The Culture Wars Strike Back

John Weber
Aug 24, 2017 · 5 min read

In a desperate attempt to distract from a potential constitutional crisis, Malcolm Turnbull has borrowed a trick from the Howard playbook. When in trouble, pander to the worst elements of public debate. This tactic gave Australia a decade of pointless culture war which has left Australia with a severely stunted social maturity, and now it appears that we are back in the thick of it.

Predictably, yet pathetically, Turnbull has been aided in his sideshow by a partisan media, who puts activist city councils on the front page of the Herald Sun instead of the potentially illegitimate Federal Government. Malcolm Turnbull and the Herald Sun simultaneously opened fire on the Yarra City Council, one of many councils who has decided to no longer refer to January 26 as Australia Day, citing insensitivity to Indigenous Australians. Malcolm Turnbull responded by announcing the government would strip the rogue local council of citizenship ceremonies whilst the Murdoch press ramped up the jingoistic war machine, including an article from Andrew Bolt titled “Australia Day Ban is all Mei Mei Mei”; mocking the Chinese surname of Yarra City Councillor Mi-Lin Chen Yi Mei.

In the middle of this Australia Day furore, Stan Grant reflected over two articles on the statue debate in America, questioning Australia’s relationship with its foundation story, and whether or not it was still appropriate to say Captain James Cook “Discovered this Territory”. One would think that in 2017, Australian society could comprehend that claiming Cook first discovered Australia erases Indigenous peoples from their own history and their own land. The pieces were one of calm and reflective analyses. Grant made no call for the removal of any monuments, instead writing; “I want to believe in “we” not “us and them”. But we means all of us. Captain Cook is part of my story; an extraordinary seaman and navigator. The songlines, dreaming and language of the first peoples should be cherished by all of us. To non-Indigenous people I say that tradition is part of your heritage. That’s what Galarrwuy Yunupingu means; that’s my father’s dream. Australia is founded on three grand stories: the First Nations, the British tradition and the richness of our migration story. But it starts with us. We are not invisible. Our frontier resistance warriors deserve a place on the war memorial wall of remembrance”.

Is this not a rallying cry of unity? Is this not a call to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to come together to celebrate in each other’s rich history? But instead the partisan media that has made a market for itself in intentionally and maliciously misrepresenting the comments and actions of people of colour, deliberately skewed this great declaration of togetherness, as a declaration of war. The bullies in the right wing press do this time and time again, whether it be the commentary of Waleed Aly, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Stan Grant or footballer Adam Goodes. They twist and distort innocent statements and gestures in a deliberate attempt to stoke the fires of racial hatred.

The Australian, undoubtedly the nucleus of the culture war machine, published articles insinuating that Grant had called for the removal of the statue of James Cook from Hyde Park, interviewing none other than Keith Windschuttle. The editor of the Quadrant, who criticised Grant and defended the idea that Cook had in fact “discovered” Australia. This is the same “intellectual” who claimed that only 120 Indigenous Tasmanians were ever murdered by white settlers, and repeatedly denies the very existence of the Stolen Generation. Never mind the fact that Grant never called for the removal of the statue, Windschuttle and others of his ilk have made careers of smearing Indigenous peoples and denying the very existence of their hardships. His reemergence in the latest History War scrap is as depressing as it is predictable.

Tony Abbott, a consummate culture warrior, held a press conference to link the debate surrounding the date of Australia Day with the issue of Same-Sex Marriage, claiming those pushing for reform on both issues were waging a “war on our way of life”. What was the link the brought these two separate issues together? “political correctness” of course. Abbott learned from the master of culture war, John Howard himself. The Republic? Land Rights? The Apology to the Stolen Generation? Climate Change? Same-Sex Marriage? According to Howard, all of this and more was nothing but no-good-political-correctness, peddled by the devious Canberra Elites. Where would we be now without down to earth, ordinary, men like Howard and Abbott to save us from the “Elite’s” hidden agenda?

The rage against “political correctness” went on as Peter Dutton claimed, falsely, that Bill Shorten wanted to, and would, change the date of Australia Day, whilst Abbott claimed a Shorten led Labor government would see the removal of historical statues, as part of a “politically correct” campaign. Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph decried the “Aussie Taliban” comparing “Politically Correct Vandals” to Islamic Jihadists and Soviet Dictators, citing a “politically correct push to remove or alter monuments honouring our colonial heritage” lying the blame squarely on Stan Grant; not once having the honesty or integrity to admit that Grant never called for the removal of any monument.

All this begs the question, who are these self serving people to lecture us on political correctness in the first place? These hypocrites who claim to detest political correctness whilst clutching pearls at the first sign of factual historical debate? These frauds who preach freedom of speech whilst calling for the heads of Anzac Day critics. These are the same small minded fools who could never bring themselves to admit the existence of the bleeding obvious, that Indigenous children were wrongly removed from their families and cultures, now co-opt that most solemn of terms; “the stolen generation”, to deliberately hurt and provoke some of the most marginalised in society, Queer Australians, Indigenous Australians and their children. What loathsome bullies these “commentators” are, who exercise their power and influence to humiliate children. Allow me co-opt a phrase for my own, Roger Scruton once denounced the intellectuals of the new left as “fools, frauds and firebrands” and when it comes to Australia’s old-right, the boot fits.

If Australia is to grow up we must rid ourselves of these culture warriors, not because they are conservative, but because they are dishonest and intellectually lazy. Their contribution to the debate is disingenuous and we are all poorer for it. There are, I am sure of it, intelligent and sober conservatives who can accept the existence of basic factual historical occurrences, such as the frontier wars or stolen generation, who have worthwhile insights to be considered as we collectively reassess our relationship with our history.

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John Weber

Law student, true believer, Richmond tragic, annoyingly political

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