We all knew them at high school. The name of ours, well lets call him, Peter. Peter’s school career was marked by confrontation, suspensions and out of school time violence. By the time he had reached Grade 10 his little brother had joined him and his gang was complete.
Peter was my class grade bully. But he wasn’t alone. Surrounding Peter was a cohort of lesser bullies. This ‘outer circle’, on their own, were not as tough or brash as Peter but together, and with his blessing, they were genuinely scary. None of us liked them or really feared them. They certainly didn’t have any respect from us and, upon reflection, none from Peter either. This bully gang was a constant menace in the background and as time has passed and recent events unfolded I’ve come to realise where the fear of them came from. In the current vernacular it could be called aspirational voter anxiety. Which in reality is the same as aspirational middle class anxiety.
Little Alex the DownOne is the same as one of those in the group that encircled Peter. When they felt secure in their group they would say and do what they liked to any of us they saw as being weaker or less ‘worthy’ than them. They drew on the kudos derived from being part of the ‘tough’ crowd. They had no power on their own and the harder they tried to be like the real bully the more ridiculous they looked and the more isolated they became. We all knew that one day it would end their leader would be gone and they would need to stand on their own. Something we all knew they would find difficult to do.
In those school days the aspirational middle class anxiety we felt as students, and which was really a reflection of our parent’s anxieties, was the fear of failure. The fear that we wouldn’t get the good jobs and be able to do better than our parents. We working class kids wanted to do better, earn more, live in a better place and hopefully, one day, be rich and ‘successful’. The fears in those days were driven by Cold War political rhetoric and the hyped up fear of an "Asian invasion" if Vietnam was to fall.
Not much as changed. The new source of aspirational middle class anxiety is the fear of ‘terrorism’ which has replaced ‘communism’ as the big bad shadow ready to descend and enshroud us in darkness and loathing. It is this fear that has spawned a new breed of bully and a new international age of anxiety.
As I’ve followed this new wave of terror rhetoric I’ve noticed that in the past three years it has become more refined and narrowly targeted. The question I keep asking is, "who benefits and who looses from this latest ‘terror warning’?" As far as I can see the messages are being refined and increasingly targeted at the aspirational middle class.
This is the group who take the overseas holidays. It is this group that is more likely to read, watch and listen to a mix of commercial and ABC / SBS media. This group is likely to have internet access and be either self-employed or in a middle ranking management position, have a reasonably high disposable income and will donate to charities such as the Red Cross and the Salvos. They will want to or will send their kids to private schools but most will find the local public school will do and they are involved in sports and other hobbies. Typically they vote pragmatically for the candidate they think will most benefit their current situation. They are, the swinging voters.
It is this group, the aspirational middle class, who are really just working class, that is being targeted in the current ‘terror’ rhetoric. But they are not alone. Alex the StonedOne (and what else could explain his behaviour) and his cronies have been trying to send messages to their chief bullies. Although the messages for the domestic audience are targeted at the aspirational middle class, the more important audience as Downer, Howard, Vale et al see it, is the US administration.
Did you notice that the outer circle of people who hung around the school bully were ‘try hards’? They tried to make jokes at your expense but they were never as funny or cutting as the ones the bully made! When they were ‘talking tough’ (about how much they drank at the weekend or who they shagged), they always tried to out do each other while the bully was content to let the empty bottles and girls do the talking. No matter how hard they tried the outer circle hangers on never quite made the grade.
You may have heard Little Alex use the term "blood curdling" in relation to supposed ‘threats’ on a web site (a web site!!!). His invocation of this term was aimed directly at aspirational middle class anxiety in the hope of instilling a deeper fear of what might happen. Of what we might denied. The DownOne’s remarks about Spain and the Philippines pulling out of Iraq being the cause of recent threats on a web site was aimed not at either of those two nations nor us, but were uttered to demonstrate to the Howard regimes US mates how tough they could be and how they could talk the talk much tougher than them. The result, of course, is that Little Alex got a slap over the knuckles from Uncle Johnny and has disappeared off the media radar while his minders develop a response to the barrage that will confront him when he returns (unless the FTA wipes everything else off the agenda).
What I find ironic is that the targeting of aspirational middle class anxiety demonstrates that the current ‘war on terror’ and all its terrible consequences has nothing to do with real life. That is the real life of those who are unable to begin to contemplate what middle class life might be like. Put another way, those who lives are confined to the growing ranks of casual, contract and low paid employment and whose only experience of middle class privilege is vicariously through Big Brother, TV dramas and lifestyle shows. While the aspirational middle class can save and take the latest Getaway holiday, the working poor can only hope their Lotto ticket comes up trumps.
For this group, the growing majority of workers and their families, the chief concerns are not the fear of a bomb in Bali (although they do feel the pain of such events) but rather the day to day fears of not being able to pay the bills, the mortgage, rent or not being able to afford for little Suzy to go on the school excursion.
What we must do is confront the rhetoric, lies and deceptions that are perpetrated against us by our so called leaders. Aspirational middle class anxiety is a good thing. In earlier time it was harnessed to pave the way for higher taxes for the rich so that services could be provided for the majority. It was used as a bargaining chip in union negotiations so that securely employed workers could produce more and better goods. It was used as a political tool to commission public works to provide a better quality of life. However, the current wave of bully boy talk is undoing all that and is attempting to subvert the good that could be done and turn it into fear.
The choice we have to make is whether we want more bully boy talk or want to harness the goodwill of the vast majority, rich, middle class or poor, and turn our nation around and reclaim the possibility of a shared common-wealth. Put another way, do we want more of the bully boys to rule us and sell our country into servitude or do we want to work towards establishing a better place for our children. A place where bullies are much less likely to dominate the social and political spaces.