
Kat, the other student enters the foray “What about people who are Muslim who are born here, are they Australian. What about someone like Mohammed Ali - is he not American for being of the Islamic faith?”
Phil’s reply was sharp and quick - “they still don’t fit in. If they were to accept us for who we are, that would be fine, but they don’t. They hate us, even when they live here, that’s why they should all go.”
I could scarcely believe this logic. We should hate them because we think they hate us. It’s circular - break the circle, spread the word and the system evaporates. Just choose not to hate if there is no reason. And I just wish I had been able to explain the economic benefits of migration, the burden of Phil’s generation on the Australian Social Security system, the value of low-wage new arrived migrants filling our ‘undesirable’ jobs, the international push-pull factors of economic refugees, not to mention asking how he knew ‘they’ hated ‘us.’
Instead, I asked the question again “still, what is to be Australian?”
“Well, we’re a tolerant lot, so long as others fit in with us. We believe in a fair go, and leaving others to do what they want so long as it doesn’t adversely affect us. That’s where they’re the problem - they don’t leave us alone, all that preying, those clothes, and the hate, the terrorism - we’d be a lot safer if we were to get rid of them all. I don’t mean kill them, we can’t do that, even though that’s what they want to do to us, just make sure they’re not around us.”
Oh, he has humanity, what a relief. We’ll just deport them all for not being Australian enough, they were too intolerant, didn’t give people a fair go, were too busy telling us what to do - they just didn’t fit in. Righto, I want the entire social conservative right wing of the Liberal party on the next boat out of the country, those who voted for One Nation straight to Woomera, and anyone who has the gall to have had European descendants in the country for three or more generations, you have to go too - you keep telling people what to do. Great, we’ve just emptied the country of everyone bar a large proportion of the indigenous population and post second world war migrants. Yay multicultural Australia!
Seriously though, if I were to take Phil’s comments at face value, I would think that he’s set new levels of hypocrisy. Either that, or in his mind he unconsciously plays identity politics and casts those who don’t look like him as ‘them,’ projecting his fears and hatred onto a group he can define away from himself. Nice self-defensive mechanism, always blaming someone else, it’s much easier than actually doubting one’s own actions.
And on the conversation went for several hours. What I’ve recounted isn’t verbatim, hopefully it’s close, but it certainly does serve to illustrate the challenges faced by those who both talk and act on empathy, tolerance and hope. I would happily note that it is the older, Cold War generation who most often hold the views expressed by Phil, but that does not mean they are all soon to disappear. Quite the opposite - it is the baby boomer generation, unaffected by war, who too often see belligerence and hate as effective security measures, and it is their generation who currently make the decisions that will affect us all. If we want to change it, we need to get out there and do three things. inspire. inform involve.
Any comments, thoughts, whatever, please let me know - s.moss1@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au
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