It seems my comments last week caused a few raised eyebrows. The sticking point it seemed was my use of the word "prophetic" and the scenario of a Reichstag type event in the same breath. Some thought I had finally thrown in the towel and joined the conspiracy theorists and a few seemed to have had confirmed my ‘nutter’ status. In self-defense I want to try and clarify.
Firstly, the notion of a prophet. Most dictionaries define a prophet as someone who foretells the future or as someone who claims to speak on behalf of a god. This is certainly the popular biblical notion as taught in Sunday schools in the Christian tradition. It’s also the popular image portrayed in Hollywood movies and in TV programs. Yet it is only half the story.
According to my Hebrew dictionary the base word for prophet is nâbâ (naw-baw) – which means ‘one inspired’ and one who speaks in simple discourse. What also interests me is the fact that most of the prophets ‘looked around’ before they uttered their announcements. By this the root Hebrew word means to reflect on, to ponder "patiently, tarry, [to] wait". In other words to weigh up the social, political, economic, emotional and spiritual milieu of the day, reflect upon it with an eye on the historical circumstances and put forward a perspective based on these understandings.
Of course, this led to plenty of arguments and history is littered with the corpses of prophets slain by those who considered their knowledge much more important and ‘right’ than the dissenters. About the only thing that has changed is that modern prophets, in the west at least, are a little less likely to be killed although many of them are slandered, vilified an have their careers obstructed by the powerful who dislike their words. That dislike and disdain hasn’t changed over the millennia.
In a nut shell, a prophet is someone who ponders the world around them and talks about it with an historical sensibility and an eye to the possibilities held by the future.
Moving on the invocation of the Reichstag event. Some mistook what I was trying to convey as inferring that I thought that the Australian government would manufacture some terrible disaster in order to drive us to vote them back in. I’ll explain, if I can.
One of the chief motivating factors of the human condition is fear. Fear of dying is top of the list but there are many other fears, often called by other names. Envy is just fear of missing out (ie the politics of envy). Gluttony is the fear of not being able to access resources in the future and on the list goes. What I want to suggest is that deployment of fear inducing images and discourse was a prime component in the last election and this was focused on compartmentalising our society into ‘them’ and ‘us’.
Far from being a "Man of Steel" and a "strong leader" John Howard should be remembered as the man who most divided the Australian community. His authorisation, compliance with or complicity in allowing the fear campaign employed in the last election – which tapped into the raw nerves exposed by the greatest conservative politician we’ve had – Pauline Hanson – should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The Alternative Liberal Party (the ALP) also needs to be condemned for doing nothing to refute the governments claims.
What this points to is the fact that over the last three years we in the west have been subject to the most concerted, well funded, psychoanalysed, focus group tested build up of the politics of fear since Hitler’s Nazi party came to power. This is not to equate our governments in the west with the Nazis but rather to focus our attention on the means by which this has been achieved. Time and space don’t permit me to enter into that now, other than to note, the utterances, scapegoats, rhetoric and media connivance with the ruling parties have strong echoes to the German conditions in the 1930’s.
In 2001 the Federal government was presented with a crisis situation. They could have chosen to frame and act on the opportunity to present Australia as a compassionate country but they chose to frame and act as if we were under ‘threat’. Indeed just the other day I got a postcard from Senator Julian McGauran replaying the ‘border invasion’ scenario. In short, the government could have responded according the higher emotions and humanity with in us but they chose, and the ALP went along for the ride, to debase not only our brothers and sisters in need, but also us as a nation and as individuals.
What is to stop them using some form of crisis to their advantage in the future. I don’t think the Bali bombing was a CIA / ASIO sponsored event. Nor do I think the Madrid train bombing was a Mossad / MI6 plan. What I do think is that the suffering, devastation and death caused by these events was put to use in the hope of making us cower and respond to the base human emotion of fear.
What I was trying to convey last week was that if we examine history, reflect on the current world and bring to our reflections a considered opinion of what the future may hold, we might, just might be able to better understand the options we have before us.
I don’t think for a minute that even Howard would manufacture some disaster for his own political spin. However, he has assisted in allowing the conditions to arise from which may spring a disaster that can then be turned into a political opportunity. After all, that is exactly what the Nazis did – took a disaster and used the grief, fear and sense of loss of the German community for their advantage and with terrible consequences. I have seen nothing in our government’s actions to convince me that they don’t have a reserve plan just in case some terrible calamity occurs in the next few weeks. To your god pray it doesn’t.
Finally, did you see the pictures in the paper or on the tele of the smiling Spohie Delezio as she came out of Westmead Hospital the other day. Missing her feet, one hand and with visible and invisible scars, this little girl should remind us of the resilience and hope we should have as human beings. I’m sure that for her and her family, and that of Molly Wood who was trapped under the car with her, the road ahead will be more difficult than we and they can imagine. But for a moment when I saw her on the tele I realised that the smile she had on her face and the smiles on the faces of her brother and her mum and dad were of a higher order than any of the grubby politics, bloody battles and invocations of fear we live with daily.
Her innocence inspired me and reminded me how lucky I am to live in Australia and how lucky I am to be able to fight the good fight, even when I get it wrong. I hope little Sophie and Molly and their stories can inspire us all to do more to protect and enhance the higher humanity we say we aspire to but so often choose to turn our backs on.