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plus victim 2021 arch lobby groups, compensation The Futility of the Great lawyers, and journalists, Lockdowneter urphy Melodrama used bogus P M accusations Losing Faith in the Future of Democracy of child sexual David Martin Jones abuse to NEW China:NEW Our Generation’s Greatest Challenge persecute, Ted O’Brien convict The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia and jail an Patrick McCauley innocent man. Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia Mark Durie Black Lives Matter: Myths and Facts William D. Rubinstein THE PERSECUTION OF GEORGE PELL uncovers the To get their man, lawyers, judges and a Royal campaign aimed not only at personally destroying one Commission reversed long-standing legal principles, On George Pell’s Prison Journal Anne Henderson of Australia’s most influential religious leaders, but also including the presumption of innocence, the onus of of trashing the reputation of the Catholic Church. Had proof, and guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Every claim On Woody Allen Rob Long it succeeded, the campaign would have set damaging of child sexual abuse, they insisted, must be believed. On Pearl Buck Ross Terrill precedents for the rule of law in Australia. Pell spent 400 This is the story of profound injustice heaped on one days in prison before a unanimous judgment of the High individual and the social and legal damage caused by On Charles III Joe Dolce Court finally set him free. radical ideologues convinced of their own virtue. Poetry I Stephen Gilfedder, Francine Rochford, Luke Whitington, Frank Corso, Conor Ross, Marc Janssen, Ouyang Yu, FOR YOU, OR AS A GIFT $39.95, plus postage Roger G McDonald, Changming Yuan, Brenda Saunders ONLINE quadrant.org.au/shop/ I POST Quadrant, 2/5 Rosebery Place, Balmain NSW 2041 Fiction Gary Furnell, Duncan Richardson PHONE (03) 8317 8147 www.quadrant.org.au Letters I Environment I Science I Literature I Economics I Religion I Media Theatre I Philosophy I film I Society I History I Politics I Education I Health

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letters 2 Phillip Hilton, Douglas Drummond, Patricia Wiltshire editor’s column 4 Cancelling Australian History Keith Windschuttle asperities 6 John O’Sullivan astringencies 8 Anthony Daniels the philistine 10 Salvatore Babones health 12 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama Peter Murphy politics 20 Losing Faith in the Future of Democracy David Martin Jones 23 Black Lives Matter: The Myths and the Facts William D. Rubinstein 26 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity James C. Bennett china 34 The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation Ted O’Brien edinburgh letter 39 The Pointless Pursuit of Scottish Independence John Lloyd society 42 The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell John Wheelahan 48 Are You an Authoritarian? (Part III) Judy Stove-Wilson aborigines 53 The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia Patrick McCauley islam 58 Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia Mark Durie history 62 An Eyewitness Diary of the Russian Civil War Michael Connor economics 66 Taxing and Spending and Failing Peter Fenwick books 69 Sacred & Profane by Peter Kurti Augusto Zimmermann 72 Prison Journal, Volume I by George Pell Anne Henderson 74 The Washington Diaries of Owen Dixon ed. Philip Ayres Nicholas Hasluck 78 Morality by Jonathan Sacks Rachael Kohn 80 Around the World in the Cinemas of Paris by Theodore Dalrymple Zoe Higgie literature 82 The Confucian Serenity of Pearl Buck Ross Terrill 84 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia Christopher Heathcote 90 Air, War and Words Barry Gillard film 94 In Search of Woody Allen Rob Long 98 King Charles III: A Right Royal Kebab of Lèse-Majesté Joe Dolce 102 Digging for a Timeless Treasure Elizabeth Beare stories 106 A Crocodile Killed Autonomy Gary Furnell 109 Different in a Film Duncan Richardson sweetness & light 111 Tim Blair Poetry 19: Cookbooks for Poets Joe Dolce; Cat/December 26 Christine Hamm; My Friends the Mountains Graeme Hetherington; 22: I Was Right Marc Janssen; 25: Parkour Francine Rochford; 32: Given the Top Four ... Changming Yuan; 33: Two poems Roger G McDonald; Two poems Brenda Saunders; 38: My Mother Only Drinks ... Cassandra Dickinson; 41: I Smoke for My Weight Marc Janssen; 47: After Parthenius; The Commercial Traveller Stephen Gilfedder; 56: my casio watch Arian Ganjavi; 57: The Old Man at the Nursing Home Frank Corso; 65: Indifferent Skies Luke Whitington; 83: 11.01am Ouyang Yu; 89: Two poems Jason Morgan; 93: Two poems Peter Stiles; 104: Martin Place Ghetto Jonathan Grace; 105: scholia 70; Merry Quickness; Possible cacophony Conor Ross L e t t e r s ment, evaluation and evidence- and experience-based best practice sharing”. This is not mere mana- gerialist jargon. Look how the Editor The Debt Trap sleuthing capacities of Victoria Keith Windschuttle Police have recently improved: [email protected] Sir: Professor Wolfgang Kasper’s after insisting for years that there Editor, International wide-ranging article on China were no African street gangs in John O’Sullivan (December 2020) avoids finance. Melbourne, Victoria Police were Liter ary Editor In late 2020 China owned over recently able to find them and agree Barry Spurr US$1,000,000,000 in Treasury that they were a problem. [email protected] securities. China’s dollar reserves In their continuous improve- have been recycled into US debt. ment in ferreting out crime, Victoria Deputy Editor & Fiction Editor George Thomas These surpluses were built through Police have also been able to scru- [email protected] trade, not money printing. They tinise the Facebook posts of Zoe embody the work of the Chinese Buhler, a private citizen in Ballarat, Editor, Quadr ant Online over decades. The risk to those sur- and detect in them evidence of her Roger Franklin pluses from default or hyperinflation inciting a protest against one of the [email protected] brought on by US money printing Andrews government’s COVID-19 Contributing Editors warrants a rethink by any Chinese lockdown directions. Theatre: Michael Connor government. Adverse observations This improvement in the detec- Television and Film: Joe Dolce about the CCP explain little. tion of crime by Victoria Police Columnists Professor Kasper mentions compares favourably with the Anthony Daniels Gorbachev, but, once again, he success of the Stasi in detect- Tim Blair avoids finance, a central factor in ing thought crimes by citizens of Salvatore Babones the collapse of the USSR. The East Germany. For it is very like a Soviet debt trap opened during the thought crime that Zoe Buhler has Subscriptions détente era when industrial produc- been charged with: incitement is an Phone: (03) 8317 8147 tivity decayed. Under Gorbachev indictable offence and is commit- Fax: (03) 9320 9065 the malaise worsened when the ted upon completion of the inciting Post: Quadrant Magazine, energy sector experienced several conduct, even if the incitement fails Locked Bag 1235, crises. Unable to financeperestroika to persuade anyone to commit any North Melbourne VIC 3051 without cutting living standards offence. It can attract a maximum Email: quadrantmagazine@ to levels that would have guar- penalty of fifteen years’ imprison- data.com.au anteed Polish-style social unrest, ment. Incitement is the perfect Gorbachev sought further loans crime for politicians keen to crush Publisher from Wall Street. He was refused. dissent and the perfect tool for their Quadrant (ISSN 0033-5002) is The failed coup later provided compliant police. published ten times a year by Yeltsin with history’s stage-call. Assistant Commissioner Luke Quadrant Magazine Limited, Today it is the US that is in a Cornelius has defended the offic- Suite 2/5 Rosebery Place, debt trap. China is decoupling from ers who arrested and charged Zoe Balmain NSW 2041, Australia the US. Xi’s decision is simple: the Buhler. He added that police, like ACN 133 708 424 senior leadership of the CCP is the virus, don’t discriminate. determined that there will never be However, there still needs to Production a Chinese Yeltsin. As for the wider be quite a bit more continuous Design Consultant: Reno Design context, the Han have a saying: improvement in Victoria Police’s Art Director: Graham Rendoth “Reversal is the way of the Tao.” understanding of non-discriminatory policing. In late August, Phillip Hilton Printer: Ligare Pty Ltd Melbourne AFL celebrity Sam 138–152 Bonds Road, Riverwood NSW 2210 Newman used a social media post Police Improvement to call for a quarter of a million Cover: Colours of Australia Melbourne residents to protest “Hamersley” Sir: According to its Blue Paper, against the Stage Four lockdown. www.quadrant.org.au A Vision for Victoria Police in 2025, The police response? No handcuffs, Victoria Police’s strategies include no arrest—just a visit by Victoria “a focus on continuous improve- Police officers and a reminder of

2 Quadrant March 2021 Letters the guidelines surrounding lock- events that led to the High Court respect and also receive a blessing down protests. Newman claimed and “the near-run thing” of the at the same time. At this Mass at his words were “hyperbole” and concluding paragraph of the book. St Patrick’s, Melbourne, I chose to cancelled his call to protest. He All the questions I had wanted to join the procession of those lined added on Facebook that the “very ask throughout the media coverage up before Cardinal Pell, becoming pleasant” officers “left a sheet with were answered. The readability of increasingly nervous as my turn the official guidelines”. the book came through the way the approached to appear before him In her social media post a day details of the “persecution” rein- in this way. or so after Newman’s tweet, Zoe forced my own observations, and It must have taken a few sec- Buhler called for a peaceful protest became credible through the inclu- onds, though it seemed much in Ballarat against the same lock- sion of facts and fallacies central to longer to me, for my intention not downs that attracted Newman’s any investigation of this kind. to take communion to be noticed. interest. She too received a visit When “righteous men cease to It was noticed, however, in a way from Victoria Police. She didn’t be people” and become a baying, that dispelled any feelings of awk- admit to hyperbole but told them unthinking mob out for the hunt is wardness. Contrary to everything she didn’t realise she was doing an idea often portrayed in literature I’d heard about Pell’s manner, he anything wrong and offered to and nowhere more forcefully than stopped in his tracks and bestowed delete the post. No courteous in Mary Webb’s Gone to Earth, a blessing with a degree of care and reminder of lockdown guidelines from which this quotation comes. solemnity that seemed entirely nat- for a non-celebrity like Buhler or I have also come across the idea in ural and spontaneous. His whole acceptance of her offer to delete a poem by Les Murray, “Demo”, manner, combined with a certain her offending post. Out came the where, though he understands the warmth in his eyes, put me at ease handcuffs and the arrest for incite- reasons behind hatred and revenge, and summed up his character for ment. Her fate is now in the hands he entreats us to “conscientiously me. It is a story that has travelled of the Victorian judiciary. object” to their practice. with me and generally is howled Only three of the organisers of As the accusations against down when I tell it. Nevertheless, the Black Lives Matter protest that George Pell began to gather I have kept on telling it. attracted thousands of marchers momentum, I was deeply troubled I couldn’t help but wonder, if this through Melbourne’s CBD last June by what I perceived as a collective anecdote had been presented as evi- were fined. No one, no inciter and belief in a crime so out of charac- dence, would it have had the same no marcher, was arrested or pros- ter, from what I had observed of effect as Louise Milligan’s witness ecuted, although the march con- the man, and so improbable a story, evidence where she describes the travened the lockdown guidelines. as to be laughed at. Well, it would “victim’s” eyes as “big chocolate- In September the anti-lockdown have been if this belief had not been dropped eyes framed with curling demonstration by a few hun- instilled in the consciousness of the lashes”? On a Four Corners pro- dred protesters at Victoria Market public by the “we see you and hear gram recently, a journalist and pre- attracted a massive police presence you” platitude which has the poten- senter said that Milligan “puts her that included the armoured black tial to convict any accused person. heart on the line” when she goes shirts of the Public Order Response Another aspect of this “witch hunt” in search of a story—as if to say Team. Seventy-four arrests were seemed to spring from a collective her selective compassion is, as in made and 176 fines issued. dislike for aspects of the Cardinal’s George Orwell’s famous line, more The virus may not discriminate. personality expressed through his equal, and her tears more heartfelt, It’s quite a stretch to claim that religious beliefs and practices. than that of others. Victoria Police don’t either. Well before the events which are The Persecution of George Pell recorded with such clarity in Keith reminds us that whatever instincts Douglas Drummond Windschuttle’s book unfolded, my we have in such cases should not curiosity about the man had been get in the way of all the facts of Law versus Mob aroused. As a non-Catholic attend- the case or the rule of law; or the ing a celebratory Mass with school assumption of innocence until Sir: The importance of Keith students in my care, I had been proved guilty; nor should we feel Windschuttle’s book The Persecution told it was appropriate to join oth- intimidated by, or submit to, ide- of George Pell rests in its thorough- ers who were receiving commun- ologies or ideologists of any kind ness and truthfulness. Nowhere ion, if I so wished, by lowering my when matters of our own con- did I feel the bias and hysteria that head and crossing my arms in front science are at stake. I found so troubling and unset- of my shoulders to indicate I had Patricia Wiltshire tling during the progress of the simply joined the throng to show

Quadrant March 2021 3 c a n c e ll i n g A u s t r a l ian history

Keith Windschuttle

Though its target is Australia’s past, the main aim of cancelling of American culture. The most this crusade is to erode the legitimacy of the nation in significant feature of the war against the past the here and now. The protesters against the statues in the Anglo-American world is the complicity of historic figures and their supporters in the media of cultural institutions and their leaders in the and other cultural institutions are in effect calling into project of estranging society from its traditions question the moral integrity of present-day Australia and history. … As far as they were concerned the past was so contaminated by systematic acts of malevolence that the The same edition of the Australian that published foundation on which the Australian nation rests must Furedi also contained an article by the Morrison be destroyed. government’s Minister for Indigenous Australians, —Frank Furedi Ken Wyatt, reminding readers that the date, February 13, was the thirteenth anniversary of Kevin his statement was part of a feature story in Rudd’s national apology for the Stolen Generations. the Australian on February 13 in which Frank Wyatt’s article is proof of the depth to which the Furedi compared the leftist demonstrations story of the Stolen Generations has been internal- Tagainst Australia Day on January 26 to other recent ised not only by Australia’s cultural elites but also radical protests in Britain and the United States. by the Morrison government itself. Furedi argued that this movement was not In fact, this is one area where Australia has been simply a response to misdeeds committed in well in the lead of the international movement to Australia’s colonial history but was an integral part devalue and criminalise the founding of the nation. of a wider global conflict that has engulfed much Wyatt calls it “undoubtedly one of the darker chap- of the Western world. “In recent times,” he writes, ters in our nation’s story. It’s a day for us to reflect “hostility towards the foundation on which differ- on practices undertaken by governments in the past ent Western nations rest has acquired a systematic that sought to disrupt and destroy the world’s long- form.” est living culture.” The trend was most strikingly articulated, he Wyatt begins his piece with the story of Isabel said, by the New York Times’s 1619 Project. This is Reid, born in 1932 near Wagga Wagga, who told him a reinterpretation of American history that claims how she was suddenly seized in the street by officials 1619 and not 1776 constitutes the true origin of the and taken away without her parents’ knowledge: nation. African slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619 and leftists are determined to make this event the One afternoon she was walking home from recognised foundation of national history. “Like school with her brother and sister when she was the attempt to rebrand Australia Day into Invasion taken from her family by the government. Her Day,” Furedi says, “the ambition of the 1619 Project parents did not know what happened to their is to devalue and criminalise the founding of the children. Aunty Isabel was to become a domestic United States.” servant, sent to the Cootamundra Domestic This is a sentiment that is no longer confined Training Home, where wages for her work were to the university sector where it originated. Furedi paid to the NSW government. She was denied argues its claims have been now widely internalised the opportunity of a good education, denied a by societies’ cultural elites: bond to her family, community and country, and was targeted for no other reason than the fact The embrace of the 1619 Project by celebrities, she was Aboriginal. online influencers and leaders of the US’s cultural industry highlights one of the most It is not hard to show that Wyatt is repeating important developments that encourages the a story that is largely bogus. The workings of

4 Quadrant March 2021 cancelling australian history the Aborigines Protection Board in New South to the successful 1967 constitutional referendum Wales in the first half of the twentieth century are to give the Commonwealth powers in Aboriginal analysed in detail in Volume Three of my series The affairs, not one of the political activists campaigning Fabrication of Aboriginal History, which shows there for reform mentioned stolen children as an issue to were two principal reasons why the Board removed be rectified. children from their families. In 1970, neither the ten-point Policy Manifesto The first was the traditional grounds of child of the National Tribal Council, nor the Platform welfare such as neglect or abuse by parents. In such and Program of the Black Panthers of Australia, cases, Aboriginal and white children were removed nor the 1972 Five-Point Policy of the Aboriginal from their families for exactly the same reasons. Tent Embassy at Parliament House, Canberra, The second was the board’s vocational training or any other political manifesto of the time, scheme for teenagers living on Aboriginal stations mentioned stolen children, let alone the genocide (or missions) in New South Wales. If Isabel Reid that Aborigines had purportedly been suffering for went to the Cootamundra Girls’ Home, her parents the previous sixty years. would have known where she was and would have Aboriginal activists of that era proved very adept agreed to her going there. She would have been at gaining attention from the news media and very trained over a period of from three to eighteen capable of articulating their case. Black Panthers months in domestic service (at that time still the spokesmen included Gary Foley, later a university biggest single occupation for teenage girls of all lecturer, Paul Coe, subsequently a barrister, colours) and then given a four-year apprenticeship and Dennis Walker, son of one of Australia’s with either a rural or city family. leading Aboriginal literary figures. They and their There was never a government policy to sever colleagues were politically astute enough to mount contact with “family, community and country”, as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of Wyatt claims. Isabel’s parents could have visited Parliament House—an inspired piece of political her at Cootamundra, as others often did, or at her symbolism—yet could not recognise the genocide subsequent place of employment. She could have and child stealing purportedly taking place at the gone home for annual holidays, as many did. Once very same time. her four-year apprenticeship contract was complete Some of the best-known of the earlier generations she could go home to her family, as Aborigines of Aboriginal advocates had been in an even better Protection Board records show that a majority of position to see what was going on. In the 1940s its trainees did. The board gave them the train fare when Isabel Reid would have been at Cootamundra home. Girls’ Home, three prominent Aboriginal activists, William Ferguson, Walter Page and Pearl Gibbs, he underlying idea in Wyatt’s claim that gov- served as directors of the renamed Aborigines ernments wanted to sever all contact between Welfare Board. Yet they supposedly never realised Tparents and children is that the Aborigines what was happening right beneath their noses. How Protection Board’s ultimate aim was the elimina- could they possibly have missed it? tion of the Aboriginal race, that is, genocide. Wyatt If the Stolen Generations story was true, then at should know the High Court of Australia put paid that very time, right across Australia, in all states and to this notion in 1997 in Kruger v Commonwealth, territories, scores of white welfare officials, backed and only one Aboriginal complainant has ever been by parliamentarians and senior public servants, successful in the state courts. But there is an even were forcibly removing Aboriginal children to put better refutation in the historical record. This is the an end to Aboriginality. How did these hundreds attitude of Aboriginal activists of older generations. of white people, for a period of more than sixty The Stolen Generations story only became a years, maintain the discipline needed to keep the public issue in 1981 after a white ANU postgraduate whole thing so quiet that Aboriginal activists like student, Peter Read, wrote a twenty-page pamphlet Ferguson, Page and Gibbs were oblivious to its on the topic. If, as Read said, and Wyatt obviously existence? How come the first person to see the light accepts, the removal policy goes back as far as the was a white, male, left-wing academic? nineteenth century, why didn’t earlier activists On these grounds alone, the inherent implausi realise what was going on? bility of the Stolen Generations thesis should always At the high point of Aboriginal radicalism in have been self-evident. Yet Ken Wyatt, desperate to the late 1960s and early 1970s, the attempt to put shore up public support for constitutional change an end to Aboriginality by removing children for “the Voice”, has now placed it firmly within the never received a mention in any major agenda of policy repertoire of the Morrison government. Oh! Aboriginal political grievances. During the lead-up what a tangled web.

Quadrant March 2021 5 a s p e r i t i e s

John O’Sullivan

ntil the heated dispute erupted in late difficult task of—literally—teaching Labour to act January over whether the pharmaceuti- patriotic. A recent internal strategy memo urged cal company AstraZeneca was denying the the party to undergo a radical rebranding to regain UEuropean Union its proper share of anti-Covid working-class “foundation seats”. Among its top vaccine supplies (perhaps with the sly complicity recommendations was this: “The use of the flag, of the British government), the post-Brexit politi- veterans, dressing smartly at the war memorial etc. cal barometer was predicting that UK–EU relations give voters a sense of authentic values alignment.” this year would be relatively calm with occasional Even if this strategy were to win votes (which storms. looks doubtful now that its cynicism is clear), it After Prime Minister Boris Johnson had signed would do so at the expense of entrenching Brexit in a Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU Britain’s political culture. It also leaves the Liberal on Christmas Eve, the Commons endorsed it by a Democrats, the Democratic Unionists from Ulster landslide majority of 521 to 73 votes with only hours and the Scottish Nationalists (SNP) as the only par- to go before the TCA and the full Brexit came into ties now firmly opposing the TCA and Brexit. This effect on January 1. Four and a half years after the coalition of the Outs won’t seriously threaten Boris Brexit referendum, Britain had regained its pre-1973 Johnson, since it makes him look like the sensible status as an independent self-governing democracy. centre—except in one regard, namely the SNP’s It was a decisive political triumph for Johnson campaign for Scottish independence. And here the and seemed to establish him as a leader who gets fact that he negotiated a free-trade deal with the an awful lot of things wrong, at least from a con- EU strengthens him. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s servative standpoint, but who gets the few really big embattled First Minister, now has to make a case things right. And as far as the domestic politics of for a No Deal departure from the UK without hav- Brexit goes, that judgment looks correct. ing the safe harbour of EU membership or any clear A YouGov poll showed public opinion support- passage to it as economic compensation for losing ing the TCA deal by 57 per cent as against 9 per the British market and UK Treasury subsidies. It’s cent rejecting it. That suggests the voters are hostile not a winning formula, even if it were to win. even to re-opening the Brexit debate. The Tories Domestically speaking, therefore, two con- are certainly glad to get beyond the deep divisions clusions stand out from this analysis. First, Boris of the last four years. Only two Tory MPs failed to Johnson and the Tory government, even handi- vote for the TCA, both apparently for non-political capped by the difficulties and failures of Covid, are reasons. The Tory party is now a pro-Brexit party likely to occupy the commanding heights of politics without qualification. and opinion for the four years to the next election. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer too helpfully Second, as far as any political change can be called instructed Labour MPs to vote for the TCA on the irreversible in a democratic society, Brexit now looks irresistible political logic that if Labour is to win irreversible or, to be more cautious, reversible only back its traditional blue-collar supporters, it can’t in the very long run. remain a Remain party. But thirty-seven Labour Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a passionate MPs abstained and one voted to reject the TCA. but thoughtful Europhile, accepted this in a recent The awkward fact is that Labour’s middle-class speech that deserves more attention than it got. supporters in and out of Parliament have strong He argued that while he hoped that Britain would Remainer sympathies. Even if Starmer succeeds rejoin the EU in the future, that could only hap- in holding the pro-Brexit line as party policy, the pen if Brexit were a success. A failed Britain would activists will make the reversal of Brexit, or Rejoin, not be admitted on anything like acceptable terms. their main topic of agitation—the role once played Remainers should therefore abandon any last-ditch by nuclear pacifism in Labour politics. opposition and make Brexit work. That will greatly complicate Starmer’s already That’s a sober and admirable adjustment for

6 Quadrant March 2021 asperitieschronicle

Remainers to make. But the Scottish blogger Effie the more that the UK slips away from the embrace Deans shot it down immediately by listing ten obsta- of Brussels, the more its supply chains are likely to cles to Britain’s rejoining the EU. I will list only be integrated with the more technically advanced five: Britain would have to adopt the euro, be sub- industries of a dynamic North American bloc—one, ject legally to the European Court of Justice, rejoin moreover, that doesn’t threaten UK sovereignty. the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, Such changes would take place over decades, accept free movement of labour across EU borders, however, and any rows between London and and abandon any trade deals made post-Brexit. Brussels need be no more than intermittent inter- ruptions in a largely stable and cooperative EU–UK f the combination of Brexit and the TCA was a relationship. That prediction assumes goodwill on domestic triumph for the Johnson government, both sides, however, and that has not always been wasI it also a comparable diplomatic success? Here forthcoming from the EU. Just such an outburst of the answer is more complicated. Taken together, ill-will from Brussels erupted in late January when they certainly were a success: Britain got free trade in the UK, having spent heavily and shrewdly both to goods with the EU without either tariffs or quotas, fund the development of anti-Covid vaccines and to which is a better deal than any other “third coun- sign contracts with the pharmaceutical companies try” has obtained. But these deals were both com- for early delivery, surged ahead of France, Germany promises: the EU had to get some things in return and the EU in vaccinating its older citizens. At the and the UK had therefore to make concessions to time of writing, the UK has vaccinated 11 per cent Brussels. Most of those concessions were not major of its people compared to less than 3 per cent for but they weren’t trivial either. They were liveable the EU. with—especially with goodwill on both sides: for It must have been galling for EU mandarins to instance, a transition period of five years before the see Boris Johnson, whom they had dismissed as an UK takes full control of its waters and fish stocks, incompetent buffoon, unexpectedly emerge for a and no “passporting” for the UK’s important and second time as the man who had got the big things highly competitive financial services sector. right. But they had co-operated in making him look But the single most important provision in the good. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU TCA is its treatment of regulations. Here’s why: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had the EU and its largest member-states, France and intervened to insist that the proper response to the Germany, wanted to keep Britain within its struc- pandemic should be a collective “European” one tures of tax and regulation to limit the threat of a rather than several different national policies. The highly competitive free economy next door. Ideally, EU Commission had then delayed signing contracts they would have preferred to get London’s agree- with the pharmaceutical companies in order to hag- ment to abide by the EU’s current and future regula- gle over price rather than making sure of supply. tions—so-called “dynamic alignment”—as part of Both Eurocrats and European leaders then com- the TCA. But that was resisted by the UK negotia- pounded these errors by blaming AstraZeneca for tors since it would have nullified the whole point not distributing the vaccine “fairly”; seeking export of Brexit, namely making laws and regulations to controls to prevent the Brits getting more; hinting advance the UK’s own interests. heavily (this was France’s President Macron) that So the compromise reached was that the UK the AstraZeneca vaccine wasn’t really effective for would be free to vary its regulations but that older people even as the French medical agency Brussels—if it believed a UK regulatory change put endorsed it; and fatally, trying to prevent EU vac- the EU at a disadvantage—would be able to restrict cines leaking into the UK from the Irish Republic that particular freedom of trade. (It’s more compli- by imposing the “hard border” that Brussels had cated, but that’s the gist.) repeatedly denounced in negotiations as the poi- Brussels hopes that whenever a British govern- soned fruit of Brexit. ment tries to reform its regulations for the sake of The edict had to be withdrawn an hour later. But competitiveness, those UK economic interests that the damage had been done—and not only to the benefit from the status quo would organise to block EU’s reputation in loyal little un-consulted Ireland. the change and cite the threat of EU retaliation to What the EU’s Vaccinegate has done is to suggest do so. On the other hand, as Britain increases its to the markets that Euro-government is “not fit for trade with faster-growing Asia and North America, purpose”, to EU member-states that their citizens Boris could cite the need for more flexible regu- would be safer if they had run Covid policy, to UK lations and taxes if companies are to realise the Remainers that their faith had been misplaced, and greater trade gains available there. Nor is it a matter to the world that Brexit looks wiser and Boris more only of trade. As Salvatore Babones has pointed out, capable than perhaps they had thought.

Quadrant March 2021 7 astringencies

Anthon y Daniels

eading about Britain’s attempt to reach a and of course their architecture, are hideously ugly, trade deal with Canada, I was surprised to even militantly so, but a Michelin-starred restau- learn that the two countries exported pre- rant receives their adulation—or did in the now- Rcisely the same number, or tonnage, of pigs to each distant days when restaurants were open. other. I can’t remember now whether it was 300 But the modern interest in food is not the same or 300,000,000, but the whole trade struck me as as a mass market for fish, which has, alas, mainly bizarre, given the precise equality of the exchange, to be cooked, and the fact is that the British are, a secret means of keeping people busy, perhaps, grosso modo, too lazy and ignorant to cook properly. who might otherwise have nothing to do. Can the Many millions of them would be horrified by the pigs of the two sides of the Atlantic really be so sight of a whole fish, or even any part of a raw fish: very different, as say a guinea fowl is from a her- they don’t want to eat anything that hasn’t been ring, that it is necessary to go to the trouble to through a complex industrial process, had chemi- transport tons of carcasses—I assume that they are cals and preservatives added to it, and cannot be slaughtered in their respective countries—across just stuck in a microwave for a few minutes before thousands of miles of ocean? Not being an econo- consumption in front of the television. Besides, mist, I must be missing something. they wouldn’t know what to do with a fish, let There have been stories too of late (since Brexit, alone a crustacean. in fact) of British-caught fish rotting in fishing It is said that about a fifth of British children do ports because the European Union will not allow not eat a meal with another member of their house- them to be landed on its shores. Suddenly they have hold (family would, perhaps, be a misleading term) become toxic or unsafe for European consumption. more than once a fortnight, turning meals into This petty obstructionism was entirely predictable, asocial and even furtive occasions. Many house- since it was obvious from the first that if Brexit holds do not have a dining table, and in my visiting were not a disaster for Britain, it would be a dis- days as a doctor I discovered that the microwave is aster for the European Union, and therefore both often a household’s entire batterie de cuisine. sides would have to play rough while, of course, This slovenly and asocial approach to eating— talking legality. Britain and the European Union evident in the detritus left behind in British streets have entered a de facto economic war, a replay of the as people eat wherever they happen to be, in their Napoleonic Continental System. cars, walking along, in trains and buses, in fact But a more important question for Britain, in anywhere but a dining room and with others—is the long run, is why the fish destined to rot could not the consequence of poverty, but of a degraded not have been diverted for home consumption: and style of life. here, I am afraid, the answer is not flattering to the Many years ago I noticed that shops in poor British people. areas where there were many immigrants of Indian As in many other things, the population has origin had enormous piles of a vast array of vegeta- divided into two: those with increasingly refined bles so cheap that the problem was carrying them tastes in gastronomy, and those who eat mainly home rather than their cost. I would see Indian junk and takeaway food for the quickest but also housewives selecting their purchases with care and crudest possible gratification. attention: the quality and not just the price mat- Gastronomy often seems the only aesthetic tered to them. Uncompelled by economic necessity sphere in which the modern British display any to shop there, I would nevertheless do so; but I real interest. Their dress, their music, their art (or never saw poor whites doing so. The problem with at least such as gains any publicity), their literature, all those vegetables was that they required cooking,

8 Quadrant March 2021 astringencieschronicle preferably with skill, which very few poor whites, dines however cheap they might be. You can lead as against poor Indians, had. And this is a cultural a British woman to a kitchen, but you can’t make problem, if the taste for and consumption of a diet her cook. And other possible means of increas- of junk food (what the French more vividly call ing consumption, for example by distributing fish malbouffe) is a problem. to schools in poor areas (if they ever re-open) are The Indians are fat, with bad health conse- unlikely to work, either. Many British children quences, from eating too much good food; the have been brought up to eat anything except what native British, with bad health consequences, is healthy and nutritious. from eating too much bad food. The prevalence How did I come to like eating fish? Perhaps of obesity in Britain, greater than in most other there was some element of elective affinity, but European countries, is possibly one of the reasons probably more important was the fact that I was that its death rate from COVID- given fish to eat and if I didn’t eat 19 is so high, among the highest it I would go hungry. These days, if not actually the highest. And however, many mothers are likely this obesity is immediately obvi- On the one hand, to consult their small children ous on arrival in Britain from any we have plenty of as to what they would like to eat European country. today: and of course most children, fish, and on the given the choice, will stick to what hile fish rots for lack of a other, millions of they already know and what is market, sales of junk food people who eat very most immediately gratifying. Thus Wincrease. It would be interesting to their tastes are like flies trapped conduct an experiment: deliveries of badly. Surely it in amber, and they never develop free fish to those who are in receipt should be possible more adult tastes. They eat like of government subsidies in order to children for the rest of their lives live. I suspect (though I freely admit to connect the and never leave the gastronomic that I might be in error, experience people to the fish? nursery. Moreover, with so much is the only test of such an assertion) television to watch, and so many that they wouldn’t thank you for it. text messages to send, mothers find They would see a delivery of fish as an additional and it easier to satisfy their children’s restricted range unwelcome problem: how to dispose of it because it of whims than engage in the familiar struggle to makes such a smell otherwise. get them to eat their greens. Cooking gets in the This, I think, points to a general lesson: the way of entertainment, which is the real business impotence of government to solve a cultural prob- of life. Sitting at a table talking to one another is lem, certainly in the short term. On the one hand, such a bore. we have plenty of fish, and on the other, millions No wonder, then, that, as the European Union of people who eat very badly. Surely it should be tries to take its revenge, fish rots on British shores possible to connect the people to the fish? for lack of anyone to eat it. No doubt some kind But how to do it? Propaganda is unlikely to work. of solution will be found (I hope not the destruc- If it were too insistent, it would seem condescend- tion of the fishing industry): a friend of mine told ing at best, hectoring and bullying at worst. But if me that a new fishmonger had opened in Stroud it were sotto voce, that is to say in the tradition of in Gloucestershire, thirty years after the last one The Hidden Persuaders, it would be unlikely to have closed down. Let us hope that it is a straw, rather an effect. Moreover, a child who has been brought than a rotting mackerel, in the wind. up on chicken nuggets and has never even seen a chicken, let alone a plaice or a sole, is unlikely sud- Among Anthony Daniels’s recent books are denly to take to eating sardines (unless, just pos- Embargo and Other Stories and Around the sibly, out of a tin that renders them harmless). Nor World in the Cinemas of Paris, both published is his mother, whose only acquaintance with an by Mirabeau Press in 2020 under his pen-name, oven is of the microwave variety, likely to buy sar- Theodore Dalrymple.

Quadrant March 2021 9 the philistine

Salvatore Babones

n August 1967, a viral haemorrhagic fever sim- that the laboratory workers had been exposed to tis- ilar to Ebola hit the quiet university town of sue samples from monkeys, but draws no particular Marburg in what was then West Germany. The conclusions from that fact. And why should they? caseI fatality rate of over 20 per cent wasn’t quite on Question the safety of one laboratory, and you ques- a par with the Black Death, but it was bad enough. tion the safety of all. Luckily, the initial outbreak affected only twenty- A decade after the Marburg release, the virus five people and was quickly contained, so total cases behind the infamous 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic were limited to thirty-one and total deaths to seven. (the one that killed an estimated 50 million people) Germans, it seems, have a healthy aversion to con- escaped from a Chinese or Russian laboratory. It tact with the body fluids of dying relatives, and caused some serious illnesses in young people who hospitals were sufficiently well-equipped to safely had no immunity, but it was quickly contained via handle infectious patients oozing their insides out. vaccination. More recently, the SARS virus—the One laboratory technician did however fall sick original one from the 2003 Hong Kong outbreak— after he cut himself during an autopsy on a patient has been accidentally released from labs at least six who had died of the disease. Accidents will happen, times: once in Singapore, once in Taiwan, and four even to Germans. times in China. The Chinese releases all occurred at The mystery illness came to be known as Marburg the National Institute of Virology in Beijing. Those Disease, back in the days when it was still socially repeated accidental releases prompted the French acceptable to name diseases after the places where government to help China establish its first “bio- they first appeared. Its source was traced to a batch safety level 4” virus laboratory in ... Wuhan. of African green monkeys that had been shipped If you want an independent investigation into from Uganda for use in polio research. At the time, the origins of our current coronavirus pandemic, it was uncertain whether Marburg Disease had Ms Payne, you’ll have to do it yourself. You certainly originated in Uganda, or the monkeys had become can’t expect a straight answer from the virologists infected en route. That’s because the monkeys had at the World Health Organisation. First, they’re flown to Germany via Heathrow, and thus their trip virologists, and as such they have an overwhelm- was inevitably held up by strike action. During their ing professional interest in believing that biological involuntary two-day layover, they came into contact laboratories are absolutely safe. Imagine the future with animals from around the world, their British of virological research after an admission that an handlers, and the local rats, raising the possibility accidental lab release had infected more than 100 of cross-infection. Consider that the next time you million people, killed 2 million (and counting) fly through Heathrow. and cost the global economy some US$28 trillion. The Lancet was the first medical journal to “Oops, I did it again” doesn’t begin to cover it. The publish a paper identifying the cause of Marburg counter-narrative that legions of brave, dedicated, Disease, going to press with an explanation just sorely underfunded virologists were the only ones three months after the first victims fell ill. True to able to save the world from coronavirus armaged- form, they got it wrong, blaming a bacterial agent. don is much more attractive. Slower, more careful research revealed that the real Second, they work for the World Health cause was a virus. Organisation. What was known at the time, and has now been known for more than half a century, is that Marburg here is a certain class of well-travelled, univer- Disease escaped from a biological laboratory. But sity-educated internationalists who know all you wouldn’t know that from the World Health aboutT their own countries’ politics and are smugly Organisation website entry for Marburg Disease, wise to the mendacity of their own countries’ poli- or even from the Wikipedia page. The Australian ticians, but who nonetheless romanticise the inter- Department of Health is more forthcoming, noting governmental organisations to which their own

10 Quadrant March 2021 thechronicle philistine countries belong—and to which their own coun- of Ethiopia has (without offering any evidence) tries’ politicians retire to enjoy tax-free salaries for accused Tedros of procuring weapons to support the purely nominal work in sophisticated global cities. current rebellion in Tigray. Until they got booted When the worldly writers behind the BBC’s Dr out of the government, the Tigrayans were China’s Who needed good guys with guns to defend Earth client group in Ethiopia, which under Tigrayan rule from cybermen in 1968, they couldn’t very well turn was transformed into China’s Belt & Road hub for to the imperialistic British Army of the Malayan African investment and infrastructure. China even Emergency and the Mau Mau Revolt. Instead, built (and bugged) a new $250 million headquarters they seconded Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to the building for the African Union in Ethiopia’s capital, United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, reporting Addis Ababa. Ethiopia’s current prime minister, to a global headquarters in Geneva. Half a century the charismatic young Nobel Peace Prize-winner later, when the internet censors at Google, Facebook Abiy Ahmed, seems inclined to take the (Chinese) and Twitter needed an authoritative arbiter who money and run—leaving Tedros the bill. could be trusted to rise above national politics to That’s politics. And so is the coronavirus inves- provide definitive information on the coronavi- tigation. The only people who will be held account- rus pandemic, they turned to the able for unleashing the coronavirus World Health Organisation. are Batman and Donald Trump. A United Nations agency based Biological research laboratories in Geneva, the ambitiously-named The world’s virology will come out winners because they World Health Organisation is community didn’t have to come out winners: after located on the legacy campus of the mention to the all, who can protect us against the old interwar League of Nations. It’s next viral pandemic but our heroic a prime gig, especially for doctors press that Wuhan virologists? And maybe it really was (and almost-doctors) from the less hosted China’s just a coincidence that the currently salubrious countries of the devel- pandemic coronavirus happened oping world. The current direc- only coronavirus to jump from bats to humans in tor-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom research centre until a city where the only live bats are Ghebreyesus, was awarded a PhD “conspiracy theorists” those kept for research purposes at in community health from the China’s only coronavirus research University of Nottingham in 2000. and the Falun Gong centre. Stranger things have hap- That was after his youthful ser- finally broke through pened. Like the coincidence that vice on the politburo of the Tigray the world’s virology community People’s Liberation Front, at the the mainstream didn’t happen to mention to the time labelled a terrorist organisa- media interdict. press that Wuhan hosted China’s tion by the United States. A senior only coronavirus research centre cabinet minister of the Ethiopian until “conspiracy theorists” and the People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front govern- Falun Gong finally broke through the mainstream ment that ruled Ethiopia from 1991 until a split in media interdict. 2019 kicked the Tigrayan people’s liberators out, The vaccine is close upon us, and the virus will Tedros won the international contest to become pass. Right now, it is impossible to guess where or Director-General of the World Health Organisation when the final coronavirus death will happen, but it in 2016. will. Smallpox has been found on Egyptian mum- That’s the man overseeing the world’s investiga- mies, but it was eventually conquered. The world’s tion into the origins of the coronavirus. Well, at last smallpox death occurred in a university hospi- least Donald Trump disliked him, so he can’t be tal in Birmingham, England. It resulted from an all bad. And Joe Biden restored funding for the accidental lab release. The woman who was infected organisation he leads, so he gets the “return to nor- didn’t even work in the lab; she was a photographer malcy” seal of approval. And the World Health on the next floor, apparently infected via a shared Organisation is based in Switzerland, which after ventilation shaft. The only remaining officially all has a rock-solid reputation for transparency. acknowledged samples of smallpox are now stored Although Tedros won his position on the back in secure laboratories in Atlanta and Novosibirsk, of African votes, he is widely perceived as “China’s though other samples keep popping up, forgotten man” in an organisation that China has dominated in storage lockers or hidden in bioweapons stock- since 2007. It’s lucky for him that he’s somebody’s piles. Does China keep smallpox in its biological man, since he probably won’t be able to return to laboratories? No one knows. We can only hope that Ethiopia any time soon. The current government we don’t find out.

Quadrant March 2021 11 Peter Murphy

The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama

n the third week of March 2020, the world lost ernment efficacy in dealing with the COVID-19 its equilibrium. It went into a collective nervous pandemic. And how could there be? A virus can be breakdown in response to the “novel” corona- transmitted through potentially any of the millions Ivirus. Only now is the world starting to recover its and billions of micro-interactions between persons composure. Over-reaction dominated the mood of daily. Government “control” of that is inherently as 2020. Government, media, political and academic vain an aspiration as that of the old Soviet economic classes all catastrophised. Yet reality was anything planners who sought to expand an economy by cen- but catastrophic. In 2020 the total number of deaths trally planning all economic transactions, some- attributed to COVID-19 was 0.028 per cent of the thing that was absurd. The planning instinct again world’s population. That is smaller than the 0.031 rose to the fore in 2020 and the results were simi- per cent of the global population estimated as excess larly meagre. The feeling that “government can fix deaths due to the H2N2 flu virus in 1957-58. In the problem” is never far from the surface in mod- 1918-19, 1.1 to 2.75 per cent of the world’s popula- ern societies. This is a kind of false-hope voluntar- tion died from the “Spanish flu”, which targeted the ism. It can’t deliver what it promises on a large scale young. Worldwide 2.2 million persons had deaths and it usually results in a series of bad unintended attributed to Covid in 2020 compared to the 57 mil- consequences. lion who died from all causes in 2019. The increase in total deaths in 2020 in compa- t is fair to say that governments had a meaningful rable (OECD-type) nations ranged from the negli- prudential role in controlling infections in organi- gible to the pronounced when matched against the Isational settings such as nursing homes and hospitals five preceding years (Table One). In most cases the where immune-compromised persons were concen- increase that occurred was never more than a moder- trated, or in overcrowded poorly-ventilated indoor ate fraction of the less than one per cent of the popu- public places where prolonged close social contact lation that every year dies from all causes. It might was liable to exacerbate viral transmission. Even be assumed that the varying national outcomes were then some governments managed to do this kind the result of government action. However, there is no of targeted public health management better than correlation between the levels of national morbidity others. The Daniel Andrews government in Victoria in 2020 and the stringency of government restrictions instituted one of the world’s harshest lockdowns. and shutdowns (Table Two). A number of compara- Yet, unlike every other Australian state, that govern- ble nations exited 2020 with rates of morbidity close ment could not ensure effective infection control in to their five-year average. These included countries the state’s nursing homes. Instead the Victorian gov- like Australia that had very restrictive Covid policies ernment spent its time chasing the chimera of daily and those like Taiwan, Norway and Finland that “case numbers”. These numbers fed the headlines of applied mild policies. Sweden had a middling policy the nation’s newspapers and its broadcast media as approach and a mid-range increase in morbidity in well as the declamatory hysteria of social media. 2020. Canada, France and the United States applied Across the world the battery of lockdowns and tough policies. Canada had a mid-range increase in other NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) morbidity while France and the US were appreci- by governments is not correlated with a signifi- ably higher than in recent years. Germany and the cant measurable effect in reducing the reproduc- United Kingdom enacted similar stringencies with tion of the virus or the mortality attributed to the lower and higher morbidity outcomes respectively. virus. Government measures though had numerous In short there is no evidence of systemic gov- debilitating consequences. Many of these will be felt

12 Quadrant March 2021 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama

Table One: Mortality 2020 compared with 2015–2019.

Country 65+ age cohort, Deaths all causes, 65+ age cohort, Deaths all causes, deaths all causes, percentage of deaths all causes, 2020 compared percentage of population, 2020 2020 compared with 2015–2019, population, 2020 with 2015–2019, increase or increase or decrease decrease Full year Norway 0.66% 0.76% -1% -2% Finland 0.86% 1.00% 4% 3% Estonia 0.98% 1.22% 2% 1% Denmark 0.82% 0.96% 5% 3% Germany 1.00% 1.16% 4% 3% Sweden 0.86% 0.96% 9% 8% France 0.85% 0.99% 15% 12% United States 0.72% 0.79% 13% 12% United Kingdom 0.87% 1.02% 12% 12% Spain 0.93% 1.03% 21% 19% Part year (weeks) Taiwan (39 w) 0.40% 0.54% -5% -7% Australia (42 w) 0.40% 0.46% -4% -7% South Korea (49 w) 0.43% 0.55% 7% 4% Canada (42 w) 0.51% 0.64% 6% 6% Italy (44 w) 0.88% 0.98% 11% 10%

Table Two: COVID-19 policy severity compared with morbidity outcomes, 2020.

Country Level of stringency, COVID-19 COVID-19-attributed deaths containment and closure policies, 2020 per million, 2020

Taiwan 0.53 0.3 Japan 0.88 27 Estonia 0.90 173 Finland 1.01 101 Norway 1.10 80 Denmark 1.30 224 Singapore 1.32 5 Sweden 1.31 861 South Korea 1.41 18 Germany 1.54 404 United Kingdom 1.59 1066 France 1.59 985 Italy 1.65 1218 Australia 1.77 35 Canada 1.81 410 United States 1.91 1058 Note: The level of stringency indicates the relative severity of a nation’s combined policies of school closures, workplace closures, restrictions on public events, restrictions on gatherings, closures of public transport, stay at home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, and restrictions on international travel. On a scale of 1 to 4, 4 is the measure of a dystopian hell, 3 is the equivalent of the Gulag Archipelago, and the span from 0.5 to 1.9 ranges between the relatively mild and the harsh.

Quadrant March 2021 13 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama for years and decades. Australia exited 2020 with to better identify and respond to the viral enemy. a lower than average annual death rate on the plus A vaccine though is not the agent that defeats the side and longer-term collateral damage on the minus invading virus. That’s the job of the body’s own side. The latter includes an increase in the rate of immune defences, which are multi-faceted in the suicide, increased incidence of clinical depression, way they work. What matters in all this is the undiagnosed fatal illnesses due to the closure of quality and robustness of an individual’s immune health services or the fear of accessing them, stress- response. That robustness is affected by the social induced reduction in life-spans due to unemploy- environment. Social behaviour has an observed ment and the crippling of small businesses resulting effect on the body’s immune system. In particular, from stay-at-home orders. If the exceptional state of anxiety, worry and stress degrade the body’s ability a novel coronavirus justified emergency measures, to fight infections. what became apparent is the extent to which good There is an extensive sixty-year highly-cited sci- physical and psychological health depends on nor- ence literature on the negative effects of stress on mality. That is, on the normal state of persons going the body’s immune system. Very good studies also to regular scheduled doctors’ visits, accessing routine exist of the effects of stress on common cold infec- pain-alleviating therapies and surgeries, having life- tions—a third of which are coronaviruses. Stressful saving ambulance services not delayed crucial min- life events are a reliable predictor of cold symptoms utes by cumbersome anti-virus procedures, as well while a person’s negative affects (such as anger, as enjoying psychologically essential depression, feeling scared, pertur- regular social contact and outdoor bation) and their self-perception exercise, and not retreating into f the exceptional state of stress are reliable predictors of anxiety-numbing alcohol and drug I infections caused by common cold consumption and obesity-fuelling of a novel coronavirus viruses (many of these infections comfort-food consumption. justified emergency can be asymptomatic). 2020 was a In spite of all the melodrama that stressful life event on a mass scale. exuded from the political and media measures, what It was accompanied by elevated lev- classes in 2020, the most effective became apparent is els of negative emotions and self- prophylactic in dealing with the assessments of stress. It was also a coronavirus was not government the extent to which chronic event that was drawn out but a normally-functioning society. good physical and month after month. Along with Normality has several dimensions. ageing and the co-presence in the Consider first what those nations psychological health body of other non-viral diseases, with a modest annual death rate in depends on normality. chronic stress (among all the dif- 2020 had in common. It was not ferent kinds of stress) appears to be government policy. Among other the most likely factor that will cause factors these are societies where social distancing a reduction in the effectiveness of the body’s anti- was a natural and unconscious habit. The everyday viral immune response. Chronic stress, age-related micro-sociology of these societies is such that the morbidity and co-morbidity collectively were very typical distance between people (proxemics) in inti- prominent characteristics of the Covid year. mate, friendly and public interactions is high while Whatever their other views, virtually everyone the propensity for physically touching (haptics) is agrees that 2020 was a stressful year. The stress low. Social distance, significant as it is, though, pales was by no means simply a function of the spread in causal effect compared to the variable state of the of a “novel” virus. New viruses appear periodically body’s immune defences. with generally modest stress-inducing flight-or- fight responses from human populations. 2020 was f there is a hero of 2020 it is the human immune different. The flight-or-fight response was magnified system. Viral infections and the human species by additional sources of stress. These derived from Ihave co-evolved. The immune system, which is still aggressive public policy measures, including blanket little understood, has a remarkable ability to fight public health warnings, stay-at-home directives, infections. As we get towards the end of life, our mandatory business and school closures, travel bans immune systems tend to become less effective. Flu that locked persons out of their own state or country, infections every year play some role in the death of obsessive media coverage, behavioural policing, many elderly people. Their immune systems have exercise bans or limitations, and depression- stopped working proficiently. Much is made of vac- inducing enforced social isolation and confinement cines. A vaccine is a weakened or modified form of a of populations indoors. Stress-related behaviour potentially lethal virus. It prompts the human body accompanied these enactments, including reduced

14 Quadrant March 2021 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama physical exercise, sleep deprivation, marital conflict in bodily susceptibility to disease than by govern- and chronic alcohol consumption. ment interventions. While COVID-19 received a Each of the public health measures was intended historically unprecedented amount of attention in for the public good. But the consequence of public 2020, there may be a larger and ultimately more sig- policy often ends up being the opposite of its intent. nificant issue of the interaction (over a much longer The measures were intended to reduce the harm duration) between levels of social anxiety, the mixed caused by the coronavirus. But if stringent measures biology and social psychology of stress, and the psy- had a consequential stress-magnifying, immune- choneuroimmunology of immune systems. Of these comprising effect then, rather than reducing harm, the factor that a society has most control over and the effect of the measures was unintentionally to most responsibility for is anxiety. Yet it is the factor increase harm. It is observable that nations with that in the past two centuries has become not clearer the highest per capita rates of death imposed the but rather more opaque to modern minds. Anxieties most stringent lockdown measures (Table Two). In continue to spiral up in ways that are not just self- Australia, Victoria, the state with the highest per defeating for societies but that also suggest we have capita rate of death, similarly imposed the tough- lost to a significant degree the means to dampen est measures. Causality does not necessarily operate them down. in one direction only. Death, certainly, may trigger stringency. But stringency may have its own nega- n Australia in the nineteenth century the rate of tive consequences. death ranged annually between 1 and 2 per cent of A peculiar spiral is at work here. Stringent theI population. Between 1900 and 1990, with grow- health policy measures and messaging boosted ing life-spans, this trended down from 1 per cent to stress and worry. But those policies and messages 0.7 per cent. In 2019 it was 0.57 per cent. Such trends were also primed by a lengthy prelude. An atmos- were typical of OECD-type countries. Yet, para- phere of angst had been building across the world doxically, as the incidence of death became rarer, the for a decade. The political symptoms of this are well fear of death increased. As the world became a safer known. The decade of the 2010s saw a tidal wave of place, the more people fretted about their safety. wokeness on the political Left and populism on the Religion’s ability to placate worries about death political Right. Often this is described as political declined as existential nervousness grew. The tra- polarisation. In one way it is. However, these polari- ditional Christian god of faith, love and charity ties are also the contrary expressions of a common and the modern sceptical Enlightenment’s laissez- root: a wave of anxiety that spread across the world faire clockwork-universe god of beauty tended to be after 2008. The Global Financial Crisis and the edged out by the paleo-modern gods of anxiety, mel- recession that followed it triggered a decade-long ancholy and intervention. After the middle of the rise of stress-related negative affects (worry, sadness nineteenth century, traditional religion waned only and anger). These eventually separated from their to be replaced by a series of crypto mind-over-matter trigger and became free floating, seeking objects of religions, religious proxies and placebos, and various “concern”. At the margins these “concerns” ranged secular religions including socialism and commu- from environmental doom and racist holocaust to nism. When socialism collapsed in the 1980s, it was social carnage and global conspiracies. This was not replaced by the ideology of safetyism. a uniform process. The degree of angst versus sang- Among numerous supernumerary creeds froid varied from country to country. associated with the paleo-modern gods is the Less visible were the psychoneuroimmunologi- syncretic phenomenon of the health religion. In the cal changes that have occurred at a global level. It United States this phenomenon is traceable back to is worth noting, for example, the significant growth the 1870s, to Mary Baker Eddy and her “Christian of autoimmune diseases that has occurred among a Science”. To its credit this proxy religion had an cohort of wealthy nations across the world. These appreciation of contemplative (prayer-mediated) are diseases in which the immune system treats psychological relaxation. Mind-body therapies have the body’s own tissue as an invader and attacks it. a well-documented positive effect on the immune These diseases have been increasing dramatically system. 2020 saw a great revival of the health and (like the coronavirus) in a nationally uneven religion, this time in a secular anxiety-driven form. manner. Between 1985 and 2015, rheumatic, endo- This was most notable of all in Britain where we crinological and gastrointestinal autoimmune dis- saw the re-emergence of a kind of state worship that eases increased the most in Israel, the Netherlands, we have not seen since the totalitarian era of the the US and Sweden. The very wide variation in 1930s. In Boris Johnson’s Britain, the health religion national (even regional) incidence of Covid-related took the form of an officially sponsored veneration deaths seems more logically explained by variations of the National Health Service (NHS). This was a

Quadrant March 2021 15 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama substitute for the country’s much-diminished state existing science eventually is shown to be wrong. For church, the Church of England. A cult of sublimity example the miasma (pollution or bad air) theory replaced what once had been a religion of beauty. of disease held sway in Europe until the end of the The orchestrated public reverence for the NHS nineteenth century even though the pathogen (germ saw doctors treated as priests, nurses as angels and or micro-organism) theory had been proposed by hospitals as church-like proxies. Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian doctor, scientist and Sociologists have long held that the world has philosophical atomist, in 1546. Prominent public become increasingly secular. Measured by church health “reformers” of the nineteenth century such and other institutional religious attendances, that is as Florence Nightingale vigorously advocated the true. Yet the underlying battle between images of miasma theory. Only after 1849 when the surgeon an interventionist god and the laissez-faire god of John Snow demonstrated a statistical correlation beauty have continued even in the most nominally between a postulated water-borne pathogen and out- secular contexts. Whatever the proponents of secu- breaks of cholera in the UK did the micro-organism larism say, the religious impulse is not dead. It has theory of diseases start to gain ground. Science is a just been re-routed. Many of these new religions are long history of wrong theories. kitsch or ersatz. Some of them are powerful. Such Today the popular imagination still assumes was the explosion of the secular health religion in a pollution theory of disease. In 2020 the miasma 2020, many erstwhile libertarians and classic liberals theory of the pathogen made a big comeback in among the political class discovered public policy. Out of nowhere face their inner interventionist. masks became an instant pana- One of the functions of religion cea for airborne aerosol or ballistic is to reconcile human beings to the As the world became droplet transmission of the Covid inevitability of death. We are mor- a safer place, the more pathogen. Bad air theories once tal beings with a strong awareness people fretted about again came crashing back into fash- of our own mortality. The need to ion even though the experimental find ways to accept mortality can- their safety. Religion’s lab-based evidence that masks work not be extinguished. The need has ability to placate is virtually non-existent. To raise to be satisfied some way or other, worries about death scientific doubts about masks in or human beings will experience public became verboten overnight. distressing feelings of anxiety. In declined as existential Conjecture and refutation had a ter- place of the traditional view of an nervousness grew. rible time amidst the Covid scare. afterlife has come the paleo-modern Panic neutered almost all critical belief in an interventionist deity. faculties. This paleo-god assumes the guise of the benevolent Part of the problem is the contemporary idea of state and offers a form of salvation by doctors and truth. When post-modern philosophies began to public health authorities who wield the catechism spread widely after the 1970s, a lot of people started of “the evidence” and the dogmas of a melancholic to say that we were living in a post-truth age. On the science. This melancholic science mixes a down- contrary, if anything our age is far too preoccupied beat vision of society, the undebatable mysteries of with “the truth” in the form of correctness. Being “expertise” and (in place of the afterlife) the secular “correct” has its value. If I do a calculation, I want it miracle of “saving lives”. It does so in order to quell to be correct. But correctness is also often juvenile. the natural human anxiety about death. It forgets It functions like the eight-year-old child stamping the clockwork-like bell-curve structured behaviour and shouting, “I am right, I am right!” Throughout of viral pathogens, preferring to concentrate on 2020, a crescendo of people shouting “I am right, I the self-important ersatz heroism of interventionist am right!” descended on the world. Malicious tags health state authorities. were applied to anyone who dared to disagree with them. Truth in the petulant form of “correctness” here are plenty of good reasons to accept with- offered certainty in the face of anxiety. It was an out question the larger part of settled science. emotional anaesthetic and soporific. But this hardly TBut qualifications apply to that rule. Modern science rose to the level of Popperian science. owes much to the philosophy of moderate intellec- We tend today to think of scepticism as “ask- tual scepticism, a strain of thought that has its ori- ing critical questions”. But historically it was more gins in classical antiquity. The twentieth-century than that. The intellectual sceptic was someone who reformulation of this philosophy of science by Karl could weigh competing considerations. It involved a Popper said that science advanced by conjecture and balancing of pros and cons. Scepticism doesn’t mean refutation. Popper observed that much actually- nay-saying. It means: have you thought about this

16 Quadrant March 2021 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama countervailing factor? Are you sure that all the good of the past 250 years has become rich in contingen- you claim is being achieved is not cancelled out (or cies—things that might (possibly) happen. Many worse) by the ancillary effects of your measures? people get excited by this. It makes many other Have you thought about seeking a multifaceted people, though, dizzy with dread. Our fellows end- optimal series of measures rather than pursuing a lessly dream of possibilities. Yet in many cases these single maximal set of methods? In short, is the harm dreams readily turn into nightmares. The dreaming obviated by the measure you plan outweighed by the imaginations of our peers turn against them, haunt- harm caused by your measure? ing them with frightening images. They scare them- Policy sciences today find sceptical assessments selves witless. that balance pros and cons difficult to carry out. The It is the nature of anxiety to magnify and inflate a “one right answer” attitude has subsumed sceptical small or moderate event into towering malevolence. reasoning. The value of being “correct” swamps the In the case of the mass anxieties of the twenty- sense of balance or proportion. Models of single- first century, such feelings fixate on small troubling factor or single-direction causality replace models of things and blow them out of proportion. Looking multi-factorial and reciprocal causality. Peripheral at some small or modest possibility (say that a novel epiphenomena like “case numbers” that are a statisti- virus might do some harm) the mind begins to cal artifice of the number of virus tests carried out inflate that possibility. It is “possible” that the virus by a government become the focus of “the science” could spell doom or cause mass death. As they dwell in place of hard thinking about physiological causal- on such “possibilities” the famously liberal open ity and the even harder thinking required to under- societies of modernity then suddenly scurry about stand sociological-physiological causality. In short, trying to close themselves down. This is necessary in classic moderate scientific scepticism got completely order to shut down the thought of such a “dreadful” trampled in 2020. Public health science and policy possibility. science for the most part became monomaniacal. Anxiety is the fear of contingency. People worry Governments avoided carrying out any kind of cost- not only about “what is” (the Agincourt-style battle benefit analysis of their Covid policies. that starts tomorrow) but also about “what might be”. The range of “what might be” is large—and he Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote every year it expands. In part this is because our one of the first modern studies of anxiety in the sense of “what could be” is defined by the human T1840s. Principally he thought of it as a religious phe- imagination. Anxiety takes information about small nomenon. On first reading, this approach to anxiety events and magnifies it. A relative handful of deaths seems odd. Is it not a psychological or social psy- from a novel virus is exaggerated by the thought chological syndrome? It is true that psychology is of a large number of “cases”. The pseudo-statistical an offspring of nineteenth-century philosophy and projection of “potential cases” embellishes this. The Kierkegaard had many psychological insights. Yet is “what could be” is a projection by the imagination anxiety really a religious phenomenon? The answer of the future back into the present. The imagination is probably yes. Human beings are conscious crea- can do this in a number of different ways. One way tures. They are aware of what they do. But they are is through the operation of the sublime imagination. also aware of that awareness. They are self-conscious The sublime is the mechanism of the human imagi- beings. So they are both acutely aware of death and nation that darkly exaggerates things. The sublime meta-aware of their own awareness of their mortal- imagination readily partners with anxiety. ity. Religion, philosophy and art all deal with this Since the eighteenth century the imaginative strange meta-awareness of the human being. faculty of the sublime has risen in prominence. In The traditional human fear was a fear of death 1757 Edmund Burke spent half of his treatise on that was grounded in tangible events. If you were an aesthetics, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of English soldier at the battle of Agincourt decisively our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, analysing this outnumbered by French soldiers, you had ample rea- form of the imagination. It pictured the world as if son to be afraid of dying that day. Sentiments based it was full of terror, darkness, solitude, privation, on a mix of Christian faith and hope in the afterlife vastness, suddenness, uncertainty and the absence of and a background (philosophically rooted) culture checks or balances. Burke struck an objective tone. of stoic behaviour and the virtue of courage modu- In a detached manner he enumerated the differences lated such fears. Since the mid-nineteenth century between classic and romantic art and their respective the traditional kind of human fear increasingly has emphasis on the beautiful and the sublime. But been replaced by anxiety. For Kierkegaard, anxiety his analysis of the sublime clearly prepared him is the dread that attaches to a very modern idea: the to understand the terroristic pyrotechnics of the possibility of having possibilities. The modern world French Revolution that were prefigured in the

Quadrant March 2021 17 The Futility of the Great Lockdown Melodrama sublime artistic imagination. extravagantly vocal segments of Australia’s profes- Democracies are not terroristic or totalitarian. sional-managerial classes. Democratic peoples do not fear their rulers, who The peculiar anxieties of the voluble modern-era often appear to them to be comic or hapless figures. upper middle classes have long been recorded. It Rather than directly inciting fear, democratic lead- was notable in Victoria during 2020 that the retail ers tap into social anxieties. They do this (among businesses with the most over-the-top Covid notices other means) by dark sublime exaggerations. “You on their windows were those catering to virtue-sig- may not fear me but dread the looming handiwork nalling professional-managerial status groups. It is of nature—the shadowy virus.” The dread of the a puzzle why social classes with the most material pathogen and the resulting anxious trembling is security often exhibit the greatest degree of publicly then soothed when government “takes command”. vocalised psychological insecurity. The strangest of One of the characteristics of the sublime that Burke all of the professional-managerial nerviness was the noted was its appetite for sudden shifts and turns. number of hysterical statements about Covid ema- We see the same disposition echoed in many 2020 nating from doctors and the doctors’ lobby groups. governments. The democratic sublime genre of This from a profession that deals daily with all kinds power encourages abrupt kinds of authority that of infectious diseases. Possibly this was a function of deliver daily unexpected, anxiety-inducing twists selective media reporting. Placid doctors didn’t get and turns. These have the population sitting on the coverage and just went about their business unper- edge of its seats and hanging on every pronounce- turbed. Australian media coverage generally was ment by government. sensational. Every minor inflection in the disease’s In a world of sublime “possibilities”, no one can be upward progress was inflated. That flipped to near sure exactly what a government is thinking. A clas- silence every time the virus’s predictable bell-curve sic example of this was the decision by the Victorian movement arced downwards. Statistical naivety was government in late December 2020 to suddenly close rampant, as was gullible innumeracy. The media’s its border with New South Wales. Tens of thousands viewership and readership maxim—“if it bleeds it of Victorians were left stranded interstate for weeks leads”—went into full throttle in 2020. This was not as a result of the exercise of a kind of power whose an atmosphere conducive to composure or reflection. essence is to stoke anxiety-pumping uncertainties. As for Australia’s professional politicians, they A democratic sublime power acts unpredictably and had little to say on the subject of Covid that was with pirouetting haste. It turns panic into impetuous not orchestrated pabulum. Almost universally they policing and issues directions without warning, due ducked for cover, insisting that public health offi- consideration or obvious consistency. The ability to cials speak for them. Those officials tended to echo do this is built into the emergency, administrative the melancholic anxieties of the larger professional- and discretionary powers of the modern sovereign managerial class. Most state and federal political state. But the entire history of the modern state is leaders doubled down on this, notably so in the also the history of efforts to check and balance such case of Victoria. For months on end, the Victorian precipitate power. Premier, Daniel Andrews, was the chief character in The response of middle Australia to the Covid a daily angst-stoking melodrama. Humourless and year was largely one of patience. The mind-set of the peevish with a barely suppressed streak of anger, mass of Australians is phlegmatic. They are not eas- Andrews neatly exemplified the neurotic spirit of his ily drawn into garrulous nervous fretting. The popu- age. Some relief from this bullhorn hand-wringing lation’s patient stamina has many sides. At times it is came from the Premier of New South Wales, Gladys naive and almost masochistic; at other times fatal- Berejiklian, who successfully applied a lighter-touch istic, stoic, amused or long-suffering. It varies. The set of constraints and whose public appearances Australian national story (embodied in Anzac) is one tended to be confidence-building rather than anx- of phlegmatic nonchalance in the face of both dan- iety-fuelling. From time to time Berejiklian even ger and pompous authority. The Australian media, managed to smile. In 2020 we had to be grateful for political and academic classes on the other hand even the smallest of mercies. tend increasingly to be melancholic in nature. Doom scenarios appeal to them. They routinely exagger- Peter Murphy is the author of COVID-19: ate problems. Their imagination is typically sublime. Proportionality, Public Policy and Social Distancing The sky is always falling in. Hence the toughness (Palgrave, 2020). His other recent books include The of Australia’s anti-Covid policy measures and the Political Economy of Prosperity (2020) and Limited country’s generally forbearing response. Forbearance Government (2019). He is working on a study of did not mean freedom from worry or stress. But it Australian civilisation. An extensively footnoted version also did not mean the catastrophising typical of the of this article is available online.

18 Quadrant March 2021 Cookbooks for Poets

Ann Rogers’ Poor Poets’ Cookbook— a nickel dinner, fresh roll, real butter, and a glass of wine, Onion Pie, Black Beans and Rum. Inspired by Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife, 1824— curry of catfish, barbecued shoat & beaten biscuits, fried calf’s feet, pheasant à-la-daube, tansy pudding, pickled nasturtiums, walnut catsup, vinegar of the four thieves. The food and customs of the antebellum South. A culinary pantheon that included Alice B. Toklas, Fannie Farmer and M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf, 1942— the latter, written to inspire courage, in those daunted by wartime shortages. W.H. Auden, of Fisher, remarked: Cat/December 26th I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose. A scratch at the headboard, so John Updike added: that (sleepless and Poet of the appetites. night-sheeted) Joe Dolce you kicked through the dark toys for that mewling fluff, and, finally, My Friends the Mountains stomped your mother’s purse instead; (Rosebery, West Coast, Tasmania) then two orange orbs, as of god-eyes, washed My father thought I was a “nance” For singing in a church choir dressed by the curtains, lulling you with In cassock, surplice, lizard frill, a snow of slipping tires My mother chased me with his belt and muffled radios. And screamed “you little bugger” as Christine Hamm We went. My brother was my foe, And when my sister’s coming turned My love, forbidden, into hate, Mount Black, so close our lawn was dark And wet all year, confirmed my need To hug shadows, see on nearby Sombrely grey, deceptively, Sometimes-sunlit, Mount Murchison, A face resembling mine, to which I felt welcomed to give my lone, Unforgiving, cold-hardened heart.

Graeme Hetherington

Quadrant March 2021 19 David Martin Jones

Losing Faith in the Future of Democracy

he sacking of the Capitol building on January something both new and enduring. This has been 6 embarrassed the US in the eyes of the world the chief reason the American Revolution, unlike and did little to advance a liberal universal- the French, has remained largely neglected in world Tism that has long held that representative demo- politics. cratic institutions best answer the needs of pluralist, As Hannah Arendt explained, the American ethnically diverse populations in a complex, inter- aversion to conceptual thought meant that the connected, but by no means integrated world. interpretation of American history, ever since But was it, as Harvard Kennedy School pro- Tocqueville, succumbed “to theories whose roots fessors maintain, “the most dangerous threat to of experience lay elsewhere”. As a consequence, the American democracy in our history”, trampling over US, its mainstream media and professoriate, have its norms and exposing its fragility? Was the “insur- shown “a deplorable tendency to magnify almost rection” the premonitory snuffling of an impending every fad and humbug which the disintegration … kristallnacht or merely, in the words of Elias Canetti, of the European political and social fabric … has the action of a “stagnant crowd” anticipating its own brought into intellectual prominence”. “immediate death”? In the context of the current democratic malaise, Rather than taking a pessimistic view of the this American inattention to its own revolution- future and an anachronistic view of the past, it ary, constitutional particularity reflects a broader might be worth considering what more prudent mood swing in comparative political science from observers of republican and democratic practice in liberal optimism to Spenglerian pessimism about its historical context from Machiavelli to Hannah democracy’s future. The reasons for this loss of Arendt considered necessary for an enduring politi- faith, however, reveal a crisis not so much in demo- cal order. cratic institutions themselves, but in the limited and Observing the past and applying its prudential abstract democratic theory the media and social sci- reasoning to the present, Machiavelli found that, in entists employ to compare systems of government virtuous republics, conflict “between the populace and promote a rationalistic rather than a historically and the Senate” may be looked on “as an inconven- informed account of how they should function. ience” which it was necessary to endure “in order Casting our minds back to the end of history, to arrive at greatness”. Machiavelli was the first to we might recall that in the 1990s, both conserva- point out that political conflict may be functional tive and liberal political scientists from Samuel for class-based democracies like those of the West. Huntington to Seymour Martin Lipset, Larry Significantly, the American Founding Fathers Diamond and Robert Dahl identified a “third wave” closely attended to Machiavelli and the classical of democracy sweeping the globe. Dahl wrote that republican model in framing a revolutionary con- an unprecedented political change had occurred. stitution for a novus ordo saeclorum. More precisely, “All of the main alternatives to democracy had they were “if anything more learned in the ways of either disappeared, turned into eccentric survivals ancient and modern prudence than their colleagues or retreated from the field to hunker down in their in the old world”. last strongholds.” Yet interest in these principles dried up almost Yet what democratic theorists understood by immediately after the task had been achieved. What democracy proved curiously mutable over time. was lost through this failure of thought and remem- During the Cold War, the inchoate American dis- brance were the revolutionary ideals of “public free- cipline of comparative political science opted for a dom, public happiness and public spirit” that began parsimonious definition. Following Schumpeter’s

20 Quadrant March 2021 Losing Faith in the Future of Democracy work on Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1943) just, inclusive and responsive government”. Daniel political scientists considered “the democratic Levitsky and Steven Ziblatt stretched the concept method” as that “institutional arrangement for further, “precising”—to use their preferred partici- arriving at political decisions … by means of a com- ple—democracy with an additional attribute, “the petitive struggle for the people’s vote”. Dahl spelt existence of a reasonably level playing field between out its minimal procedural requirements: elected incumbents and opposition”. Without such morally officials, free, fair and frequent elections, freedom accountable and socially just governance, democracy of expression, alternative sources of information, was vulnerable to breakdown. Consequently, many associational autonomy and inclusive citizenship. It democracies were by 2016 in “recession”, “degraded also eschewed unelected “tutelary” authorities like by the actions of their own democratically elected monarchs, militaries and priesthoods. executives”. Samuel Huntington added that this realist democratic model involved two dimensions: contestation his diagnosis eschewed the fact, however, that and participation. From this perspective, Seymour in its first American “wave” democracy assumed Martin Lipset identified the economic precondi- Tsomething rather different: namely, a state where tions that determined the processes of liberalisa- impersonal law regulated personal freedom. It tion and democratisation in developing as well as implied that governments were responsive to the developed states. Subsequently, his student, Larry desires and opinions of the governed and respon- Diamond, in In Search of Democracy (2016) found sible to them. A government regulated by law and that although it has many causes a common thread responsible to the body politic was a constitutional linked regime effectiveness to dem- government, and constitutionalism ocratic accountability. or republicanism is therefore per- Even authoritarian regimes haps a more adequate appellation that survived this inexorable glo- As Montesquieu for this form of government than bal movement felt, it seemed, and the authors democracy. Indeed, in the careless constrained to offer some form of hands of political scientists, the electoral competition, however spe- of the Federalist term “democracy” has suffered a cious. Yet as 1990s-style electoral Papers recognised, form of verbicide. democracy became “the only game This becomes evident when the in town”, the concept itself also democracy’s virtues of political science departments of stretched to include something more liberty and equality most Anglo-American universities virtuous than mere procedure. The attribute the current democratic cri- democratic package increasingly require limits, not sis to “authoritarianism”. Curiously, came with the additional norms of progressive extensions. according to this way of thinking, good governance, accountability, it is only Republicans that cultivate transparency, the rule of law and this intolerant, politically polaris- respect for civil liberties alongside equitable eco- ing disposition. Black Lives Matter, Democrats, or nomic growth. As the Third Wave peaked, Dahl unelected tutelary bodies like the universities them- regretted “that every actual democracy has always selves, have, we are told, “not been the principal fallen short” of the requisite criteria he and his fel- drivers” of “deeper polarisation”. low liberal academicians increasingly demanded. Instead, we are told, democracy in the US is Democracy extended elastically to embrace both an “dying from within”, slowly eviscerated by conserva- ideal as well as “a procedural actuality that is only a tives with a penchant for something only recently partial attainment of the goal”. added to the political science vocabulary, namely, Introducing progressive values into what is an authoritarianism. “Authoritarian”, and its cognate empirically measurable procedure is a recipe for con- terms, “authoritarianism” and “the authoritarian fusion, and the fact that those defining the values personality”, do a lot of work in this vocabulary of were partisans of this idealist agenda did not help. democratic decline, but what do they actually mean? Diamond, who launched the Journal of Democracy in Their origins may be traced tothe Marxist Frankfurt 1990 to decode, advance and promote the democratic school of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer model, found that “democracies in trouble were vir- who first detected authoritarianism corrupting tually all illiberal”. To avoid illiberal breakdowns, European politics between the wars. Somewhat he averred, states must achieve “democratic consoli- predictably, democracy theorists find similarities dation”. This required “horizontal accountability”, between contemporary US politics and the collapse different means of “checking and restraining the of the Weimar republic in 1933. The rise of fascism in abuse of power” and “truly free, accountable, honest, Italy and Germany, it is alleged, “highlight the type

Quadrant March 2021 21 Losing Faith in the Future of Democracy of fateful alliance that often elevates authoritarians “Power must be opposed to power, force to force, to power”. strength to strength, interest to interest, as well as However, to reduce contemporary political out- reason to reason, eloquence to eloquence, and pas- comes to an “authoritarian personality” disorder sion to passion”, he obviously believed he had found requires a certain amount of academic gerryman- in this very opposition an instrument to generate dering. The term is a Marxist ideological construc- more power, more strength, more reason, and not to tion, not a political theory. Fleeing Germany for a abolish them. On the level of practice and the erec- more tolerant America in 1938, Adorno subsequently tion of institutions it required proportion and the floated the concept as a device for smoking out con- balancing of power. Montesquieu’s reasoning in fact cealed fascism everywhere and especially in the false suggests that once invested with power, even liberals consciousness of successful post-war liberal, con- are apt to abuse it and will carry authority as far as it sumer capitalism in the United States. will go. Virtue, and especially virtue signalling, also Such theoretical fads crossing the Atlantic, requires constitutional restraint. Arendt observed presciently, lost their basis in real- Sustaining this balance in a complex, modern ity and with it all limitations of common sense. As and increasingly polarised society requires con- a result, democratic theory increasingly came to cerned democrats to recall the “prudent diffidence” accept almost anything critical and abstract when its of classical scepticism that informed the thinking foremost task, the comprehensive understanding of of the Founding Fathers. This will be crucial to off- reality and the coming to terms with it, is in danger setting the growing predilection for an apolitical, of being fatally compromised. rationalist, managerial omnicompetence. Before For as Montesquieu and the authors of The embarking on new schemes of progressive perfec- Federalist Papers recognised, democracy’s virtues of tion, the new administration should perhaps recall liberty and equality require limits, not progressive the advice of the authors of The Federalist Papers. extensions. The preoccupation with permanence They were profoundly aware that government had and stability, not abstract norms or authoritarian to perform its office of preserving order and balance predispositions, runs like a red thread through the “relevant to the current conditions of society”. This American constitutional debates, which were con- requires both “a balance of attention” and a recogni- ducted in terms of the ancient notion of a mixed tion of the need for an internal “balance of power”. form of government which combined monarchic, aristocratic and democratic elements in the same David Martin Jones’s most recent book, History’s Fools: body politic, thereby “arresting the cycle of sem- The Pursuit of Idealism and the Revenge of Politics, piternal change”. When John Adams, following was published by Hurst & Co last year. A footnoted Montesquieu’s understanding of democracy, wrote: version of this article appears at Quadrant Online.

I Was Right

“I was right, of course,” I said, looking at my feet; You didn’t say anything. The car door gently closed; I heard the engine grumble to life; A “clunk” as it went into gear; The crinkle of rocks as tires slowly rolled backwards out of the driveway; Then the engine changed pitch. The exhaust, white, captured by the December morning sun Dissipated.

Marc Janssen

22 Quadrant March 2021 William D. Rubinstein

Black Lives Matter: The Myths and the Facts

eorge Floyd was a forty-six-year-old truck message that vast numbers of innocent black people driver and minor hip-hop rapper with in the United States have been persecuted by the the group “Screwed Up Click”. Between local police purely on racial grounds, and, expand- 1997G and 2013 he was also a career criminal, serving from that claim, that America is still perva- ing eight terms in prison for a range of offences sively racist. These messages have become gospel on including drug possession and delivery, theft and the American Left, and have increased the influ- trespass. In 2009, he was sentenced to five years ence of the radical wing of the Democratic Party. in prison for armed robbery during a home inva- In fact, the BLM movement is one of the great- sion. Paroled in January 2013, he determined to go est frauds ever perpetrated by the Left on the straight, joined an evangelical church, and moved American public and, by extension, on public opin- from his home in Texas to Minneapolis. There he ion throughout the Western world. Its raison d’être became a truck driver and nightclub bouncer—he is that America’s police forces systematically engage was six feet six inches tall—and security guard. As in widespread racist attacks, especially unjustified a result of the Covid-19 pandemic he lost his jobs shootings, against ordinary black people simply when his employers closed down. On May 25, 2020, going about their business. he was arrested for allegedly passing a counterfeit The facts are different. Below is a table of $20 bill at a Minneapolis grocery store. Floyd died “Persons shot to death by the police” in the United after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer who States in 2018, 2019, and up to November 30, 2020. came to arrest him, pressed his knee to Floyd’s (George Floyd was allegedly choked to death by neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, while Chauvin, not shot; there is apparently no data on Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down in the choking to death, as it is so rare.) street, shouting, “I can’t breathe!” Floyd’s official autopsy termed his death a homicide attributed to Race 2018 2019 2020 cardiopulmonary arrest, but also added that fen- tanyl (a recreational drug) intoxication and meth- White 399 370 370 amphetamine use were “significant conditions” for Black 209 235 192 his death. Chauvin (like three other police with Hispanic 148 158 128 him) was immediately dismissed from the police Other 36 39 21 force and he awaits trial on a second-degree murder Unknown 204 202 133 charge. Floyd’s death set off an storm of protests around Totals 996 1004 844 the world, many of which were violent, and added greatly to the visibility and apparent necessity of the As will be seen, more whites than blacks have, “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement. His death consistently, been shot dead by the police, and was the latest in a series of high-profile cases given only around one-fifth of such deaths were those of international publicity by BLM, which include the blacks. These figures have, of course, to be placed acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting black in a wider context. The total population of the US teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in is about 330 million, of whom about 41 million 2012, and the shooting of another black teenager, are black and 56 million Hispanic (of any race). Michael Brown Jr, by a police officer in Ferguson, Heather Mac Donald, a highly perceptive Fellow of Missouri, in 2014. Millions of people around the the Manhattan Institute, has commented incisively world have accepted the veracity of their central about these claims:

Quadrant March 2021 23 Black Lives Matter: The Myths and the Facts

In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1004 people, was killed by police during a car chase. The most of whom were armed or otherwise driver of the car Pudlik was in, Christopher dangerous. African-Americans were about a Lee Calvin, nearly pinned an officer between quarter of those killed by the cops last year his car and a concrete wall. Cops on the scene (235), a ratio that has remained stable since finally opened fire when they believed Calvin 2015. That share of black victims is less than was intentionally trying to ram into an officer what the black crime rate would predict, … Isaiah Lewis, a black teenager, was shot by since police shootings are a function of how police after pouncing on an officer and kicking often officers encounter armed and dangerous him unconscious ... Kevin Mason of Baltimore suspects. In 2018 African-Americans made was shot by police responding to a domestic up 53% of known homicide offenders in the violence call. Mason sent dogs after the officers. US and committed about 60% of robberies, When that didn’t scare them off, he called 911 although they are just 13% of the population and threatened to “blast” them and “kill every ... The police fatally shot nine unarmed last one of them”. Mason was ultimately shot blacks and nineteen unarmed whites in 2019, when he emerged from his home after explicitly according to a Washington Post data base ... announcing his intention to murder the cops on Those nine unarmed black victims of police the scene. shootings represented 0.1% of all African- Americans killed in 2019. By contrast, a police The widespread publicity given to the George officer is eighteen and a half times more likely Floyd case, the riots and violence which ensued to be killed by a black male than an unarmed as a result, and the calls by the extreme Left to black male is to be killed by a police officer. “defund” the police, have led to many police officers quitting their forces rather than put up with the lies The more closely one looks at each purported and violence of the extreme Left. In Minneapolis, case of an unjustified shooting of a black man by where Floyd was killed, by August 19, 2020, the a policeman in America, the more dubious many number of homicides had reached the total of the of these claims seem. The journalist Matt Walsh previous year in just eight months. According to looked up every case of an unarmed black man reporter Holly Bailey: shot by the police in 2019 that was included in the Washington Post’s 2019 data base. According Day and night the bullets rip through the to Walsh, six of the fourteen killings included in predominantly Black neighborhood [of the data base “ranged from outrageous to question- Minneapolis], hitting cars and homes and able”. But eight other “unarmed” shootings were in people. The scores of victims have included a a different category: 7-year-old boy, wounded in a drive-by shooting [and] a woman who took a bullet that came Melvin Watkins was shot by a sheriff’s through her living room wall while she was deputy after Watkins’s family called 911 [the watching television. emergency phone number] to report that he’d become violent and they feared for their The Minneapolis City Council originally safety. When officers arrived on the scene, planned to defund their local police force, but Watkins allegedly tried to run them over settled for a major decrease in its budget, as an with his car. Multiple witnesses support this estimated sixty police officers quit the force in the version of events. Knoxville police officer wake of the Floyd killings and the ensuing riots. Dylan Williams was cleared of any wrongdoing Major increases in crime have also been reported by the D.A. [District Attorney] after fatally in most large American cities. In some cases shooting Channara Pheap last summer. this was clearly a response to the unemployment Five eyewitnesses, plus video evidence and and dislocation caused by the pandemic, but dash camera footage, confirmed that Pheap it has also been attributed to the riots and the assaulted Williams, choked him, grabbed his undermining of confidence in the police caused by taser, and used it on him. Ryan Twyman was the BLM movement and the George Floyd killing. shot by the police after attempting to arrest Overwhelmingly, in America’s big cities, violent him for possession of illegal firearms in June crimes are caused by its black and (to a lesser 2019. Security camera footage shows Twyman extent) its Hispanic populations, while the role driving away with an officer trapped by his car of the police in violence against blacks or anyone door. The other officer on the scene opened else is trivial or non-existent. In Chicago, whose fire, fearing for his partner’s life. Kevin Pudlik population of 2.7 million is 30 per cent black, there

24 Quadrant March 2021 Black Lives Matter: The Myths and the Facts were 792 homicides (91 per cent by gunshot) in big American city. 2020, compared with 512 in 2019 and 586 in 2018. The BLM movement and its allies have (To put this in context, Victoria, with a population perpetrated one of the greatest hoaxes on modern of 6.4 million, had 101 homicides in 2019.) Of American public debate, unfortunately with these Chicago homicides, 627 (79 per cent) were literally deadly consequences in too many cases. of blacks, mainly young gang members and drug But as always, the central aim of America’s radicals dealers killed by other blacks in inner-city ghetto is the destruction of society. areas, 131 were of Hispanics, and thirty-two were of whites. The Chicago police killed precisely seven William D. Rubinstein taught at Deakin University persons (of any race) and wounded another thirteen. and the University of Wales, and is a frequent Much the same is likely to be true in every other contributor to Quadrant.

Parkour

The third willow was mine. In it I could reach the highest branches and perch, foot firm in a fork or occluded knot— Hippocrates’ willow bark (good for fever and inflammation, they say) rough on the skin of my arm and my cheek. I would be the one to climb the corrugated iron of the sloping roof when a gutter needed cleaning or the chimney unblocked or just when I wanted to be away—to look over the world, and not be among it. The nearly-empty field bin, flexing slightly as I climbed its unguarded ladder, was more of a challenge; The day around me warped and shimmered with heat in that season And the paddocks below, half-stripped lines of straw and seed, pushed sun back into my eyes so that they filled with tears and sweat; And the bin beneath, grain draining, deceptively surface-calm held heat just to torment, mixing it with grain dust—an abrasive soup for the lungs. Still, my legs and arms and head were firm, and cast easily over the iron rim. I can’t tell when I changed— When vertigo overtook the nonchalant control of my body, and my arms became untrustworthy. Now I have in memory only the nights when I flew over rooftops, avoiding notice; Lowering myself over voids, Climbing vertical walls, Walking freely over parapets; Casting myself into the free air, body answering equally sure and error-free— In memory or in dream. For sometimes my dreams are pleasant: I am wind-hovering, Carried over seven-leagues in a step, lowering and pushing off a cushion of air— Suspended light over paddocks, not trudging, heavy-footed, slow and powerless over the weary earth.

Francine Rochford

Quadrant March 2021 25 James C. Bennett

The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity

ver recent decades a plethora of books logically from his analytical framework. Lineages of aimed at the general reader has sought to Modernity contributes to the Great Conversation explain the success of the West and the on modernity by returning to the classic roots of reasonsO for the gap between Western achievements anthropology, while incorporating much recent and the rest of the world. These attempts are wel- research in social science. come, and fill a need, but many of them suffer from Being rooted in classic anthropology means, the handicap of, in effect, reinventing the wheel— above all for Todd, a basic grounding in family sys- with many of them still undecided as to whether tems analysis. One of the problems with writing a wheels ought to be square or round. We see econo- book grounded in anthropology for a general audi- mists or biologists taking it upon themselves to do ence, as opposed to, say, an economics work, is that an anthropologist’s job, often apparently unaware much of the terminology and underlying concepts that an extensive social science literature on the of anthropology is not familiar to such audiences. origins of modernity and the industrial revolu- If every book that touched on economic concepts tion is already in existence. When anthropology is needed to explain from zero concepts such as “gross cited, it is often done in a haphazard way. domestic product” or “inflation”, or the difference Given this situation, the publication of between market and command economies, it would Emmanuel Todd’s Lineages of Modernity: A History make for an uphill climb for the reader before even of Humanity from the Stone Age to Homo Americanus is embarking on its specific intellectual journey. a welcome and overdue milestone. Todd, a demog- Lineages of Modernity asks the reader to under- rapher and historical anthropologist at Institut take exactly such an exercise, beginning with a National d’Études Démographiques in Paris, is a concise tutorial on the basic idea of family systems public figure in the French tradition of the engaged and then embarking on a tour of the evolution of intellectual. In the 1970s he correctly predicted the family systems through time and space, discussing demise of the Soviet Union, one of the first serious the various ways that people think about who is commentators to do so. and is not a member of their family and the impli- As an engaged intellectual, he is taken seriously cation of those differences for the ways societies as a theorist and as a flamboyant, often embattled have evolved. public figure known for contrarian stands on top- Todd raises and answers the question, “What ics such as the assimilation of Muslim immigrants. relevance do systems based on differential obliga- Indeed, his stands often appear to be taken for tions of older and younger siblings have in a world their provocative potential—a scholarly equivalent where the global fertility collapse means that fewer of Dali’s anteater on a leash, or Duchamp’s uri- and fewer families have multiple children at all?” nal exhibited at an art exhibition. Taken in isola- His solution is the concept of “ghost” or “zombie tion they might seem so. But a serious perusal of cultures”, ones in which the family systems (or, in Todd’s work, and particularly the volume reviewed more contemporary terms, “anthropological struc- here, will show that they proceed organically and tures”) continue to shape the culture and politics of the nations long after their original circumstances are gone. For instance, in secularised regions like Lineages of Modernity: A History of Humanity from southern France, Todd describes their cultures the Stone Age to Homo Americanus as “Zombie Catholicism”; similarly secularised by Emmanuel Todd regions of Germany and Scandinavia as “Zombie Polity, 2019, 358 pages, $62.95 Lutheranism”, and so on. The former religion of

26 Quadrant March 2021 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity such secularised cultural areas can still serve as an and controlled to ensure equality. However, once accurate predictor of political behaviour. an equal start was guaranteed, relatively little effort This pattern in fact evidenced itself well before was put into controlling subsequent outcomes. This the actual secularisation. Todd argues that a regu- system prevailed in the Île-de-France, which then lar, predictable pattern of developments, beginning imposed it on the rest of France. It produced a cul- with increasing male literacy, then industrialisa- ture that was egalitarian regarding starting con- tion followed by widespread female literacy, can be ditions, but otherwise individualistic. Its politics observed throughout the developed and developing thus focused on creating the appropriate balance world, beginning with the West but being repli- between equality and liberty, a task with no final cated now throughout non-European cultures. or perfect solution. A third system arose around the North Sea. he movement from countryside to city, com- In it, land was inherited as the parents chose to mon to all developed cultures, disrupted the give it out, except for (in England) a minority of Tpre-existing anthropological structures. If one cul- the aristocracy where Norman primogeniture pre- ture is marked by equal distribution of land to all vailed. In return there were few obligations either sons, while another passes land to the first-born from parents to children, or vice versa. As a result, son and excludes the rest, what happens when legal mechanisms such as trusts evolved to provide most sons prefer to go to better-paying jobs in cash solutions for support independent of the state the city? And, equally important, of relations between parents and when younger siblings are entitled children. In this society land was to assistance from the elder, how is he individualist viewed as a commodity owned by that to be delivered when the sib- T individuals and disposed at will, lings are far away? societies of the rather than being obligated to be The answer most often was the Anglosphere have retained by the multigenerational most obvious: the state acted as the family. Consequently, this system family, and fulfilled the paternal in economic matters was readily adapted to the urbani- role; the citizens, that of children. generally had a sation of industrialisation. In insu- Politics revolved around exactly transactional, rather lar England, the absence of a land what obedience was due and what warfare threat meant that large- aid was due in return—either than pseudo-familial scale state mechanisms for mobili- paternalist conservatism, or social and emotional sation of people or wealth did not democracy, or, when the latter is exist. The state need not substitute thrown into (in Todd’s words) the relationship with for large parts of what were previ- “hysterical mode”, fascism. the state. ously family roles. Thus, the rela- The structures arising in con- tionship between the individual tinental Europe in the wars of the and the state remained primarily seventeenth through twentieth centuries to ensure transactional, rather than emotional. adequate military infrastructure and manpower A trust mechanism meant to support age- mobilisation were also well adapted to receive the ing parents regardless of family relations worked loyal service of their subjects and to dispense the equally well in an urban, industrialised setting as expected benefits. Although this system could pro- in a rural, agricultural one. The critical duties of duce great loyalty and diligence, a failure of the the state in England were to provide a court system state to dispense the expected benefits (seen effec- to uphold trusts, and to honour its financial instru- tively as a social debt) would enrage the subjects ments faithfully and precisely to serve as a reliable and drive them to rebellion. Such societies (includ- store of value. The diligence of Anglosphere states ing Germany, Scandinavia, and southern France/ in paying their obligations is no coincidence. northern Spain) were unequal, authoritarian, but in their own view fair, giving each their due and ertain themes fell out of these family guaranteeing all some security. system variances. The transference of family Elsewhere, where equal distribution of land to obligationsC to the state in continental Europe sons prevailed, cultural emphasis dictated equality created emotional responses to fiscal matters. Any at birth, but not much redistribution subsequently. perceived failure of the state to fulfil its parental As the state mediated more and more of life, equal role becomes a parental betrayal and, as benefits and meritocratic access to services such as educa- from the state are a type of property, a failure to tion and the opportunities of state service were fulfil them is not just a disappointment but a literal emphasised. These spheres were highly centralised theft. A cut in benefits has the emotional impact

Quadrant March 2021 27 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity of a burglary. Internal devaluation in such societies Codified in the “Speenhamland laws”, the principle is problematic. It became the critical weaknesses of governing such relief was that the sums provided both the euro and global neoliberal reform projects must never be more than what the poorest mem- of recent decades. ber of the working population could earn. Even to The individualist societies of the Anglosphere, this day welfare payments in Anglosphere nations in contrast, have in economic matters generally had draw vocal resentment if they exceed the minimum a transactional, rather than pseudo-familial and wage, even, or especially, if the people complaining emotional relationship with the state. Anglosphere are likely to need such assistance themselves in the societies are neither economically egalitarian nor near future. economically hierarchical by principle, but rather Although the American colonies brought over indifferent to economic equality. similar poor relief arrangements, especially in New Among the ways Todd characterises societies is England, America had much more horizontality their position between the poles of “horizontality” from the very start. This was due in large degree to and “verticality”. Horizontal societies are egalitar- the easy access to land in many situations. It was ian, and relations are primarily between people on hard to maintain deference when the lower class the same level, at least on certain planes (for exam- could literally disappear in the night and by mov- ple, social but not economic). Vertical societies ing a bit further squat or claim their own land. The are unequal and hierarchical, not only in practice Antipodes had much the same circumstance. Even but in theory— everybody has a social “rank”, and the Wakefield colonies of South Australia and New citizens tend to be uncomfortable until it is estab- Zealand, founded explicitly upon the principle of lished who outranks whom. Anglosphere societies, verticality, could not sustain that hoped-for rela- since they are indifferent to equality, are mixes of tion in the face of such temptation. horizontal and vertical relations, which can exist in With less need for poor relief, and less verticality, uneasy disequilibrium. welfare always had a particular stigma in America. Furthermore, various Anglosphere societies, John Steinbeck, in his leftist period, complained that due to circumstances of history and geography, the American poor tended to act like “temporarily have evolved different mixes of horizontality and inconvenienced millionaires”, declining to support verticality. Most significantly, England retains a high taxation because they judged such matters not certain amount of verticality, with deference his- on their situation at the moment, but where they torically to the aristocracy, and in modern times hoped to be. When Franklin Roosevelt introduced to its quasi-meritocratic political-intellectual estab- state superannuation, he took pains to present it lishment. America is primarily horizontal, not in as a market-mimicking pension scheme, assuring terms of its income distribution, but in terms of its recipients that pensions were earned through their powerful value of social-political equality, no mat- contributions, ignoring its redistributions. ter how much the realities of power may be unequal. Anglosphere societies are distinct from other odd’s schema has an impressive record as a developed nations, but also not identical within predictor of political behaviour in the Western their own universe. Tdemocracies, being used by EU economists in Attitudes toward welfare and benefits provide research in studying issues such as comparative an example. As we have seen, continental European intra-European workforce mobility. It has also societies provide substantial financial and in-kind been a useful interpretive lens in history, seeing benefits to their citizens, seen as part of the “pat- European politics as a matter of shifting alliances rimony” equivalent to the shares of inherited land. and ideologies of the three great family-system These are seen as property and due as right; gov- groups, explaining both state-to-state conflict and ernments which, out of financial necessity or some intra-state conflict. When the big multi-national ideological reforming impulse, try to cut such (and multi-family-system) states of Austria- benefits have evoked furious responses up to and Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia fell apart including armed insurrection. under stress, the lines of cleavage were most often England, on the other hand, long had a system along family-system lines despite substantial lin- of need-based, means-tested assistance to its poorer guistic commonalities across those lines. members, administered by local parishes under Going beyond Western and Central Europe, the post-Reformation Poor Laws. This reflected a Todd classified the great bulk of Eurasian and degree of verticality in English society; poor relief African systems as other than the three Western was administered by the local gentry and prosper- European systems. Much of the human race is ous middle classes. There has always been a strong under the communitarian family system, in which concern about “moral hazard” in its administration. adult members of the paternal family reside and

28 Quadrant March 2021 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity work land in common together, under the authority several sources that are primarily polemical, par- of the eldest male. Unlike the stem or authoritar- ticularly the work of Thomas Frank. Such sources ian family of the West, the land is the communal suffer from a common error of oversimplification. property of the family, and all married sons and This error has several components. The most their wives have an equal right to participate. In basic one is the conflation of the genuine contribu- such family systems, daughters are married off and tion of the market economists with the political no longer have a formal status in the family, while programs that have broadly been called libertarian. brides of the brothers become part of the paternal The great contribution of the market viewpoint is family. its clear view of what lies beneath all proposals for Again, Todd’s theories tend to be validated by state action: the reality that the “state” is a short- their predictive power—areas like Tuscany (one of hand for a set of relations by which some people several “communitarian” islands in the West) have direct the resources and labour of other people in tended to support the Communist Party; authori- a designated area, a direction ultimately resting on tarian or stem-family areas tend to support social- the use or threat of the use of force. ist or Social-Democrat parties, and individualist The justifications for such relations are various, or nuclear-family areas have tended to support the and may or may not have validity in the eyes of the most free-market party of the day people so directed. (Todd’s partic- in the English-speaking world. ular contribution has been to dem- Beyond electoral politics, Todd’s etween the onstrate how the family systems of schema has been a good predictor B a population correlate to which of of global geopolitics. Revolutionary West and the those social relations are accepted Leninist communism spread like communitarian as justified.) Whether merited or wildfire through communitarian not, such relations contain various Russia and China, gaining converts cultures of Eurasia hazards, particularly those of unin- rapidly and overwhelming seem- lies a cultural, tended consequences. ingly entrenched opposing forces. psychological and This is a fundamental insight Yet it was stopped firmly by the and remains true regardless of the firebreaks of Central Europe to its linguistic gap that current ideologies guiding state west, the Islamic Turkic-speaking is difficult to bridge, action. However, the same is not nations to its south, and Japan to true of every policy choice made or its east. The communism imposed and often leads to advocated by movements identify- on Eastern Europe by Soviet arms misunderstanding. ing themselves as liberal, neoliberal failed to establish deep roots in any or libertarian. This has been true of them, particularly in Poland, of the two great historical waves of whose family system was oddly like that of the Île- liberal thought, roughly grouped (following Niall de-France, and East Germany, with its authoritar- Ferguson’s terminology) as Globalisation 1.0 (the ian stem-family system. Similarly, Islam’s original classical liberal movement of the nineteenth cen- lightning-swift spread across the Middle East and tury, and the industrialisation and global trade it North Africa was coterminous with the endoga- presided over) and Globalisation 2.0, roughly the mous communitarian family, in which marriage of post-Second World War (and more deeply, post- brothers’ children to each other was the ideal fam- Cold War) international trading and economic sys- ily outcome. tem, each with its own peculiar flaws. Thus, between the West (and especially the Todd has noted the rise and fall of these sys- Anglosphere) and the communitarian communist tems, particularly with regard to the failure of cultures of Eurasia lies a cultural, psychological advocates of globalisation in both cases to compre- and linguistic gap that is difficult to bridge, and hend the substantial differences among the world’s often leads to misunderstanding and misestimation cultures, and the futility of relying on a simplistic in dealings between the two civilisations. economic reductionism to homogenise the world’s political systems into a uniform liberal order over- am largely in agreement with Todd’s family sys- night. However, I believe he has relied excessively tem analysis, which underlaid the broader anal- on unobjective guides, particularly in the case of Iysis in his America 3.0, and am sympathetic with the US, and in presenting the problem as one of many of the judgments in Lineages of Modernity. The “free trade” versus “protectionism”, overly simpli- principal area of divergence is in some of the detail fied the situation. of his treatment of developments in the US, where Both of the waves of globalisation came with in my opinion the analysis is overly dependent on substantial baggage unrelated to its core insight.

Quadrant March 2021 29 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity

The liberal movement behind Globalisation 1.0, for tors that led to the relative industrial decline in the example, combined free trade with a dedication to US, and to a lesser extent Western Europe. But Malthusian pessimism about overpopulation, com- it was only one reason of many, and probably not bined with a crude version of Social Darwinism. the predominant one. (In any event, tariffs have Ebenezer Scrooge, Dickens’s caricature of a lib- become in most cases secondary to “non-tariff bar- eral, expressed the marriage of these views when riers”, largely regulations that exist not to solve he exclaimed, “Let them [the poor] die then, and social problems, but primarily to benefit particu- reduce the surplus population!” Similarly, during lar groups.) Mechanisation and automation of the the Irish Great Famine, the hardest-hit areas were workplace have been an extremely pervasive force, referred to as “the congested districts”, placing the and one whose impact on organised blue-collar blame on the population, presumably at fault for labour had begun even before the full flowering of “overbreeding”, rather than the land tenure system globalisation. or other systemic problems. The movement of production, particularly auto Contemporary neoliberals and libertarians, in and other large machine production, offshore from contrast, tend to be technological progressives with the US to Asia, was primarily the product of cor- faith in the ability of modern systems to cope with porate management fads and several disastrous population growth. However, modern neoliberals court decisions under the pressure of American have tended to be severe economic reductionists, shareholders’ litigation. The 1970s and 1980s fad for believing that the imposition of market structures conglomerates led to their managerial elites valu- and transnational human-rights jurisdictions can ing the relationships and reliability of longstanding transform authoritarian or communitarian cultures subcontractor trees at zero while reducing all other often far removed from modernity overnight— considerations to “lowest short-term price” (a mis- largely a formula for failure. take Japanese and German manufacturers gener- There is nothing inherently liberal or libertar- ally shunned) and which proved highly vulnerable ian in such economic reductionism, any more than to Chinese export promotion practices. was the nineteenth-century belief in inevitable This trend was greatly compounded by a series Malthusian gloom. The real limitations, or failures of court decisions made during the Clinton admin- of Globalisation 2.0, as opposed to unanticipated istration whose effect was to create a new safe problems of success, fall into two main areas. One harbour from shareholder litigation: “outsource is in the nations that attempted to implement glo- from China—nothing could be cheaper”. It is not balisation with uneven, limited or entirely absent surprising that most economists have ignored or success, and now face some combination of chaos, undervalued these factors, as understanding their stagnation and authoritarian reaction to those ills. impacts required a vantage point in the American The other, and the one that has sparked most of industrial system to be properly appreciated. the globalisation debate in the last two decades in Europe and North America, has been the social n Europe, the impact of this crude economic and economic disruption experienced in the devel- reductionism played out differently, but just as oped world over that period. This area is also a Idisastrously. Its principal mechanism was the sin- major focus of attention of Lineages of Modernity. gle currency. This development, with the accu- Todd’s opposition of “free trade” and “protec- racy of a precision-guided missile, singled out and tionism” as the central forces in the drama of the destroyed the one successful adaptive feature upon industrial decline of the West is only valid to the which European social democracies had inad- extent that “free trade” is understood as a shorthand vertently stumbled. It was precisely the system of or collective reference for a set of policies, only partly free-floating national currencies that had made derived from market economics, which would bet- their industrial relations system viable during the ter be labelled “Globalisation 2.0”. “Protectionism”, thirty-year boom that underlaid the reconstruction similarly, would best be understood as a shorthand and renewal of Western Europe after the Second for the Western European economic system that World War. emerged between the formation of the EEC in 1956 Todd’s work provides the key to understand- and the fall of the Berlin Wall—market-based, but ing the particular folly of the single currency. The regulated; dependent on access to the US market, differing family systems of the various European but not wide open to global production; and tech- countries and regions strongly coloured their dis- nologically progressive, but at a controlled rate that parate reactions to the would-be economic ratio- did not disrupt labour markets. nalisation that the single currency was to have The loss of industrial protection due to the enforced in Europe. Particularly, in both commu- GATT and WTO processes was one of the fac- nitarian and stem-family (authoritarian) families,

30 Quadrant March 2021 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity state and corporate benefits were seen as a form measures were finally forced on the south, but at a of patrimony. They were a form of property, and price in resentment that is now being paid. taking them away was felt as a form of literal, not The failures of Globalisation 2.0 highlight the metaphorical theft, and was fought both elector- divergence between two basic approaches to mar- ally and industrially, and in the end, on the streets ket economics. One approach sees all social inter- in demonstrations and riots. Workers in the more actions as part of the realm of economics, ruled individualist systems, particularly in the UK, had a by rational calculation and maximisation of the more transactional attitude, and thus British work- self-interest of the individual. This is the economic ers and salaried employees alike were sufficiently reductionism underlying Globalisation 2.0. The wary to pressure their political system into staying other approach sees economic activity as a sort of out of the euro, despite all “expert” advice. play staged in a theatre, and economists as a sort of Family-systems-derived attitudes towards body of theatre critics. They are capable of explain- state and corporate entitlements made the sort of ing and critiquing any play in fine detail, provid- “internal devaluation” remedy—wage and benefit ing profound insights into the structure of the play, cuts in response to economic pressures—that eco- and the quality of the performance and direction. nomic reductionism recommended very difficult if However, the critics have no understanding of the not, in a democratic society, impossible. In con- architectural and engineering factors which deter- trast, in response to political pressure and indus- mined the design and construction of the theatre. trial action raising such entitlements, the system But in the real world, theatre critics are aware of of free-floating nation-state currencies responded these limitations and do not mistake the play for by external devaluation, as the the real world outside. Economic currency markets reacted. If, for reductionists commit precisely this example, Fiat workers obtained a lobalisation 3.0 fallacy. wage rise without a corresponding G increase in output the lira would will take into account hose who understand clearly fall, and although the price of a the deep-seated the difference between the Fiat in lira might also rise, its price Tplay and the theatre must be the in dollars or sterling would remain differences between architects of the Globalisation 3.0 constant, or even fall, thus preserv- the civilisations of the which will sooner or later arise ing or expanding its market share. world, often stemming from the ruins of its predecessor. Of course, devaluation meant The fundamental insights of mar- that imports would become more from their disparate ket economics remain true within expensive, but many of the critical family systems. its proper realm, and stand as a elements of the workers’ daily bud- caution against the fatal conceits of get—rents and mortgages, utilities, the would-be planners. However, taxes, mass transport and basic foodstuffs grown Globalisation 3.0 will also take into account the domestically—would remain constant. There was deep-seated differences between the civilisations a rough social justice in that, as the price inflation of the world, often stemming from their disparate would fall most heavily on luxury imports and for- family systems. It would certainly not grant full eign travel. and unmonitored access to the global economy to a The euro exploded this system. The commu- nation such as China. nitarian and authoritarian family-system states It will give nation-states their due respect, and of southern Europe could no longer remedy their build broader co-operative structures slowly, care- entitlement ratchet system through devaluation, or fully and primarily along lines of cultural com- even inflationary money-creation, as they had in monalities. Cultural change will not be forced past crises. The economic reductionists had believed down the throats of ancient nations and peoples, that they would then be forced to implement inter- nor will cultures be expected to remain fixed for- nal devaluation and cram it down the throats of ever like flies preserved in amber. Measures such the workforce and retirees. Some attempts to do as the continued spread of literacy, and especially so were made. They succeeded only in the case literacy for women, will accomplish much of what of the Baltics, fearful of Russian domination and is desired over time. subservient to Brussels. But in southern Europe Democracy itself is a valid eventual goal for resistance was just too strong. The result was stag- Globalisation 3.0, but it cannot come merely by nation, unemployment, business failure, emigra- imposing the formal trappings of democracy— tion—especially of the unprotected young—and elections and parliaments and suchlike—over destabilisation of the old party systems. Harsh nations with family systems that fundamentally

Quadrant March 2021 31 The Evolution of the Lineages of Modernity cause them to function differently, and less effec- In this light it is worth noting that Donald tively, than the individualistic nations of the West. Trump and Boris Johnson forged powerful new Democracy is also at risk from the tendency of the coalitions by marrying the championing of the elite intelligentsia to seize administrative power in nation-state with an explicit forgoing of any down- advanced developed democracies, not by abolish- ward ratchet of entitlements, a combination which ing democratic rule but merely by ignoring it, and promptly overturned former voting patterns and telling the masses to keep voting until their vote consolidated power. Similarly, the prompt resort to endorses what has already been decided. massive public funding to relieve the consequences Democracy in the West stems from two quite of the shutdown of economic activity due to the different sources, and democratic politics is in per- coronavirus pandemic—in effect, viewing the shut- manent conflict between the two. One tradition down as government “taking” requiring compen- developed from negotiation with financial con- sation—is something that might not have been tributors, the other with those whose claim arose done so readily in the past, again foreshadowing a from military service. The first tradition discrimi- Globalisation 3.0 politics. nated against the poor, but ultimately argued for If a different, more sensible, and better-informed the inclusion of women. The second tradition dis- Globalisation 3.0 is to emerge, it will require deep criminated against women, but served to include and independent thinking about human societies the poor and the foreign-born, usually during or in beyond the certainties and myths of current aca- the wake of wartime in which the excluded earned demia. Emmanuel Todd’s Lineages of Modernity is a their stake with blood. Over time, both threads prime example of such thinking, and I would unre- drove inclusion. servedly endorse it to anybody seeking to educate Because of these two traditions, there has been themselves about these issues. a long-standing force against excessive state entitlements (particularly in the Anglosphere), but also James C. Bennett is a Director of the Foresight a force for “rightful” entitlements, either as patri- Institute in Palo Alto, California, and has mony or in a market-mimicking relationship. Thus been President and Chairman of the Board of any downward ratchet or “internal devaluation” Internet Transactions Transnational, Inc., since will be fought furiously, even in the Anglosphere, its founding in April 1997. He is the author of and Globalisation 3.0 architects must find other The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English- ways of dealing with moral hazard, and indeed the Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the bloating of budgets from political pressure. Twenty-First Century.

Given the Top Four Most Common English Verbs

To be [or not to be Whatever or whoever you are] To have [or not to have Whoever or whatever you may wish] To do [or not to do Anything or nothing you would prefer, &] To say [or not to say Nothing or anything you may intend to] We are all rendered equal as we cross Every borderline, filling in every gap In action as in thought [Or otherwise]

Changming Yuan

32 Quadrant March 2021 captive

all day the scrub wren drills an ache Dying to survive inside my head chirps a single note Two tattooed thirsts with pints protect the pub in ceaseless repetition From creeping lace and handcrafts down the hill. It’s elbow time. They’re a declining club; wings pressed tight Elevenses their gruff ancestral swill. her heartbeat pulses confuses sounds The old post office hoists its redbrick skirts messages To flash its neon electronic knickers. from the world outside The magistrate’s court similarly flirts With commerce. A candle of justice flickers. at night she twitters behind my ear Shop fronts fonted in New Antique must honour flutters down tunnels Progressiveness. The fashion’s all stressed denim. drumming Smug mercs and beamers tell me I’m a gonner against sleep In a bush town dolling up as Blenheim. tips my balance I’m pensioned to a wistful dreamery in dizzying dreams In a village I’d exult to sin in of soaring For the ravaged draper’s and the creamery, Except even the tradies consult in linen. “introduction to poetry” with apologies to Billy Collins Missile take a poem listen for the voice Sun-anguished paddocks prostrate themselves in dust. close to your ear Caricatures of trees, like crucifixes as it breaks into syllables Stand to bleak attention, bleached arms thrust short and sharp Skyward as though begging the elixirs Faithless clouds refuse to precipitate. shapes words bright on air Sheep mob the ute-borne hay for a dinner date. as a theme unfolds Above, a wedge-tailed eagle sprawls the breeze hear the rising note a change Like a larrikin slouching on a fence. in tone a new image set in play He’s truth in its full three sixty degrees. let the poem breathe Robotic eyes, disinterested, intense, Scan drought’s ghetto. The end might be a mile, step inside a sustained thought Or an inch. Beware death’s meat-seeking missile. as it dances you past the end

Roger G McDonald of a line the pedal held down on a final cadenza pause sense the meaning after the grace note falls.

Brenda Saunders

Quadrant March 2021 33 Ted O’Brien

The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation

t was the Roman poet Phaedrus who coined the belief that their history preordains their destiny. saying, “Things are not always what they seem.” This partly explains why the risk of the United You’d be forgiven for thinking he was talking States and China falling into a Thucydides Trap aboutI Australia’s relationship with the People’s seems almost irresistible. That is, as Harvard aca- Republic of China (PRC). demic Graham Allison explains, when an emerging In Quadrant last September I contended that a power threatens to displace an existing great power, nation’s foreign policy is an outward expression of it tempts war. its values: a reflection of its people, who they are China’s identity is not all about the glory days, and what they believe in. I argued that the starting however. It is also about past tragedy and hardship. point to addressing the China question lay in a clear In addition to devastating natural disasters, understanding of who we are as a nation. China bears deep scars from man-made trauma. We also need a clear understanding of China. If What’s worth noting, however, is that China’s we’re to successfully navigate our way through the teaching of its historical trauma accentuates stories myriad complexities of the Australia–China rela- of foreign powers egregiously injuring the Chinese tionship, we need to try and see the world through people, yet masks stories of China’s self-inflicted Chinese eyes. When we do, it is obvious that China injuries. is playing an entirely different game from the one This has led the PRC to become more assertive we’re playing. and its diplomats more aggressive as China’s international status has risen. Beyond ongoing border ore than most countries, and certainly far disputes with India and of course its precarious more than Australia, China defines itself relationship with Taiwan, the PRC’s deepest ill- Mthrough the lens of history. The Chinese interpreta- will is saved for Japan and the West, in line with its tion of their national story shapes their view of the historical grievances.’ world and, in turn, their foreign policy. Much authoritative commentary over recent The Chinese are immensely proud of their times refers to the enormous power of Xi Jinping, ancient civilisation and their historical role as the with some equating his authority to Mao Zedong’s. “middle kingdom” or “celestial empire”. To us this Xi has been consolidating his authority and it could may be an interesting historical footnote, but to the well be true that he’s the most powerful leader since Chinese it is central to their identity. After all, in Mao, who founded the PRC. But overstating Xi’s Chinese Mandarin, the name for China consists of influence risks misjudging the depth and sincerity two characters pronounced zhongguo, which trans- of China’s new brand of nationalism. lates into “middle country”. It’s not until you learn Contrary to popular opinion, the motiva- Mandarin that you appreciate the cultural and his- tion behind the PRC’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” torical references embedded in Chinese characters. goes far deeper than Xi Jinping. As Seton Hall For everyday Chinese, the past is never far away. academic Zheng Wang explains, soon after the As the former middle kingdom under heaven, 1989 Tiananmen Square incident the Chinese the Chinese remember themselves as not only pos- Communist Party (CCP) launched a patriotic cam- sessing the greatest power and most advanced econ- paign that, in Deng Xiaoping’s words, was “about omy on earth up to at least the sixteenth century, what China was like in the old days”. This marked but also as the most culturally and morally superior a shift in China’s historical memory to focus on a civilisation. The Chinese believe they enjoy a clear “century of humiliation” from the First Opium War line of sight between their past and their future; a in 1839 to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War

34 Quadrant March 2021 The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation in 1945, during which China was defeated and sub- nationalism—based on a master narrative of national jugated by foreign powers. humiliation and a dream of rejuvenation—has been The patriotic campaign elicited more than deep- inculcated in the Chinese psyche far more deeply. seated feelings of victimisation. It changed China’s national identity. The Cold War was over, liberal- espite the world being in the grip of a glo- ism had won the day and China’s modernisation bal pandemic and Australia experiencing forced the Chinese people to rethink their connec- theD greatest hit to its economy since the Great tion to communism. Depression, our greatest challenge is not COVID- While its ancient civilisation generated pride 19. Our nation’s greatest challenge lies in the China in the past and hope for the future, communism’s question. eroding relevance threatened the legitimacy of the When thinking about the Australia–China rela- CCP, stripping it of its purpose and its primary tool tionship, one must never forget that we are playing for mobilising public support. As the late Samuel very different games. Henry Kissinger described it Huntington once argued, “if the basis for the defin- best when he compared the Chinese board game of ing characteristic of a group disappears … the exist- wei qi to the Western game of chess. While chess ence of the group is threatened, unless it can find is about total victory by trapping the opposing king, another cause to motivate its members”. wei qi is about relative advantage achieved by strate- As the CCP leadership transitioned from Deng gically encircling your opponent. In chess, all your Xiaoping to Jiang Zemin then Hu Jintao and finally pieces are fully deployed as you seek to destroy your Xi Jinping, so too did its “call to arms” from com- opponent’s pieces in a series of head-on clashes on munism to nationalism; from class the way to checkmate. In wei qi, not struggle to a struggle against his- all pieces are deployed and numer- torical injustices of foreign pow- ous contests take place simultane- ers. Xi Jinping encapsulated this China’s teaching of ously as hundreds of stones are new form of Chinese nationalism its historical trauma moved around the board with each in his first address to the nation in accentuates stories side seeking to mitigate the other’s 2012, where he laid out his vision of potential. Wei qi is a more pro- achieving “the Chinese dream of of foreign powers tracted game and is played on a far great rejuvenation”. egregiously injuring wider strategic landscape. The Chinese dream of great The chess versus wei qi analogy rejuvenation is effectively a slogan the Chinese people, applies to Australia and China, and that rekindles the glory and trauma yet masks stories is reflected in divergent views of of China’s past and places it within our relationship. To Australia, the a mission statement about the of China’s self- relationship has problems that need future. After suffering at the hands inflicted injuries. to be fixed. To the PRC, the rela- of foreign powers through much of tionship poses a threat that needs the nineteenth and twentieth cen- to be arrested. turies, China believes it is time to correct a histori- When the Chinese embassy published a list of cal anomaly and reclaim its rightful position in the fourteen grievances about Australia last November, world. they included our decision to secure our 5G net- It’s not as simple as envisaging a seamless transi- work, our foreign interference legislation and our tion into the position of global hegemon, displacing call for an independent review into COVID-19. the United States. They want to change the interna- Such actions were taken in our national interest and tional rules-based order. Xi Jinping describes it as a they reflected our values as a nation. It’s the same “new model of global partnership” and a “new model with our positions on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and of major countries’ relations”. Taiwan; they are expressions of who we are, our Much has been written about Xi Jinping’s values and beliefs. Chinese dream, and it is the vision to which the China interprets things differently. To the PRC, CCP and thus the Chinese people anchor to. Again, our actions have been read as attempts on behalf of this is far bigger than Xi. It was Jiang Zemin who the West, in particular the United States, to humil- first sought to reframe the CCP’s purpose to be “the iate China and hinder its rejuvenation. While such great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. Hu Jintao an interpretation is patently inaccurate, it’s how doubled down on the phrase when he became CCP the Chinese see the world. The great unknown in leader in 2002 and Xi Jinping later made it his own. all this is the extent to which the CCP leadership This is not to doubt Xi’s extraordinary power, but has come to believe their own propaganda in this to underscore the point that China’s new brand of regard. Either way, it works for them.

Quadrant March 2021 35 The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation

Nothing encourages internal unity like an oppose; it is bullying a smaller power against which external “other” and for China this comes in the form it has no historical grievance, a country that has of the United States and, by extension, other liberal never done it harm. This is another reason why it’s democracies especially those allied militarily to the so vitally important for the PRC to frame Australia United States. When China’s ambassador, Cheng into their narrative of grievances and foreign plots— Jingye, chastised Australia last April for calling for to do otherwise risks diluting their moral authority an independent investigation into COVID-19, he in the eyes of the world. accused Australia of “teaming up” with anti-Chinese elements. “It’s a kind of pandering to the assertions he PRC has unleashed punitive penalties that are made by some forces in Washington,” he against everything from our barley and beef to said. “Siding with” and “doing the bidding of” the Tcoal and copper ore, to crayfish, timber, sugar and United States are regular complaints of the PRC. wine. It may appear a simple strategic decision for These accusations also featured prominently in their the PRC to use economics as leverage, given our list of fourteen grievances. over-reliance on the China market. But the PRC’s Framing Australia as if we were an extension strategy is more multi-layered. of the United States allows the PRC to effectively First, while everyone knows the PRC is play- dismiss our positions. By wrapping Australia into ing political games, their punitive trade sanctions their master narrative, it triggers a deeply emotional are dressed up as “technical” complaints in order element in the Chinese psyche. This mobilises sup- to provide cover under international law. Second, port in China, but it limits their diplomatic options they know there’s a limit to how we can respond. abroad. Invoking past wrongs perpetrated by for- In Australia, we separate government from busi- eign powers and suggesting we are part of a foreign ness, whereas in China they are both steered by the plot that threatens China leaves its diplomats with one hand—the CCP. This gives them more stra- little room to move, forcing them to take a hard tegic levers to pull by leveraging trade to advance line. In turn, they find it hard to compromise with- their political objectives. Third, the PRC is trying out looking weak, tensions escalate and a zero-sum to throw us off our centre of gravity to create a psy- game starts to emerge. This is what has happened chological advantage. to the Australia–China relationship. As the Chinese warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu This is a weakness in the PRC playbook. Like advised, “cause division among them”—and this is any country, the PRC is at its best when it enjoys precisely what the PRC’s punitive trade measures strategic flexibility. But China’s new brand of aim to achieve. The PRC is seeking to sow division nationalism constrains them by invoking emotional between Australian businesses and the Australian triggers about historical humiliation and threats government so the former might pressure the lat- from the West. ter into folding. As the PRC’s trade sanctions have This helps explain why the PRC prefers dealing bitten over the last twelve months, senior business with difficult issues behind closed doors—that is, it leaders have lined up to offer the Australian gov- maximises their strategic options. The CCP comes ernment gratuitous advice about how to improve under pressure when conflicts become public, espe- relations with China. Every time this happen, the cially if they touch emotional triggers of national- PRC smiles. ism. Under those circumstances, they have to stay Business leaders with experience in China have true to the patriotic fervour they have engendered a role to play. I spent much of my twenty-plus years or risk looking weak and losing face. in business in and around China, and I have sat The PRC’s narrative works best at home in across negotiating tables from many Chinese com- China, but that hasn’t stopped them from using it panies, including Huawei and ZTE. I therefore abroad. How else can they seek to justify coercive appreciate the value that business leaders have to behaviour against countries like Australia? offer, especially if they have been around the block The world is watching as the PRC punishes us. a few times. However, entering the public debate By teaching us a lesson, they also warn others about with motherhood statements about the need for the consequences of getting China offside. What’s improved relations and cultural tips about the more, they can’t afford to be seen to lose, which notion of “saving face” and the Chinese preference makes the situation even more difficult to resolve for addressing delicate topics behind closed doors, through peaceful negotiation. is not helpful. It hasn’t escaped the world’s attention, however, This is not to spurn the good intentions of that the PRC is picking on Australia rather than Australian businesses that are eager to see bilateral tackling the United States head on. In doing so, the relations improve. In fact, what some in government PRC is practising the very behaviour it purports to do not realise is that many business people,

36 Quadrant March 2021 The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation especially Australian expats, hold Australian the Indo-Pacific and participation in international politicians in low regard. This was the case when institutions provide much-needed security and sta- I lived abroad and I doubt it’s changed since. It is bility. But to claim we do their bidding is factually therefore incumbent on politicians not only to keep wrong and it is offensive as it suggests a weakness in engaging with business associations and companies our national character that does not exist. that trade with China, but to do so more frequently Ever since Scott Morrison’s first major speech and candidly. on foreign affairs as Prime Minister, he has consist- Business needs to be confident that the govern- ently said Australia does not see the world through ment knows what’s going on, that we understand a binary prism, as if it has to choose between the the PRC is using trade for political purposes and United States and China. In a speech to a British that we will stand by those sectors being targeted. think-tank, the Policy Exchange, last November, It’s also important that business understands the the Prime Minister said: broader strategic game being played by the PRC so they might appreciate the rationale behind the Our actions are wrongly seen and interpreted government’s positions. by some only through the lens of the strategic Senior business leaders who deal with China competition between China and the United could provide invaluable assistance with efforts to States … It’s as if Australia does not have its improve bilateral relations, using their personal own unique interests or views as an independent networks and experience. But they should never sovereign state. This is false and needlessly be commissioned to lead the nation’s efforts in this deteriorates relationships. regard because the game the PRC is playing is ultimately a political one. It’s also worth remembering the words of Foreign Minister Marise Payne as she stood next his leads me to three basic principles to help to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last July in guide our approach to resolving the China Washington, speaking about the Australia–United Tquestion. First, we should reject the CCP’s framing States relationship. “We have a demonstrable track of Australia. Second, we should stand firm against record of making decisions in our interest,” she said. the CCP’s attempts at coercion. Third, we should “We don’t agree on everything—that’s part of a look for avenues to renew the Australia–China respectful relationship.” These are hardly the words relationship. of an Australian Prime Minister and Australian The first principle relates to framing. It’s one Foreign Minister playing lapdog to the United thing for the CCP to foster a brand of Chinese States. nationalism anchored to memories of foreign Australia should categorically reject any attempt humiliation, but to imply Australia was party to by the PRC to drag us into their master narrative any traumatic past fails any test of logic, let alone about national humiliation and threats from the evidence. West. Unless we immediately dismiss any such When China’s “century of humiliation” began claim every time it’s raised, we risk it becoming a with the outbreak of the First Opium War in 1839, permanent feature of China’s narrative and thus Australia was still a penal colony. We were in the provide the PRC with a degree of legitimacy for final throes of establishing the Commonwealth of taking a hard line against us. Australia in 1900 when Allied forces of Germany, The second principle I advocate to guide our Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, approach to resolving the China question is to stand Italy and Austria-Hungary invaded Beijing to firm in the face of coercion. When the PRC seeks relieve besieged foreign legations and end the Boxer to punish Australia with unfair trade sanctions, we Rebellion. By the time China’s century of humili- must not back down. There is something unique in ation was coming to an end, both Australia and our DNA; we Australians are a warm, friendly and China were fighting against Japan. Atomic bombs humble people, but put our backs against a wall and landing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Emperor we become fiercely defiant. Where the PRC adopts Hirohito’s capitulation on August 15, 1945, which coercive tactics, we should call them out for their effectively ended both the Second World War and bullying behaviour. Where possible, we should ini- the Second Sino-Japanese War. tiate proceedings against them through the World It is also untrue that we do the bidding of the Trade Organisation or other relevant international United States. We have good reason to be proud of institutions. This is why we need a rules-based our relationship with the United States; it is our clos- system. est ally, largest foreign investor and a like-minded Defiance is important for two reasons. First, nation with common values, and its presence in we cannot gift the PRC a psychological advantage

Quadrant March 2021 37 The China Question: The Greatest Challenge to Our Generation because they will use it against us, time and time property, and it should be governed under our again. History shows that if you capitulate to a existing bilateral Memorandum of Understanding bully, you will be bullied again. Second, since the for such projects, not the Belt and Road Initiative. PRC is playing a global game in which we are being Another possibility is establishing forums of used as a proxy for the West, any acquiescence on exchange between Australian parliamentarians our part will only strengthen their resolve to change and our Chinese counterparts so that we can start the existing liberal-oriented rules-based interna- having more regular dialogue at the political level, tional order in their favour. beyond minister-to-minister communication. The third principle I propose is to seek to A structured series of discussions between renew relations. Regardless of the game the PRC delegations from both sides would deepen mutual is playing, we should work towards renewing the understanding while providing an opportunity Australia–China relationship. A total economic to advance our strategic interests. Over time, the decoupling and an irreversibly bad relationship are exchange could widen to include leaders from each not in our interest. China is, after all, the largest country’s business sector and civil society, and link to and most powerful country in our region. I believe the annual Australia–China High Level Dialogue that an enduring and positive relationship, built on which has been co-chaired by former Australian mutual respect, is in our interest and theirs. Prime Minister John Howard, and former PRC Renewing the relationship, however, doesn’t Minister of Foreign Affairs Li Zhaoxing. mean turning back the clock to the “good old days”. The China question is the greatest challenge of The Australia–China relationship will never be the our generation. If we’re to answer it successfully, we same again and so the relationship needs to be must better understand China, who they are and rebuilt for the future, not the past. how they play the game. To see the world through their eyes is not to blur our own vision, but to see n addition to the recommendations I outlined with greater clarity. If we fail to appreciate the way in Quadrant last September, I believe Australia they see the world, we will be navigating in the dark. Iand China should agree on one or two activities on I started this essay with the Roman poet which to collaborate. Phaedrus circa 370 BC, so let me finish with the One possibility is working together to identify Chinese philosopher Confucius circa 470 BC, who an infrastructure project in a developing country said, “He who cannot describe the problem will that is transparent and open, maintains robust never find the solution to that problem.” standards, meets genuine needs and can be jointly delivered. To minimise any risk to our interests, the Ted O’Brien is the MHR for the Queensland seat of country should be comfortably beyond our backyard Fairfax in the Commonwealth Parliament. He wrote and therefore not in the Pacific Islands, the project “The China Question and the National Interest” in the should not require any transfer of intellectual September issue.

My Mother Only Drinks from Fine China For my mother, Veronica

She says “There is something sacred about the chalice you choose, the vessel from which you anoint your lips with the life-giving elixir of coffee or tea.” She says “With each sip we are partaking in history. We are connected to an ancient world which has been buried by a tide of plastic and cardboard and Styrofoam.” She says “You can shove your take-away-sustainable-biodegradable-fashionable-‘Keep-Cup’ where the sun refuseth to shine. Because drinking is a ritual. It is a holy rite.” She says “Besides, everything tastes better in fine china.”

Cassandra Dickinson

38 Quadrant March 2021 John Lloyd

Letter from Edinburgh The Pointless Pursuit of Scottish Independence

wo political parties have, since the last war, parliament from 2007 to 2014, and Nicola Sturgeon, won half or more of the Scots electorate in First Minister since 2014, occasionally say they like a general election. One was the Scottish the English, rather in the way that you might say TNational Party, in 2015, with 50 per cent of the vote. you like spaniels. But they use a proxy for the Ugly The other—and this still occasions surprise—was Englishman—Westminster government, London the Conservative Party (which took in, then, the rule, and now Boris Johnson. Educated at Eton and National Liberal-Unionists): in 1955 it won 50.1 per Oxford, with much of his career—before becoming cent. The Conservatives lost support steadily until a two-term Mayor of London (2008 to 2016)—in the late 1990s, when they seemed to settle at some- jaunty right-wing journalism, with a baroque sense where between 15 and 17 per cent of the vote. of humour owing little to the sharp wit preferred by Scotland became a Labour-dominated nation Scots, and no real knowledge of Scotland or Scots from the late 1950s to their last Westminster win sensitivities, he grates on most Scottish nerves. in 2010. But Labour lost power quite suddenly: in The SNP rose steadily through the 2000s 2010, the SNP had a mere six seats to Labour’s and 2010s—with one setback, in 2017, when the forty-one. In 2015, the SNP took fifty-six seats, to Conservative Party, led by a sparky, clever young Labour’s one—a lonely figure, the result shared by woman called Ruth Davidson, put fire in Unionist the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. It bellies, and took the party up to near 29 per cent of was as if a resurgent nationalism had said, “Here’s a the vote, and up from one to thirteen Westminster fig leaf to cover your nakedness.” seats. But, disheartened by the Brexit vote, out of Labour had never had a majority of Westminster sympathy with Boris Johnson and with a young votes in Scotland: they were closest to it, in the high child, Davidson resigned the leadership in 2019. 40 per cents, in the 1960s, when a new, ferociously Her successor, Douglas Ross, in his late thirties, bright cohort of university-educated leftists were has little time to gain recognition and stamp his beginning to stretch their political legs—Gordon authority on the party. Brown, Robin Cook and the slightly younger Brexit seems to mean more than Boris. Sir John Alistair Darling at Edinburgh, George Robertson at Curtice, the don of British pollsters now based in the Dundee, John Reid at Stirling, and the slightly older University of Strathclyde, points to lines on a graph Donald Dewar at Glasgow. Such was the lustre of which shows support for Scottish independence the Scots Labour Party (and the relative weakness of shooting up after the 2016 vote for Brexit. Since an English party decimated by Trotskyite entryism) the late 1980s, the SNP has made a fetish of the that they took almost half the seats in Tony Blair’s European Union, positing it as the union to be in, first cabinet in 1997. The late English philosopher out of what Salmond used to delight in calling the Sir Roger Scruton deprecated a cabinet made up “declining state” of Britain. It has encouraged a largely (an exaggeration) of Scots, and lamented that sentimental view of history, which has Scotland as in devolving power to the small “Celtic” nations of a Europhile nation from medieval times—blurring Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, “England over its shared (with England) hostility to a state has no place”. whose Catholic rulers threatened the Protestantism Scottish Nationalist leaders no longer accuse which emerged in the sixteenth century to become the English of pederasty, or hope the Nazis win the spiritual and ideological backbone of the nation. so that Scotland could gain independence from a Now, the EU is the port in a storm unleashed by defeated England, as some of their predecessors did. the English. Both Alex Salmond, First Minister in the Scots And thus, on every count, the SNP should win

Quadrant March 2021 39 Letter from Edinburgh big in the election for the Scottish parliament in different groups backing Sturgeon or Salmond. The May. When it does, First Minister Sturgeon has First Minister retains the advantage—both of office promised she will introduce legislation in the Scots and of a public opinion of her efficiency which no parliament to allow a referendum on independence— amount of evidence has yet affected. But her grip on regardless of what Westminster says. Johnson has, the party and her steady refusal to admit any wrong in interviews, repeated his refusal—on one occasion now show the Scots government as one determined suggesting a vote on independence shouldn’t be to hide all traces of malfeasance. It is the arrogance held till the 2050s (when he, and Sturgeon, would of untrammelled power. be in their eighties, and presumably no longer The most audacious instance of this is in the in their present posts). Much opinion—not just committee, headed by a senior SNP member of the nationalist—believes a continued refusal, in the Scottish parliament, appointed to shed light on the face of a nationalist majority in May, would be Salmond–Sturgeon feud. It has sat for some months, untenable. With opinion polls showing a majority and still has to speak to the two principles. In a for independence and with Ruth Davidson’s view of scathing attack on its work, the former law professor Brexit and Johnson common in Scotland, it seems to Alistair Bonnington—who taught Sturgeon when many that the nationalists’ time has she was studying law at Glasgow come—and that they will succeed University—accused the committee in their century-long mission to he combat has spread of deliberately failing to examine break up Britain. T key evidence and of sitting only one through the party, afternoon a week in order to slow nd yet. On the day I write with different groups the process. His former student has, this—February 1: he writes, “made herculean efforts A• Neil Mackay, a nationalist- backing Sturgeon or to frustrate the inquiry at every inclined columnist on Glasgow’s Salmond. The First turn”. He continues, “I can’t help upmarket daily, the Herald, says noticing that the present Scottish that the country is being led to Minister retains the government seem to be very good secession by “a party rotting from advantage—both at appointing ‘inquiries’, all of the inside out”. of office and of a which reach the conclusion that the • An SNP member of the government has behaved splendidly Westminster Parliament, Joanna public opinion of her throughout.” Cherry, a prominent lawyer and a efficiency which no Bonnington gives the example of consistent opponent of Sturgeon, an inquiry it made into the spread was dropped from the party’s front amount of evidence of Covid in Scottish care homes by bench team. has yet affected. a release of Covid-infected patients • Figures published by the NHS back to the homes—widely seen as show that Scotland is bottom of all a fatal disaster for many of the aged UK regions in administering the Covid vaccine. residents, and worse than the situation in English Is this evidence of Mackay’s “rotting inside” jibe? homes, which was bad enough. He writes that “the In part it is. The SNP is increasingly riven by combat inquiry concluded that it was impossible to say between Sturgeon and Salmond, her predecessor that these patients were the cause of the spread of and one-time mentor (whose deputy she was). It is Covid within these homes. So it must all have been bitter and, unlike other political feuds within parties a coincidence. Who would have thought that? The (such as between Edward Heath and Margaret Scottish government off the hook yet again.” Thatcher, or Tony Blair and Gordon Brown) it is Bonnington believes that the senior civil servants more than rivalry and resentment at loss of place. who advise Sturgeon, and who, when called by the Salmond accuses Sturgeon of plotting with others, committee, claimed lack of memory on the details, including senior civil servants, to defame him: he showed “that people in very senior positions are suspects she has used complaints of sexual assault advancing at best amnesia and at worst idiocy as by ten women, all SNP officials or civil servants, as explanations for their failure to tell the whole truth”, a means of ridding herself of a thorn in her side. If which “makes one wonder if we have in Scotland a so, she failed: Salmond was found not guilty on all ‘team of total diddies’ at the top”. By the beginning thirteen counts against him, including attempted of February, the issue descended into farce: Peter rape. More materially for her, he has accused her Murrell, chief executive of the SNP and Sturgeon’s of deliberately misleading parliament: normally, if husband, was called back by the committee of proven, a resigning issue. inquiry, but refused to come, pleading work The combat has spread through the party, with commitments. The Labour Party representative

40 Quadrant March 2021 Letter from Edinburgh on the SNP-dominated committee, Jackie Baillie, ittle of all this has, as yet, changed the level of asked for an investigation into Murrell’s previous support for the SNP—though there is still three evidence, and whether he had perjured himself. monthsL before the election. Sturgeon has achieved The Conservative representative, Murdo Fraser, a semi-mystical status: in focus groups organised said Murrell’s evidence had been “littered with by the pro-union group “These Islands”, the First contradictory statements”. Murrell has made one Minister emerged as She Who Must Be Believed. thing clear, however: his refusal to appear again is a When challenged by the focus groups’ convenor to message from the top—we don’t care. consider the economic problems which a range of The parliamentary committees of the Scots economists agree would arise if the country were parliament are notorious for their lack of interest in to go independent, most of the focus group partici- questioning ministers. The Deputy First Minister, pants dismissed them as unionist propaganda or, if John Swinney, who is also the education minister, admitted, as problems to which “Nicola” would have presides over a woefully underperforming public the solution. On this evidence, support has mutated education service—this was obvious long before into faith. the pandemic struck—but counters criticism by Faith is increasingly the issue. Scotland is not accusing his critics of running down hard-working Greece seeking independence from the Ottoman Scots teachers. He remains education minister. Empire in the 1820s (with the Scots aristocrat Byron Sturgeon, in having Joanna Cherry sacked, has in support) or Ireland seeking independence from transformed a critic into an open enemy. Cherry’s the British Empire in the 1920s (with the Ulster influence, coupled with a new intake of radical Scots in adamantine opposition). It is a modern, left-wingers on the party’s National Executive relatively rich nation, whose culture has survived, Committee (on which she also sits), was enough to whose law, education and religion are in Scots hands force the party leadership to issue a statement that and have been for over three centuries and which it will legislate to hold a referendum if it returns to is the object of worried wooing by Westminster power after the May vote. governments which give it an annual subsidy This has given rise to a debate, of the kind allowing it to offer a range of services—including Edinburgh’s legal establishment—who style university education—at no charge. To have Scots themselves “WS”, for “Writers to the Signet”, a nationality and British citizenship has always surviving medieval designation for those lawyers, seemed to me a remarkable bargain. The SNP has then “writers”, licensed to invoke the authority of always described it as intolerable oppression: and in the monarch’s seal on documents—relish. The this faith seems to have secured a majority. For what power to allow a referendum remains “reserved” to remains of winter, and for all of spring, this clash of the UK government: but opinions can reasonably convictions will be tested. differ on whether or not a law passed in the Scottish parliament to enable a referendum is also John Lloyd, a Scot, has been a political journalist reserved. However, there is some consensus on the in Britain since the 1970s. He is the author of referendum itself: whatever the courts may decide several books, most recently Should Auld Alliance on a referendum bill, Westminster retains the right Be Forgot: The Great Mistake of Scottish to allow, or forbid, the vote itself. Independence (2020).

I Smoke for My Weight

“I smoke for my weight,” I said. A small cough escaping A doughy hand expertly flicks. Tomorrow morning will be the CAT scan More empty warnings. It has begun to rain I am stubbornly outside: Me, the glowing cigarette, and the lie.

Marc Janssen

Quadrant March 2021 41 John Wheelahan

The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell

ore than sixty years ago a new teacher, Searson should have been removed from parish Brother Bonaventure, arrived at our duties because he was mentally ill. small country school, staffed by Marist MBrothers. He was very odd, emotionally labile and Doveton, 1984 to 1996 easily provoked. We were a class of young rural boys, about eleven years old, and he could not ventually, Little moved Searson to Doveton, an relate to us. He chased boys around the classroom, outer suburban parish with many lower-income and even into the school yard, in his efforts to pun- familiesE and social problems—single parents strug- ish us. He could not teach us anything. We soon gling to raise children, health and other personal realised that he was mad. problems. When Graeme Sleeman was appointed We did everything we could to provoke him. headmaster in 1982 the Doveton school was in a Brother Bonaventure could not cope at all. Classes sorry state, with high levels of absenteeism and van- were chaotic, and he lasted only one term. Soon dalism, and low teacher morale. Sleeman had an after, he left the Marist order. Unwisely, the interesting career before becoming an “accidental Melbourne archdiocese allowed him to enter the headmaster” at Doveton. He had been a professional seminary and he was ordained a priest, Fr Peter footballer and coach, country school headmaster, Searson. He proceeded to create havoc wherever seminarian and interstate truckdriver. He turned he went. I now realise that he was a paranoid the school around in a year with his enthusiasm, by schizophrenic. involving the whole community in school activities in school hours and in the evenings. When Sleeman found the parish priest Father Rubeo in bed with Sunbury, 1977 to 1983 one of the local female parishioners he told Rubeo t Sunbury, as parish priest, Searson locked the to leave and not return. Sleeman earned the strong assistant priest, Phil O’Donnell, out of the support of the parents and parishioners, although Apresbytery, refused to let him say Mass in the par- he was no typical conservative headmaster. He once ish church or act as chaplain to the schools, and turned up to celebrate the start of the school year refused to pay his stipend. Even before he took up dressed as Mother Mary MacKillop! the appointment, O’Donnell had told Archbishop When Searson arrived at Doveton he built a Frank Little that Searson was mad. O’Donnell per- high chain-wire fence around the school and pad- sisted with his pastoral role, but wrote frequently locked the gates. Even the teachers could not get to Little informing him of this strange relationship in! He interfered with the work of the headmas- with the parish priest. ter and teachers, and demanded that teachers go The school headmaster at Sunbury wrote to Mass each morning and take classes to confes- a letter to Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell about sion frequently. He made unwelcome visits to class- financial misconduct. Searson had used the school rooms without notice, and asked teachers questions account to buy a car and fraudulently claim sales about their private lives. Sometimes he humiliated tax exemption. Parishioners were leaving because them in public. Searson was their employer, and their priest could not “relate to people as a pastor was sometimes late with their salary payments, or should” and had “some sort of disorder that [one] made snide remarks when handing over their salary can only describe as paranoia”. Other complaints cheques. by parishioners included shoplifting and offensive Parents and teachers were alarmed and children behaviour towards women (including nuns). were frightened by his strange comments, verbal

42 Quadrant March 2021 The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell abuse and manner of physical contact. He would ters to their Archbishop describing the cruel ways grab, prod or hit them in the school yard, and even in which Searson had abused them, and pleaded make girls sit on his knee during confession. At one to be freed from this priest who was mentally ill. point he was using a tape recorder in the confes- They told the Archbishop that they could no longer sional room. Children thought he was mad. There belong to the parish that had been an important were occasions where he brandished a gun or knife part of their lives for many years. at the children, and instances of physical abuse. He A four-page summary of the many com- swung an injured cat in the air and hurled it over plaints about Searson was provided to the Royal a fence, hitting a young boy arriving at school on a Commission on archdiocesan letterhead, appar- bike. A recurring theme was his insulting attitude ently compiled by a secretary of Archbishop Little. towards women, in particular towards low-income, These descriptions of Searson’s behaviour provide immigrant or single mothers who struggled to afford ample evidence of his mental illness. the school fees. Dooley of the Catholic Education Little’s reply to Stephen Vaughan was polite but Office (CEO) described Searson as “devious and avoided discussion of Searson’s behaviour. However, dangerous”. in November 1986 Little invited Searson to resign. In May 1986 a young girl rushed from the Searson refused to resign, denying all allegations. church in a distressed state. Sleeman spoke to the Little did not force him to go. There was no res- girl and the teacher who witnessed the girl’s dis- pite for the teachers, parents and parishioners of tress, and wrote to the CEO. The parents of the girl Doveton. The attitude of the CEO was that head- and a teacher feared that Searson “may have made masters were expected to “keep a lid on” the prob- advances of a sexual nature”. No one had directly lem. This approach failed. observed the incident. CEO officials questioned In 1989, five years after Searson came to Doveton, Searson, who denied the incident, and they took a further petition was submitted to the CEO, with no action because there was “not enough evidence”. a familiar list of complaints. George Pell, Auxiliary All this bizarre behaviour of Searson caused Bishop for the region, was also approached by a problems for the headmaster and he became dis- deputation of teachers together with a union offi- tressed. He may have suspected the cause of the cial. At the Royal Commission twenty-five years problem—that Searson was mad. Sleeman had later this meeting was pivotal to constructing the grown up in the grounds of the Sunbury Psychiatric adverse findings against George Pell. Hospital and other mental health institutions where It was Searson’s behaviour towards the whole his father worked. parish community about which the teachers com- In September 1986 Sleeman wrote to Archbishop plained. There was no allegation of sexual abuse. Little asking for action to remove Searson. Little They did not ask Pell to remove Searson, as Pell was unmoved, and unsupported by the CEO, had no authority over the CEO or Searson—this Sleeman resigned. His letter of resignation was was the preserve of the Archbishop. The teachers worded on the advice of a CEO official so as not to made it clear that they were expressing concern disclose his reasons for resignation. This letter was about Searson’s mental health. All Pell could do then used by the CEO to deny him further employ- was report the complaints to the Archbishop, which ment. As a result, he developed severe depression. he did. Searson was not removed, because the More than a decade later, Sleeman and two other Archbishop still did not fully appreciate the bizarre teachers at Doveton received compensation through behaviour of Season. Pell also visited Searson, who the Melbourne Response for the way that Searson promised to improve but failed to do so. and the CEO had destroyed their teaching careers. In the same month Stephen Vaughan, a local Senior Sergeant of Police, and former president Mental illness of the parents’ association, wrote a long letter to ental illness in the workplace is a potent Archbishop Little on behalf of the teachers and cause of conflict, especially when persons parents, deploring the loss of Sleeman, and detail- Mwith severe personality disorders or borderline psy- ing at length the complaints of Searson’s disturbed chotic illness are appointed to positions of authority behaviour. There was no complaint of sexual abuse. over others. When those workers complain, higher Many other parishioners wrote to the cathedral management tend to react negatively towards them, about Searson. These letters are moving to read, because the complaint is a reflection upon their from working people who were unused to writ- decision to appoint the manager. It is a regrettable ing letters to persons in authority, and had built reality that it is sometimes hard to draw the line the church and school years before when Doveton between a firm, effective manager and a psycho- was a new suburb. They wrote very personal let- pathic tyrant.

Quadrant March 2021 43 The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell

Schizophrenia is characterised by delusions, tigation and the need for a redress scheme. The hallucinations, disordered thought processes and committee began investigating Searson and other lack of insight into behaviour. It is difficult to priests, using the information supplied to them by diagnose if there are no florid psychotic episodes. Vicar General Cudmore and other priests. The early manifestations are very variable and many Late in 1992 Searson was placed on leave and psychiatrists will prefer to describe patients as having called into the cathedral to be examined by two a borderline personality disorder. An example was psychiatrists. These reports have never been made a patient of mine who was an adviser to a cabinet public, but a former teacher at Doveton was told minister in a large Australian state. When he sat at by Msgr Connors that Searson was found to have meetings with the minister, he endured an intense “psychopathic tendencies”. The Royal Commission desire to kill him, so strong that he had to give up had the power to obtain these reports, but did not the job. He was able to arrange a job as manager of a do so. small country hospital but this job did not end well. In June 1993, following another incident of Searson had many signs of schizophrenia. bizarre behaviour, it appears likely that an attempt He sometimes wore an army uniform, and vari- was made to remove Searson’s faculties under ously stated that he had been a US Army chaplain Canon Law, on general grounds that he was unfit in Europe, served in the Australian Army in the to perform his pastoral duties. Searson resisted this Second World War, and was a chap- by appealing to Rome. The process lain in the Army Reserve. Msgr under Canon Law by the Roman Cudmore, the Vicar General, had uch was Little’s Curia was formal, quite similar to spent many years as a chaplain with S a Court of Appeal. In October 1993 the Australian Army and still held respect for the priests Searson visited Rome, ostensibly senior rank. He dismissed Searson’s who had taken Holy to attend a study course, but more absurd delusions in colourful lan- likely to defend himself before the guage. Searson’s only army appoint- Orders that he could Curia against the charges made. ment was as lieutenant (temporary) not contemplate He was successful in his appeal, in a school cadet unit. that they might not surprisingly, as mental illness or When discussing parish personality disorder was unlikely to finances, Searson made outra- commit offences be accepted as grounds for removal geously false claims. Parents said, against children. from the priesthood. If this seems “he tells lots of lies”. His paranoid odd, consider that our civil employ- ideation was evident in threats of ment laws may well take a dim view litigation against Dandenong police and at meet- of dismissal on grounds of mental illness. ings with CEO officials. No doubt this was also Archbishop Frank Little inevitably comes in for the cause of the hostility that he showed to all those much criticism of his handling of child sex abuse, around him. Some people reported his habit of and without doubt his response to reports of sexual inserting strange phrases or sentences that were out offences or misconduct by clergy was inadequate. of context with the conversation in progress, indi- He was a good and pious man, friendly, on first- cating his disordered thought processes. His lack of name terms with all his priests and well regarded by insight was illustrated by his sermon on the evils of them, but he found it difficult to reprimand them. pornography, given at Mass to a first communion Such was his respect for the priests who had taken class of innocents and their families. Holy Orders that he could not contemplate that There was no discussion of mental illness in the they might commit offences against children. His Royal Commission report, except for a throwaway attitude was also affected by a malicious complaint line in the Executive Summary, after describing yet against a priest who was a close friend from the another bizarre incident: “it indicated that Father time they had studied together in Rome. Searson was mentally unstable”. Searson’s behaviour At about the same time, other priests were was always seen through a prism of sexual offence. being investigated by civil and church authorities and charged with child abuse offences. Archbishop Little was finally forced to accept the reality that Removal of Searson he had a number of priests who were sexual offend- n 1992 a “Special Issues Committee” was created ers. When he learned in 1994 and 1995 that there by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference were many homosexual and other sexually active I(ACBC) to address the need to collect information priests in his archdiocese Frank Little had a nerv- on child abuse by priests and religious. The ACBC ous breakdown. In January 1996 he went to Rome recognised the absence of a robust method of inves- to ask for a Co-adjutor Archbishop to be appointed.

44 Quadrant March 2021 The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell

Rome refused. Little was unable to cope with the case of JS to construct its case against Searson abuse problem. In the end, he resigned. and Pell, but JS had a disturbed childhood after On George Pell’s appointment as Archbishop abuse by a family member, a disturbed adolescence everything changed. The CEO now wanted to get including a suicide attempt, and later a failed mar- rid of Searson. Dissatisfied with the slow progress riage. This context was not given in the Royal of the ACBC, Pell set up a world-first commission Commission report. JS had given different state- to investigate complaints against clergy in a robust ments to different interviewers over a long period, way, and provided a redress scheme. He took the and her incident was first investigated by police step of referring Searson to the newly established in 1988, who found, after a further interview with Melbourne Response, where Peter O’Callaghan her in 1990, “no offence disclosed”. O’Callaghan conducted a formal investigation. O’Callaghan was generous in his findings in her favour, but he found in favour of a complainant (JS), which gave pointed out to the Royal Commission that there Pell the grounds to disregard the decision of the were numerous inconsistencies in her statement to Roman Curia and remove Searson. O’Callaghan the Commission. makes no mention of mental illness, and may Searson had a police file relating to complaints not have had psychiatric reports available to him. dating back to Sunbury. It was disingenuous to Searson’s treatment history is unknown, but he died accuse Pell and other church officials of failing to in a secure, special psychogeriatric hospital unit in report the complaints about Searson to police, as 2009. they had nothing to add to Searson’s police record in 1989. The police already had extensive reports from the Child Exploitation Unit (CEU), relating to his Royal Commission findings strange behaviour, financial misdeeds and associa- he Royal Commission made two adverse find- tion with other persons of interest to the CEU. He ing against Pell. The first was that Pell knew later pleaded guilty to a charge of physical assault Tabout allegations of sexual misconduct made against upon a boy. An allegation of indecent behaviour Searson. On the premise that the CEO had allega- with a teenage girl was recorded by police, and he tions of sexual abuse recorded in their files, counsel grabbed the buttocks of an adult lady parishioner, assisting made a false charge that Pell was denying but these cases never reached court. the truth and claiming to be “deceived” by staff of Further, Senior Sergeant Vaughan was a mem- the CEO. The premise of this assertion was false. ber of the parents’ association at the Doveton school At the next hearings of Case 35 counsel assist- for most of Searson’s time in the parish, had served ing conducted lengthy examinations of several wit- as president of the association, and was consulted nesses who were former staff of the CEO. Many by police from time to time. Police also discussed documents were examined but counsel assisting was Searson with church officials, probably those of the unable to point to any allegation of sexual abuse. Special Issues Committee. Police had formed their For example, Catherine Briant had written a long own view of him. Their files cast interesting light report on the sorry state of the Doveton school and on the life of a madman. the bleak future for the school, including closure, if The Royal Commission accepted a claim from Searson was not removed. She specifically told the Witness BVC that he was abused by Searson. This Commission that she was unaware of allegations young man described his grooming to the homo- of sexual abuse by Searson during her time at the sexual lifestyle, a common enough event in our regional office, and that Pell had never been mis- society. Neither corroborating witnesses nor police led by any official. Counsel assisting had failed to reports on the case were presented, nor had any establish her main accusation against Pell. approach been made to the Melbourne Response. Yet a file note on Briant’s report showed that the The Royal Commission made much of this case, CEO was well aware of Searson’s mental illness. claiming that a “tragedy” could have been avoided They could do nothing because of Little’s attitude. if Pell had acted, but equally it may have been a On this matter they may have misled Pell. It was fabrication. counsel assisting who was misleading the Royal There was no evidence (despite the opinion of Commissioners. the Grade Six boys) that Searson was a homo- A second adverse finding was that Pell should sexual—the police reports, including those of the have advised the Archbishop to remove Father CEU described his sexual preference as “females” Searson, but this finding fails for the same rea- and named a regular female partner. The police son. Little was already aware of the need to remove wryly commented that the time she spent alone Searson. with Searson was “more than was needed for pasto- The Royal Commission relied heavily on the ral care”. Both BVC and his abuser may be named

Quadrant March 2021 45 The Mad Priest and the Campaign to Get George Pell in the redacted reports of the CEU, who were inter- more senior Catholic clerics and changes to the law ested in a cluster of paedophile families in Doveton. to facilitate access to the supposed “great wealth” of Searson’s only connection was that some of the the Church. In 2012 their lengthy manifesto, deliv- children of this ring went to Holy Family School at ered with a good dose of Calvinist anti-Catholic Doveton and he knew some of the mothers of these rhetoric, was put to the Victorian Parliamentary children, whose fathers may have been in prison. Inquiry, and repeated to the Royal Commission. The “Villa Maria” case was accepted by coun- They were supported by a diverse group of activists sel assisting without question. Peter O’Callaghan and political appointees to the police and judicial told the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry and system. The Royal Commission responded amply Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana told the to their demands. Royal Commission that this case Meanwhile members of these was not prosecuted because the groups were already busy fabricat- Public Prosecutor considered the he Catholic ing the charges that were to put Pell accusations a fabrication. Counsel T in prison in 2019, aided by a huge assisting did not tell the Royal Education Office media campaign lasting for over a Commissioners this, and the rel- was well aware of decade and a raft of false accusa- evant police reports are hidden on tions against Pell. Yet it was the the commission website. Searson’s mental Royal Commission treatment of None of these additional cases illness. They could Pell that really gave momentum to against Searson by counsel assist- do nothing because persuade the public that Pell must ing was based on evidence of pro- have been guilty of some offence. bative value. The findings against of Little’s attitude. Pell were the product of flawed On this matter they legal method: a presumption of Final words guilt and fitting the evidence to may have misled istory sometimes repeats that presumption. Pell. It was counsel itself. Almost forty years Keith Windschuttle in The assisting who was afterH I encountered Searson, a Persecution of George Pell shows that group of agitated Grade Six boys the adverse findings in relation to misleading the Royal at Doveton rushed into a classroom the Ballarat diocese were also defi- Commissioners. and demanded that their teacher cient—they were inconsistent with do something about Searson’s the evidence of credible witnesses. mad behaviour. They all tried to The Royal Commission cost around $500 mil- speak at once, so the teacher made them sit at lion, or more than $1 million per sitting day. The their desks and write down what they thought Searson case was examined on at least six days. For of Searson. The final words on Searson belong to all this money, the commission could at least have one of these boys at Doveton (with spelling and discovered Searson’s mental illness. The fixation of emphasis preserved): the commission on Pell showed that its findings were predetermined. This raises fundamental ques- I think he is gay tions about the establishment and integrity of the I think something is rong about him. Royal Commission. He makes me feel uncof tebel I think that father needs medical help. HE IS MAD Motives of the Royal Commission I want to tell him what I think. ow did the Royal Commission come about? It was created in response to the demands of a John Wheelahan is a former doctor in Victoria. A groupH of plaintiff lawyers, Commission of Inquiry footnoted version of this article appears at Quadrant Now (COIN). They wanted the conviction of one or Online.

46 Quadrant March 2021 After Parthenius

In the echo chamber beneath the morning swell, I swim the septic green of the rough sea pool, Waves slapping over iron-grouted basalt, Pitted and razor-sharp, dissolving Webs of foam curving from the edge. From the windy sheds in the Twenties Boy Charlton smeared with muttonbird oil Stretched laps that ended in the ozone dark, His trainer shouting splits from a fob-sourced truth. Defined to one-hundredths, slicked and epicene I perform stroking and tumbling from that moment On the blocks, diving into the image of myself.

The Commercial Traveller at the Bar

Beret on a slant, cultivated mo, the stripey top, Strings of onions from Con the Greek Around the handlebars, practising “Madame” Calling door-to-door pretending to be French. Charming housewives sweeping verandahs With my miracle combination brushes, demoing Vacuum cleaners on shag pile with iron filings, Driving the kombi piled high with kiddies wear From outside Vinnies, “Greensleeves” on rotation. Comforting war widows in the back parlour Leafing through their wedding albums, Promising to write and ducking bullets From the kids playing cowboys and Indians As I took my leave, order book in hand. Kicking up dust in the back blocks with stacks Of feed and fertilizer, grizzled cockies staring Out across denuded paddocks, planting seeds Of hope out of all proportion, making prospects good. Gay times revealing the miracle lint remover, Playing a wine snob with pallets of vinegar plonk With great days at the shearers selling undercover The last of the Kiwi wide combs, with knock-off RM Williams cords and stetsons thrown in. Those sundowns pitching camp, breaking out the snags With Tex, Slim and Smoky on the Radiola, A VB in one hand, an Ardath in the other. Before turning in, kneeling on my swag, blessing The wad of notes, planning next year’s sweep.

Stephen Gilfedder

Quadrant March 2021 47 Judy Stove-Wilson

Are You an Authoritarian? Part III: Pathogens and Politics

n the forty years since Altemeyer’s 1981 RWA prejudice in 1954 as “antipathy based upon a faulty (right-wing authoritarian) scale first appeared, and inflexible generalization”. To have acknowl- a much more biological turn has become main- edged that at some level prejudice might have been Istream within political psychology. One reason may a fitting response to real-world threats would have well have had something to do with Altemeyer’s undermined this project. Even more dangerously, if having dispensed—naturally enough at the time— “prejudice” in fact—during remote human history— with the Freudian tie-downs by which the work of could be understood to have promoted human sur- Adorno et al had been secured (at least in principle) vival (reproductive success), could it be considered to reality. But lacking a putative origin in repressive as not only natural, but beneficial, in earlier states upbringings, Altemeyer’s RWAs seemed forlornly of being, if not today? underdetermined. One authoritative recent account The tensions have been negotiated by writers in suggests that by the 1980s and 1990s, theorists were the genre with greater or lesser adroitness. A recent at a loss to account, after the widespread implemen- survey seeks to address the problems (“several com- tation of “affirmative action and minority empower- mon misunderstandings”) inherent in the adoption ment”, for “the stubborn persistence of stereotyping, of an evolutionary view of prejudice: prejudice, and discrimination”. Were there some 1. A behaviour which originally came about residual motives, even more deeply rooted than through adaptation is not necessarily adaptive, here those adduced by Freud, working to undermine the defined in the technical sense of beneficial for its march of progress? Could these be identified in a possessor, in the modern world. “scientific” way? 2. If prejudice has evolutionary roots—has there- In parallel, the socio-biological revival—repre- fore come about naturally—this does not necessarily sented in popular culture most notably by Richard mean that it is either good or morally acceptable. Dawkins—was bringing to public consciousness the 3. An adaptation may have left our ancestors bet- relevance of evolutionary ideas. A further reason for ter off than they would have been without it, but it a biological perspective seeming an attractive option may still be an imperfect solution to the problem it may well have been the burgeoning research around has evolved to address. the influence of hormones on human behaviour, 4. Evolved mechanisms are not inevitable or visible not only in fields such as maternal health inflexible rulers of human behaviour. and sports performance, but also in neuroscience. That the issues are not quite so readily addressed Crucially, technological advances allowed the is indicated, however, by the very definition of the observation of physical processes, including those term “adaptive” suggested in Point 1. Merriam- associated with the brain, as never before. Webster’s first definition has three parts, the first Adorno et al and Altemeyer had alike been being: “providing, contributing to, or marked by innocent of any suggestion of an evolutionary ori- adaptation: arising as a result of adaptation”, while gin of prejudice (apart from a perfunctory nod by the third is: “specifically, of, relating to, or being Altemeyer to the possibility of heritable attitudes), a heritable trait that serves a specific function but by the 1990s it must have seemed an obvious gap and improves an organism’s fitness or survival”. in the narrative. Yet the thrust of earlier depictions “Adaptive”, then, can hover between a neutral of the prejudice characteristic of RWA had been descriptor relating to the process by which a trait that it was irrational, anomalous, problematic, and has emerged, and a value-laden meaning conveying caused ultimately by defective parenting. The “father the idea of a positive development. of prejudice studies”, Gordon Allport, had described For its part, Point 2 begs a critical question:

48 Quadrant March 2021 Are You an Authoritarian?

If attitudes of prejudice have been driven by Thornhill and Fincher cited Altemeyer in their evolutionary processes, by what other processes have introductory remarks, reproducing (with added different moral standards arisen? Our authority is colour) the now standard characterisation of liberals silent here. Point 4 also obscures the extent to which being: human behaviour is determined by evolutionary structures. Which aspects are guided by heredity, individualistic and uncompromising … sensation and which are entirely open to educative reform? seekers and pleasure seekers, including in the On an evolutionary view, prejudice is a bit like the frequency and diversity of sexual experiences … human appendix: a vestigial survival from previous furthermore, they value diversity, imagination, versions of the human organism, of no actual use intellectualism, logic, and scientific progress. in today’s world, and a cause of problems if it gets Conservatives exhibit the reverse in all these inflamed. But is being brought up by one’s parents domains … [manifesting] felt need for order, to hold the prejudiced beliefs (say) of a particular structure, closure, family and national security, religion, really like being born—as nearly every salvation, sexual restraint, and self-control … child is—with an appendix? Moving from the individual to the society, in nfluential theorists have certainly not shied away the following year Thornhill and Fincher, with from bold claims about evolution as a direct influ- two co-authors, asserted that the prevalence of Ience on human beliefs, human history, and even pathogens predicts the extent to which a human human criminal behaviour. A prominent branch of society has developed collectivist or individualist this body of theory is associated with the names of tendencies. Randy Thornhill and Corey L. Fincher. Thornhill Part of the background here was the Hamilton- has made a career of grasping theoretical nettles. Zuk hypothesis (1982). This theory has sought to He distinguished himself in the early 2000s by explain perplexing animal characteristics (such as arguing that sexual violence—even rape—may have the peacock’s tail) as compensating for the burden served an evolutionary turn: been, in the strong they place on the animal’s survival, through sense, “adaptive” behaviour, at some remote period, denoting, as co-existing with, innate resistance in enhancing male reproductive success. As can be to parasites and pathogens. Potential mates, on imagined, this did not endear him to feminists or this theory, recognise a superior individual in his to many within the profession. Some critics were ability to “carry off” a feature which would, other concerned that Thornhill and Fincher were giving things being equal, be likely to decrease his survival evolutionary psychology a bad name. chances. It was but a short step to apply this theory Sexual violence accounted for (although probably to human psychology: not in a way useful in a court of law), it was relatively straightforward to explain attitudes such as political A growing body of empirical research indicates values, and Thornhill and Fincher proceeded to that people possess psychological mechanisms do this with a short but ambitious paper in 2007. that serve the function of antipathogen defence. Interestingly, their approach revived a quasi- For instance, ethnocentrism, xenophobia and Freudian emphasis on childhood experience, but other specific forms of interpersonal prejudice turned on its head the Adorno/Frenkel-Brunswik appear to result, in part, from the operation of causal account, suggesting that higher childhood these mechanisms. stress will have led to more liberal values—not, as in the worldview of the Authoritarian Personality, From there, it proved an even shorter one to the to more conservative ones: characterisation of whole societies:

We hypothesize that, proximately, individual We suggest that collectivism (in contrast to differences in political values are manifestations individualism) serves an antipathogen defence of species-typical psychological adaptation of function, and thus is more likely to emerge and attachment, which in turn ontogenetically arises persist within populations that historically have from experiences of early childhood stressors. been characterized by a greater prevalence of Specifically, we propose that conservative pathogens. ideology is caused by relatively low levels of childhood stress and associated secure One of the prior studies cited by Fincher et al was attachment, whereas liberal ideology is caused by Kashima and Kashima’s linguistic investigation in higher childhood stress and associated avoidant 1998 of the use of pronouns as a guide to collectivist attachment. or individualist societies. Without dwelling at

Quadrant March 2021 49 Are You an Authoritarian? length, it is worth noting that these authors, in combined with research on the function of the their turn, cited works which considered Northern “disgust” reaction as having evolved to assist with Italy to be an individualist society characterised by disease avoidance. Research indicated that women personalised abuse (“I hope you will be murdered”) in the first trimester of pregnancy, during which and Southern Italy as collectivist, employing more they can be at greater risk from pathogens, exhibited general cursing (“I wish a cancer on you and on all greater ethnocentrism than in later trimesters. This your relatives”). While entertaining enough, this convergence led swiftly to the pervasive notion that kind of data is surely limited in general application. conservatives (“authoritarians”) are likely to be more Other background information on whether concerned than liberals about the dangers posed by countries qualified as individualistic or collectivist pathogens. had been gleaned from a 2001 study by Geert October 2008—just weeks before a US election, Hofstede, of 100,000 IBM employees worldwide. after all—was a key moment in the popularisation Whether IBM employees in general could be seen as of the thesis. Popular outlets competed to present a a reliable guide to their country’s culture is certainly dumbed-down version. Scientific American ran with open to question, as they would likely represent a “Political Science: What Being Neat or Messy Says Western-educated minority. In fact, as Fincher et al about Political Leanings”, finding that: fail to advise their readers, Hofstede’s original study was made in the 1970s and published in 1980, to be Conservatives have a need for order, for reissued in a second edition in 2001. While highly there not to be ambiguity. There you see that influential in business theory, Hofstede’s work has expressed by being more orderly, having more attracted considerable criticism, and Hofstede has cleaning supplies, needing to have everything continued to adjust his theory, as recently as 2010 lined up and organized so that one feels one’s including a consideration of “indulgence versus environment is predictable and therefore safe. restraint” in national cultures. Also significant is Hofstede’s stated view, as For its part, Slate offered “The Stuff in Your recently as 2011, of what culture is: “Culture is Bedroom Signals How You Vote”, with an the collective programming of the mind that abundance of cleaning products denoting more distinguishes the members of one group or category conservative views. of people from others.” “Collective programming By 2009, Thornhill and Fincher were categorical of the mind” suggests both a collectivist and an about the link between disease avoidance and alarmingly mechanistic understanding of culture, political attitudes: which might well have the tendency to beg relevant questions. More specifically, we propose that the liberalization of the values of people, or the f the data on different cultures was controversial opposite shift in their values to increased enough, the data on historical parasite prevalence conservatism, is explicable by psychological Imust have been even more patchy. Fincher et al state changes in attitudes and associated behavior that the “prevalence of [leishmaniasis, trypanosomes, towards in-groups and out-groups that are malaria, schistosomes, filariae, leprosy, dengue, caused proximately by individuals’ perception of typhus] was estimated on the basis of old atlases of vulnerability to infectious disease. infectious diseases and other historical epidemiolog- ical information”. By “historical”, and “old atlases”, In this paper, Thornhill et al attempted nothing it turns out that the authors meant mid-twentieth- less than the explanation of significant innovations century, since their two source books were dated “in thought, action and technology”, including the 1944 and 1952–61 respectively. Such sources could widespread adoption of democracy in Western only represent a snapshot, whereas a culture—by countries, as related to parasite stress. In other definition—is a phenomenon which develops over words, they were attempting to answer questions time, indeed over centuries. This incoherence is of history—how did the West become more also present in the work of Hofstede, whose obses- industrially advanced, and more economically sion with his “dimensions” of different cultures is and politically liberal, in the seventeenth through entirely ahistorical: he writes about cultures while twentieth centuries?—with answers to do with exhibiting no apparent curiosity about how, why or biology and conjectured evolutionary development. when their differences may have come about. One interesting outcome of this approach is that Fincher and Thornhill’s explanatory account Thornhill et al proposed that the tendency towards at least attempted to fill Hofstede’s causal gap. democratisation had already existed in very distant, Meeting with widespread approval, it was soon definitely prehistoric, times:

50 Quadrant March 2021 Are You an Authoritarian?

Somit & Peterson (1997) cast democratic widespread critical questioning of traditional values of individuals as late-comers in human values, and the consequent political changes history. Our approach argues against this. The included a decline in the power of royalty condition-dependent design of the psychological and religion and increased rights for ordinary adaptation in our model implies that a large people. range of values from high collectivism to high individualism were ancestrally adaptive outputs Thornhillet al also cited the founding documents of the species-typical psychology, including of the American Republic as evidence of a shift from within-population, individual variation along “an in-group focus and in-group egalitarianism to the continuum. Hence, the basic values of a broader, pan-group orientation and pan-group individuals in general that correspond to what egalitarianism”. is now called democracy or autocracy at the Fincher et al’s conclusion—“Within ecological societal level were present throughout the last regions characterized by higher prevalence of 100,000-plus years of human evolutionary infectious diseases, human cultures are characterized history. by greater collectivism”—is a generalisation which it would be difficult to support by actual historical Even in the notoriously easy game of speculating evidence. The long eighteenth century in England, about prehistoric events, this surely sets a new in the Enlightenment period, was a culture in mark for evidence-less assertion. On such a view, which there was an established medical profession the classical Athenians were doing which was taking steps towards nothing more than manifesting the reduction of infectious disease. their genetic inheritance when Edward Jenner, who developed the they introduced democracy. Once events had cowpox vaccine for the devastating Unfortunately for the theory, even taken the matter out illness smallpox, was the product as recently as 2018, specialists have of the experiment in of a liberal society boasting concluded that very little is known a parliamentary democracy about parasite prevalence in pre- the psych department, supported by global trade. Was classical Greece. and literally into the Georgian England more, or less, Returning to more familiar subject to infectious disease? Or times, the authors suggested that streets, they unfolded more or less collectivist? Compared the West’s “early” development in exactly the opposite to what? of democracy could be explained way from how the What about ancient Rome? by the parasite model, although Was it individualist or collectivist? if the tendency was indeed latent theory had predicted. Like all societies, it exhibited as long ago as prehistory, it is not aspects of both. It was certainly clear why we should consider the subject to many infectious diseases. development as early: “Our model may explain A large collective institution, the Roman imperial the early [sic] democratic transitions in Britain, army, was responsible for transporting “plagues” France and the USA as a result of reduced parasite from one part of the empire to another. On the prevalence at high latitudes.” other hand, the later empire also had an energetic High latitudes? Here, Thornhillet al seem to nod medical profession, exemplified by Galen, physician to a longstanding tradition—best known from the to emperor Marcus Aurelius. What can the work of Montesquieu—linking warmer climates generalisations of political psychology tell us here? with greater despotism than cooler climates. Surely this “explanation” for the Enlightenment Montesquieu’s version of the theory, however, gave by Thornhill et al represented the high-water a far more nuanced account of the interactions mark of the parasite-stress theory. Yet Thornhill between climate and institutions than we find in et al ’s contribution is, after all, not required. many later scholars. Readers of Jonathan Israel’s monumental work Thornhill et al summarised the Enlightenment Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making as follows: of Modernity, 1650–1750 (2001), will learn that it was a result of changes in religious outlook, the In sharp contrast to loyalty to the views of political situations of the Netherlands and other authoritarian nobility and the church, the European nations, the philosophical preoccupa- Enlightenment involved a shift in values tions of Spinoza and his readers, and a range of to using one’s own intelligence as a source other factors. Thornhill et al have not shown how of knowledge. The Enlightenment was a their account either supplements or supersedes

Quadrant March 2021 51 Are You an Authoritarian? those of historians such as Israel, whatever the his- right?), not the virus itself, so they are less inclined torical facts about climate and infectious diseases to wear masks or accept restrictions. Perhaps pre- may actually have been. dictably, Klein’s interview subjects found a way As it turned out, it was not long before the to blame supporters of President Trump for their oft-asserted link between conservative views and “inconsistency” with the predicted outcomes: pathogen sensitivity was found to be suspect. Already in that key year 2008, the US political A 2018 paper by Michael Barber and Jeremy scientist Evan Charney was insisting on a cautious Pope showed that the more conservative approach to links between personality and ideology, someone believed themselves to be, the more suggesting that confirmation bias was likely to be likely they were to follow Trump when he took at work: an unexpectedly liberal position on an issue.

“Confirmation bias has flooded into this [area For anyone properly sceptical about the theory in of] study. I’m a liberal but I don’t believe the first place, the party-line response to COVID- liberals are superior people or that there’s an 19 should have presented no occasion for surprise. obvious correlation between personality and Readers of Adorno et al and of Altemeyer should be political ideology,” he says. The studies “take in no doubt that the very architects and proponents the most value-laden language and treat it as if of this body of theory were themselves so concerned you’re talking about a left-spinning or right- about pathogens that they characterised compet- spinning neutron. They are invariably going to ing political views as illnesses. As we saw in Part reflect the value assumptions of a society—in One of this series, one of the conclusions reached this case, academic liberals.” by Adorno et al was that the complex of attitudes represented by “the Authoritarian Personality” was Likewise, neuroscientist Elizabeth Phelps, a a form of disease: specialist on memory and learning, pointed out that brain science had not been able to account So it is with other measures … concerned for political decisions. In a 2010 paper, Tybur et with the treatment of symptoms or particular al found a correlation between conservative sub- manifestations rather than with the disease jects and sexual disgust, but not one related to itself … Some symptoms are more harmful pathogens. than others, and we are sometimes very glad Nonetheless, so pervasive had the idea become, to be able to control a disease even though we that when in 2020 an actual pathogen, COVID-19, cannot cure it. threatened to, and indeed did, kill large numbers of people even in developed nations, surprise was For his part, Altemeyer had likened the expressed that those most supportive of collectiv- Authoritarian Personality to a cancer: ist government action to combat the disease (mass lockdowns and restrictions on travel and other I’m going to present the case in this book that activities) tended to be on the Left, supposedly— the greatest threat to American democracy according to theory—the more individualist of cit- today arises from a militant authoritarianism izens. Once events had taken the matter out of the that has become a cancer upon the nation. experiment in the psych department, and literally into the streets, they unfolded in exactly the oppo- Most recently, the Washington Post has site way from how the theory had predicted. Even published a large cartoon depicting Republican such reliably leftist pundits as Vox’s Ezra Klein representatives, en masse, as rats. Projection, after noticed, and asked for reasons why. all, remains one of the more useful concepts The answers which emerged have seemed ad hoc surviving from the Freudian worldview. in their attempts to rescue the theory. One suggests that the key split here has been between “social Judy Stove-Wilson has written two books on Jane conservatives” and “economic conservatives”, with Austen, The Missing Monument Murders (2016) the former group willing to accept draconian and Jane Austen’s Inspiration: Beloved Friend restrictions and the latter not. Another, particu- Anne Lefroy (2019). The first two parts of this series larly unconvincing attempt has been to suggest that appeared in the December and January-February conservatives are more inclined to blame human issues. Footnoted versions of each part can be found actors for problems (they’re more fearful after all, at Quadrant Online.

52 Quadrant March 2021 Patrick McCauley

The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia

ulture is defined by Wikipedia as “an leged access, to create the fake narratives which umbrella term which encompasses the social define their people? Are we sponsoring a racist ide- behaviour and norms found in human sociology in the name of compassion? Strangely, “rac- Ceties, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, ism” does not have a “race”—it is available to all customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals equally. Stand up, Australia, and re-commit to the in these groups”. So you could apply that definition truth. Let’s take back our literature and poetry and to just about everything in any society and claim art from these racists and re-commit to merit and it to be cultural. However, I reckon that it is the excellence. literature and the poetry and the arts in any society which could be viewed (at least) as the vanguard of recently found myself in an online battle with a their culture. performance poetry group in Adelaide about the I want to focus on our recent cultural (politi- poetryI of Ali Cobby Eckermann. I found myself cal) obsession with “diversity” and “identity” in arguing that she was using her platform in poetry literature and the arts, and ask the question: Are to further black-armband political issues which “Indigenous” Australian literature, poetry and were still highly contested. The more I thought the arts racist? Of course they are. Are they over- about it, the more I realised that all “Indigenous” whelmingly hate speech directed against white fel- poetry suffered from the same thing. That it was all las? Absolutely. Could we say they are all about (and I mean absolutely all, exclusively) about black- entitlement and privilege? Yes, they are, because armband politics, the victimhood of the Aboriginal overwhelmingly (again) the authors and poets and people, massacres, the Stolen Generation, geno- artists have achieved publication and grants because cide, systemic Australian racism. of their race and not because of the quality of their Kate Grenville’s novel The Secret River has work. Do “Indigenous” Australians view them- spawned a legion of novels about massacre, includ- selves as first-class Australians and the rest of us as ing the highly-contested Bruce Pascoe book second-class Australians? Well, you would be hard Convincing Ground. Poems about various levels of pressed to not agree—they consider themselves the despair and disadvantage and victimhood; films “First Australians” and the rest of us as “invaders”. about nasty white fellas from Rabbit Proof Fence to So why are Australian taxpayer dollars being Samson and Delilah, but nothing about joy or hope spent supporting what could well be described as or gratitude. The winner of the 2020 Archibald this “Black Supremacist” reactionary ideology? Prize was a naive portrait of the footballer Adam Why do our governments, politicians and aca- Goodes. demics all support this clearly racist diatribe, this In this industry there is no work in novel or poem leftist black ideology? If it is payback for years of or film or painting about the wonderful freedoms oppression, does such a primitive form of reaction- of a fully functioning democracy operating well, ary politics do anyone any good? I would argue it nothing about self-discovery, of finding oneself is not only bad for the white fellas and their chil- in voice and spirit, nothing about the individual dren, it is also disastrous for the Aboriginal people. journey towards enlightenment. There is no novel It is certainly disastrous for “art” and the quality about the overcoming of adversity, the discovering of work we expect of our cultural experts. Are we of oneself in a position to make a good living in a creating a new class system here, where the woke free society. No book approaching Bert Facey’s A “Indigenous” are suffocating the true Aboriginal Fortunate Life, nothing like A Room with a View or people with their virtuous entitlement and privi- Voss or Cloud Street or Boy Swallows Universe; no

Quadrant March 2021 53 The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia poems dealing with a subject like “An Absolutely not entirely focused on black-armband political Ordinary Rainbow”; no films like The Dish or Wake orthodoxy. in Fright—nothing without black-armband politics and Indigenous virtue-signalling. et’s look at Vogue magazine’s list of “Essential Poetry and literature and art are disciplines Indigenous Australian Reading”. I start with or vehicles to explore anything—anything at all. ArchieL Roach’s autobiography Tell Me Why: True, some writers focus on, say crime, or science fiction, or politics, or history, but they have This memoir, which took home the award for rarely, traditionally, just focused on one race and 2020 Indie Book of the Year in the category one particular political stance, over and over again. of non-fiction, tells the story of celebrated Postmodern “woke” literature and art seem to want Indigenous Australian musician, Archie to call each identity group a “genre” of the art or lit- Roach, who became a member of the Stolen erature or poetry it espouses. For example, we have Generations when he was forcibly removed from Indigenous literature, gay art, women’s poetry or his family at just two years of age. Powerful and feminist poetry, and so on, as if each one is a whole poignant, this read is a must. new genre of the discipline, unique and separate from the traditional forms of the art. Next we have the Anita Heiss diatribe Growing These categories demand that no person who is Up Aboriginal Australia, which advertises itself as not a member of that group be permitted to enter. “the colourful and confronting stories of family, For a white fella to make a comment or have an country and belonging from the perspective of a opinion about Indigenous issues is considered “cul- number of First Nations individuals, including foot- tural appropriation” and therefore inappropriate ballers and authors”. and even “racist”. For a man to talk about women’s Then we have Black Politics by Sarah Maddison: issues is also verboten, just as it is for a straight person to speak about gay matters. Our literature Author Sarah Maddison interviewed a has become categorised and closed off into identity number or prominent activists, politicians and groups which claim to provide “diversity”—yet ban Aboriginal leaders including Mick Dodson, Tom most of the population from access to the form, and Calma, Alison Anderson and Jackie Huggins, in reduce the quality of the work accordingly. an effort to put together a text that explores the Excellence is diminished and the possibility of dynamics of Aboriginal politics. genius and breakthrough works of great art is effectively extinguished. Indigenous literature and art Then Jack Charles’s autobiography Born-Again are thus only available to Indigenous people. They Blakfella, which “chronicles the life of the musician are entirely based on “race”. As far as I know this and Senior Victorian Australian of the Year, who is the very definition of the word racism: excluding was stolen from his mother when he was merely a people based only on the colour of their skin and few months old”. And then Truganini by Cassandra completely ignoring the quality of their character, Pybus, which: or merit or excellence. The “Indigenous” have slowly but surely become sets out to tell the story of Truganini, one of the an entirely different “race” from the “Aboriginal” last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian women race, whilst at the same time feeding off the tradi- who remains an important figure in Australian tional people’s culture and tragedies and concerns. history. Filled with original eyewitness accounts, The Indigenous are people like Bruce Pascoe who this read is one that will challenge your have intimate academic knowledge of Aboriginal knowledge of the history of Tasmania. culture but who have little or no actual genealogi- cal connection. They are almost exclusively based in Indigenous literature begins to look so similar big cities and university-educated. that Jack Charles’s story could be Archie Roach’s, The Indigenous are also exclusively adherents of Anita Heiss could be Sally Morgan. All of Ali a Black Lives Matter, revolutionary, sovereignty- Cobby Eckermann’s poems seem to be the same based, leftist politic, who fight for token issues poem. In fact it seems that there has only ever been such as “Invasion Day” and “Recognition” and one poem written by the new Indigenous poets— “Makarrata”, mouthing slogans such as “Always which is the same poem that Kath Walker wrote was, always will be” and “Pay the rent”. These are fifty years ago. the people who also make up Indigenous litera- It seems that the “Indigenous” is not just a ture almost exclusively. I do not know of even one new race of people, but also a race which cannot Indigenous author or poet or artist whose work is yet emerge from their grief and resentment and

54 Quadrant March 2021 The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia payback—engendered by being enticed out of a dark overcome the structural racism and disadvantage primitivism into the light of freedom and individual that disproportionately affects our First Nations agency. Indigenous literature (like much New Age peoples around the country,” she said. white literature, if we must now speak in these racial terms) seems more like therapy than literature. Meanwhile Aboriginal leaders issue press releases about the “Uluru Statement” and “The Makarrata”, ow my reflection in the company of the Holy and Anita Heiss gets another grant to write books Spirit this morning asked me to check on my like Am I Black Enough for You and Ellen van Neerven “whiteN privilege” before continuing with my think- get grants to write Indigenous war-cry poetry about ing around this subject. So I have spent my morning the trauma of invasion and Bruce Pascoe publishes meditation contemplating the reasons why I’m writ- books which claim Aborigines invented bread and ing this eminently dangerous and unpopular essay. democracy and astronomy. In a couple of weeks The following few paragraphs try to explain why there will be another six or seven teenage suicides this is important. in isolated Aboriginal communities while Bruce Pascoe and his mates promote their new travel guide Six Northern Territory Aboriginal children, to Aboriginal Australia. I hope they include a visit each known by authorities to be at risk of for tourists to these isolated communities, and per- severe harm, died in tragic circumstances from haps take them to the lonely rooms where these girls causes including suicide and petrol sniffing hanged themselves. and without receiving “genuine assistance or “Self Determination” and “Land Rights”, support”, a coroner has found. together with welfare—the progressive policies (Australian, December 17, 2020) derived from left-wing human rights, Indigenous rights and UN conventions, over these last fifty This is not happening because of “structural rac- years (since the end of the Wave Hill strike)—are ism”, it is happening because these children have not still on track to produce the largest stolen generation been educated properly and their abusers will get of all time. Given the state of incarceration, death, away with their murders and child violence against women, alcohol and abuse because they will claim clem- drug addiction, child abuse and so ency due to “traditional factors” ndigenous literature on, “Self Determination” could also and “cultural disadvantage”. The I become known as the beginning of a magistrates will let them off with (like much New Age line of government policies that led light sentences because of these white literature, to the final Aboriginal genocide— arrogantly virtuous reasons. If they genocide by suicide as it were. If the do go to jail or a youth centre, they if we must now Aboriginal birth rate were as low will claim further racist crimes are speak in these as the white birth rate, and there committed by their jailers and that racial terms) seems were not quite so many Australians they are over-represented in these newly “identifying” as “Indigenous”, institutions, and that they should be more like therapy the Aboriginal population would be given special consideration because than literature. going backwards. of their race. Just as well-meaning missionaries This is why John Howard sent attempting to assimilate Aboriginal in the army when circumstances forced him to try children into white society through instruction in the “Intervention”—yet even after all of that, here it Christianity were vilified for “stealing” children and is again. Young innocents are hanging themselves attempted genocide, so will future historians come in lonely rooms in isolated Aboriginal communities to vilify the “welfare” period as an attempt to kill after they have been sexually abused for years, and Aboriginal people with meaninglessness. drifting into alcoholism, petrol sniffing and other The “exceptionalism” that the progressive Left drugs, while the ministers and the public servants have framed the Aboriginal people within (like a responsible, hardly blinking, pass it off as a result of noble savage in a cage) and then formed into the white “racism”. Here’s one such response: policies of “Self Determination”, “Reconciliation”, “Recognition”, “Pride”, “Sovereignty”, and any of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social the other virtuous advertising jingles that will keep Justice Commissioner June Oscar said the the “Indigenous” Noel Pearsons and Mick and inquest highlighted how policies designed for Pat Dodsons pleased, has turned out to produce Indigenous people were failing them. “It is nothing but idleness, resentment, alcoholism, drug clear that significant work needs to be done to addiction, violence, abuse and death in isolated

Quadrant March 2021 55 The Indigenous Invasion of Aboriginal Australia

Aboriginal communities. from “Self Determination” to “Recognition” have The inner-city progressive Left have used not just been an abject failure, but the outcomes Aboriginal people like a fetish for the narrative of constitute a form of genocide—genocide by isola- “Primitivism”—proposed through Rousseau and tion and exceptionalism. others as the Garden of Eden. They mourn for the A new race of people has been created in primitivism they have lost as if it were “innocence”. Australia over the past twenty or so years called They claim that all narratives and all “cultures” are the “Indigenous”, which is feeding off full-blood equal. Under this thinking, the Aboriginal people Aboriginal people just as a parasite feeds off its host. are encouraged to immerse themselves in “culture”, I say “full-blood” knowing that I will be called a and by doing so, they are dying younger and at almost “racist” for doing so, but I use it because I know four times the rate of whitefellas. Land Rights have that full-blood Aboriginal people have no objection supplied land for Aboriginal funerals, and much of to it, and in fact have grown to like it, because they the business of many isolated communities revolves too object to the genetically minute “Indigenous” around constant funerals. Eventually, there will be takeover of their affairs. They view the “Indigenous” only the “Indigenous” race left—and that is exactly as invaders of their culture and the perpetrators of what they want. atrocity by virtue signal—which now kills their Their resentment is fuelled every day in children. Aboriginal communities via endless SBS and ABC Indigenous literature and poetry and art have documentaries and mea culpas, NITV war cries now also invaded and come to dominate Australian from the university-educated urban “Indigenous” culture. We have Indigenous art covering Qantas who are more socialist than they are Aboriginal. airliners flying all over the world, fake “Welcome to “Look, they walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge Country” ceremonies erasing our National Anthem for us … look, Kevin Rudd’s Apology … look, New at all our major events, BLM kneeling virtue- South Wales is paying compensation for the Stolen signallers in front of MCG crowds, barefooted Generation.” Nothing will ensure a further stolen cricketers begging for forgiveness before the world. generation more than replacing Australia Day with Australia is now known for its Indigenous people, Invasion Day, yet look, Ballarat City Council has in places like France and Europe and the US. If you already done it. didn’t know better, you would think Australia was an Indigenous state without white fellas. Yet all we his massive failure of progressive politics over hear from the ideological media are constant calls the last half-century should be remembered for “Recognition”. Tcarefully, because history has become a very slippery thing. Government policies for Aboriginal people Patrick McCauley lives in Queensland.

my casio watch

gold wrapping stretches over the cold steel but leaves the flip side bare like the silver belly of fish. forty-five degree slants slice the strap runs like the watch face left and right ripples in calm ocean, mimicking bars of gold. when water is gilded with sun and you feel good. this weighs heavy on your wrist like a lover’s warm hand saying “you’re OK”, and you realise she’s right and kiss her.

Arian Ganjavi

56 Quadrant March 2021 The Old Man at the Nursing Home

He is left tucked away in a corner. The frosty glass door softens lounge patron, soap operas watch him shuffling memories. In his reserved armchair with a footrest, seated figure like Abraham Lincoln gazes with expression of gravity. His cloudy vision fills the room with ghosts, he’s given up on absent visitors, forgets them like misplaced days of the week. Family who do not want to face him see mirror of themselves in the future. With power of attorney, they pull strings. His autonomy is tamed and measured. Once he was a Roman god with famed strength, now, bathroom plodding is herculean. Too exhausted to unzip his trousers, deposits puddles, and his dignity. His freckled baldness is a sad keepsake. On his gaunt chest are tufts of white wire. His toothless gums reek of bat cave droppings. His biceps are gristle, sag like mudslides. Dribbling food and fluids from his mouth like petrol from a blundering bowser, Conscientious nurse rattles pillboxes, his body is an old automobile, a persistent snake charmer selling cures. a dumped rust-eaten carcass of cobwebs, She guides his shaky frame on a zimmer, with worn tyres, and fading enamel. helps him cope homing in on shower rails. He lingers parked in this car yard of wrecks. He’s ripe for exploitation and abuse. Like zoo-hidden animals behind bars, no one sees when they’re prodded and beaten. But he’s in luck, not treated with mixture Of humiliation and hounding rules. The unsightlier, the more she loves him. A cup of tea with a biscuit to dunk and warm blanket to cover his stiff knees, she knows these are his favourite comforts. Hopes to get good deal when she’s elderly, not fret about cost and officialdom. As she prepares him for his nightly sleep, loneliness and blank walls are bedfellows. On his teak bureau, a young man beckons … black hair combed, revving glistening motorbike, straddled with smiling blonde, he rides away heard passing through the doctor’s stethoscope.

Frank Corso

Quadrant March 2021 57 Mark Durie

Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia

he Australian National Imams Council offends, the fundamental issue is not the imams (ANIC) attracted trenchant public criticism or their intentions, but the fact that irreconcilable when on December 5 it released a guide on inconsistencies exist between the requirements of fostering,T adoption and guardianship. The Islamic Islamic family law and Australian legal standards Position on Foster Care, Adoption and Guardianship and community expectations. These inconsistencies was intended to provide Muslims with a summary need to be carefully noted and understood, but they of sharia requirements for these aspects of fam- cannot be resolved by denouncing the imams or the ily life, and to inform foster care agencies about guidance they have issued. Government officials Islamic requirements. cannot expect Muslim scholars to provide religious The Australian ran the story on December guidance which is inconsistent with the require- 8, reporting outrage from the New South Wales ments of sharia. Families Minister, Gareth Ward; from the federal Assistant Minister for Children and Families, slamic law, known as sharia or “the path” for Michelle Landry; and from Pru Goward, a former Muslims to follow, has a great deal to say about sex discrimination commissioner. What attracted howI family life should be regulated. By Islam’s own the heaviest initial criticism was the guide’s state- self-understanding, human beings are weak and ments that circumcision was an “obligation” (that easily led astray. To address this weakness, Islam is, religiously compulsory) for boys, but there was teaches that God has provided guidance to help “no obligation for the circumcision of a girl”. This human beings keep to the right path. For example, seemed to imply that it could be religiously accept- this perspective is reflected in the ANIC statement able to circumcise girls. that “Islam sees attraction between the sexes as very In response to an ensuing barrage of criticism, powerful and at times overpowering”, therefore, the the imams amended their guide to say, “It is imper- statement explains, sexual relations are limited to missible and forbidden to circumcise girls in Islam.” within marriage. However, there were thirteen other points of guid- Islam’s system of guidance was mediated to ance in the statement, many of which could give humanity through Muhammad’s life and teach- cause for concern, so Michelle Landry instructed ing, as well as through the words of the Koran. A ANIC that it “must recognise that child safety and core function of an imam, and of Muslim religious permanency is subject to Australian state and ter- scholars in general, is to communicate this guid- ritory laws”. ance to Muslims in a form they can understand and On December 10, the Australian reported an live out for themselves. This was the purpose of the “extraordinary attack” by the Australian Federation ANIC’s guidance: to provide an overview of sharia of Muslim Councils (AFIC) on the ANIC guide. requirements for fostering, adoption and guardian- The AFIC said that it would refer the ANIC docu- ship, to encourage foster care by Muslim families. ment to its own National Sharia Board, which is In the light of this, some of the outrage at the also composed of Islamic scholars. ANIC statement is misplaced. The imams’ role is In essence this is a public confrontation between to deliver Islamic guidance to Muslims. The imams Islamic sharia and the laws of Australia, something had accurately reported a sharia requirement that, which many in the Muslim community would wish if a young person lacks legal guardians, for example to avoid, as it can only harm the Muslim commu- due to being orphaned, an imam is to assume the nity’s public standing. role of guardian, or appoint someone else as guard- In those aspects where the ANIC document most ian. In response, Pru Goward objected that “There

58 Quadrant March 2021 Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia is no legal process which would give an imam distinction is that once a girl has reached puberty parental rights and responsibilities over a foster she is required to cover herself in the presence of child in Australia.” Indeed! But the role of an imam men, but not in the presence of mahram relatives: in is to teach Islam, not Australian law. the privacy of her own home she can be uncovered, Islam makes fundamental claims about right and as long as all the men who live in the household wrong, which it testifies have been handed down are her mahram relatives. (Also, according to one from God. Furthermore, many Muslims believe— of the controversial provisions of sharia, a woman and Islam itself teaches—that non-Muslim ways, travelling outside the home must be accompanied such as the laws of a secular state like Australia, by a mahram male.) will not be equal to sharia. The imams’ purpose This distinction impacts significantly upon fos- in writing this document was to inform Muslims tering, because the default for a fostered child is about sharia, in the context of Australian condi- that he or she is not a mahram of the fostering fam- tions. Yes, Australian Muslims have an obligation ily. Thus, for example, a Muslim man can marry his to obey the laws of Australia, but if they are pious, foster daughter or foster sister: Muhammad himself they will also feel an obligation to obey the laws of set a precedent for such marriages by marrying his God. The imams’ religious duty is to communicate foster son’s wife, Zainab. God’s laws to Muslims, and the fact that a body Inside the home Muslim women do not nor- representing over 200 Australian imams has issued mally wear the hijab, and this is religiously accept- such a statement means that it can be assumed able as long as all the males who live in the home to reflect mainstream teachings of Islam, all loud are in a mahram relationship with the woman. objections notwithstanding. What becomes awkward is when a non-mahram In addition to guiding Muslims, the ANIC foster child reaches puberty. If the child is a male also wants non-Muslim foster care and adop- and living at home, Islam requires the women of tion agencies to understand and make allowances the household to start covering themselves in the for Islamic beliefs and practices. Most Australian home. On the other hand, if the child is a female, Muslims want good relations with other groups in she will have to cover herself at all times in the Australian society, so it is hardly surprising that presence of the men of the household. Either way, it they are seeking recognition and toleration from will be extremely inconvenient to the point of being the mainstream for their beliefs and practices. As unworkable for the women. the ANIC document states, they wish “to promote The ANIC document acknowledges the diffi- harmony, cooperation and successful integration culties a lack of mahram status presents for foster within mainstream society”. Yet what the ANIC is children, and it suggests that older girls be placed certainly not interested in is assimilation. in families with only daughters, and older boys be The problem is that sharia is in many respects fostered by families with only sons. This would help fundamentally inconsistent with Australian com- to avoid at least some, but not all of the domestic munity standards and laws. The outrage that difficulties posed by non-mahram status. The state- political leaders have expressed over the ANIC’s ment also reports that “in some cases foster car- document on fostering, adoption and guardianship ers ask that the child leave their home at the onset is in reality outrage at Islam itself, and a rejection of puberty”, and sometimes Muslim families avoid of its divine status. fostering altogether, to prevent the eventual trauma of separation. hat are the core features of the imams’ guid- There is an exception to the mahram rule for ance on fostering, adoption and guardian- fostering, which applies if a woman has breastfed Wship, and what could be objectionable about them? someone from infancy. In this case, for the pur- In Islam, adoption is forbidden, based on the poses of the mahram rules, the child is treated as a example of Muhammad. What is permitted, and biological child of the woman. However, according indeed highly respected, is fostering. to the imams, for this exemption to apply, breast- In Islam a very important practical distinction feeding must have taken place before the child exists between closely related individuals and those turns two. outside the family group. Within the family a close The issue of naming is also important in relation relative of the opposite sex whom one is forbid- to Islamic fostering. According to the Koran, chil- den to marry is known as a mahram (from the root dren must be named after their biological fathers: h-r-m meaning “forbidden”). A woman’s mahram “call them by their fathers’ names”. Furthermore, relatives include her brothers, sons, father, grand- biological parents have certain inalienable rights fathers and uncles, and also father-in-law, sons-in- over a child, so they can reassert custody at any law, stepfather, and stepsons. An implication of this time, if they are capable of caring for the child, and

Quadrant March 2021 59 Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia they have enduring rights to visit. This cuts across a girl, with guidance that it is “impermissible and Australian legal understandings of parental rights. forbidden to circumcise girls in Islam”. The imams’ document also discusses “prayer Pru Goward asserted, “The word circumcision obligations”. Muslim parents have an obligation should not apply to girls—it is female genital to make their children perform compulsory daily mutilation and it is illegal.” However, the imams prayers. The imams assert that foster parents must would have been working with Arabic categories encourage children from the age of seven to pray familiar to them from Islamic jurisprudence, which Islamic prayers—no exemption is mentioned for treats circumcision of boys and girls under the non-Muslim foster children—and for this they must same cover term, khitan or khatnah. (There is also be “disciplined from the age of ten”. This guidance a distinctive term for female circumcision, khifadh, appears to be based on a saying of Muhammad, not from a verb which means “to lower” or “to make cited by the imams, which states, “Command your gentle, calm or submissive”.) children to pray when they are seven years old, and Although the imams’ later disavowal of female beat them for it [if they do not pray] when they genital mutilation (FGM) is commendable, there are ten years old, and separate them in their beds.” is in fact a link between Islam and this practice. Most Australians would find it problematic that Circumcision of girls has been conventionally Muslims parents are advised to use discipline to regarded as obligatory in the Shafi’i school of compel their children to pray. sharia; was commended in the The reference to “separate them Hanbali school; and in none of in their beds” means that children he question is, will the four Sunni schools was it of opposite sexes should be sleeping T actually prohibited. For example, in different bedrooms from the age Australian law- the Shafi’i manual of Islamic law, of ten. This too is discussed in the makers intervene to Umdat al-Salik (“The Reliance ANIC statement. disrupt and limit the of the Traveller”), states that The statement goes on to dis- circumcision of girls is obligatory cuss “marriage rights over foster damage caused by by “cutting out the clitoris”. FGM children”. This is a reference to the some of the provisions is widely practised in regions role of the wali or male guardian of sharia, including where Shafi’i Islam predominates, in relation to marriage of a woman. including Indonesia, Malaysia, The Koran states that men are the their impact on Brunei, Kurdistan, Bahrain, parts guardians of women (Sura 4:34). women and children? of southern Arabia, Somalia and In Islamic law, a marriage is Sudan. Of all the countries where technically a contract between FGM is commonly practised, a groom and the bride’s wali, by virtue of which around 90 per cent are members of the Organisation guardianship of the woman is transferred from the of the Islamic Conference. wali to the groom, and, in return, the groom hands It is only in recent decades that the practice over a bride-price. If a father is not available to act of FGM has become controversial and disputed as guardian, the guardian’s role passes to the pater- among Muslims: there have been eminent Muslim nal grandfather, and failing that to another male authorities who have spoken for it and others who relative, such as a brother. have rejected it. Arguments for and against FGM Not mentioned in the ANIC statement is the have even been debated by Muslim scholars on Arab fact that in Islamic law a father or grandfather is television. called a wali mujbir or “forcing guardian”, because In the light of this controversy, and the long he can compel an unmarried daughter to marry, history of FGM as a widely accepted and indeed without her permission. However, the ANIC state- established religious practice within Islam, this ment explains that foster parents do not have such aspect of the imams’ statement can be welcomed as a “marriage rights” over a foster child, and points out helpful clarification for the purpose of encouraging that if a biologically related guardian is not avail- Australian Muslims to conform to Australia law, able, the imam can act as the child’s wali. but it is hardly the last word on the topic. The imams’ statement also addresses the issue of circumcision. The imams commend circumcision of he ANIC imams want Australian Muslims to boys, preferably within seven days of birth, but in conform to sharia, and they also want organi- any case before puberty, but only if the biological Tsations devoted to the care of children to be aware parents have given permission. As noted above, of and sensitive to Islamic requirements. At this in response to public criticism they replaced the stage in the establishment of Islam in Australia statement that there is “no obligation” to circumcise they are seeking toleration and acceptance from the

60 Quadrant March 2021 Australian Imams Stand Up for Sharia wider Australian community, including freedom to of women in the wali system. It is not inconsistent observe sharia law, which they consider to be Allah’s for Australia to affirm the inherent human dignity, perfect decree for all humankind. At the same worth and human rights of Muslims, while at the time, they understand that Muslims must follow same time firmly rejecting objectionable aspects of the laws of the land. For example, in their guidance Islamic religious practices. they point out that, Islamic law notwithstanding, The ANIC reported on its Facebook page that when considering custody rights, “court orders must the New South Wales Department of Justice had be taken into consideration”. They also commend “recognised” their statement, and that it was finalised certain behaviours which most Australians would only after consultation with government and non- agree with, such as stipulating, as a matter of reli- government agencies. Moreover, a representative gious principle, that money received from the gov- of the department had attended the launch, as did ernment for a foster child must be spent on that representatives of the charities Settlement Services child. At the same time, they also want sharia to International and Creating Links. This was a be acknowledged, understood and respected by the mistake. It is wrong of government departments authorities. and non-Islamic charities to appear to be endorsing Yet, major difficulties arise where sharia conflicts the submission of human beings under sharia with Australian law, such as the imams’ assertion conditions. that an imam has the right to act as guardian for On the other hand, strident denunciations of the a girl who lacks a biological male guardian. There Australian imams for promoting sharia principles are other aspects of sharia, reflected in the ANIC are worse than pointless. Imams will promote Islam. guidance, which will be rejected by most Australians, They must do so. The question is, will Australian such as the idea that male guardians can exercise law-makers intervene to disrupt and limit the “marriage rights” over their female charges. In damage caused by some of the provisions of sharia, contrast, since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, including their impact on women and children? Western marriage laws have supported the principle Should government agencies turn a blind eye to that two people can be married only on the basis institutions like male guardianship, even to the of their freely exercised choice, and Australian extent of showing up to the launch of a document marriage laws uphold this principle. which promotes this inequality? Another concern is the damaging implications The global rise of sharia is one of the big faith of mahram rules, which mean that religiously stories of the past half-century. Sharia is challenging observant Muslim parents may prefer to terminate Western legal systems and social structures in many foster arrangements for children when they reach ways, but we should be surprised by none of this. puberty, or avoid fostering altogether. The passing of time and the onward march of It will also seem objectionable to most Australians history inevitably challenge cultural traditions. The that Muslim parents have been told by the ANIC mainstream’s response should not be to fulminate, to use “discipline” to compel their child or foster for that is pointless, but to provide firm clarity when child to perform Islamic prayers, once they reach saying “No” to certain specific sharia agendas, but to the age of ten, apparently irrespective of the actual do this effectively requires understanding. faith and beliefs held by the child, for the ANIC Australian authorities must reject the ANIC guidance commends fostering of both Muslim and statement, not because the imams that drafted non-Muslim children in Muslim families. it are reprehensible or ignorant: they were simply There is a strand of thought in Australian society following the script of their faith. The long-term that Muslims are a vulnerable minority, subjected challenge for Australian authorities is how to limit to racism. It is believed that Australians should the application of sharia, while promoting respect respond to this fact by expressing positive regard for Muslims as humans with human rights like for Islam and its followers. However, the agenda of anyone else. A lamentable outcome would be to social embrace through cultivating positive regard make special concessions to Islam, of the kinds that for Islam founders on the gap between sharia and the the ANIC has requested through the guidance it values of the Australian mainstream. While some has delivered. Muslim leaders may prefer not to draw attention to this gap, it exists, and it needs to be acknowledged. Mark Durie is the founding director of the Institute To put it bluntly, either Islam is true and sharia for Spiritual Awareness, a Fellow at the Middle East is perfect, or Islam is not true and sharia is a flawed Forum, and a Senior Research Fellow of the Arthur human construct subject to examination and Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at the Melbourne critique, not least for its discriminatory treatment School of Theology.

Quadrant March 2021 61 Michael Connor

An Eyewitness Diary of the Russian Civil War

oscow: January 1, 1918. “This damn year to Odessa where he stayed until January 1920 when is finally over. But what will be next? it was possible and necessary to travel on to perma- Perhaps things will get worse. And nent exile in France, where he died in in 1953. The Mthat seems even likely.” Cursed Days: A Diary of diary ends abruptly in mid-1919 because Bunin had Revolution by Ivan Bunin, a masterly eyewitness hidden his final dangerous pages so well, “in a spot account of the Russian civil war, reads as a warn- in the ground”, that he could not find them when ing of what may lie ahead in our own near future. he left Russia. The man who lost his country won Aged forty-seven when the diary begins in 1918, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1933. he was renowned for his classical and dangerously First issued by a Russian émigré publishing unfashionable aristocratic approach to writing—in house in 1936, Cursed Days was not published in our own time he would have unhinged the Twitter Russia until the beginning of the 1990s. Well mob. Having known and admired (mostly) the received in his homeland, it introduced Bunin to dead authors Tolstoy and Chekhov, he now loathed a post-communist generation of Russian readers. (unreservedly) the living Mayakovsky and Blok A film focusing on his emotional entanglements in and the other literary opportunists who crawled France is enjoyably (mis)represented in the Russian towards Lenin. movie His Wife’s Diary (2000): beautifully acted, The Great Russian Revolution has brought mis- bad history. The film is available on YouTube. The ery. In the provinces Bunin has witnessed and been first English edition of Cursed Days (1998) has an endangered by the fires and violence of the peasant excellent introduction by the translator and editor revolts: Thomas Gaiton Marullo, who has added a coda to the original text—a further selection of Bunin’s it was during the summer of ’17 that the Satan civil war writings. of Cain’s anger, of bloodlust, and of the most Like Quadrant and Quadrant Online writers savage cruelty wafted over Russia while its he, facing far more bloody dangers, accepted the people were extolling brotherhood, equality, responsibility to “record” what was happening to and freedom. Everyone immediately became him, his culture, his country at a perilous time. crazy, deranged. For the slightest infraction, Marullo’s introduction to the diary refers to the everyone began yelling at everyone else: “I’m fictional diaryWe by Evgeny Zamyatin and its final arresting you, you son of a bitch.” words which he imagines Ivan Bunin endorsing: “And I hope that we win. More than that, I am Just before the Bolshevik coup he returned to certain we shall win. For reason must prevail.” It Moscow and his diary records the cold, the lack could also be Quadrant’s motto. of food, house searches and thefts, violence and The diary is a memorial to the sufferings uncertainty of that time. Cursed Days begins on the brought about by the revolution and “a population opening day of 1918 and continues to mid-1919. It that is being robbed and murdered every minute”. tells of his further escape from Moscow southwards There are many individuals in Bunin’s book; some rush to profit from the Bolshevik terror while others are on paths that may end in death by star- Cursed Days: A Diary of Revolution vation and cold or the simplicity of a bullet. Our by Ivan Bunin, translated by Thomas Gaiton guide is a man with a notebook who records what Marullo he sees, and the daily speech he hears about him on Ivan R. Dee, 1998, 304 pages, about $40 the streets. Much of what he hears or reads in the

62 Quadrant March 2021 An Eyewitness Diary of the Russian Civil War newspapers is untrue: “I tell the tale as it is told to ply cannot go on like this: someone or something me. I write current rumor. I do not vouch for any- will save us—tomorrow, the day after, perhaps even thing.” The English text has a thick, useful layer tonight!” of footnotes identifying individuals and pointing Just like this magazine’s own readers, who out when Bunin is right or misinformed in what are in despair over the Children’s Book Council he records. The corrections illustrate the confusion knowingly handing an award to a book of dis- of the period. honest history, and over what is happening in our Bunin is an eavesdropper. He notes, “How schools generally, Bunin points to the irresponsi- fiercely everyone yearns for the Bolsheviks to per- bility of those who have betrayed intelligence with ish!” and has his pencil and pad handy when a their vanity and stupidity and quotes Dostoevsky, doorman mutters, “God knows where those sons whose words, which seem so relevant to our coun- of bitches have really brought us.” When a group try today, were written in 1877: gathers in Lubyanka Square, not quite as famous as it was to become, he records the scene and the Give to all teachers ample opportunity to actors, as a hungry and resourceless, ex-school- destroy the old society and to build a new owning “lady” desperately expresses her feelings one, and the result will be such darkness, such before strangers: chaos, such unheard-of coarseness, blindness, and inhumanity, that the entire structure will “Whose life has gotten better with the collapse under the curses of humankind even Bolsheviks? Everyone’s worse off and we, the before it is completed. people, most of all!” A heavily made-up little bitch interrupted her, breaking in with naive Bunin commented, as we can: “Such lines, now, remarks. She started to say the Germans were seem vague and inadequate.” about to arrive and that everyone would pay Bunin blames the revolution for the chaos in through the nose for what they had done. Russian universities. We only needed a culture “Before the Germans arrive, we’ll kill you all,” civil war to arrive at much the same place—just a worker said coldly and took off. replace revolver in his last sentence with a reference to our social media: Bunin observes the collapse and blames those fools who had brought it about, and accepts his Everything in the university is in the hands own responsibility for the disaster: of seven freshmen and sophomores. The main commissar is a student named Malich from the Our children and grandchildren will not Kiev Veterinary School. When he talks with the be able to imagine the Russia in which we professors he bangs his fist on the table and puts once lived (that is, what it was like yesterday) his feet up on it. The commissar for advanced and which we ourselves did not value or women’s courses is a freshman by the name understand—all its might, complexity, richness of Kin. She does not tolerate objections but and happiness. immediately yells: “No sounding like crows.” The commissar of the polytechnic institute n page after page the parallels between his always carries a loaded revolver in his hand. past and our present turn this from a book Oabout the past seemingly into a warning from our Several lines describing the hypocrisy of his age own future. He sounds like a disillusioned viewer could well be adapted to describe our literary and watching the degraded ABC: art prize-winners or a page of Dark Emu—and his reaction is one I share: There is so much lying going around that I could scream. All my friends, all my As is always the case now, the thing [a acquaintances, people whom earlier I never short story] reeked of something false and would have thought of as liars, are now uttering pretentious. It talked about the most terrible falsehoods at every turn. things, but it didn’t seem terrible at all because the author was not serious about what he was The world of his yesterday was as carelessly dis- doing ... I wanted to throw up. carded as our own: “What good were our former eyes—how little they saw, even mine!” Then, when unin describes the birth of the Soviet Union; it is too late, the misery: “there is the exhausting on Quadrant Online Michael Galak, writing on waiting around for something to happen. It sim- Putin’sB Russia, offered an explanation for its death:

Quadrant March 2021 63 An Eyewitness Diary of the Russian Civil War

Nobody wanted it any more. Contrary to a n the daily terrors he cries out: “If only I could common misconception, the collapse had little find some respite, if only I could hide some- to do with Reagan, Thatcher or a Western Iwhere, perhaps go to Australia!” One person his victory over Communism. It was the brilliant, diary mentions did later, only temporarily, come but evil, manoeuvre of the Soviet élite, designed to Australia. Isaac Steinberg, a Socialist Revol to complete the goals of the October Revolution utionary, was in office under Lenin when Bunin of 1917. The people who effected the 1917 coup made this observation: “Kogan [a literary critic] d’état did not get inheritable rights to the told me about Steinberg the commissar of justice. riches of those they had dislodged. The USSR’s He’s an old-fashioned, devout Jew; he does not eat collapse has reversed that “abnormality”. non-kosher food, and keeps the Sabbath holy.” In June 1939, between Kristallnacht and the Michael Galak saw the end. Bunin was a wit- Second World War, Steinberg, also in exile, was ness to the beginning: “Was it all that long ago that in Australia on a fruitless task looking for territory ‘comrade’ aristocracies and ‘warriors for socialism’ for a Jewish homeland. When in talks with mem- declared ‘peace to the huts and war on the palaces’ bers of the Durack family on Ivanhoe station in the but then immediately took up living in these very East Kimberley he was observed by the young art- same palaces?” ist Elizabeth Durack in a letter to her future hus- Galak’s words give Russian history, for its band. She thought the fifty-one-year-old Steinberg Western observers, the sort of simple shock into life was “a wonderful old boy”. Her letter, published that Australian history writing needs—a dynamic in Art & Life: Selected Writings (2016), relates how and comprehensible interpretation that breaks Steinberg was involved in a typically Australian through layers of applied theorising and too easily accident (note that his religious dietary preferences accepted dogmas and suggests far more basic and had been tactfully amended for his hosts): realistic readings and writings. As Bunin noted at the beginning of the Great Russian Revolution: He is a vegetarian and is slowly starving to death in this country where beef is eaten Did many people not know that revolution is three times a day and meat sandwiches for only a bloody game in which people merely morning and afternoon tea. His tie fell into trade places and which, in the final analysis, some tomato sauce and I said I’d fix it for only ends up with their going from the him. It was a nice pale grey and when I frying pan into the fire—even if they manage ironed it, it went an ugly brown and I don’t temporarily to sit, feast, and raise hell where know what to do because I’m not game to their masters used to be? give it back to him. What would you do in a case like that? Perhaps he’s forgotten all Later, that fire Bunin saw burning was further about it. I hope so. fuelled by the Stalinist purges before another generation of robber courtiers was rewarded with the Later in life Elizabeth Durack was a Quadrant stolen goods from the benevolent hands of Stalin. writer. Bunin was an outspoken opponent of anti- As 2021 continues here, we have again seen an Semitism and is critical of both sides in the civil Australia Day accompanied by posturing “invasion war, and of the Russian peasantry, for their violence day” parties and had the fun of watching elderly against Jews. He has no illusions about peaceful boring lefties either accepting, refusing or return- peasants and strongly criticises the ill-fitting roman- ing Australian government honours. Bunin needed ticism that had been imposed on them by preceding a revolution to make this observation; we who live generations of Russian writers and political activists. in bad days and on the cusp of worse days to come News of atrocities in Rostov elicited a typical com- have already reached the same point of stupidity: ment: “This is not the first time that our Christ- “One of the most distinguishing features of a revo- loving peasants—the very ones about whom these lution is the ravenous hunger for histrionics, dis- nurses have spread so many legends—have raped sembling, posturing and puppet show. The ape is and murdered them.” awakened in man.”

64 Quadrant March 2021 Indifferent skies

A farmer on his porch Watching silence And nothing happening The paddocks of years of labour The fences with no intentions left The gates with no plans to close The dark clouds came Puffed with promise But no consecration Just a breeze, waking A few creaks in timbers You could walk about The house paddock, the yards, Boots sunk in expensive dust Instead you’ll creak out of your seat And go and make another tea. The house echoes now Silence—a long, trailing flight away Everyone’s gone, floorboards No clouds to get in the way Groan back, memories’ ghosts flicker Then further on, a wandering composite of dots Coming and going, a Faded suddenly like a cry Hide and seek of fading whispers Swiped, kidnapped by the wind. Furniture stuck in timeless poses He remembered once Outside, standing over the entrance steps In a time as dark as this He watches the crows He had heard lightning Circling overhead And looked at the sky Cawing, cawing anyone there? And he had cried, so happy Hello? Hello? Anyone there? So very happy, as heavy drops On our way now, nobody there Splattered over his earnest face Wings beating wing beats And the tumult drove mist Across rusted galvanised iron, then Rolling all around the place— He walked through the soaking mist Like a man with a second life. The tears then were not the same They were really sweet, not just wet They trickled cool and tingling Into his mouth The tears now Are wasted and spent Alien and vagrant, sparse like The silence—of an empty, unanswering sky.

Luke Whitington

Quadrant March 2021 65 Peter Fenwick

Taxing and Spending and Failing

he reprinting of Henry Hazlitt’s classic on Bastiat’s famous essay “That Which is Seen and Economics in One Lesson is timely. As the That Which is Unseen”. His simple lesson is that world responds to the massive economic good economics must account for both the present Tlosses of the COVID-19 crisis, it will be prudent to and the future effects and must examine the conse- base policies for recovery on sound economic theory. quences not only for a targeted special group but for Here it is. All clearly written in one slim volume. everybody else too. Describing Hazlitt’s book, F.A. Hayek, 1974 Hazlitt begins by restating the Bastiat story of the Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, wrote: broken window. A hooligan throws a brick through the baker’s window, smashing glass all over the It is a brilliant performance. It says precisely the loaves of bread. The baker will need to replace the things which need most saying and says them window, creating work for the glazier and the man- with rare courage and integrity. I know of no ufacturers of glass who in turn will have the funds other modern book from which the intelligent to buy goods and services from others. The general layman can learn so much about the basic truths public often misunderstand the consequences. They of economics in so short a time. think that “the smashed window will go on providing money and employment in ever-widening cir- Henry Hazlitt summed up the guiding principle cles. The logical conclusion [is that] the hoodlum of economics in one sentence: who threw the brick, far from being a public men- ace, was a public benefactor.” But what is not seen The art of economics consists in looking not is that the baker was about to purchase a new suit merely at the immediate but at the longer effects but now has to spend that money on the window. of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the The tailor is disadvantaged and also all those who consequences of that policy not merely for one would have benefited from his additional purchases. group but for all groups. The wealth of the community is reduced: whereas it might have had a window and a suit, it now only has Read his book. Then amaze your friends with the window—and diminished economic activity. informed arguments against all the popular eco- A similar fallacy relates to the claimed benefits nomic fallacies. from war and natural disasters. The rebuilding of Nassim Taleb, who wrote The Black Swan, destroyed homes and factories requires the diver- advised that there was likely to be more wisdom in sion of resources that could have been used for other a book written twenty or fifty years ago that was purposes. Or as Frank Muir and Dennis Norden still in print, than anything your Harvard professor famously explained, “You can’t have your kayak and told you yesterday. The old books had been tested in heat it too.” the maelstrom of public opinion and voted a success. In 2020, the governments of the world spent a This certainly applies to Henry Hazlitt’s Economics fortune they did not have to ameliorate the unem- in One Lesson. First published in 1946, it has been ployment caused by lockdowns designed to protect continuously in print for seventy-five years. A new us from the coronavirus. Central banks have gone special edition has just been produced with support on a printing spree to provide the funds to com- from the Mises Institute. pensate people who have been unable to work. As I Hazlitt builds on the work of Frederic Bastiat, have written elsewhere, “Counterfeit is not the path the French economist who wrote over 170 years ago to prosperity.” Presciently, Hazlitt saw the errors of and whose work is also still in print. He expands Modern Monetary Theory before it knew its name:

66 Quadrant March 2021 Taxing and Spending and Failing

Everything we get, outside the free gifts of rather than being personally responsible for meet- nature, must in some way be paid for. The ing their wants. world is full of so-called economists who in One popular economic fallacy is the efficacy of turn are full of schemes for getting something tariffs. Theoretically we have known since Adam for nothing. They tell us that the government Smith that everyone benefits if we specialise in can spend and spend without taxing at all; that what we are good at and trade with strangers to it can continue to pile up debt without ever obtain the things we need at the best possible price. paying it off, because “we owe it to ourselves”. Certainly, no one who ever read Bastiat’s witty We shall return to such extraordinary doctrines demolition of protection, “A Petition on Behalf at a later point. Here I am afraid that we shall of the Manufacturers of Candles, Waxlights, have to be dogmatic. And point out that such Lamps, Candlelights, Street Lamps, Snuffers, pleasant dreams in the past have always been Extinguishers, and the Producers of Oil, Tallow, shattered by national insolvency or a runaway Resin, Alcohol, and, generally, of Everything inflation. Here we shall have to say simply that Connected with Lighting”, could possibly remain all government expenditures must eventually a believer in tariffs. Yet the idea persists. There be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; are many who still mourn the loss of our ability to that inflation itself is merely a form, and a make shoes and cars in Australia. particularly vicious form, of taxation. Hazlitt patiently explains how the benefits of tariffs to the workers in the protected industry are What Hazlitt is telling us is very simple— outweighed by the fact that the higher costs that common sense, if you like. But our responses are other workers have to pay for the locally produced so ingrained that it takes considerable intellectual goods reduces their capacity to buy other things and effort to change our thinking. Take public hous- effectively lowers their wages. ing for example. Our first response is that it seems Because of the COVID-19 crisis, we have become like an excellent idea to use public funds to cre- very aware of our dependence on goods from over- ate housing for low-income families. We see the seas. There is bound to be political pressure to ensure houses being built and the families enjoying them. that we can source critical items locally and quickly. What we don’t see is the alternatives that might There will be pressure to support local industries have been. Other citizens have been taxed and to by introducing tariffs. It is worthwhile thinking that extent have been unable to spend on things through what we actually need: reliable supply. We they would have preferred. The policy does not even might achieve this by manufacturing locally, by necessarily produce more homes. Worse, it makes diversifying sources of supply, or by holding higher low-income families dependent on the state. inventories of crucial items. Maybe some combina- Politicians are given kudos for spending public tion of all three. We may even simply want to main- money on worthwhile schemes. But they receive our tain the capability to manufacture quickly if needed. condemnation for increasing taxes. It is therefore Whatever we choose we should recognise that we unsurprising that when new schemes are announced shall be paying a premium to avoid risk. it is implied that they are a gift from a generous government. Our journalists never ask, “Which citi- erhaps the most contentious of Hazlitt’s falla- zens will be disadvantaged to pay for that?” cies is his view on minimum wages. He argues For example, if government announces “free Pthat the minimum wage may enable a select few childcare” that is a huge benefit for young families to be paid more but that if you force employers to and childcare workers. It would make no sense for pay above market rates then there will be fewer jobs it to be paid for by taxing the families who will and fewer opportunities for people to learn the job benefit. It follows that some other sector of society skills that enable them to climb the ladder. There will be taxed to pay for it. They will then have fewer is also the perverse effect that someone who might resources for other things. They may be unable to be employable at slightly below the minimum afford a granny flat in the back yard so they can wage must instead be unemployed and must accept look after an ageing relative, or spend money on unemployment benefits which are typically half their children’s education, or fund a local charity. that wage. As there is no economic output from Lacking resources to pay for things themselves, the unemployed the wealth of the individual and they may ask government to build an aged-care society is diminished: facility, or a library for their children’s school, or to fund the changing-rooms at their local sporting All this is not to argue that there is no way facility. In this way, communities become depend- of raising wages. It is merely to point out that ent on government and on the political process the apparently easy method of raising them

Quadrant March 2021 67 Taxing and Spending and Failing

by government fiat is the wrong way and the is credited to you. Contemplate, if you will, whether worst way. This is perhaps as good a place as that makes for a fair society. Is the welfare state the any to point out that what distinguishes many source of the inequalities it seeks to remedy? reformers from those who cannot accept their Pointing out the huge losses in purchasing power proposals is not their greater philanthropy, but in the decade to 1978 of the West German mark their greater impatience. The question is not (which had lost 35 per cent of its value), the Swiss whether we wish to see everybody as well off franc (40 per cent), the American dollar (43 per as possible. Among men of good will such an cent), the Swedish krone (47 per cent), the French aim can be taken for granted. The real question franc (50 per cent), the Italian lira (56 per cent), the concerns the proper means of achieving it. And Japanese yen (57 per cent), the British pound (61 per in trying to answer this we must never lose cent), the Brazilian cruzeiro (89 per cent), and the sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot Uruguayan, Chilean and Argentinian pesos (more distribute more wealth than is created. We than 99 per cent), Hazlitt wrote: cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces. The best way to raise I leave it to the reader to picture the chaos wages, therefore, is to raise labor productivity. that these rates of depreciation of money were producing in the economies of these countries Elsewhere, (“How to Bolster Youth Employ and the suffering in the lives of millions of ment”), I have shown that the negative effects of their inhabitants. As I have pointed out, these the minimum wage have most impact on young inflations, themselves the cause of so much people; unemployment rates for them are typically human misery, were in turn in large part the double the overall average. consequence of other policies of government In the 1978 edition, Hazlitt added a final chap- intervention. Practically all these interventions ter reviewing what had changed in the intervening unintentionally illustrate and underline the thirty-two years. He was horrified at the extent basic lesson of this book. All were enacted on of inflation. In America, the stock of money had the assumption that they would confer some increased from $113 billion in 1947 to $357 billion in immediate benefit on some special group. Those 1978. “The effect of this increase in money has been who enacted them failed to take heed of their a dramatic increase in prices. The consumer price secondary consequences—failed to consider index in 1946 stood at 58.5. In September 1978 it was what their effect would be in the long run on all 199.3. Prices, in short, more than tripled”: groups.

More than forty years after the publication of Hazlitt concludes: John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory, and more than twenty years after that book has The outlook is dark, but it is not entirely been thoroughly discredited by analysis and without hope. Here and there one can detect experience, a great number of our politicians a break in the clouds. More and more people are still unceasingly recommending more deficit are becoming aware that government has spending in order to cure or reduce existing nothing to give them without first taking it unemployment. away from somebody else—or from themselves. Increased handouts to selected groups mean Keynes had recommended public works to soak merely increased taxes, or increased deficits and up under-utilised resources. The deficit spending increased inflation. And inflation, in the end, in the poor years was to be balanced by surpluses misdirects and disorganizes production. Even a in the good ones. It never happened that way. few politicians are beginning to recognize this, Politicians throughout the world were seduced by and some of them even to state it clearly. the opportunity to buy votes via policies which provided gifts to special groups. In practice, Read this excellent book and make up your own there were deficits in six years out of every seven. mind. Following COVID-19 we may not get a surplus for a very long time. Peter Fenwick, creator of the consultancy Fenwick The impact of inflation is that wealth is Software, lives in Melbourne. He has a website at transferred to the asset-rich. The house that you www.peterfenwick.com. Several editions of Henry bought for $2 million is now valued at $3 million, Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson are currently in but your mortgage does not rise. All of the inflation print.

68 Quadrant March 2021 BOOKS, ARTS & LIFE

Faith and Modern Australia Augusto Zimmermann

Sacred & Profane: Faith and Belief in a are a search for appropriate balances between the Secular Society needs, beliefs and concerns of all citizens, both by Peter Kurti those who hold religious beliefs and those who do Connor Court, 2020, 210 pages, $32.95 not. The essays examine these matters and uphold the classical liberal tradition of individual freedom eter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity under the rule of law. and Civil Society program at the Centre Kurti shows that a true democracy must afford Pfor Independent Studies in Sydney. He is also effective protection from arbitrary and capricious an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the government. In Chapter One, “Culture and the University of Notre Dame Australia, a Fellow of the Displacement of Virtue”, he identifies “a growing Royal Society of Arts, and an ordained minister in anxiety that, in Australia, something has changed the Anglican Church. Kurti has written extensively for the worse in our culture”. As a result of the about issues of religion, liberty and civil society in present emphasis on the “sensitivities of the indi- Australia, and is the author of the excellent The vidual”, he argues that the idea of “rights” has Tyranny of Tolerance: Threats to Religious Liberty been weaponised and anti-discrimination laws are in Australia and Euthanasia: Putting the Culture to increasingly used to stifle expression of opinion, Death?, both published by Connor Court. rather than simply to challenge bad behaviour. He In his latest book he examines many questions explains how the value of “cultural diversity” is now about the place of religion in society and the role wielded “as a sword by, or on behalf of, minorities of Christianity in liberal Western societies. Other to enforce acceptance of [their] practices and beliefs faiths, most conspicuously Islam, are also examined by the majority”. in this book, thus providing an important reminder Australia’s official policy of multiculturalism that modern democratic government is distin- commenced in the 1970s under the Whitlam gov- guished by the robust capacity to foster cohesion ernment. As Kurti notes, the concept of multicul- amidst diversity. The lucid essays in this collection turalism challenges assumptions about the extent

Quadrant March 2021 69 Books to which a particular culture can be shared by eventually becoming “a source of social division all and held in common. As a result, “culture has and the diminution of liberty”. Support for “diver- become a contested arena in which factors of equal- sity” “must not give way to the strictures of identity ity and power are considered to be both important politics that elevate the notional rights of a group and formative”. Because these factors are “weap- above those of the individual”. onised” he believes that a “dictatorship of virtue” In our society, there are those who find any reli- has emerged that is profoundly intolerant of free- gious argument or reason for a policy unacceptable. dom of speech, religion and conscience when the In the hands of radical secularists, “the absence of exercise of these freedoms is deemed “offensive” to justificatory dependence on God (or the Bible) is someone. This mounting intolerance, which Kurti often elevated to a concerted effort to banish alto- regards as “characteristic of a fetish of diversity”, gether any element of religious influence, in any poses a threat to individual freedom and the rule circumstance, from the public sphere”. Yet, as Kurti of law. points out: Kurti calls, therefore, for “a renewed understanding of culture as that which expresses a An Australian secular society denuded of shared, common vision for our human and social religion will be an impoverished society because flourishing”. Such flourishing, according to him, religion continues to shape the outlooks and depends on recognition and protection of funda- aspirations of many. Religion … exerts an mental human rights and freedoms—including important influence on the way they participate religious freedom, “not as a subordinate right but in families, communities, and wider society. as one right coexisting with others”. Unfortunately, It thereby makes an essential contribution to however, the present determination of the political our shared public life. Continuing antagonism establishment to defend self-identifying “victim” to religion in the name of secularism can only groups has, in Kurti’s opinion, produced “an oppo- diminish that public life and, with it, the lives sitional confrontation between competing groups, of all Australians. each of which tends to deny it has any obligations to any other group”. This is not about preserving Chapter Three provides an examination of diversity, he says, but rather of regulating it and religious diversity from the perspective of the separating citizens into lines of ethnicity and so economics of religion, which “employs the same forth, which it does “by treating assumptions that inform economic society as a collection of separate enquiry into facets of life such as ethnic groups that are depend- his mounting the family, education, and mar- ent upon government-managed T riage”. According to Kurti, a sup- responses to diversity”. intolerance, which ply-side analysis of the religious Kurti regards as market and the behaviour trends n Chapter Two, “Religion and of religious consumers would indi- the Ethics of Citizenship in a “characteristic of a cate that religion in this country ISecular Society”, Kurti examines fetish of diversity”, is healthier than its secular critics questions arising in the search for poses a threat to realise. This analysis would demon- an accommodation between the strate that religion remains a sig- needs of religious people and the individual freedom nificant component of Australian demands of citizenship in a secu- and the rule of law. life and culture. lar society. “A broader culture war Chapter Four surveys the reli- against religion is being waged in gious roots of Western civilisation. Australia,” he says. For instance, “when same-sex- Kurti notes that the very existence of our liberal- marriage activists urge removal of anti-discrimina- democratic society is built upon principles derived tion exemptions from religious groups committed from Christianity, and that “Western civilisation to a traditional form of marriage, they effectively would be changed beyond recognition were the seek to impose their views and beliefs on those with Judeo-Christian inheritance excised altogether.” whom they disagree”. This chapter is primarily about the crucial role Kurti contends that the liberal order stands for played by religion in the discovery of the indi- peace through toleration and for individual free- vidual, particularly in acknowledging the inalien- dom protected by the rule of law. He reminds us able (“God-given”) rights of the individual. The that respect for diversity needs always to be tem- Christian tradition forms an essential foundation pered by the rule of law. He sees a great danger of individual rights and the rule of law. “A belief in the ideological construct of “identity politics” in the capacity of the individual to do better, to

70 Quadrant March 2021 Books change and improve,” Kurti explains, “is a mark of perpetrators proudly claim to have acted. Speaking the impact of Christianity on Western civilisation”. in the House of Commons after an Islamic attack, He calls for the renewal of our commitment as a Theresa May, the then Prime Minister of Britain, free and democratic society to the faith that has notoriously stated: “It is wrong to describe this as given us individual rights and the rule of law. ‘Islamic terrorism’, it is not ‘Islamic terrorism’, it is Kurti is a well-known expert on the moral impli- a perversion of a great faith.” As Kurti points out, cations of the legalisation of euthanasia. The next statements such as these, which imply that an attack two chapters arise from his interest in arguments by a Muslim has “nothing to do with Islam”, or, in surrounding such legalisation. He explains that May’s own words, is a “perversion” of Islam, pre-approving this form of suicide is completely antithetical to the notion of human dignity, and it indicate that politicians—and indeed, involves a rejection of the social obligations human also, police forces, journalists, and even beings owe to one another. As he points out: religious leaders—are unwilling, or unable, to understand that religious violence often By harming the web of social relations and has theological and ideological roots. They obligations comprising community and also indicate that those who perpetrate such family life, claiming a “right to die” actually acts are very serious about the claims they threatens to tear the fabric of civil society and believe their religion makes … Failure to take do irreparable harm to the social roles and seriously the religious component of such attachments constitutive of individual identity. violence is an avoidance of the issue: yet to assume that because many people do not take Of course, pro-euthanasia advocates will offer a religion seriously, no people take it seriously, is different perspective. They often argue that provid- transparently erroneous. ing assistance in suicide is a means of safeguard- ing the dignity of the individual. Kurti sees nothing Kurti understands that the determination of dignifying in a person taking his or her own life. To secular politicians to avoid associating 9/11 and the contrary, he believes that the “rhetoric of rights” other terrorist attacks with Islam reveals their deployed to promote euthanasia entails a grotesque unpreparedness to confront the religious roots of inversion of the very principle of a “right”: Islamic terrorism or to comprehend their depth. Secular commentators fail “to take seriously the Developed for the protection and preservation fact that when religious actors claim to be acting in of the individual against the demands both of the name of their faith, they mean precisely that”: the state and other individuals, the language of rights has now been commandeered to promote The events of 9/11 in New York , or 7/7 in the wants and demands of the “self” that London in 2005, and of March 2017 in include a desire for self-negation. London, have brought to the attention of the world the willingness of determined zealots Kurti also contends that the phrase “dying with to die in the name of their religious beliefs. dignity”, or other similar terms used to morally Islam has an inextricable political component: justify euthanasia, “are all euphemisms intended one of the objects of which is to establish to break the taboo surrounding suicide”. For him, Islamic law and governance in non-Muslim the very idea of someone “dying with dignity” by societies. means of assisted suicide involves a rejection of the duties we owe each other. He argues that such an Despite the undeniable connection between idea poses a threat to the norms sustaining civil Islam and these appalling terrorist attacks, politi- society, because of its moral assault upon the dig- cians and journalists have gone out of their way to nity of every human being. explain the terrorists were not, and could not have been, acting in the name of religion: “Islam and he seventh chapter examines the nature of reli- barbarism are incompatible, they are likely to tell gious violence, particularly Islamic terrorism. us.” Such a fear of being branded “Islamophobic”, TThose who commit these terrible crimes in the name according to Kurti, “stifles many politicians, jour- of religion claim they are theologically justified in nalists, and community leaders from criticising doing so. Yet, governments in Western countries Islam. They prefer to say attacks were a ‘perversion’ invariably respond to acts of Islamic terrorism by of Islam.” assuring the public that such violent actions are not However, as Kurti also explains, “a harder ques- representative of the religion in whose name the tion is whether jihadist violence actually has deep

Quadrant March 2021 71 Books doctrinal, scriptural, and historical roots in main- Zionist rhetoric fuelled by its antagonism to the stream Islam”. Westerners are under a clear threat existence of Israel, a prosperous democracy … from those who are determined to destroy their that is nearing the threshold of being the home society. Deadly Islamic terrorist attacks against to the majority of the world’s Jews. ordinary people have become a regular occurrence, and these acts of terror pose a serious dilemma Sacred & Profane is an important reminder that for Western democracies long accustomed to a our individual rights and freedoms rest upon the social and political ethos of tolerance and liberty. foundations of classical liberal values and principles Confronting Islamic terrorism, Kurti correctly that were exemplified, formulated and wrought into warns us: the texture of Western societies by Christianity. It is not safe to assume that the liberal ethos of requires a commitment to upholding the Western democracies will persist while the faith cultural, moral and legal stability of a that gave it birth is being deliberately abandoned. democratic society … Encouraging an open and The logic of thought, the evidence of history and vigorous exchange of religious ideas, including the testimony of current events are all opposed to criticism of doctrine, without fear of attack that assumption. Peter Kurti’s book is a significant or legal action, will not eliminate the threat contribution not only to the debate about the role of of religious violence; but it will temper and religion in a secular society but also to discussions moderate the environment in which religious concerning the future of individual freedom and violence incubates. the rule of law in Australia.

What else is to be done? For Kurti, “uphold- Augusto Zimmermann is Professor and Head of Law ing and defending an open, liberal society needs at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, in Perth, to be a priority for all who are prepared to engage Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre in the philosophical contest provoked by religious Dame Australia, Sydney campus, and President of the violence”. There is an urgent need to dislodge Western Australian Legal Theory Association. the ideas of death-obsessed religious extremists which, in his opinion, means renewing our commitment to liberty, tolerance and the rule of law, and working hard to ensure newcomers to a country are integrated into the wider society. “It also Anne Henderson means encouraging open discussion about religious ideas—including criticism of religion—without The Cardinal’s Way of the Cross fear of attack or legal action under the guise of stamping out ‘Islamophobia’.” Prison Journal, Volume 1: The Cardinal Makes His Appeal hapter Eight examines the anti-Semitic atti- by George Pell tudes of the contemporary Left. Kurti explains Ignatius Press, 2020, $39.95 thatC the constant display of anti-Semitism found in the Labour Party in Britain and the Democratic or Catholics of 1950s Australia, the formal Party in the United States are not isolated instances prayers said as the Rosary were very famil- overseas. Voices which are highly critical of Israel Fiar. Families knelt in homes at night and together and suspicious of Jewish influence in business, poli- prayed the Rosary—set around five decades of tics and the media are becoming increasingly influ- “Hail Marys” interspersed with an “Our Father” ential in the Australian Left. According to him, the and a “Glory Be”. A full Rosary, rarely said at one rise of anti-Semitism in Australia can be explained, time, involved fifteen decades, including medita- for instance, by the political context of Labor-held tion on the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries seats which now contain large Muslim populations (moments in Jesus of Nazareth’s life on earth). It that are hostile to the existence of Israel was a well-entrenched ritual and, for children, the usual five decades were something of chore to get Such factors help to explain why Labor has through. But it helped keep belief in the Catholic pulled further away from its historically pro- Church. The beads themselves were a token of faith. Zionist position to utter denunciations of not In Cardinal George Pell’s Prison Journal, Volume just the Israeli government but the State of 1: The Cardinal Makes His Appeal, keeping the faith, Israel itself. A critical feature of postmodern making it to the end and the Rosary’s joyful, sor- Left anti-Semitism is the revival of anti- rowful and glorious mysteries are all themes that

72 Quadrant March 2021 Books bind together a life in prison (from February 2019 doubt—the reasons for the decision are explained to April 2020) under false charges, as something of in the judgment. a Way of the Cross. This is of little moment in what becomes the Pell’s plainly written daily record might have first volume of Pell’s prison journal. In this vol- been a vale of tears in a download of anxious ume, which ends on July 13, 2019, Pell is unaware moments, self-justification and self-pity. Instead that his appeal in the Victorian Supreme Court of it is a work of tough love, lightened by scholarly Appeal, handed down on August 21, 2019, will fail. deliberations on religious texts, alongside the His hope is that it will be successful—his lawyers comforting words sent by hundreds of supporters, and the evidence suggest this will be so. Hence his mixed with moments like watching the broadcast reflection in Week 6 of this journal on the words of of Richmond beating Carlton in the first game of the French poet Charles Peguy: the 2019 AFL season, or the light relief a kettle and a television, and even a mop and broom, can give. For Faith only sees what is, and Hope sees what As the reality of incarceration in solitary con- will be. finement takes hold, it is simple moments that Charity only loves what is, and Hope loves what become Pell’s joy to behold—the glimpse of traffic will be. from a window in a physiotherapist’s waiting room, the brief sight of clouds or blue sky from a break Early in his journal, Pell records that he had in the covers of the exercising “pen”, the sound of never been attracted to writers of suffering such birds chirping through the bars, all bring to the as St John of the Cross, who saw that suffering Cardinal a sense of life’s positives. brought a believer closer to God. “I never read Visits from family, friends and legal team, let- much of this work,” writes Pell, “finding it fright- ters of support from across Australia and the world, ening.” By the end of this first volume of his prison or written queries from fellow inmates and other journal, a reader gets the sense that Pell has found prisoners add to Pell’s mental survival. In answer John of the Cross is speaking for him. For all that, to numerous rants from his prison neighbour, the Old Testament’s Job is an inspiration as Pell the Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas, Pell settles into prison routine. replied, “Told him plainly I did not think he was Pell admits he is not a natural contemplative. the Messiah and gently urged him, like us all, to He needs structure and rubric to organise his medi- seek enlightenment and repent.” Pastoral work con- tations and prayers. His use of the Rosary was often tinued in an unlikely frame. to help him sleep. He hungered for a chance to say As he records his circumstances, Pell admits he the Mass and his regret at being denied any part of is not so badly off as others—political prisoners like Easter celebrations in 2019, when he was not even Vietnamese cardinal Francis Van Thuan, who was able to take communion, is keenly felt: imprisoned by the communists for thirteen years. Thuan told Pell that with no windows, one weak When phoning friends and family during my electric light, either left on or turned off for hours, exercise spells outside (the only permitted and his only human contact his interrogators, his time to phone), I was asked a number of times greatest achievement was not to go mad. He would whether I was able to attend Mass, receive lie on the floor to get a breath of air from the gap Communion during the Triduum, or even under the door of his cell. Thinking of Thuan participate in an ecumenical service. My answer helped keep Pell sane. The sorrowful and the joyful was no. mysteries bound together. Confinement and the recordings in the journal ardinal Pell is now the world’s best-known bring on the experience of a long religious retreat Catholic after the Pope. All thanks to more with readings and reflections as Pell passed time thanC a decade-long pursuit by Victoria Police, a alone. His priest’s breviary—a daily program of media pile-on led by the ABC, his arrest and trial, psalms, readings and hymns that are recited at guilty verdict and sentence, solitary incarceration, stated hours of the day—became a crucial aid in and final release after a successful appeal to the this and the readings he reflects on furnish pon- High Court against charges of the rape of two choir derings, argument, stories and more besides as boys in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the Pell records the reasoning behind his faith and its 1990s. In the unanimous decision handed down on genesis over centuries. “I do not regret becoming a April 7, 2020, of the full bench of the High Court, priest,” he writes on March 21, 2019. Added to this the judges concluded that a jury, acting rationally, was his much sought-after replenishment of books would not have found Pell guilty beyond reasonable and magazines such as Quadrant and the Spectator.

Quadrant March 2021 73 Books

In a cell some eight metres by two metres, and physically—relies (and has always relied) on an with a brief break or two each day in the pen for ability to handle and grow from suffering. exercise, Cardinal Pell kept to his routine of record. Small joys and piercing insights from readings, the Anne Henderson is Deputy Director of the Sydney agonising wait for a chance to clear his name, small Institute and author of Menzies at War, which was sorrows from cold feet against stone walls to the shortlisted for the 2015 Prime Minister’s Award for anguished cries from neighbouring inmates, and Australian History. the endless indignity of the prisoner’s lot offer a patchwork experience that builds a picture of one Catholic soul—its inspiration and its miseries. Glorious and sorrowful together. It’s a unique journey; Tolstoy’s War and Peace Nicholas Hasluck read with AI Superpowers, St Gregory the Great’s reflections on the Good Shepherd, the Gospel of Insiders and Offsiders St Mark and John Henry Newman or the Prayer of St Augustine are just the tip of this intellectual The Washington Diaries of Owen Dixon, iceberg—and a lot of background as to why those 1942–1944 writers matter. And there is support from unlikely edited and annotated by Philip Ayres corners: The Federation Press, 2021, 392 pages, $120

Australian writer Gerard Windsor wrote to ustralian leaders have always kept a watch- express his support “in this terrible time of ful eye on the political mood in Washington, trial” despite our “ideological and political especiallyA since Prime Minister John Curtin in the differences”. He concluded, “Perhaps when the war years declared that Australia would now look to angel delivers you, you can tell us what words the United States of America, free of links or kin- in all your reading gave you especial comfort ship to the United Kingdom. From Pearl Harbor and hope.” and the Fall of Singapore to the recent assault on the US Capitol itself, when Donald Trump showed Yet, the enduring thread is his case. And its that he was dangerously incapable of admitting elec- damage for the Church. toral defeat, Australian envoys in Washington have In serious contemplation of what has happened always been vital contributors to reading the mood to him, Pell attempts to unravel what has been a and responding to critical events. These duties invite campaign against him as leader of the Australian consideration of the personal qualities and diplo- Catholic Church. His conservative stance on faith matic skills of the envoy in the hot seat at crucial and morals had not helped in an age of increas- moments. ing secularisation. He sees himself as a target. His Richard Casey was head of Australia’s first dip- fervour, in an attempt to find a silver lining, is that lomatic mission to a foreign country. He served as his trials and tribulation will enhance the work of Minister to the United States in Washington with the Church. great distinction between 1940 and early 1942. He In snippets, there are reports that his flock of was succeeded by Sir Owen Dixon, who took leave followers are on the increase, congregations in from his judicial duties as a member of the High various churches are on the up—albeit a minority Court of Australia. Dixon’s main task was to ensure facing a godless milieu. He regrets the absence of that the war in the Pacific, and Australian interests, references to God in reports of major commemo- were not neglected in Washington. Dixon’s biogra- rations, such as the memorial service for former pher, Philip Ayres, has now introduced and edited prime minister Bob Hawke. He sees the Church The Washington Diaries of Owen Dixon, 1942–1944, under siege—what chance a resurrection? Where which provide a first-hand perspective on a momen- might the glorious mysteries be found? tous period by someone of the highest intelligence Cardinal George Pell’s Prison Journal, Volume and with access to the centres of power. 1: The Cardinal Makes His Appeal is a remarkable Philip Ayres points out, in a prefatory note, read. While written in such a deprived and austere that the book is intended as a reference work as setting—both physically and emotionally—the well as a narrative to be read straight through. He text is full of uplift and insights into the human surmises that had Dixon intuited that his private condition. In a Western world of material and diaries might one day be publicly accessible he may instant gratification, it reminds us how much well have burned them. A key proviso on which the strength of human existence—morally and Dixon had accepted the appointment was that

74 Quadrant March 2021 Books he communicate directly with the man who had Various entries cast light upon other strategic appointed him, John Curtin, thus by-passing the concerns. Curtin’s insistence that the Australian 7th mercurial Minister for External Affairs, Herbert Division return to Australia and not be diverted to Vere Evatt, whom Dixon had sat beside on the Burma as Churchill wished, is reflected in Dixon’s High Court and had come to distrust and dislike. account of a meeting at the White House on July 21. Contentious matters of this kind might well have “The President said … in reference to controversy prompted Dixon to torch his private papers, but in between Curtin and Churchill at time of Singapore the end he left the diaries intact. Now that they have that he had telegraphed Churchill saying ‘This has been published, the proviso concerning Evatt, and got to stop: it is too juvenile for war’.” other potentially compromising facets of Dixon’s There are a good many entries also about the pro- time abroad, including the friendships he formed ceedings of the Pacific War Council and Australia’s with Washington insiders such as Felix Frankfurter interest in the Lend-Lease negotiations. It seems, and Dean Acheson, add an element of enthralling however, that Dixon’s proviso concerning Evatt tension to the story. was a constant worry, obliging the diarist to keep a watchful eye not only upon what was happen- he notion that the author of these diaries might ing in Washington but upon what was happening eventually have felt embarrassed by their publi- in Canberra. As in Dixon’s account of a visit from Tcation seems somewhat unlikely at a first glance. As a representative of Australian Associated Press on a consequence of his judicial background, no doubt, September 3, 1942: Dixon is generally discreet. His personal observations are never unkind or acerbic, although from He reported that the Prime Minister and time to time he records caustic comments made Treasurer [Ben Chifley] formed one group in by others. He sticks to the facts. His diary entries Cabinet, Evatt and [John] Beasley another, and show few signs of elation, impatience or dismay. [Eddie] Ward and [John] Dedman a third. War They reflect a busy round of meetings with notables effort appeared to him insufficient, and he felt from many walks of life, including politicians, pub- worried about Australia. lic servants, jurists, journalists and, inevitably, the President himself, Franklin Roosevelt. Another visitor, a British scientist working on The same judicious tone is used in describing war-related projects, provided equally worrying events at the Australian Legation at 3120 Cleveland news: “Tizard came to see me in the morning. Said Ave, NW, a large, elegant house of red brick with a Evatt was the most hated man here and in London, central portico supported by four Doric columns in and he found US and UK representatives unanimous the southern style. In addition to the First Secretary, about him.” Alan Watt, Dixon was assisted by his former associate, Keith Aickin, and the Second Secretary, Peter n late April 1943, Dixon returned to Australia to Heydon. Many entries are devoted to the well-being familiarise himself with the domestic and mili- of his wife Alice, and reveal a constant concern for Itary situation, a trip including a brief visit to the war the health and education of their four children. zone in New Guinea. Dixon’s entries for May 12 Gradually, however, as the reader becomes accus- and 21 are judicious, as usual, but point to a sense of tomed to Dixon’s quiet, impersonal tone, the entries frustration engendered by Evatt’s habit of combining are increasingly compelling. As in this entry for July with Lewis Macgregor, Director of the Australian 3, 1942: War Supplies Procurement Mission, to bypass the Legation while dealing with American agencies. With Smart to see Gen. Marshall. He Hence, the first of Dixon’s entries about this matter: gave me, under a promise not to tell my “To see Prime Minister, with whom I spoke plainly government, the history of Coral Sea and about Evatt, Watt, Macgregor and staff, and want Midway, and said that at one stage the of information.” Australian government nearly destroyed The diaries are discreetly silent as to the exact Australia because they publicly said that nature of the matters complained of and are reticent Japanese forces had congregated in the about the outcome. This is where the sub-textual Marshall Islands, a thing known only through notes of the editor are important, by providing essen- breaking the Japanese cipher, as the Japanese tial information. It seems that Dixon got everything must have been aware. Repeatedly the he wanted from Curtin. The missions at Washington government had broken necessary secrecy and would be responsible to Dixon in the first instance. he, Marshall, was very frightened of them and Dixon would be consulted over changes to his staff could not tell them anything with safety. (previously a sore point) and henceforth he would be

Quadrant March 2021 75 Books writing, cabling and telephoning to Curtin direct. not, and General Marshall did not, because it A month later, soon after his return to gave a false impression of his intimacy with the Washington, Dixon speaks of lunching with the President. To accord the President the greatest President. “He spoke of difficulties of Burma cam- deference and respect should be a gratification paign, of Churchill’s suggested alternative, and of to any citizen. It is not gratifying to receive his own, of Timor, of New Caledonia … I stated the easy greeting which milord might give a my observations on New Guinea and on Australia promising stable boy and pull one’s forelock in and operations.” According to Dixon’s colleague return. This, of course, was a small part of the at the Legation, Peter Heydon, the President was man and the impression he made. The essence most interested in Dixon’s recent trip back home of that was force. He exuded a relish of power and to the war fronts of New Guinea. Though Evatt and command. His responses seemed too quick; had just finished an extended visit to Washington, his reasons too facile for considered judgment; in the whole of the luncheon between Dixon and one could not tell what lay beneath them. He Roosevelt, Evatt’s name was not mentioned, nor remained a formidable man. anything that took place during Evatt’s visit at all. Having defined his responsibilities more exactly, The need for tight lips in wartime may well have Dixon resumed his normal, extremely busy, round contributed to the restrained style of Dixon’s entries. of engagements, including social occasions and the It is part of the fascination of reading his diaries, presentation of broadcasts and discussion papers, however, that certain figures appear from time to often to law societies. He spent a good deal of time, treated as innocuous by the diarist, but who time in assisting Dean Acheson from the State are now seen to be of considerable importance, Department in the organisation of a conference especially when it comes to the keeping of secrets. in Atlantic City to fashion policies made pursuant Dixon was generally dealing with Dean Acheson to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation with respect to Lend-Lease negotiations and the Agreement, known as the UNRRA. The diaries UNRRA. However, at one stage, Dixon enlisted reveal that on September 4, 1943, Dixon visited Acheson’s aid in the making of some travel arrange- the White House to see Churchill: “We were kept ments. Hence, a diary entry on August 31, 1943: waiting, and then he saw me in bed. Spoke of Evatt “Visited Hiss (Acheson’s offsider) about Casey’s and his attempt to open way to National Ministry, children.” The editor’s sub-textual note identifies the and asked whether Curtin concerned. I said Curtin offsider in question as “Alger Hiss, later notorious understood Evatt and kept control—should meet for being accused of spying for the Soviet Union, a him. Spoke of Imperial relations: bad in war against charge most now think substantiated but which he Japan. He then got up and I spoke to Mrs Churchill always denied.” and Mary.” There is no suggestion in this or in other books This unusual meeting at the White House invites concerning the State Department that Acheson was a comparison between Dixon’s impersonal tone involved in any clandestine activities. It is a well- and the apparently unguarded dash of candour to known fact, however, that a few years after the war be found in Dean Acheson’s memoir Morning and Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury on the grounds Night, a colourful passage containing another bed- that he had lied about his role in a Soviet spy ring. side scene and an acute appraisal of Churchill’s host, On the day Hiss was sentenced, Dean Acheson, by the President of the United States. Acheson says this then Secretary of State in the Truman administra- of FDR: tion, made it clear that he did not intend “to turn his back” on his former colleague, a stance that seems to Every week at the Cabinet meeting, I sat at his have prompted the first of Senator Joe McCarthy’s left, across the table from Secretary of State, lurid accounts of how card-carrying Communists Cordell Hull. Then, too, came summonses to were still nesting cosily in the State Department. appear and report at the President’s bedside The Hiss case became the most controversial spy while he breakfasted … But they were not story of the Cold War, a controversy mirrored to always as well adapted to the purpose as some extent in Australia by the findings of the planned. After the tray was taken away, his Petrov Royal Commission a few years later involv- daughter Anna’s children—known as Sistie and ing members of the Department of External Affairs Buzzie—often made a distracting entrance … under Evatt. Conversation became intermittent, disjointed, obscure … He could charm an individual or a ixon’s proviso concerning his mercurial nation. But he condescended. Many revelled Minister, Dr Evatt, and Evatt’s unpredict- in apparent admission to an inner circle. I did Dable conduct generally, although seldom mentioned

76 Quadrant March 2021 Books directly in the diaries, remained a troubling issue. the diarist’s skills and personality. In this case, of Towards the end of Dixon’s term, an international course, the diary entries, brief and discreet, must be conference attended by the major powers was held at read in conjunction with other sources, as the editor the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown on post- intimates, for a fuller picture of the diarist’s outlook war security and, more specifically, on the struc- and activities. ture and powers of the proposed United Nations It is apparent from Dixon’s collection of occasional Organisation. These matters were of considerable pieces, Jesting Pilate, that his public presentations, interest to Evatt, especially the scope of the pro- including talks and broadcasts given in America, posed veto power, regional arrangements for security were always cogent and thoughtful. If called upon and trusteeship in colonial territories. In the mean- to speak plainly, he could be forthright. When he time, however, when Curtin came to Washington to returned to Australia for consultation in 1943, for confer with Roosevelt, the diaries reveal that Dixon example, Dixon told the Advisory War Council, took advantage of the Prime Minister’s presence to according to the minutes of the meeting, that “the attend to his own situation. “Morning, talked to Mr Pacific War Council was not an effective body. It Curtin, who agreed to appoint successor as soon as provided an opportunity to inspect the mind of the possible and fix matter up before 1st August circa. President, but it had no other advantage. It was a I repeated sole reason of my return civilian body and the President was frustration. But if I was to go it never used it for discussion of should be at once in the interest of iaries of this strategical questions.” my judicial work. Discussed matters D Dixon informed the Australian relevant.” kind, albeit couched War Cabinet, in a report about Dixon and his family were back in careful prose, can Roosevelt bearing an uncanny in Sydney by 27 October 1944, the resemblance to Acheson’s bedside date of the final entry in the book. sometimes encompass prognosis, that it was the practice On that day, it seems, Dixon was more than the diarist of the President “to make a general taken to lunch at Ushers Hotel by knew and foreshadow statement to the Council at each Evatt and his wife. From there, meeting, but he always avoided he found his way back to familiar far more than he critical issues. Discussion afterwards surroundings, and was then “in might have intended. was in relation to any matters that Court in the afternoon”. Evatt, on members themselves wished to the other hand, within six months, raise. No agenda were submitted was in action at the San Francisco Conference, and no minutes were kept … The advantage of the winning acclaim as a forceful advocate for the small Council was that it enabled the views of the nations powers as the United Nations was formed. represented to be kept prominently before the Curtin’s attempt to curb Evatt’s self-serving President.” The President’s artifice in dealing with autonomy, by appointing the Deputy Prime Minister, critical issues at the Pacific War Council led Dixon Frank Forde, as a joint leader of the Australian to assert that better results could be obtained by delegation, proved to be of no avail. John McEwen, presenting a detailed and closely-reasoned statement another member of the delegation, and a future of Australia’s case before the US Chiefs of Staff. prime minister, observed wryly, or perhaps irritably, In his introduction to the diaries, Philip Ayres that “whenever anything had to be said on behalf turns to the memoirs of the First Secretary, Alan of Australia the ubiquitous Dr Evatt appeared and Watt, for an account of how Dixon performed as stated the case … The personal views of the Minister an ambassador. Watt described Dixon as “a man for External Affairs were consistently put forward of outstanding character and great ability”, but as the foreign policy of Australia.” The Secretary- went on to suggest that Dixon was out of place in General of the San Francisco Conference was Alger Washington. He criticised Dixon for his distrust Hiss. of “broad generalisations, impressions, intuitions. He wants facts, all the facts, and upon them he he cursory reference to Hiss in the Dixon dia- will make a very independent judgment.” Watt said ries is but one of many reminders in the book also: “He is extremely witty, but his humour induces Tthat, with the benefit of hindsight, diaries of this admiration rather than laughter. Irony makes few kind, albeit couched in careful prose, can some- friends, least of all in the United States of America.” times encompass more than the diarist knew and Watt went on to say: foreshadow far more than he might have intended. With or without vivid character sketches, diaries of He is deeply wrapped up in his family, and this kind can also be valuable in an assessment of gentle with them, as he can occasionally be with

Quadrant March 2021 77 Books

others. His emotions however have been held in drawn from the seclusion of the judicial realm, to control for so long that they rarely break bounds. perform an important diplomatic role, steadily and This is a perhaps a pity, for his intelligence and conscientiously, in a time of crisis. wide experience have led him to expect little of human nature and always to anticipate the worst. Nicholas Hasluck’s latest book, Art in Law (Connor Court), includes articles first published inQuadrant . It might seem to a fair-minded reader that some, at least, of these observations are substantiated by the tone and content of the diaries. Dixon, as might be expected of an experienced judge, eschewed sentimentality and rhetoric, although he was, Rachael Kohn unquestionably, very attentive to the needs of his family, especially to the medical issues complicating The Moral Society the life of one of his sons. To others around him, because he kept his opinions to himself, he probably Morality: Restoring the Common Good in seemed somewhat remote. However, as Philip Ayres Divided Times points out in his introduction, Watt appears to have by Jonathan Sacks felt under-used at the legation and his observations Hodder & Stoughton, 2020, 367 pages, $33 should therefore be viewed with caution. Watt had worked closely with Evatt at the San Francisco his book by one of the contemporary world’s Conference and he may have thought also that Dixon most accomplished proponents of religion, eth- was too trusting or had become too sympathetic to Tics and philosophy, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the American point of view. who died on November 7, 2020, is both ambitious Watt’s colleague at the legation, Peter Heydon, in scope and richly rewarding on a topic that in the drew an interesting distinction between Dixon’s third millennium could not be more fraught. diplomacy in Washington and that of his predecessor, Morality is a word that had almost vanished Richard Casey. In Heydon’s estimation, Dixon was from the lingua franca of the swinging 1960s when “very averse to publicity and he had a narrower range Jonathan Sacks, then a student at Cambridge, of contacts than Mr Casey, but they were, I should enrolled in his first course on the Moral Sciences. think, on the whole, deeper and more purposeful”. By then the idea of morality as an objective reality Heydon added that in his view: was considered a quaint remnant of a previous era and the young Sacks was left bewildered by the Roosevelt thought rather more highly of Dixon prevailing mood of unbridled personal freedom than he did of Casey, though he respected that championed “feelings” over responsibilities. Casey too. And I think partly because of the Linked with religion in the popular mind, morality circumstances at the time, Dixon’s relations with already had had the stuffing kicked out of it by the Hopkins, with General Marshall, with Dean cult anarchist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who Acheson and with Justice Felix Frankfurter were proclaimed, “God is dead … We have killed him probably closer than Casey ever achieved. … Do we not hear the noise of the gravediggers burying God?” On April 8, 1966, Time Magazine he Dixon diaries, infused with a sense of imme- was less subtle: on a black front cover glared the diacy and the apprehensions of the era, present question, “Is God Dead?” Ta memorable narrative. They constitute a valuable To the man who would become the Chief Rabbi record of Australian diplomacy at the highest level, of the United Kingdom for twenty-two years, and show also how it is possible to maintain a close knighted for his inter-faith work in 2005, a member and secure family life undamaged by the demands of the House of Lords in 2009, and a prolific author of an envoy’s role. The basic text is greatly enhanced of books on the essential role of religion in public by the skill with which Philip Ayres has researched life, we can presume the answer was a resounding and collated the sub-textual notes that add extra No. But the surrounding culture reverberated with layers of meaning to the story. Nietzsche’s conviction that the Judeo-Christian Many attempts were made to coax the famous era was at an end, along with its moral heritage. essayist Montaigne out of his secluded library. One The French postmodernists, following Descartes’s of them secured his services for a diplomatic venture radical scepticism, declared morality to be a matter that may have saved France from ruin. There is of interpretation, leaving us with the relativisation something of this perhaps in the story reflected in of values. In America, the “Me Generation” put Dixon’s diaries, the story of a learned legal scholar, personal satisfaction and self-actualisation—the

78 Quadrant March 2021 Books

“I”—at the centre of existence, leaving the “We” ideal that Sacks cherishes, but which he sees of shared community values, commitments and being chipped away by a variety of forces, most of responsibilities on a one-way descent to oblivion. them a substitute for the meaning, morality and Sacks cautions that his book, which was fated identity that religion once furnished. Nation, race to be his last, is not a work of cultural pessimism. and class have become the secular substitutes that However, in chapter after chapter, citing a now various groups promote as talismans of identity, and formidable corpus of literature on the decline of which the failed experiment of multiculturalism Western civilisation, he outlines the signposts of that gave undue licence. Sacks is on record elsewhere cultural descent, beginning with the “outsourcing” of calling out multiculturalism as a “disastrous policy, moral responsibility to government bodies in highly misconceived and profoundly damaging to the social secularised democracies, to the monetisation of fabric of every society into which it was introduced”. “happiness” in cultures driven by consumerism in an Its aim of integration turned into segregation. amoral free-market economy. No longer personally The “We” was submerged by a teeming collection responsible for one’s neighbours, the individual is of rival identities and morally diverse systems. set adrift. Social capital diminishes and brings in Multiculturalism “was meant to promote tolerance its wake an epidemic of frantic materialism and but gave rise to new and dire forms of intolerance”. profound loneliness. Self-medication and suicide One of the enemies of the moral society, rates spike in an attempt to assuage the malaise, but ironically, is victimhood, which has become the basis even the 2.41 billion active users of Facebook (as of of various group identities. The Judeo-Christian June 2019) cannot stem the tide. “Unsocial media” biblical tradition unequivocally teaches the necessity actually feeds the condition of anomie (the loss of to help those in need—the stranger, the widow, the communal structures and shared values), by removing child—but it also models self-reliance, personal individuals from the face-to-face encounters that test responsibility and dignity. Sacks’s chapter titled those values on which society depends. The French “Victimhood” begins with Yisrael Kristal, a maker Jewish sociologist Emile Durkheim, who came to of sweets and chocolate in Haifa, Israel, who in 2017 similar conclusions in the late nineteenth century celebrated his 114th birthday. He was also a Holocaust when commenting on the social dislocations of the survivor; having lost his wife and two children in newly industrialised cities, remains relevant. Auschwitz, he walked out of the camp weighing As indeed do the observations of another thirty-seven kilos, and was the only member of his Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who travelled family to survive. The key point for Sacks is that the to America in the mid-nineteenth century and biblical tradition produces a culture of hope, not of discovered that its social vibrancy emerged from the fate or inevitability. It is a culture where love and active participation of townspeople in church life and forgiveness, justice and mercy are essential responses voluntary associations. His discovery was echoed by to the downtrodden and the guilty, but so too is the the other founding sociologist, the German, Max moral imperative to affirm life, which in religious Weber, who also travelled to America. Both were terms is a life made precious because it is a gift impressed by the grass-roots expression of civility of God’s love. Humanity, therefore, is bound in a which created a culture of personal responsibility and reciprocal relationship of love and responsibility, the a moral imperative of altruism that far outweighed quintessential “I–Thou” relationship described by the people’s reliance on government services. This is the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. essentially the model of society that Sacks mourns Sacks is well aware that morality need not be the loss of, although as an Englishman he recognises based on religious belief, and he cites other instances its uniquely American stamp. of it. However, in Western democracies that have If “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” given way to secular rationalism, relationships are is for every American to claim by right, it is also now overwhelmingly based on calculated risk and for them to strive towards, and here Sacks adverts pragmatism, which not only leaves marriage and to the British nineteenth-century evolutionary the family in tatters, but also leaves open the door biologist Charles Darwin. Not as a champion of to vigilante justice and public shaming. Individuals “the survival of the fittest” but on the contrary, as are “fair game”, as in the #MeToo movement, which one who observed that successful animal groups not condemns on hearsay and without trial. Sacks only competed with one another but also practised develops this line of argument further in his chapter, the equivalent of “compassion”, something often “The Death of Civility”. observed today by zoologists, such as Franz de Waal. Nature and nurture, in the form of competitive ow did we get to the stage where people are individualism and community responsibility, are the treated without grace and civility? Science two essential components of the liberal democratic hasH much to answer for, but not in its pure form of

Quadrant March 2021 79 Books researching the natural world, rather in its interpre- on the very day of the attempted Capitol putsch, he tation by popular writers, philosophers and celebri- seemed to be quoting the last chapter of Sacks’s book ties who believe it can provide the meaning of life. when he said that what America needed at this time Both Sacks and I have written on the relationship was a “covenantal commitment”, a shared moral between science and religion, and neither of us sees responsibility that included everyone, beyond party it as necessarily combative or contradictory, but on affiliation. But the stone-faced PBS interviewer was the contrary its long history shows a high level of uncomprehending and kept re-asking the question cross-fertilisation and mutual support. Yet that story as if Warnock hadn’t already answered it. Like has been lost on many of the proponents of a “scien- so many left-wing journalists, she was deaf to the tific worldview” who have severely diminished the language inspired by covenantal thinking. human self-image and spoken of human beings as Sacks’s Morality is so comprehensive, including “chemical scum or slime mould”. The popularity of an epilogue on the post-Covid world, that he must Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and Homo Deus promotes the have known he would soon shuffle off this mortal profoundly nihilistic spectre of our disappearance, coil. Yet it is a suitable summation of his life-long as mere “interchangeable pieces of data”, to be even- learning, which always sought an audience beyond tually replaced by robots. the Jewish community he headed. He recently For Sacks, as for me, the extreme danger of hosted a podcast series on morality for the BBC, pseudo-scientific language, which, for example, and he regularly contributed to the Sunday Times blithely states that “giraffes, tomatoes and human Credo column as well as to the BBC’s Thought for beings are just different methods of processing data” the Day, a scripted response to current affairs from a is its propensity to view our uniqueness as totally faith perspective. The most popular BBC broadcast, insignificant, and the small space we occupy in a Thought was reduced from five minutes to half that, vast set of universes as dispensable and unimportant. another sign of the encroachment on faith in our (In fact, Harari, who champions Buddhism, echoes culture. But after reading this book, it would be hard its concept of the person as a mere collection of not to agree with Sacks that it is in the public square transient elements, the five skandhas, and therefore where the faith-inspired redemption of democracy illusory.) Nietzsche put it succinctly when he said: and our shared moral future lies. “Has not man’s self-depreciation, his will to self- depreciation, been unstoppably on the increase since Rachael Kohn AO FRSN is the author of Curious Copernicus? Gone alas is his faith in his dignity, Obsessions in the History of Science and Spirituality uniqueness, irreplaceableness in the rank order of (revised edition, ATF Press, 2020). She produced and beings.” presented religion programs on ABC Radio National, This is the condition for which morality would including The Spirit of Things (1997 to 2018). appear to be a wasted exercise, since for Sacks the Judeo-Christian moral imperative is about preserving human dignity, not just ours but others’. Fortunately, Sacks is nothing if not full of hope, which is the inheritance of the Judeo-Christian tradition. For Zoe Higgie history has shown that even at its nadir, human dignity can be lifted up and as it were breathed Around the World in Thirty-Three Films into life, it can transform society, and re-establish morality as a shared project. Sacks looks to Abraham Around the World in the Cinemas of Paris Lincoln, whose moral conviction that “all men were by Theodore Dalrymple created equal” was inspired by the Judeo-Christian Mirabeau Press, 2020, 268 pages, available ethic. It transformed a nation mired in racial and through Amazon, £9.94 political division as America is today, as indeed are so many of our Western nations. little over a year ago while in Paris, where his He calls this kind of political vision “covenantal wife’s mother was convalescing from an opera- politics”, not based on nation or religion, but on a Ation, Theodore Dalrymple started going to the cin- commitment to shared responsibility to one another. ema a couple of times a day. Such an unusually wide It seems this is a notion that already has some takers, variety of films was on offer there, he realised, that including the newly elected Raphael Warnock, the it would be possible to travel around the world cin- first African American Democrat senator from ematically without ever leaving town. He decided Georgia, who is also the Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist he would take this stationary journey, and in his Church in Atlanta, where the Reverend Martin delightful new book, Around the World in the Cinemas Luther King Jr served. As Warnock was interviewed of Paris, he describes how it went. Although he can

80 Quadrant March 2021 Books have had no idea that a pandemic was approaching, a Buddhist monk when he visited that country and with its accompanying array of restrictions, the fact to ponder the guilty pleasure many travellers from that both cinema-going and travel are now out of better-off, freer countries experience when visiting the question for many of us makes his project seem somewhere that is deprived in comparison to where perfectly timed. With the book in hand, the reader they come from. As Dalrymple points out, while at last has an opportunity to visit a variety of cin- modernisation is naturally to be wished for, it also emas, at least vicariously, and to indulge in travel, means “another step in the destruction of differ- even if it is only of the armchair type. ence”. Frontiers, a film that takes the viewer through The films viewed for the book were chosen Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Nigeria, purely according to their location, Dalrymple tells evokes memories of his own travels in that region, us in his preface. He excluded France, Britain and and helps him to understand that what he thought the US, because he felt he knew them too well to he saw there was not always what was really going watch films made there with fresh eyes. He decided on. to “visit” any country only once. His interest, he His enthusiasm—one chapter begins, “It is rare says, was not that of a student of cinema but of a that one has the opportunity to see a Paraguayan traveller. “It was the depiction of the countries that film, and I seized it with alacrity”, and another interested me,” he explains. He then proceeds to starts with the equally keen, “How could I resist describe what it was like to watch thirty-three films a film that followed several market women in their (almost all made in 2017 or 2018), set in thirty-four journey across West Africa by bus?”—is endear- countries, over the course of one year. ing, but behind the apparent naive eagerness lies In this book, as always, Dalrymple proves him- a razor-sharp mind. When he reports on a film self to be perceptive, thoughtful, largely undogmatic from Romania, he manages to encapsulate in one and often very funny. He asks unusual questions, withering sentence everything that was wrong with refuses simple answers and admits that there is the communists who ruled that country so brutally: much he does not know. “Irrelevant questions enter “They had nothing to recommend them and ruined my mind as I watch films, sometimes with the per- everything they touched.” While discussing a film sistence of an obsessional idea,” he confides, adding from Germany, he observes, “We sometimes forget that sometimes he feels “like the man who visits that sincerity may be a vice worse than cynicism”, Versailles and wonders how they polish all of the thus encapsulating in eleven words everything mirrors”. Thus, while watching a film from Lebanon, it took Graham Greene the whole of The Quiet his mind hooks on the question of whether or not American to try to express. helmets really save the lives of construction work- He reflects on the medium of film itself, raising ers, or whether they are “more magical incantation interesting questions about its deceptive quality, its than genuine protection”. It is a question that seems ability to alter preconceptions and on whether it is surprisingly relevant in this era of face-mask debate. “best to leave something to the viewers’ imagina- Even more apposite are his remarks following his tion” or to show everything, concluding that choos- viewing of an Indian movie called Hotel Salvation: ing the latter option can be a mistake: “the explicit “The supposed right to health, frequently advocated, in film ... turns everything into spectacle, whereas makes of death an infringement of rights; but, while the implicit works by insinuation into the imagina- individual deaths may be unjust, Death itself cannot tion”. When making no comment works best, he be ... Death is always victorious.” leaves well alone, introducing us to a character in Most of the films covered in the book are, a film who “is waiting in the station for a consign- I suspect, far more interesting and amusing in ment of used limb prostheses”, without feeling the Dalrymple’s accounts of them than they might be need to embellish the absurdity of that statement. if one actually had to sit through them in person. When he uses analogy, he makes sure it is striking: Certainly his explanation of the only film among “The glitter is that of a fish rotting by moonlight” the selection that I have seen myself, The Square, he tells us, for example, summing up a decadent but made much better sense of the film than I had tawdry section of Brazilian society. managed to do on my own. When reporting on Dalrymple seems to approach everything in life, films from countries he has some familiarity with, including the films he describes here, with humour he intertwines his accounts of them with his own and an open-minded curiosity that is infectious (if memories, and in all his accounts he includes the one can still use that word positively). He has above most interesting of the thoughts and questions all a fascination for the strangeness of humanity. that the films raise in his mind. Thus a film from “How odd we are!” he says at one point. This excla- Burma provides the opportunity to reminisce on the mation could be an alternative title for this enjoy- experience of being set about with an umbrella by able, amusing and thoughtful book.

Quadrant March 2021 81 Ross Terrill The Confucian Serenity of Pearl Buck

ew could name the first American woman “Tell us why you wrote this new book, ‘The Body to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Or of Her Work’.” A phrase from Norway had mis- know that her native tongue for forty years led parochial Canadians. There was no such book, wasF Chinese. Born in the US to American parents, of course. Pearl Buck experienced China like no native-born Buck gave back generously. Astonishing for a white American or Australian before her. China hand, upon her move to the US, Buck was Back in 1971, Buck wrote me a courteous let- active in American black rights and women’s rights ter via the Atlantic Monthly. At eighty, having struggles. She published essays with the NAACP devoured two articles on China I wrote in that and in the magazine of the Urban League, and was magazine, Buck invited me to Vermont, where a trustee of the black school Howard University for she lived amidst beautiful hills. President Nixon’s twenty years. China trip to meet Mao had been announced for In 1949, outraged that adoption agencies con- February 1972. She hoped to be present, three sidered Asian and mixed-race children unadopt- decades and a Nobel Prize after settling in the able, Buck established Welcome House, the first US. Resplendent in jewels and a long blue dress, international, inter-racial adoption agency. Pearl Buck hosted a Korean dinner for me. Hours later Buck herself adopted six children with her second the Seoul chef bowed good night at the dining- husband. She was a cosmopolitan before cosmo- room door, and I went to bed. politanism, and a feminist in advance of feminism. Next day Buck and I talked for six hours about In 1964, to provide support for Amerasian my China trip, which I had made with Gough children who were not eligible for adoption—many Whitlam the previous summer. She charmed and were offspring of Western servicemen in Asia— astonished me. Buck established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, Buck wrote to Beijing about a Chinese visa for which still provides sponsorship funding for the Nixon trip. She awaited an answer. But she thousands of children in half-a-dozen Asian wavered on whether she really wished to go. Could countries. a girl raised in a poor Chinese village appreciate the ordered ranks of Mao’s China? o my pleasant surprise, Buck was not in awe of political leaders, Chinese, American, uck felt she had never really left China, because Australian T or others. Over our Korean dishes, China was within her. Born in West Virginia she spoke of a party given by President Kennedy for Bin 1892 to Presbyterian missionaries stationed near US winners of the Nobel Prize. Kennedy asked her Nanjing, Pearl was three months old when they during dinner, “What should we do in Korea, Miss took her with them to China, where she spent four Buck?” She made a few points on the history of decades. Not for nothing did the enigmatic Buck East Asia. Kennedy said, “I think we’ll have to get call her autobiography My Several Worlds. out of there. It’s too expensive and we must involve She published stories and essays during the the Japanese to play their part in Korea.” 1920s in Nation and the Atlantic Monthly. Her sec- Buck gave a smile that had no warmth. “It was ond novel, The Good Earth, was the best-selling the only time an American president—and I’ve book of 1931 and 1932 and won a Pulitzer Prize. In known them all since I returned from China in 1938 she won the Nobel. 1938—the only time one has asked me a question On reaching Montreal in 1938, on the way to about Asia.” Buck thought Kennedy’s remarks the US, she faced the media. One reporter asked, showed“ignorance” of the fraught history of relations

82 Quadrant March 2021 The Confucian Serenity of Pearl Buck between Japan and Korea. He did not seem to know In view of the fact that for a long time you have of Japan’s harsh colonial rule there. in your works taken an attitude of distortion, “There’s a generation gap among nations,” she smear, and vilification towards the people of said as we sat in the morning sunlight of her living new China and its leaders, I am authorised to room facing golden trees. “Many of the differences inform you that we cannot accept your request between the US and China are because the US is for a visit to China. young and China is old.” Buck was a China hand who transcended the political struggles over China It pained Buck that she was rejected by Beijing policy in the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, for a return to the land where she belonged. But Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon years. her sense of identity was intact. Being Chinese and Buck seemed Confucian in several ways, includ- American was a dualism she carried with serenity. ing her remark, “Marriage has only been inciden- She felt the Nixon opening was an entirely natu- tal in my life.” She did not believe in democracy. ral step. Americans and Australians would have “Rather I believe in great people and their benevo- enjoyed her report on the event. Today’s quarrels lence and virtues toward other people.” between Beijing and Washington, and Beijing and Canberra, would sadden but not surprise her. uck was absent from Beijing during the Mao– Nixon summit. Her decision on whether to go Ross Terrill’s new book Australian Bush to Bwas made for her. In a letter the Chinese govern- Tiananmen Square has just been published by ment told her: Rowman & Littlefield.

11.01am

I’m quitting social mental media again I don’t remember how many times I’ve done this but I’m quitting it again I have never really liked anyone there their virtual presences with their virtual food, for instance have never appealed to my sense of reticence, of self-concealment, of no boasting yes, you may say I never get much Likes yes, you may say I never get a copy of my books sold yes, you may say I’m not a dreamer but I’m quitting I never even like myself, my self, there, do you know? I’ve never clicked a single “Like” for my own presence or ghostly ghosts I’m a social misfit, get it? I’m a social distancer, get it? I’m a self-isolator, get it? but whatever you are, whoever you are I don’t want to know, I have no time allotted you may say I am a turtle, but I am one with a head of rejections

Ouyang Yu

Quadrant March 2021 83 Christopher Heathcote

Growing Up in SBS’s Australia

n winter 2020, as Australians huddled indoors cences of migrant families dealing with cultural to avoid the coronavirus, the SBS network dislocation, and convey much about growing up in launched a national competition for emerging an ethnic minority. writers.I In keeping with the broadcaster’s multi- With so many entries reportedly received, a cultural orientation, competitors were to submit a question mark surely hangs over the process used short personal memoir on the topic “Growing up in to winnow submissions. How was writing vet- diverse Australia”. First prize was set at $5000 and ted before acceptable pieces were passed to the the runner-up would receive $3000, with the win- judges? Were authors matched against non-literary ning pieces published by SBS. categories? Did a management committee have If the broadcaster advised on a competition web- input? Given that, of the chosen four writers, one page it was seeking entries from those of ethnic or is of mixed race, another is indigenous, a third is indigenous background, especially women, it did an immigrant, and the last is the Australian-born encourage submissions from non-heterosexual writ- child of refugees, readers must wonder if bureau- ers and the disabled, indeed, the webpage assured cratic boxes had to be ticked. that writings on the theme would be accepted from Noticeable, too, is how SBS bent its own com- anyone who cared to compete. There appeared just petition rules for one of the winning entries. Duong two firm limits. Besides a maximum length of 2000 has kept her tender memoir to a few words under the words per entry, the contest was open only to those 2000-word limit, Hicks’s well-crafted reflection on who had not previously produced a book with a her adolescence is a comfortable 1600 words, while professional publisher (writers who self-published Legha delivers his hilarious account of childhood books could compete). in a quick-paced 1200 words. These three authors In December the inaugural winners of this work within the award’s guidelines, and they carry award were announced. Over 2000 entries had been it off well. But at nearly 2200 words, Johansen’s received, a daunting number to assess. Nevertheless, disjointed piece on education—runner-up in the the two judges—Benjamin Law, author of SBS’s overall prize—clearly exceeds the stated maximum television drama The Family Law, and the indig- length. Why was this rule, required of all competi- enous novelist Melissa Lucashenko—had agreed tors, waived for an indigenous writer? on Alana Hicks as the overall winner and Nadia Johansen as runner-up, while pieces by Amy Duong my Duong’s carefully nuanced entry is framed and Nakul Legha were highly commended (for at beginning and end with thoughts on plas- which the authors each received $1000). All four Atic chairs. In itself this utility item has little seem- entries were promptly published on SBS’s website. ing value. “It is cheap and versatile, and it goes with absolutely no one’s décor,” she affirms. Yet iversity in a multicultural sense certainly for Vietnamese families custom has weighted the describes the final four. Juggling stylistic qual- plastic chair with meaning, because these chairs— Dities and emotional content with political overtones, lots of them—are necessary for community events, the selection is mixed. The two winning entries traditional family gatherings and essential rites of portray their authors as quietly suffering in com- passage. “It weighs almost nothing; it represents munities riven with bigotry. One gets herself out of so much,” the author continues. “It is culture. It is this bad situation. The other does not. These pieces nostalgia.” are quite a contrast to the two highly commended This is a roundabout and subtle way for Duong memoirs, which are psychologically rich reminis- to introduce arrangements for her aunt’s funeral,

84 Quadrant March 2021 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia which occurred a decade ago when the author had “sterling” and “currency”, where new generations left home and was attending university. She reflects consciously spurned the county accents, dialect on this senior family figure, a connection to a vague words and behaviour patterns of settler (and former past, who spoke Chinese-accented Vietnamese and convict) parents, thereby shaping a distinctly new had endured much before fleeing communist repres- hybrid culture—the emerging culture of Australia. sion by clambering aboard “a fishing boat in the We may no longer call the independently-minded, middle of night to set sail for an uncertain future”. locally-born daughter of immigrant parents “Betsy Fixing upon her strained relations with this bandicoot”, but we do know the consternation and figure, Duong muses over the bafflement of emotional turbulence these girls provoke in their immigrant parents and relatives who helplessly families and communities. So if Duong writes as watch their Melbourne-born children grow up not the child of Vietnamese who came to Melbourne as another generation of Vietnamese, but as young in the late twentieth century, on another level the Australians with different aspirations and outlooks. changes she undergoes mirror what occurs to so The adults are not pleased. Duong counts the number many migrants: Italians setting down roots in post- of Vietnamese words she can remember—it shrinks war Adelaide, say, or even families from Shropshire each year—and recalls her childhood, realising arriving in early Hobart Town. with sadness that previously shared customs, ideals, Amy Duong concludes her poignant memoir values were lost as the years advanced, and how she by returning to its introductory motif, a cheap red was unable to communicate fully with her aunt’s plastic chair: “So I picked up the chair in my hands generation: and brought it closer. It was so light. It weighed almost nothing. In that moment I saw it for what it The languages my family spoke were was: an anchor to a place I knew I would not inhabit languages I was shedding, deliberately at forever.” first but then, completely by accident. I was like other immigrant children I knew who nder different circumstances one might expect had been raised on Cheez TV and starved of to come across Nakul Legha’s piece in an old representation. Australian perfection looked copyU of the New Yorker. With a strong sense of the like Dolly magazine and Home and Away; ridiculous, his writing exudes that relaxed manner it sounded like Kylie and Savage Garden. I of classic American humorists. The tone is smart, wanted to speak that language too. I wanted urbane and infectiously funny. to answer my mother’s calls on the bus without Legha recounts his efforts to embrace Australian drawing attention. values after arriving in this country at nine years of age. There is a rub. Having previously lived in This is self-evidently good writing. It’s not just Bhutan, where the media was tightly controlled, Duong’s firm clean prose, and the evocative imagery the youngster was overwhelmed by the unrestrained she handles to give form to memory, but her under- opinions heard over Sydney’s airwaves. Instantly he pinning grasp of human psychology, how she con- became an avid listener of commercial radio’s talk- tinually analyses. Describing going through her back kings: Stan Zemanek, John Laws and Alan aunt’s belongings with her mother—worn clothes Jones: patched and patched again, shabby jumpers, home- made shirts, a cache of new polyester items still with Like Homer’s Sirens luring unwitting sailors, price tags, everything packed neatly into drawers— these men first entranced me from the tinny the author is illuminating a life and its cherished speakers in the back seat of Kuljit Uncle’s ’92 values. Corolla, the grand chariot on which my parents At the same time Duong intermittently nudges and I made our entrance into Australian life. the reader, reminding us how her own story typi- fies a transformation experienced by many, many It’s a familiar tale of migrant child and inappro- migrant families. This is familiar ground to his- priate electronic media. While his parents struggled torians of immigration, indeed John Molony’s The with low-paid shift work, the impressionable young- Native Born: The First White Australians (2000) ster gobbled down every word uttered by “Jonesie” identified this pattern emerging as early as the days before school, “Stan” in the evenings, and “Lawsie” of Macquarie. He showed how the early settlement in mid-morning during term holidays. Why? What was very much a social melting pot, with families drew him? The author lists their appeal: surprised at how their offspring differed in attitudes and values. These were confident, articulate men who knew That was the famous social rift between so-called everything there was to know about being

Quadrant March 2021 85 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia

Australian. About being an Aussie battler. cally examines, a less aware younger self. An Aussie father. An Aussie patriot … Most Starting with a short vivid passage in which impressively, they were always right. Everyone she describes parts of her body as different skin who called in agreed with them. And if you shades, the New Guinea-born Hicks details the didn’t, they would shout at you until you did. anguish over her identity she experienced in her teens. She explains that her family was then This allure makes even more sense when Legha divided by geography. Due to poor public safety in mentions, in passing, how he was being teased at New Guinea—Hicks recalls the family’s car being primary school. Other children would mock his ambushed—she and her Melanesian mother had Indian accent, his mannerisms, his food prefer- moved to her deceased grandparents’ Sydney home, ences, and there were clumsy attempts at mimicry. while her European-descent father and older sib- So he craved their acceptance; “I tried everything to lings remained in Port Moresby. If safe now, she fit in,” he emphasises. struggled with a potent memory of thugs menacing Yet Legha does not grumble. Not once does he her mother with a machete. It wouldn’t go away. ease into self-pity. Instead, he fixes on the hilar- By the age of fifteen this unhealed trauma had ity of the situation, how he would sit alone on the led Hicks to what youth counsellors would call prob- small balcony of the family’s flat sipping glasses of lematic life choices, all connected with marijuana: Milo while listening to a blaring transistor radio. Attentive to the cultural markers, he changed I didn’t smoke weed to rebel. I smoked to accordingly. “I picked sides and chose favourites. quiet the night terrors. My shaky foundation Ford vs Holden. Warney vs Murali. 2UE vs 2GB,” reverberated in my brain. Made it hard to sleep. he recalls; and he aspired to be “that guy wearing To turn my brain off I needed something, and the Aussie flag as a cape at every sports event”. found it. With weed I found other alone-people, His baffled parents tried to keep up: “I impa- others who were trying to suppress a tremor. tiently corrected dad’s pronunciation when he offered to make Wedgie Mite on toast for breakfast She details her involvement with a teen circle or take us to Pijja Hut for dinner.” But when, due trying to be different in those predictable ways of to employment difficulties, they talked of moving the late 1990s. They puff dope to reckless excess, to India, the youngster insisted he would only leave sport items of punk attire, wear Doc Martens boots, Australia if given a collection of Slim Dusty albums of course, and are drawn to American “grunge” cul- to take with him. ture, to the bleak rock music of Nirvana and its sui- Throughout Legha uses humour to identify, cidal singer Kurt Cobain. Hicks stresses this took and unpick, the patterns relentlessly used on-air by place in one of Sydney’s insular affluent suburbs, successful radio personalities, the sentiments they although her prose style invests everything with traded in, their use of cloying stereotypes, the bul- the tawdry, rundown appearance of a beatnik slum lying eruptions if a caller dared disagree. At points, world. The writing is most evocative—Hicks has a this is not far from They’re a Weird Mob (1957), the gift for description. post-war novel of working-class Australia as seen She settles into her crush on “Honda Boy”, a from the viewpoint of the newly-arrived Italian pizza delivery kid and pot distributor. She names immigrant Nino Culotta (later revealed as a pseu- him this after the battered, duco-flaking Japanese donym for local boy John O’Grady). Still clinging car he screeches around in on Friday and Saturday tenaciously to much the same opinions and idols, evenings, dropping off Hawaiians or Margaritas Sydney’s blue-collar “battlers” seem hardly to have ordered by phone with side orders of marijuana. changed in the six decades since. She had not previously had a boyfriend. There have Legha does make a cultural faux pas at the end been interested youths, although their vulgar pre- by casting Australians as displaced Englishmen. It’s liminaries to asking her out (“You’re not Asian, are one thing jibing at the national flag’s colours, but are you? Because I don’t date Asians”) had turned her we really to believe the other pupils befriended at well off. his Parramatta school were all of “Anglo” descent? During her sixteenth year, she and Honda Nonetheless, Legha delivers an adept piece. Each Boy became a couple, and life melted into a mel- line is put to use, and his wit sparkles. low fusion of dope, pizza, sex and thumping music inside the ageing caravan parked behind her fam- he consciously literary piece by Alana Hicks is ily’s weatherboard home. For her everything seemed also about craving acceptance. Like Duong’s fulfilled until one day, when the pair were loitering Tand Legha’s entries, it employs a high level of self- aimlessly in a street, and her beau made an offhand reflection where the mature adult recalls, and criti- remark: “You know, I wouldn’t be with you if you

86 Quadrant March 2021 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia looked like your mother.” cation; although there does appear a snag. When Those wounding words were a wake-up call. the tutor urges students to talk openly (“C’mon Feeling utterly used, the adolescent takes stock: don’t be afraid to say what comes to your mind”), “Through Honda Boy I saw teenage white culture, the author, who avoids mixing (“Make sure not to the music and skating, the casual misogyny, the sit next to anyone who’d talk to me. The woman is cruelty of class. I was white enough to be accepted calling me but I ignore her”), reveals she does not …” In an implicit way she has witnessed her mother approve of non-Aborigines discussing indigenous made victim again; which leads the teenager to have issues (“I breathe out, preparing to be discussed a hard look at those she knocks about with, how by the kids who learned from the coloniser’s text- they scorn her Melanesian background: “I recog- book”). A gloomy soul in a seemingly happy room, nised it in a lot of the boys, they wanted a me with- she is already set against discussion before anyone out my culture, without my mother. A mask.” speaks. So Hicks pulls away and, gravitating to Sydney’s It soon emerges that fellow students are unfa- inner-west, now seeks out friends who will accept miliar with Yothu Yindu or their music. Johansen her for who she is. Emotional growth is taking thinks this disturbing: a potential indicator of place. myopic white tastes? Later another student is curious about how, in a version of the emperor’s new nder the title “How it feels to be a First Nations clothes, the guest speaker would not acknowledge person inside a colonial education system,” her Caucasian forebears but identified as solely NadiaU Johansen writes of attending university black. Johansen reacts as if referring to white ances- from the standpoint of someone try is appallingly racist. It doesn’t who identifies as indigenous. Her occur to her that the matter ought very personal narrative, which is as he finds fault by to be discussed in a university semi- much polemic as memoir, is struc- S nar. After all, even that champion tured around a tertiary seminar picking over what of black political rights, Nelson dealing with Aboriginal material. others say or do. Mandela, was puzzled when visit- She attended it during her studies ing Australia that some mixed-race at the Queensland University of This leads her to fix Aboriginal representatives he met Technology, and interweaves the on trivialities, like considered themselves intrinsically session with flashbacks from her shaved legs and dark black. past. And so the piece runs. She may Efforts to take account of the slacks, to jeer about refer to interstate prisons and colo- history and culture of indigenous “dowdy, unkind nial history, but Johansen does not peoples became a national priority cite any instance of people at uni- in the wake of the 1988 Bicentennial teachers”. Who is being versity or school behaving badly celebrations. Concerned educators, prejudiced here? towards her, or Aborigines gener- with input from community lead- ally. Instead in an aggrieved man- ers, have extensively rewritten the ner she finds fault by picking over school curriculum to embrace an Aboriginal per- what others say or do. This leads her to fix on trivi- spective. Universities have also made it a priority in alities, like shaved legs and dark slacks, to jeer about degree studies to address where possible contempo- “dowdy, unkind teachers”. Who is being prejudiced rary Aboriginal issues and pressing legal matters, here? along with proactively supporting indigenous- focused research work. t may aspire to the big statement, yet Johansen’s Johansen, a young person residing in Brisbane, laboured piece is awkwardly arranged. Some has been at the receiving end of these broad reforms Isections have headings (“Last night”, “Earlier that and innovations. The seminar in her memoir— day”, “Last week”, “Now”, “Minutes later”) and which occurred in QUT’s Creative Writing pro- there are unflagged flashbacks. Jarring switches in gram—introduced young tertiary students to Yothu prose style occur, from lyricism to internal mono- Yindi’s 1991 rock song “Treaty”, a recent poem by logue to political cant. It also doesn’t impress that the contemporary Koori writer Alison Whittaker, “Aborigines” is misspelt by inserting an i before the and television footage from a 2016 Four Corners e. But the main weakness is the author’s bitter tone, exposé on the treatment of teen males imprisoned her intense nihilism. at Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. An Taking a “them-versus-us” view of educators indigenous guest speaker also gave a presentation. and academics, Johansen not only scorns coverage This seminar sets Johansen reflecting on her edu- of indigenous issues in university and school, she

Quadrant March 2021 87 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia impugns the disciplines of history, anthropology, Aborigines have “been storytelling and creating art even medical science, as somehow tainted by race, for a hundred thousand years. During which time and therefore not to be trusted. To this purpose, all life in the British Isles has been wiped out by she uses an unidentified textbook from her primary four separate ice ages.” Science doesn’t support this. school days as a straw man to knock down ideas she Lack of evidence means no date can be put on this rejects. “storytelling”. While there is cautious debate about She quotes that unnamed book on the early ancient rock painting here (some traces are dated at impact to indigenous health of alcohol, sugar over 21,000 years), no intact painted composition and incoming infectious diseases: “Far more of here has been dated prior to 15,000 years ago (in the aboriginies [sic] died due to diseases, such as comparison paintings at Lascaux, France, are nearly smallpox, than they did in skirmishes with the 17,000 years old, and at Altamira, Spain, 18,000 settlers. Their bodies were incapable of fighting off years old). Pigment traces at archaeological sites sug- the diseases European people brought with them,” gest body painting and painted objects were part of the passage ends. Johansen angrily responds, “Lies. Aboriginal funerary rites before this, but a line must A flat-out, blatant, glossy lies sic[ ]”. be drawn with the arrival of humans in Australia at Even as government acts to shield Aboriginal around 50,000 years ago. And that timeframe was communities from the COVID-19 pandemic, defined through electron spin resolution dating of Johansen offers no evidence to back up this medi- the Lake Mungo remains, and other sites in Asia. cal claim; nor does she appear to grasp the his- As for the entire flora and fauna of Britain being torical technicalities involved. Smallpox first broke exterminated not once, but four times over in the out at Port Jackson in April 1789 and proceeded time cited, this is fantasy. Glacial episodes meant to rip through native communities around Sydney there were periods when humans withdrew south, Harbour. Survival rates for the virus have since but nature continued. Given the tenor of the piece been quantified by medical science, which in turn it is tempting to wonder if we see a Freudian slip has enabled statisticians to use the known numbers here, cataclysms being visited upon the evil colonis- of Aborigines in the region during the 1790s to help ers’ forebears. estimate the indigenous population before settlement. Much the same goes for areas afflicted by linical psychologists would spot a telling differ- assorted diseases across the continent, statisticians ence across the four memoirs selected by SBS’s using known post-epidemic Aboriginal numbers judges.C Alana Hicks, Amy Duong and Nakul Legha in geographic regions when approximating original reflect upon and explain the behaviour of them- populations. selves and others. There is psychological insight to Quoting again from her unspecified school- their writing. Sticking with surface actions, Nadia book (“Indigenous peoples don’t view the land like Johansen hardly does this. Europeans do. They believe they can’t own land Likewise there are differences in the prejudiced because they are part of the land”), Johansen sweep- behaviour portrayed. Hicks and Legha endured ingly accuses all scholars of ignoring Aboriginal nakedly racist attitudes and taunts from their young perceptions of nature, adding, “White historians peers as they grew up. Their memoirs discuss their can’t see that every single thing in the world is struggle to deal with this. In contrast Johansen frets connected.” and upsets herself over what others around her, who This is manifestly wrong. Understanding how neither mention race nor attempt any harm, do or indigenes construe their world has been a goal say. for historians and anthropologists for a century Then there is evidence of trauma. Hicks is deeply at least—the pioneer of field research Bronisław troubled by memories of an assault on her mother in Malinowski wrote in 1922 that modern anthropol- New Guinea; and the aunt at the focus of Duong’s ogy aims “to grasp the native’s point of view, his piece at times furtively alluded to living through the relation to life, to realize his vision of his world”. wartime Tet offensive, as well as encounters with The outcome of this in Australia has been an ever- bandits and pirates. In a method symptomatic of expanding corpus of books, journal articles and violence survivors, both these people bury personal conference papers on how native communities tra- memory, pushing direct experiences behind them. ditionally perceive and act in harmony with their Medical professionals will identify this behaviour environment. One cannot miss that copious mate- straight away; likewise for relatives of some former rial when seriously studying Aboriginal culture: not soldiers. The trauma sufferer avoids saying what that Johansen exhibits familiarity with even the happened to them, keeping their minotaur at bay. standard authorities or studies. Johansen does not behave like this. Instead, she Her most exaggerated claim is to declare that obsesses about events either in interstate prisons or

88 Quadrant March 2021 Growing Up in SBS’s Australia centuries before she was born, raking over brutal it too”), and there is a flashback to related family things. The award’s judges praise her for exposing car trips. By her account those childhood drives ongoing trauma, and an undercurrent of suffering were accompanied by a gory parental commentary: within schools and university campuses; but I can’t natives were killed along that road, her mother detect involuntary responses here, those telltale said, Aborigines fought and died over there, or a signs of inner distress. Concealment and avoidance battle occurred by this hill. She didn’t stop. When are missing. Actually, as recreation before her Johansen’s brother asks to play “I spy”, their mother university seminar Johansen sat up much of the forbids it, saying, “They massacred your ancestors night viewing videos of physical abuse (“Death around here.” So the impressionable children had to and violence in all their forms press in close to sit mutely and imagine men “chasing the car with my body”). This is inconsistent with trauma. Rape whips and shotguns”. victims, for example, do not watch films featuring “Those poor kids,” I thought on reading this. rough sex. “What a way to grow up.” Elsewhere Johansen recalls how as a child she brought into the “colonial” schoolroom views aired Christopher Heathcote, who lives in Melbourne, is at home (“Mum made sure I knew my history a regular contributor to Quadrant on art, film and and I was glad my classmates would be hearing society.

For Paul

We must forget the sea, the sails hushed like stars, the long forged path forgotten, the snows of years left on waves tolling like bells no one hears except the night. Last night The wounds from old battles turn red as the sunset, A film and a drink then a stroll through streets the horizon a waterfall where at night when souls communicate like stars days turn to shadow shall pulsing from across the road while the clock tower plunge the boat to a floor spears silence, loneliness and point their hands of scattered stars. to dreamless skies and cleaners roll in streets, With each revolution, and vagrants sleep in old sheets wrestling Bacchus. the seasons remind In the distance shines the harbour bridge, and the ice from graves gilt light it casts upon the waters wrinkling to lift its veil and walk with with time. The arch is made of bones in which the sun to the edge of the world. I see the gestalt, doomed as eternity, Here I shall see you evermore and the course my invented self treads through the keyhole of heaven beside the slapping tides and road signs. where time retraces its path I have nothing more and nothing less than time. on the bounty of night. Before dawn colours the sky, I reach rock A pyre on the water burns, where gulls build their homes and watch the ocean and waits for your return. crashing into stone. So booming waves cradle me as they break, and with one step I tread across the cliff and walk on air.

Jason Morgan

Quadrant March 2021 89 Barry Gillard

Air, War and Words Facing Oblivion in Germany

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions. all history is reduced to nature. This has the —W.H. Auden, “Hic et Ille” (1956) salutary effect of making historic evils, like national divisions and political hatreds, seem n 1783, an unmanned hydrogen balloon was absurd. I look down from an airplane upon a released from the area of Paris known as the stretch of land which is obviously continuous. Champ de Mars. It flew northwards for forty- That, across it, marked by a tiny ridge or river five minutes, followed by chasers on horseback, and or even by no topographical sign whatever, I there should run a frontier, and that the human landed at the village of Gonesse, whose bemused inhabitants immediately attacked it with pitch- beings living on one side should hate or refuse forks. Later that year, before 400,000 spectators, to trade with or be forbidden to visit those on two men in a balloon ascended to a height of nearly the other side, is instantaneously revealed to me 2000 feet. They flew for two hours and covered a as ridiculous. Unfortunately, I cannot have this distance of thirty-six kilometres. The first military revelation without simultaneously having the application of a hydrogen balloon occurred in 1794, illusion that there are no historical values either. when a tethered French apparatus was deployed to From the same height I cannot distinguish observe manoeuvres by the Austrian army during between an outcrop of rock and a Gothic the Battle of Fleurus. cathedral, or between a happy family playing A century later, the completion of Gustave in a backyard and a flock of sheep, so that I am Eiffel’s eponymous tower (built incidentally on the unable to feel any difference between dropping a same patch of land where the first balloon had been bomb upon one or the other. released) enabled the ordinary citizenry of Paris— and a large number of visitors to that city’s 1889 A little over a decade earlier, the Royal Air World Fair—to view that which lay beneath them Force alone had dropped one million tons of incen- as something akin to a series of abstract patterns. diary bombs on enemy territory. Six hundred thou- This was an experience to be marvelled at, for the sand civilians were killed, three and a half million sense of detachment it gave from the busy activity homes destroyed and seven and a half million citi- of the environs below. zens left homeless. During an operation known as Move forward just over a decade and America’s Gomorrah, the saturation bombing of Hamburg, Wright brothers make the first aeroplane flight in groups of people were incinerated so effectively that 1903, while the Frenchman Louis Blériot, to the glee collecting their remains required only a single bas- of all, defies the breadth of the English Channel by ket. In other cities, the firestorms confused the local air in 1909; by which date, most people will have flora, so that in their aftermath, chestnuts and lilacs viewed a photograph of some part of the earth as it which had somehow miraculously survived flow- appears when seen from above. ered a second time. In Berlin, giraffes wandered Seventy years after the first person had handed down streets while many of their less fortunate over five francs and ridden Eiffel’s mechanical lifts neighbours at that city’s zoo were eaten rather than to the tower’s uppermost deck, W.H. Auden, in his let their flesh go to waste. Staff at besieged railway essay “Hic et Ille” (1956), makes observations on stations reported women in such states of trauma, what had become, by then, routine travel by air at a that in their haste to escape, they had stuffed dead height of 10,000 feet and where: children into suitcases along with clothes and belongings. In Dresden, thousands wandered into the earth appears to the human eye as it nearby forests in a catatonic state. appears to the eye of the camera; that is to say, A BBC Home Service radio broadcast, “live”

90 Quadrant March 2021 Air, War and Words from one of the Lancaster heavy bombers used in a to express doubts of a German victory. A survival Berlin raid, illuminates as to the varied backgrounds mode based on ignorance also needs to be fuelled of some of its crew. The reporter, Wynford Vaughan- by denial. One rumour—to counteract other less Thomas, informs us that Scottie had been a cinema palatable rumours—does the rounds to the effect projectionist in Glasgow and that Connolly is an that Winston Churchill has expressly given orders “Aussie from Brisbane”. We learn also that the mid- for Dresden not be bombed because his American upper gunner had been in advertising and that the grandmother had once enjoyed staying there. rear gunner had farmed in Sussex. When the attack Hamburg’s Gomorrah was extensively written begins, Vaughan-Thomas describes it as “running about by Hans Erich Nossack, a writer that Sebald straight into the most gigantic display of sound- cites as the only genuine exception to his thesis. In less fireworks in the world”. Another voice offers, The End: Hamburg, 1943, Nossack describes raids “By God, that looks like a bloody good show!” and where: another, “Best I’ve seen” and then “Oh boy!” I wished very clearly: let it be a very bad one! n two essays, “Between History and Natural I felt it so very clearly that I might almost say History” and “Air War and Literature”, the that I cried that wish alone to heaven. It was formerI written before his Zürich lectures (1997) not courage but curiosity to see if my wish and the latter afterwards, the German writer W.G. would be granted that never let me go down Sebald argues that, despite the total destruction to the cellar but held me spellbound on the of German cities, there was amongst Germans “a apartment balcony. tacit agreement, equally binding on everyone, that the true state of material and moral ruin in which Many years later he would speak of “the totally the country found itself was not to be described”. unreal kind of reality in which we had to spend Further: “People’s ability to forget what they do not years … accepting it as the form of existence allot- want to know, to overlook what is before their eye, ted to us”. was seldom put to the test better than in Germany It was an existence that became more bizarre still at that time.” as Germany floundered. Florian Huber’s Promise He speaks of growing up in Germany (he was Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary born in 1944) with the distinct impression, at home Germans in 1945 (2019) tells of Hitler Youth mem- and at school, that to speak of the closure of the bers handing out cyanide capsules on April 12 at war in particular was taboo. As an adult he was the close of the final wartime concert by the Berlin surprised that it was barely mentioned in post-war Philharmonic. Huber estimates that 4000 suicides German literature. And while he acknowledged occurred during the Battle of Berlin (April/May that a right to silence was “inviolable”, the ques- 1945) and quotes estimates that, in the aftermath, tion for Sebald remained “of why German writers as many as 10,000 women may have suicided after would not or could not describe the destruction of being raped. the German cities as millions experienced it”. Photographs taken by Margaret Bourke-White Before looking for definitive answers in the after- and Lee Miller under the auspices of the Allied math of the Allied carpet bombing of Germany, it Forces depict Ernst Kurt Lisso, the once deputy may prove useful to look at the populace of Dresden mayor and city treasurer of Leipzig at his desk— immediately before that city’s annihilation (on slumped across it in fact—since he has not long February 13, 1945) as an example of a group that taken his poison. So has his adult daughter, who is had already developed a skill base centred around sprawled on a settee, one of her lifeless arms bearing the necessity to ignore. Daily life requires at least an armband with the insignia of the German Red the pretence of disregarding the mutterings that Cross. Propped nearby in a chair is the dead Mrs Germany is losing the war—as well as the sto- Lisso. Miller supposed that the Leipzig Town Hall ries of rape and mutilation concomitant with the had planned a “great party, toasted death and Hitler Soviet advance. Best too, not to make much of the and poisoned themselves” for in adjoining rooms growing rumours of death camps. Dresden has were many other bodies including the mayor and embraced slavery: in the revamped factories such his family and the Commander of the Volkssturm. as Zeiss Ikon, former inmates of the Flossenbürg, Auschwitz and Ravensbrück labour camps are put eipzig’s top echelon had found mirror time to work for long hours with no pay and little food. demanding. Auden wrote of mirrors: “some Five days before Dresden burns, a rural medical magnify,L some diminish, others return lugubrious, practitioner has been guillotined. She was unwise comic, derisive, or terrifying images”. We shall be enough, when treating the children of a Nazi officer, judged, he said, “by our riposte to our reflection”:

Quadrant March 2021 91 Air, War and Words

To have a face, in the European sense of the rats and flies did very well, many human survivors word, it would seem that one must enjoy and seemed content to simply give up. Even many of suffer but also desire to preserve the memory those who maintained a stronger will did so only by of even the most humiliating and unpleasant accepting a form of primitivism: becoming nomads experiences of the past. and scroungers, or living underground in what were essentially urban caves. In Hamburg in 1946, the Sebald would agree. And this had also been the ever-inquisitive journalist Dagerman interviewed a sentiment expressed poetically by Bertolt Brecht, in bank clerk who had been living as a “caveman” for “Motto”, written while exiled in Denmark in the three years. late 1930s: For Sebald, it was Nossack alone who understood the difficulty of immediate post-war writing In the dark times, in Germany. Essentially it amounted to the fact Will there also be singing? that memory itself had become shameful—and Yes, there will be singing. unmentionable. Ponderers of the past ran the risk, About the dark times. in Sebald’s view, of being turned into Hamlet-types, ripe for admonishment by the machinery of an inev- It is important, and at some point redemptive, itable new power base. This difficulty became more not to forget. pronounced with time. Why? Because the accept- A selective memory operates in works such as able new view which evolved would necessarily con- Erich Kästner’s When I Was a Little Boy (1959). He sole itself with the idea that the destruction of the describes Dresden as having been a wonderful city, old was an opportunity to be rid of historical burden. adding: Over time the new view would become eulogised as the prospect of—in the western part of Germany’s And you have to take my word for it, because post-war carving up at least—economic miracle. none of you, no matter how rich your father may Ironically, however, this new view would be clearly be, can go there to see if I am right. For the city dependent on, in Sebald’s view, the same “unques- of Dresden is no more … In one single night … tioning work ethic” which had been “learned in a the Second World War wiped it off the map … totalitarian society”. By 1975, the new view would be exported worldwide: witness to this, the insistent But he chooses not to dwell on the dark times, advice of crazed hotelier Basil Fawlty in the episode nor what he sees as only futility in apportioning of the British television comedy Fawlty Towers titled blame. “The Germans”: “Don’t mention the war!” Sebald relates how, in 1946, the Swedish jour- When news of Germany’s capitulation reached nalist Stig Dagerman wrote of having felt exposed Thomas Mann in California, it seems to have reg- as a foreigner on a crowded German train, simply istered only a sort of numbness. The May 1945 dia- because he was the only one in his carriage prepared ries of Germany’s most famous exile and its most to look through a window. In the British Occupied vehement critic of National Socialism critic revealed Zone, Victor Gollancz writes of witnessing a “leth- only, “What I feel is not exactly rejoicing.” After a argy” and “lassitude” so profound in German pedes- time, he comes to ask, “Rejection and condemnation trians which, combined with an obliviousness to of the crimes committed by National Socialism at their surroundings, had him constantly fearing that home and abroad; expression of desire to get back he would run them down in his motor car. to truth, justice and humanity—where are they?” A country that had bragged to the rest of the A keen student of Nietzsche, he may have had world of its intentions to sanitise Europe, now cause to remember the dictum: “He who despises ironically found its devastated cities being overrun himself nevertheless esteems himself as a self- by every form of vermin, parasite and contagion. despiser.” Whatever the case, he felt obliged to Nossack writes of the dead bodies in shelters cov- write: “Everything German is affected and called ered by flies. Corpses in some air shelters need to be into question, including the German mind, German cremated in situ, using flame throwers. ideas, the German word …” One of Franz Kafka’s diary entries for August o why was it that German literature, for the most 1914 reads: “Germany declared war on Russia. part, turned its back? Sebald’s premise is that, Swimming lesson in the afternoon.” Flippant yes, onS the one hand, the assumed “order” associated but not glib—for the two statements brilliantly and within the construct we call “natural history” had deliberately convey the idea of the great divide which at least for a time been disassembled. He speaks of lies between mere words and the horrors of war. “a biological reflex set off by destruction”. While the An entry in Mann’s August diaries for 1945

92 Quadrant March 2021 Air, War and Words strangely echoes that of Kafka and reads: “Went like a man turned to stone.” to Westwood to buy white shoes and coloured As the end approached, Johannes and Hildegard shirts.—First raid on Japan with bombs utilising came to accept that they would be seen to have the energy of the split atom (uranium).” been complicit in the abominations that had been The Second World War had left the old town described to them. They knew that with the Soviet of Glatz, in Lower Silesia, unscathed. There had advance, there must be consequences. been no bombings, no bullet had been fired. For Not long after the Russians entered the town— Johannes Theiner and his wife Hildegard it was and having already heard that a local doctor had only the prospect of war’s end and a German defeat killed his wife and daughters, then himself, and that delivered the onset of fear. Johannes had taught also that a local landlord had hanged his wife— Latin in one of the Adolf Hitler Schools, so named Johannes shot Hildegard, then shot himself. Those because they catered for the children of the Nazi who discovered the bodies found Hildegard’s diary elite. The Theiners’ foreboding was intensified by a lying beside them. Its final entry asks: “Who will visit to Glatz by a past pupil who was on leave from think of us, who will know how we ended? Do my the Eastern front and who had spoken at length of words have any meaning?” the atrocities he had witnessed. The couple had been shocked; Hildegard’s diary entry reveals: “Johannes Barry Gillard, who lives in Geelong, is a frequent had listened to it all in silence. All evening and into literary contributor. He wrote on James Joyce in the the night he sat pale and slumped at the window … January-February issue.

Lent in the Blue Mountains

Every day now the lengthening shadow lines of Lent. The trees here are tinged with amber, silence their best companion. We are entering a winsome world, where a russet sadness renders every scene, coolness clings to every plan and timber is stacked beside the house for wood fires. In the evenings we draw a blanket up, and read into the darkening hours, conscious of the journey that is coming. The Lone Wolf Every year we map these shortening days, this bruised beauty before our hearts, Rapacious God, devouring me with love, strolling through quiet streets ablaze like a lone wolf howling at my door, with the colours of grace, knocking, scratching, pleading, banners for a life that banished death. as the storm winds buffet my living room. I am alone with you without, for without you I am caught within a place where longing cries to turn the latch, for you to feed my hungry heart with bread and wine. The wolf and lamb together are divine.

Peter Stiles

Quadrant March 2021 93 Rob Long

In Search of Woody Allen

he worst part about reading Woody Allen’s 1960s, hurtles through knock-off big-screen sex winning and witty memoir, Apropos of comedies, soars higher with his own idiosyncratic Nothing, is finding a bookshop willing to and critically acclaimed masterpieces of American sellT it. It’s essentially been banned in New York film, and eventually comes thudding down to earth City bookstores, as I found when I went to three thanks to a messy family scandal. of my local shops and asked the (often pierced and A quick recap of the plot, for those readers who tattooed) person behind the counter where I might may need it. In 1993, Woody Allen was accused find a copy. of molesting his seven-year-old daughter Dylan. At the first shop the gender-fluid young person at He categorically denied it at the time, and during the desk tapped dutifully at the computer keyboard a subsequent court proceeding the matter was and then looked up and said, “Yeah, we don’t have exhaustively investigated, resulting in all charges that one.” being dropped. He also famously married Soon-Yi “You sold out? Are you ordering more?” Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime A withering glance, and then: “We aren’t girlfriend Mia Farrow, after a five-year relationship planning to carry it, so, um, no.” that began when Soon-Yi was barely twenty-one. So I moved on. At my second stop, I got a In other words, just the kind of alt-family non- quick head shake and a “Nope, not here,” delivered binary transgressive blurring of rules and lines in a breezy and non-judgmental tone which I you’d think bookstore types would love. Give him appreciated. At my third, a sad shake of the head a made-up exotic name and they’d be holding book and a simple, “No no,” as if I should have known signings for him. better than to inquire about the possibility of The small, independent bookshops of Man purchasing the recently-published autobiography hattan, apparently, don’t see it that way. So I did of an internationally acclaimed film director at a what I should have done at the very beginning, bookshop in his hometown. I felt like a guy ordering what you’re not supposed to do if you care about a bacon cheeseburger at a halal restaurant. books and literary things, and I ordered the book on Woody Allen is an eighty-five-year-old who has Amazon. It arrived at my door in forty-eight hours, been a professional in the entertainment industry in a simple Amazon envelope, unaccompanied by since the 1950s. He has worked with some of the scornful snorts or offended eyebrows. most famous and talented people in show business; Look, I did my best to support my local found success in television, movies and the stage; bookstores, but they apparently have a rule: if we and would have a bookcase groaning with award don’t approve of it, you’re not allowed to read it. statuettes were he ever to bother to show up to On the other hand, it was a lot easier for me the ceremonies to collect them. The long arc of to buy the book than it was for Woody Allen to his career starts at the birth of television in live find a publisher. When the book was originally comedy and variety shows, traces its way through announced, the publisher, Hachette, crowed proudly smoky hipster stand-up comedy nightclubs of the about landing the memoirs of an American cultural icon. But as the book neared publication, the house faced a public rebuke from Dylan and her brother, Apropos of Nothing Ronan—who is also published by a Hachette by Woody Allen division. Ronan is a best-selling author and is a Skyhorse, 2020, 400 pages, US$30 well-known chronicler of the #MeToo movement.

94 Quadrant March 2021 In Search of Woody Allen

In response to Hachette’s decision to publish his metaphors, with Pavlovian anticipation. I saw father’s memoirs, Ronan Farrow announced that them all, every comedy, any cowboy movie, love he would no longer allow Hachette to publish his story, pirate picture, war film. works. Undeterred, the CEO of the company made a bold and unequivocal statement reaffirming his And what he liked best were movies about rich commitment to publishing Allen’s book: “We do people who lived uptown, what he calls “champagne not allow anyone’s publishing program to interfere comedies”: with anyone else’s.” A few days later, after a fractious meeting with I loved stories that took place in penthouses near-mutinous employees, came the equivocations. where the elevator opened into the apartment “On second thought, maybe we do,” was the and corks popped, where suave men who spoke message sent when the book was pulled from the witty dialogue romanced beautiful women who Hachette list and the rights were returned to the lounged around the house in what someone author. The publishing of Apropos of Nothing fell now might wear to a wedding at Buckingham to an outfit called Skyhorse, perhaps best known Palace. for publishing Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s disgraced former attorney, and Alan Dershowitz, One of the delights of this book is that we, an attorney who defies categorisation. of course, know how it turns out. We know that Allen eventually gets out of Brooklyn and onto o when the book finally arrived in my hands, Fifth Avenue and a penthouse apartment of his it had taken a tortuous and nearly fatal journey own, which lends the early part of the book a Sto get there. Which leaves the reader with an odd classic American tone. It’s a show-business rags- feeling, because the book isn’t a tendentious and to-riches yarn, the story of a funny kid who turned inflamed thing at all. It’s a lilting, shaggy-dog set his daydreams into a pile of dollars, a version of The of memories and reflections, an utterly charming Great Gatsby—complete with dazzling parties, rich stroll through the best parts of American popular New Yorkers, and a judicious name change. James culture. Parts are laugh-out-loud funny, parts are Gatz becomes Jay Gatsby, and Allan Konigsberg disarmingly self-deprecating and honest, but all of becomes Woody Allen, though of the two of them it is light and breezy and without a trace of ran- it’s Allen who is the more honest. cour. And if you’re a fan of Allen’s movies—and “I don’t have an intellectual neuron in my even if you’re not—his voice and mannerisms are head,” Allan declares—and repeats several times etched so permanently in your head that you don’t throughout the book. It tickles him that people see so much read his book as imagine he’s sitting next him as a smartypants, as a reader of philosophy, as to you, spinning it all like the best show-business a guy who thinks big thoughts. “I have no insights, story ever. no lofty thoughts, no understanding of most poems The book starts in a long-lost New York, with that do not begin, ‘Roses are red, violets are blue’,” a young Woody going to the movies and being he declares: transported: What I do have, however, is a pair of black- The pop music of the day was Cole Porter, rimmed glasses, and I propose that it is these Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, specs, combined with a flair for appropriating George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Billie snippets from erudite sources too deep for me to Holiday, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey. So here grasp but which can be utilized in my work to I am inundated with such beautiful music and give the deceptive impression of knowing more movies. First, a double feature every week, then than I do that keeps this fairy tale afloat. as the years pass, I go more and more. Such excitement to enter the Midwood Saturday And just in case we’re not buying it, he itemises morning while the house lights were still on his ignorance: and a small crowd bought their candy and filed in as some pop record played to keep the seat You would be shocked to know what I don’t takers from mutinying till the lights dimmed. know and haven’t read or seen. After all, I Harry James—“I’ll Get By”. The sconce shades am a director, a writer. I’ve never seen a live were red, the fixtures gold brass, the carpets production of Hamlet. I’ve never seen Our Town, red. At last the lights go down and the curtains in any version. I never read Ulysses, Don Quixote, part and the silver screen lights up with a logo Lolita, Catch-22, 1984, no Virginia Woolf, no that makes the heart salivate, if I may mix my E.M. Forster, no D.H. Lawrence. Nothing by

Quadrant March 2021 95 In Search of Woody Allen

the Brontës or Dickens. On the other hand, nd then came the Troubles. During Allen’s long I’m one of the few guys in my peer group who relationship with Mia Farrow, they maintained read Joseph Goebbels’s novel. Yes, Goebbels, separateA homes—Farrow’s apartment was directly the gimpy little suppository who flacked for the across Central Park from Allen’s, and when they Fuhrer tried his hand at a novel called Michael, had children together, Allen would walk across the and don’t you think the main character had all park to be with them in the morning and at bed- the anxiety of the nervous lover anxious for the time. It was already a strange relationship, and then girl to like him. it got stranger. In 1977, Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre He reels off a few more confessions—he hasn’t Previn had adopted a girl, Soon-Yi, who had been seen Ben Hur or Mr Deeds Goes to Town—and it all abandoned on the streets of Seoul. Soon-Yi lived seems effortlessly casual and improvised. He’s in with Farrow, and over time the Farrow household the middle of talking about his schooldays and he included fourteen children, three of whom were the keeps dropping asides and flash-forwards, like an biological offspring of Farrow and Previn, one of avuncular story-teller pretending to lose his place, whom of Farrow and Allen. when in fact he’s simply softening us up for what’s In 1992, Soon-Yi began a sexual relationship to come. It’s impossible to tell if Allen is being with Woody Allen, who was at that time her disingenuous here—it’s all awfully entertaining and adopted mother’s on-again-off-again boyfriend. genuinely shocking that a famous Mia Farrow discovered this, the American film director hasn’t seen story hit the tabloids, it was the Mr Smith Goes to Washington— t’s clearly a painful source of late-night talkshow jokes but whatever it is, it’s excellent I and stand-up comedy routines for story craft. The next section of set of memories weeks. By the way, this is not the the memoir recounts his nearly for Allen, but his strange part. unimpeded rise to the top, amid A few months after discovering critical acclaim, financial windfalls show-business instincts the relationship between Soon-Yi and plenty of sex. It’s a smart move serve him well in the and Allen, Farrow accused Allen to have established early on that he telling. His tone is of sexually abusing their adopted knows that he’s full of it. daughter, Dylan. The charges were If you’ve been paying attention sharply confident but investigated by the Child Sexual to American culture for the past never self-pitying. Abuse Clinic at Yale-New Haven fifty years, you already know the Hospital, along with the New York highpoints of the second half of Child Welfare Agency, and both the book. Woody Allen goes from sketch comedy agencies cleared Allen of any wrongdoing. By 1993, writer to stand-up comic—with a few hiccups the case was closed. Part of the Farrow family still along the way—and emerges, in the early 1970s, maintains Allen’s guilt. Mia, Ronan and Dylan as a comic powerhouse. From there he delivers an continue to insist that Woody Allen is a paedophile. astonishing number of movies—nearly one a year His adopted son, Moses, his wife Soon-Yi, and the for thirty years—including some of the funniest relevant law enforcement authorities, declare him and smartest pictures ever made by an American. innocent. He also made some absolute stinkers, about which Since then, Allen and Soon-Yi have adopted two he is both honest and witty. children of their own. Mia Farrow has also adopted During that time, Woody Allen’s studio partners five more children (she seems to collect them) and gave him absolute artistic control over every aspect has named one of them after the judge who heard of his projects, something rare in the movie business. the molestation case against Allen. That, by the Allen could write, direct and cast each picture as he way, is the strange part. saw fit. The successes and failures of each project The pace and wit of the book don’t flag during could be attributed to Woody Allen alone, and his this saga. It’s clearly a painful set of memories for work reflects that idiosyncratic and singular vision. Allen, but his show-business instincts serve him Actors and actresses clamoured to work with well in the telling. His tone is sharply confident him, despite the low budgets and low pay of his but never self-pitying. He settles the scores with productions. Actresses especially: Allen’s movies dispassion and, here and there, some pretty big have garnered two Best Actress Oscar winners— laugh lines. Diane Keaton in Annie Hall and Cate Blanchett In the years between the accusations of child in Blue Jasmine—as well as four Best Supporting molestation and 2014, Allen directed and released Actress Oscar winners and six nominations. nearly twenty pictures. He worked with a lot of

96 Quadrant March 2021 In Search of Woody Allen famous people—Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in the bedroom, tweeting on his fife”). I turn Robin Williams, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh out the pages, dote on Soon-Yi, and peel off Grant, Sean Penn, Owen Wilson and more—and twenties so my kids can go see movies that are his movies continued to earn just enough to allow not as good as ones I saw for twelve cents. How him to make more. The old accusations of sexual would I sum up my life? Lucky. Many stupid abuse were ancient history. mistakes bailed out by luck. My biggest regret? They were revived twenty years later by Ronan, Only that I’ve been given millions to make Dylan and Mia Farrow—the children were now movies, total artistic control, and I never made in their late twenties—and the scandal spilled a great film. If I could trade my talent for any out onto front pages once again. But this time, other person’s, living or dead, who would it be? with leverage. Ronan Farrow, Woody’s biological No contest—Bud Powell. Though Fred Astaire’s son, was now a celebrity in his own right, with a right up there. Who in history do I most promising journalism career well under way (he admire? Shane, but he’s fictional. Any women? won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018) and his own show There have been so many I’ve admired, from on MSNBC, a left-leaning cable news channel. In standards like Eleanor Roosevelt and Harriet 2014, the son’s star was on the rise and the father’s Tubman to Mae West and my cousin Rita. I’ll star was setting. Ronan led the charge against his finally say, Soon-Yi. Not because if I don’t, she’ll father, in the pages of the New York Times and the kneecap me with the rolling pin, but because airtime of MSNBC. she hit the cruel streets alone at five to try for a As a result, Woody Allen began to be denounced better life and despite dreadful obstacles made retroactively by many of the actors and producers one for herself. he had worked with—even those who appeared in his films after the sexual abuse charges had It’s a book of lessons and stories, a recounting been lodged, investigated and dismissed. His film of mistakes and wrongs—both the kind you do to financing began to dry up, his movies struggled to others and the kind they do in return—but it’s also find distribution, and his memoirs were rejected by a funny and forgiving book. Because life is funny. his publisher and remain a pain in the neck to buy. And life also requires forgiveness along with the But it bears remembering: Woody Allen wasn’t laughs. The final lines in Allen’s masterpiece, Annie cancelled because of something that he did, but Hall, put it this way: because of something that he had become. In 1994, Woody Allen was an acclaimed film director at the It reminds me of that old joke—you know, a top of his career. Twenty years later he was nearly guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and says, eighty. Nothing about the sexual abuse allegations hey doc, my brother’s crazy! He thinks he’s had changed—there was no new evidence, no a chicken. Then the doc says, why don’t you mystery witnesses came forward. The only difference turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I was, the father was an old man and near the end need the eggs. I guess that’s how I feel about of his career and the son was becoming a star, and relationships. They’re totally crazy, irrational, in Hollywood there’s only one way this could go. and absurd, but we keep going through it People sided with the son. People prefer the Young because we need the eggs. King. I have my copy of Apropos of Nothing sitting on a omehow, Woody Allen recounts this sequence of table near the door of my apartment in New York. events without curdling the entire narrative with My plan is to return to the bookstores I visited bitternessS and rage. From a distance, it’s a pretty when I was looking for a copy, march up to the very powerful ending to an American life that begins Jacobins and bluestockings who sniffed and gasped in the hardscrabble streets of Brooklyn and syn- at me when I asked for it, and offer to lend them copates its way to Fifth Avenue, Hollywood, fame my copy. Yes, they should stock the book on their and riches—all to a soundtrack of Gershwin, Kern, shelves, but they should also read it. Laughter and Sidney Bechet—only to founder in an age that’s forgiveness are in short supply everywhere, of course, roiled by internet witch hunts and Twitter mobs. but nowhere more than at your local bookstore. The book is funny all the way through, even at the very end: Rob Long is a television writer and producer, author and journalist who lives in Manhattan. He was Meanwhile, I go about my middle-class life. I writer and co-executive producer of the comedy series practice my horn (or as my mother used to say, Cheers. His most recent book is Bigly: Donald Trump “Oy, I have such a headache from him sitting in Verse.

Quadrant March 2021 97 Joe Dolce

King Charles III: A Right Royal Kebab of Lèse-Majesté

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears will be the king, Camilla corrects him, “My dear his crown. … tradition holds that on the death of kings, or —Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1 scene 5 queens, the next is monarch straight away. Your father ruled the moment Granny passed.” èse-majesté translates as “injury to majesty”, A slightly chubby Prince Harry comes stagger- or an insult to the dignity of the monarch. ing out of the cathedral, a bit disoriented, wanting It was first made a crime during the Roman to “head off” because of a migraine. Prime Minister Empire.L The last prosecution for the offence in the Tristan Evans gives the King his condolences and UK was in 1715. France created another variation the press adviser to the palace, James Reiss, sug- of the law in 1789 that was known as lèse-nation, gests that the King and Prime Minister be seen to protect the new values of the Revolution; the law leaving together, Crown and State, as a sign of soli- still stands. Lèse-majesté was enforced in Japan until darity. Charles thinks this inappropriate, declaring 1946, and in Norway, where defamation of the king he needs to remain “aloft from politics and walk could get you five years in prison, as late as 2005. It with Royals alone”. is still a punishable crime in Thailand. Prince Harry has gone to a nightclub and is King Charles III is a movie, directed by Rupert having a drink with friends who introduce him to Goold, with a screenplay by Mike Bartlett, based Jessica Edwards, a black, working-class republican. on his popular West End and Broadway play of the She blurts out, “Invictus himself. So … is Charles same name. It was produced by Simon Maloney really your dad, or was it the other one?” She boldly and released by BBC2 in 2017. Like the play, the suggests he ought to take a DNA test. Harry is screenplay is written entirely in blank verse. The intrigued by her brashness. They are attracted to Telegraph called it “Outstanding and provocative … each other and go to her apartment. In the morn- the most spectacular, gripping and wickedly entering, there is a knock on the door. Reiss takes Prince taining piece of lèse-majesté that British theatre has Harry aside, advising him that the royal situation ever seen.” is unstable and the “timing” wrong for this kind of liaison. ometime in the near future, tens of thousands of King Charles is in the weekly meeting with people are lining the streets and sitting in front Prime Minister Evans and wants to discuss a bill ofS television screens to watch the sombre funeral before him addressing privacy, restricting freedom procession of Queen Elizabeth. In Westminster of the press and media, which has already passed Abbey, beneath the soaring voice of a counter-tenor the House of Commons and the House of Lords, singing in Latin, Prince Charles (played by Tim but still requires royal assent. Evans supports the Pigott-Smith), now King Charles, stands at the bill, but the King wants changes made. He has head of the royal family, watching his mother’s cof- also instituted a new policy: he will meet weekly fin carried out of the cathedral. with the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Stevens, as He delivers a Shakespearean-style monologue well as the Prime Minister, so as not to show bias beginning with the words, “At last!” musing about towards Left or Right. what he could have achieved had he become king The King ushers Evans out and Stevens in, and at a younger age. Camilla, now the queen consort, she advises him not to be bullied; that it is his approaches, assuring Charles he “did her proud”. choice whether to sign this bill or not, but sug- Prince William and Princess Catherine join them. gests that not signing could possibly cause chaos. When William mentions to his father that soon he After she leaves, Charles sees an apparition of the

98 Quadrant March 2021 King Charles III: A Right Royal Kebab of Lèse-Majesté late Princess Diana in an adjoining room but she to change his mind about the bill. William feels, vanishes. with the recent death of the Queen, this is not the The Prime Minister discreetly gives a copy of time to question his father’s authority. The Prime the bill to William and Catherine and tells them it Minister arrives and William tells Catherine to must be allowed to pass unamended. William wants leave matters with him but she refuses, stating that to leave the matter to his father but Catherine is someday she will be queen: “I do not intend to be a adamant that he must assert himself. silent partner in that regal match.” Catherine apol- At a subsequent meeting, the King tells the ogises to Evans for the stress the family is causing Prime Minister that the late Queen would not him. The Prime Minister replies that life would have have allowed a bill like this to pass. Evans says that certainly been easier for him if they had a republic. in her time she faced far greater revolution—she Catherine calls William “My nervous future king”, almost lost an empire—and reminds Charles that pressuring him to confront his father; that by doing despite her personal views, “She always signed. She nothing, he risks the future of their children and always gave consent.” The King says, “Well, I can- grandchildren: “they all look to you insisting you not.” Evans threatens that he will ensure the bill defend the Crown against this fool’s indulgence”. becomes law, even without royal assent, weaken- She suggests he find some kind of “lever” with ing the King’s power to intercede in which to force the King’s hand. future law-making. That night, William sees his The Prime Minister gives a ot only is this mother’s ghost, who foretells that press conference reminding every- N he will be the greatest king of all. one that assent is merely ceremo- babble an insult to Prince Harry goes into the local nial and will not interfere with the the real Diana’s kebab place where the cook com- law being passed. The King gives plains to him that everything has his own televised press conference memory, it’s not even fallen apart since the Queen died; from Buckingham Palace, explain- poetry, it’s cliché. people don’t know what Britain is ing that in good conscience he Dr Seuss wrote more any more. He compares it to the cannot support laws that give the meat going around his cone-shaped government the right to censor memorable couplets for vertical rotisserie: “Like this meat what is acceptable to say in print. The Cat in the Hat. here, it’s not one thing, different Jessica meets privately with pieces, different slices collected Reiss to alert him that a previous around one core piece of steel but boyfriend has some “artistic” pictures from their you take that away, it all falls apart. Maybe she is time together that could embarrass the palace. He what held it all together.” is demanding money from her or he will publish Camilla and William’s family sit at breakfast them online. watching the Power of the Crown debate on televi- The King finds that public opinion is divided sion. William asks where his father is and Camilla about the press freedom bill. Mrs Stevens visits him tells him he’s upstairs and not to be disturbed. discreetly and assures him the law will pass, with or Just as the House is about to vote, King Charles without his signature, in the next vote. He asks her storms into the chamber in full military dress and, advice and she suggests he research how William using his power of royal prerogative, dissolves par- IV resolved a similar situation. liament. Catherine, distressed, leaves the breakfast In the middle of the night, Charles sees the table, going out onto the balcony to have a ciga- ghost of Diana again. She tells him she loved him rette, whispering to herself, “Cry havoc.” and he will be a great king. People are now rioting in the streets, including Harry wakes up believing he’s heard his mother Jessica’s friends, and burning effigies of the King. scream. Downstairs he finds William, who has also Prince Harry, to remain incognito, wears a Guy heard the voice. Harry tells him he’s feeling lost Fawkes mask and discovers Jessica in the street at his role in the family now, considering himself observing the chaos. She shows him the newspa- a “ginger joke” who merely follows in his brother’s per with the compromising photographs of her but wake. He tells William that Jessica has unblink- he doesn’t care about it and just wants to leave the ered him and he sees more clearly how he is trapped royal family and live with her as a commoner. by his family tradition. All William is interested The King orders military protection for in is whether Harry will be by his side when he is Buckingham Palace and a tank is positioned behind king, according to the pact their mother made them the main gate facing the angry crowd. swear. The Prime Minister arrives for an informal Catherine presses William to persuade the King meeting with William and Catherine and argues

Quadrant March 2021 99 King Charles III: A Right Royal Kebab of Lèse-Majesté that, with parliament dissolved, William remains n extraordinary number of British film actors, the only one who can stop the unrest, otherwise it actresses and directors have extensive creden- could be the end of the monarchy. William tells the Atials in live theatre, which is probably one reason Prime Minister to return to Number 10 and that he why British films, especially those of the BBC, will face his father. are so deeply dramatic. Many of the stars of King Reiss tells King Charles that it is urgent he Charles III first appeared in the stage version, both hold a press conference immediately. William and in the West End and on Broadway. Catherine, with Reiss’s approval, meet the King at Writer Mike Bartlett adapted the screenplay the microphone, to join him in an apparent show for the movie from his play, which won the Critics’ of family solidarity, but before Charles can speak, Circle Award for Best Play of 2014. Rupert Goold William, nodding to Reiss, steps in front of his is an English theatre director with an illustrious father and commandeers the microphone. William career in directing for the stage, especially the works announces that from now on, he will mediate of Shakespeare. Composer Jocelyn Pook wrote the between the King and the House of Commons. music for the stage version of King Charles III and He tells the gathered press members that he has won a BAFTA for the film score. his father’s blessing, but it is clear that Reiss and Tim Pigott-Smith, who played King Charles, William have colluded. William thanks Catherine was an English actor best known for the series The publicly, declaring, “All of this was actually her Jewel in the Crown, for which he won the British idea. She’ll sort us out.’ Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1985. Outside in the corridor, King Charles tells Reiss that, after this “treachery”, he won’t be working for ing Charles III takes many liberties with the him any longer but Reiss has already been offered a way it attempts to “predict” a possible future job by William. forK the royal family. Prince Charles might choose Under William’s orders, the tank and the sol- another name when he is king, as many have done diers are removed from Buckingham Palace. He before him. He could be King George, King Philip meets with the King and angrily rebukes him for or even King Arthur. Camilla might not be referred initiating this public unrest and for his mistreat- to as Queen Camilla at all but could adopt the title ment of, and disloyalty to, his mother, Diana, while Princess Consort. she was alive. He proposes that his father now abdi- Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in cate and let him and Catherine be crowned at the 2018 and her mother, Doria Ragland, is African- forthcoming coronation. American. The character of Jessica Edwards fore- The Prime Minister arrives with an official abdi- told this relationship; the play was written in 2014, cation document for the King to sign but Charles and Harry met Markle in 2016. refuses, showing it to Camilla, who walks over Paul Burrell reviewed King Charles III for the and slaps William. Catherine grabs the document Mirror. Burrell was the Queen’s footman for eleven and shoves it in front of the King, demanding he years and Princess Diana’s butler. He said: sign it. Harry arrives, throwing his support behind William, and the two brothers tell their father I was amused to see Prince Charles, played by that if he doesn’t abdicate, they will leave, take the the late Tim Pigott-Smith, stomping up and grandchildren with them, and he will never see any down petulantly and throwing a book across of them again. Charles can’t bear the thought of the room at the Prime Minister, as I once had living alone so he signs the abdication document. to dodge a book at Highgrove because I had William, Catherine and Harry also sign and it is spoken with the Princess the night before about done. a personal matter. He picked the book up, On Coronation Day, Jessica arrives to attend said, “You bloody idiot!”, and threw it at me. I the ceremony but is refused admittance. Harry has managed to dodge it. removed her name from the invitation list on the request of William and Catherine, who have asked Burrell didn’t think the royal family would him to break off his relationship with her. He has watch King Charles III or even read about it. He agreed to do this and Jessica leaves in disgust and added, “It will be as if it never happened.” He hurt. doesn’t believe the Queen watched The Queen, in During the coronation ceremony, the Archbishop which she was played by Helen Mirren. He said: of Canterbury crowns Catherine but as he is about “It’s unfair to portray Kate as a Machiavellian, to place the crown on William’s head, Charles steps scheming madam only thinking of herself. She is forward, wrenching it away from him and puts it on softer, she has William’s back and William’s best his son’s head himself, saying, “God save you.” interests in mind—but she is not scheming.” But

100 Quadrant March 2021 King Charles III: A Right Royal Kebab of Lèse-Majesté he was happy to see Diana’s ghost appear: “She will is just an obstacle to their ambition. always haunt the House of Windsor.” The women characters are even worse than the Jasper Rees of the Daily Telegraph wrote, “Pure men. Diana manifests as a ghost of poor scripting televisual gelignite … Bartlett’s supremely supple and non-existent acting. Jessica is a caricature of the ear filtered the story through digestible blank verse, bull-headed far-Left activist (if such a thing is pos- meshing cod-Bard and street demotic.” sible). She plays with Harry’s affections until he’s Cod-bard is the key image here. That’s precisely hooked on her and then when he drops her, she cries what I thought every time the ghost appeared and victim. Camilla, except for slapping William (which Catherine put her figurative knee on William’s neck. I liked, but she should have also put Catherine in But it is an insult to cod. Perhaps a bottom-feeding a headlock), usually just stares with poodle-eyes at carp would be a more appropriate metaphor. Charles. For instance, in Diana’s two identical “mirror- And what can be said about Catherine, the mirror-on-the-wall” short monologues, she first most unattractive and unendearing character I have tells Charles: seen in a long time? Her CEO-tinged Duchess of Cambridge even trumps the cringe-worthy portrayal You think I didn’t love you. of Jacqueline Kennedy in The Crown. I don’t mind It’s not true. her smoking—I like Real Housewives of Buckingham An indecisive man, and oh so sad, Palace moments—but the way she stands over will be the greatest King we ever had. William and Charles is gruesome. The director Rupert Goold was awarded a CBE in And later, she tells William: 2017. He told the Radio Times, “Even with the stage version [of King Charles III], we’d been through long William, you’re now the man conversations with lawyers and certain actors refus- I never lived to see. Such pain my son, ing to be involved because of how it might affect such heart, but now be glad, their future relationship with the honours system.” you’ll be the greatest King we ever had. Good thing he got his in advance.

Not only is this babble an insult to the real earing that his bones would be dug up by relic- Diana’s memory, it’s not even poetry, it’s cliché. Dr hunters (and future cod-bardists), Shakespeare Seuss wrote more memorable couplets for The Cat hadF the foresight to write his own epitaph for his in the Hat. Yet Stage magazine said: “Bartlett’s bril- gravestone: liant text pulses with Shakespearean resonances ... a right royal triumph.” Good friend for Jesus sake forbear, Political sensitivity in the 1600s prevented To dig the dust enclosed here. Shakespeare, in Henry VIII, from mentioning the Blessed be the man that spares these stones, beheading of the mother of Queen Elizabeth I, And cursed be he that moves my bones. Anne Boleyn, or of King Henry’s next four wives Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard The vertical rotisserie that shawarma and kebabs and Catherine Parr. The Licensing Act of 1737 also are grilled on is called a trompo, or “spinning top”, forbade the portrayal of a British sovereign on stage as the shape of the meat is flat at the top and tapers until a hundred years after accession. down. The cook, or “pastorero”, at the kebab shop In King Charles III all of the male characters are Prince Harry visits compares Queen Elizabeth cowardly, lacking integrity, and every female char- and British society to his trompo. There is an art acter is a distortion. King Charles has high ideals to layering this kind of meat cone, and a Spanish but is inept at realising them and demonstrating pastorero once said, “All you need is pork, pineapple leadership qualities. William and Harry are both and confidence.” Sounds like the film. selfish two-faced liars. William’s blackmailing of Trompo rotisseries can be expensive but I saw a his father by threatening to prevent him from see- comment under an ad for one that said, “I was going ing his grandchildren is lower than low. In another to buy [it] until I saw the price. A $4 Kmart Bundt time, that would have earned him a suite in the cake tin and skewer in a spud works a treat.” In a Tower. James Reiss is a disloyal and mercantile spudskin, that sums up my opinion on how seriously salesman—much like many PR guys I’ve met—and you should take this entertaining, but ultimately Prime Minister Evans is pretty much everything unpoetic and disempowering, view of the royals. we hate about bad prime ministers; the royal family God help us.

Quadrant March 2021 101 Elizabeth Beare

Digging for a Timeless Treasure

s Covid life getting too much for you? Is the father everything there was to know about Suffolk’s Biden presidency slowly wearing you down? soil. Now around sixty, Basil is an “excavator” as Do you feel like a change of pace, a movement he terms himself, who helps out the local Ipswich Iback to normality, not Joe’s executive-order sort of Museum with some archaeological digs. He’s a normality but real normality? Do you cherish the dour, self-taught archaeologist, putting his knowl- idea of everyone just getting on with their lives, edge of soil to good use in identifying the strata in simply being themselves in spite of living in the digs, and an amateur astronomer as well. Mrs Pretty most troubling of times? is paying him to carry out some archaeological work If so, then it’s time to watch The Dig, a two- for her on her barrows, and Mr Brown, whom we hour film released in January on Netflix, and take find out later is backed by a shrewd and admirable yourself away to Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939 for a wife, is angling firmly for a higher rate of pay, which breather. Yes, that’s right, in 1939, as Hitler prepares he gets, in his dignified countryman’s way, once he to attack England and the world political scene is starts to walk away from the job disgruntled at being looking grim, a man and a woman who are worlds offered too little. apart in background and social status but who share Sutton Hoo, as any student of Anglo-Saxon his- a passion for archaeology are discussing opening up tory will tell you, and as many others will as well, some ancient barrow tombs on England’s eastern was the site of one of the most significant British coast. archaeological discoveries of modern times, and it She is Edith Pretty, the wealthy widow of a colo- was made in 1939 purely by Mrs Pretty’s eccentric nel, living with her staff in the fifteen-room man- decision to start a dig there. It was also made by sion built on the land she owns known as Sutton Mr Brown’s competence in finally choosing, after a Hoo Barrows Fields, where ancient burial mounds couple of false starts on plundered mounds, a large going as far back as the Neolithic have been thor- mound thought to be empty, where plunderers had oughly looted for treasure since at least the time of stopped only halfway down. Henry VIII’s visit to view them and pick up any A fabulous treasure of Anglo-Saxon artefacts treasure he might find. Edith Pretty is bringing up still awaited finding in this mound by the painstak- her young son alone, missing her husband, wistfully ing Mr Brown. After being half-suffocated when visiting his grave, a woman imbued with a sense of his trench fell in on him, he revealed this trea- the impermanence of life in general and her own sure deposited in a collapsed burial chamber that life in particular, as she is in frail health. She is feel- was on board the remains of a ribbed wooden ship ing a need to reach back to the past, to the ancient eighty-eight feet long. The ship is now thought to barrows on her land, as she senses their call for her have been the Heroic Age burial mound of seventh- to open at least one before army tank manoeuvres century King Raedwald of East Anglia, a pagan on this wide field somehow desecrate them. She’s with Christian leanings, as shown by his treasure fascinated by Egyptology and spiritualism, by the of 263 items which included Chi Rho Christian sil- archaeologist Howard Carter’s discovery in 1922 of ver spoons and other Christian Byzantine imports. the fabulous treasure in Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Raedwald was also being sent on his way to Valhalla Valley of the Kings and now by the cry to eternity with a fine supply of home-produced goods such as she hears coming from her land. buckles, a magnificent sword, sceptres and rods, He is Basil Brown, of thoroughly yeoman stock, all illustrating his kingly power and international a humble agricultural man of the Suffolk earth, influence. who left school aged twelve and was taught by his Mrs Pretty did indeed have a treasure in her

102 Quadrant March 2021 Digging for a Timeless Treasure own Valley of the Kings. This hoard was to rewrite interest as a photographer on the site, and while the history books concerning Anglo-Saxon poli- Piggott was a dandy fond of splashy silk waistcoats, ties, metal-working, religion and trading links, and he may not have been gay and uncaring of his wife, it is still doing so. The most famous piece of the as implied in this telling. Charles Phillips from the hoard is a ceremonial helmet, which recent scholar- British National Office of Works is slightly better ship shows can turn its wearer into Odin, for it is served, depicted as extremely pompous at first, but so designed that one eyebrow glints in the firelight, throwing himself into the spirit of the thing in the but the other does not, leaving only a dark hole, thus end. representing the one-eyed god. As played by Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, the portrayals of Mrs Pretty and Mr Brown are he rich widow and the poor yeoman part of this pitch perfect. It may seem unlikely, but Fiennes story is a true one. There was a Mrs Pretty, there captures entirely the weather-beaten image of an Twas a Mr Brown, and they did discover the treasure. older man in baggy old clothes, sensitive and taci- As told in the film, the arrogant academic world and turn, his workman’s hat on his head, assertively def- the international press did in fact descend on the site erential in his broad Suffolk accent to Mrs Pretty. once the word got out about a major Anglo-Saxon Attractive and fashionable when she visits her doc- ship burial discovery containing wondrous treas- tor in London, Carey Mulligan as Edith offers a ures. Also true is that Basil Brown’s knowledgeable moving portrait of an isolated ever-musing and and careful part in the discovery was disgracefully fragile woman constrained by her times, held fast sidelined by all except Mrs Pretty, who insisted that by her wealth and position but lost in her own lonely he stay, as the film shows: his role shell, out of which she comes to talk in the excavation was only properly of archaeology and the dig with this credited to him quite recently. his is a film that man lodged in her house, but who An inquest into the grave dis- T takes his meals with her butler and covery did take place in the local states very little other staff in the servants’ kitchen. village hall to determine owner- but still says a lot. A beautiful part of the whole ship of the hoard, and photographs scenario is that Edith’s young son, suggest it was as lively as the film Emotional restraint, brimming with enthusiasm over shows it to be. Mrs Pretty did gen- the very Englishness the whole project and full of rocket erously donate this huge treasure of life in this quiet heroes, takes a shine to Basil as to the British Museum, as she is an astronomer, and Basil’s patient shown saying she will do. All of corner of a threatened teaching of this anxious and father- this is as the film’s story tells it. As world, is the order less boy, who is accented with well as Mrs Pretty and Mr Brown, upper-class gusto, is heart-wrench- some of the other characters too are of the day, rather ingly quiet and fatherly. Things fall real, including Charles Phillips, a than its remains. naturally into place there. Less so senior government archaeologist, though between Mrs Pretty and and Stuart Piggott, the renowned Mr Brown, for here the structur- Edinburgh professorial founder of pre-historical ing of the film lets them, and us, down quite badly. archaeology, and his wife Peggy. Mrs Pretty also We know it would be a mistake to think a Lady did have a young son called Robert, albeit a few Chatterley moment was coming, but our pair are far years younger than the eleven-year-old depicted in too quickly whipped away from us for a while. the film. This leaves us in a sudden emotional limbo, as The characterisations that emerge, however, are what we are being set up for, and thankfully do fictional, based on John Preston’s 2007 novel The get in the end, is the sort of unresolved tension Dig. Australian director Simon Stone adds some between two self-contained people who are flung entirely fictional characters and as well as giving by circumstance, fate some might say, into each Charles Phillips, Stuart Piggott and his wife Peggy other’s worlds. In that sense The Dig is reminiscent less than genuine treatment. Which matters not a jot of Kazuo Ishiguro’s starkly woven 1989 novel The for imaginative semi-historical reconstructions: in Remains of the Day, about the chances lost between The Dig a charmingly elegiac and mostly satisfying a similarly reticent man and woman caught in the edifice is constructed on only the bones of checkable British class structure in the same immediate pre- reality. To be fair to the Piggotts though, they sepa- war period, and this novel’s excellent filmic inter- rated in 1956, not in 1939, Peggy Piggott didn’t run pretation in 1993. off with Mrs Pretty’s invented cousin, a rather dishy One mild hiccup in The Dig occurs in the form airman named Rory, called in to be the romantic of the introduced romance between the budding

Quadrant March 2021 103 Digging for a Timeless Treasure archaeologist Peggy Piggott and Rory, the airman The real Mrs Pretty’s spiritualist beliefs are bound for the uncertainties of war in one of the underplayed, but the sense of an immanent spirit planes we see flying in formation over the barrow’s hovering over the wide expanse of the barrows field field to the RAF airstrip on nearby Martlesham and its mounds is palpable in the landscape pho- Heath, now the home of British Telecom’s Research tography used, the long shots of wide open skies. Laboratories, where my husband once worked on I have been there myself, alone, on a day when it sabbatical. was closed (who ever checks these things?), and No matter though that we also enfold Peggy wandered around cautiously, the only living soul and Rory as the story progresses and other players in the place, spookily aware of the ravens in the make their Shakespearean entrances in a film where distant trees and all of its windswept and timeless exits are in the air. We soon see that Peggy is also a isolation. conflicted soul, and Edith helps her out with advice The village at Woodbridge and The Bull (the about the need to seize the day—which Edith her- same old pub that is now a boutique hotel where we self fails to do. stayed), the manorial big house, the barrows, the She tentatively invites Basil to dine with her one class divides, and the finding of a continuity with evening, and he accepts, but a visit from his salt-of- the longue duree, the deep collective past, as two the-earth wife that night means that fate never quite people reach for each other and miss: it all tightens works its best way with Edith and Basil, crossing its grip as you watch. As the camera draws back on both of their stars forever. Ishiguro would be proud. it, distancing you from these fleeting and nuanced Mrs Pretty does though stand up for Mr Brown, lives, you are wistful yourself, leaving a lost past her employee, recognising his efforts to protect that slowly retreats from your view. The dig ended the site in its early stages, and we still sense those on August 24, 1939, Hitler marched into Poland on many things left unsaid, for this is a film that states September 1, and on September 3, Britain declared very little but still says a lot. Emotional restraint, war on Germany. the very Englishness of life in this quiet corner of a threatened world, is the order of the day, rather than Elizabeth Beare wrote “Decoding King Arthur and the its remains. Grail” in the September 2018 issue.

Martin Place Ghetto

I was walking up Martin Place the other day— second-hand tents pitched upon stock-grey slate. An old man giving mouth-to-mouth to a half-inflated mattress, catching his breath with the help of a cigarette. One two three four people to a tent, five six seven rows of three— a woman and child looking down at me. I remember seeing a library there too— paper-backs stacked upon up-turned crates, their pages stained and frayed and yellowed like fingers that once sought refuge in their pages. Now there is no library, mother, child, or old man. The tents and people are gone. Replaced by brokers and bankers in pinstriped suits. I read in the newspapers that the State saved Martin Place.

Jonathan Grace

104 Quadrant March 2021 Merry Quickness

As I wake and greet the sun, I can hardly believe a day’s begun. And as I take the yoke off shoulder scholia 70 I can hardly fathom a day is over. When I wake Yet in dreams there is time for more, I let go of everything I know hidden only, beneath a gentle snore. and stake it all on the moment, on the now now passing by. The time to hide, the time to show, the time to join the frog fandango. It takes all day to build up the courage to write, to read, to become the genius of each night, and wake each morning morning’s fool.

Possible cacophony

In some shaded cloister of my soul now mapped by memory, I once agreed to let real love slip through my fingers so that I could better see, through a crack in the wall, Juliet’s limp body in the arms of Romeo. At which point you find God and lose him, so give yourself to crying. And make sure you enjoy it while you can because what comes after is worse. At which point silence becomes preferable to music, hyposmia to shit, and, in your last confession; carte blanche to logos, because All that might-of love by the bye has turned bitter before your eye, because All the buckets of tar and crying wives of the world cannot equal the drama of smoke exhaled, because All my worrying, which I engage in too much and not enough, has brought me to realise what a tragedy it is, to know the happiest day of your life.

Conor Ross

Quadrant March 2021 105 S t o r y

A Crocodile Killed Autonomy Gary Furnell

he Australian art world is in mourning. This week Queensland police confirmed that the backpack and some human remains found near a rudimen- tary campsite on the banks of the Gilbert River in far north Queensland belonged to the performance artist known as Autonomy. All signs indicate that the forty-one-year-old woman was killed by a crocodile. Police have established that she had been living for several weeks at the water’s edge of an estuary known to be the habitat of large saltwater crocodiles. A significantT quantity of crystal methamphetamine was found among her belongings. A police spokesman said the artist’s decision to camp alone among the dangerous animals and her seeming neglect of basic precautions was foolhardy in the extreme. Autonomy’s brother, speaking on behalf of the long-estranged family, urged his sister’s admirers not to imitate her activities: they were dangerous and could easily prove fatal. What follows is the last interview granted by Autonomy three years ago. At that time, an edited version was published in the Contemporary Art Journal. We reprint it here in full, with the previously elided sections in brackets. We offer this as a tribute to a confronting but compelling Australian artist who was notorious for her high-risk, physically-demanding actions that challenged notions of freedom, coercion and human identity. CAJ: In recent years your art has been exclusively performance art. What led you away from creating art objects? Autonomy: [Isn’t that obvious?] After the Venice Biennale I stopped painting and sculpting. I saw that I was participating in a fetish-manufacturing industry whose self- importance was alarming. Humanity—whom I don’t particularly like and struggle to respect—doesn’t need more idols masquerading as art. CAJ: Don’t people, including you, need beautiful objects or inspiring ideals? Autonomy: We think we need them, but our desire is tepid. We pretend we value freedom, for example, but we all conform slavishly to any number of expectations, obligations and constraints, including physical constraints. We’re pathetic beings frightened by our own potential and unwilling to test our individual power, like dogs who love their leashes. CAJ: There is a remarkable consistency to your work. Your 2012 performance, 17 Episodes of Unconsciousness, could be performed today and would be an accurate reflection of your current preoccupations. Is consistency something you strive for? Autonomy: First, I don’t see it as work. It’s a type of tantrum against the capricious strictures that confront us. In 17 Instances of Unconsciousness, I was frustrated at my own being which requires that I continue to breathe: by whose rule and decree was this imposed on me? “Screw it!” I thought, “I choose not to breathe!” I couldn’t perform the

106 Quadrant March 2021 Story action in the Sydney Gallery for the Summer Arts Festival [because of their ridiculous O. H. & S. rules], so I recorded it at a friend’s studio, handed over the footage, and the Gallery[’s gutless curators] screened it in a dark corner of the building on a tiny monitor hoping no one would see it. But it became the big hit of the whole inglorious shebang. Second, consistency is not something I strive for: why strive for yet another arbitrary ideal? CAJ: You followed that performance with another, much more damaging, action, Through the Walls, in which you repeatedly threw yourself, naked, against a variety of physical barriers. Did you have the same intention of measuring existence, of pushing yourself? Autonomy: It was never about pushing myself—that’s the talk of athletes and their coaches. I wanted to confront and defeat different kinds of physical boundaries: walls and fences. After all, these things are going up everywhere! For some reason, probably from fear, humanity seems to need to be boxed in. I refuse to acknowledge the power of these bullying obstacles. The point to remember is that I was able to penetrate some of the barriers. CAJ: You were able to crawl through the coils of razor wire, but with severe lacerations and significant blood loss requiring emergency hospitalisation and multiple transfusions. Other barriers were impenetrable: the brick wall and laminated glass doors remained undamaged whereas you were badly injured and needed another spell in hospital. The video of you battering yourself against concrete blocks and locked doors and suffering broken bones and concussions is hard to watch. Autonomy: What’s harder to watch is people happily embracing roles and conforming to the universe without either wonder or disgust. As someone said, it’s hard to kick against the pricks. CAJ: Did you make a full recovery from those injuries? Autonomy: [That’s irrelevant, or maybe it’s relevant: I don’t know and neither do you.] Words like “recovery” and “injuries” are loaded with positive or negative connotations, but on what basis can we use such words, charged as they are with our values? We project our meaning onto whatever we think is reality but it’s probably only a fragment of reality: I can’t smell anywhere near as well as a bear or see anywhere near as well as a hawk. Humans possess mediocre senses. Why should I or anybody else presume to know reality? CAJ: You film your performances and screen them in art spaces; does that mean communication at least is important to you? Autonomy: No. Communication is important to other people, not to me. Much of what I do is simply exploring life. Other people decide it needs to be videoed and on a whim I sometimes agree to it being screened in a gallery. But that’s only a fraction of my life and perhaps not even the most significant part, although I reject terms like “important” or “significant”; they’re comparatives that lack any clear superlative. CAJ: Do you see yourself as an artist? Autonomy: No, I see myself as a particular being, not necessarily a human being because, again, “human” is a word with very precise connotations, as is the word “artist”. Those connotations direct us to behave in certain prescribed ways: doing art if you define yourself as an artist; wearing clothes, not voiding your bowels or having sex in public, etcetera, horribly etcetera, if you define yourself as a human. CAJ: Does it please you that music by your band Autarky is used in movies? Autonomy: Keep it in perspective: a snippet of one track was used in one film, during a scene where a man kills a donkey. CAJ: But the film won an Academy Award!

Quadrant March 2021 107 Story

Autonomy: [Ugh! Who cares? Who cares?] Humans are so confused and clueless that awards and honours from anybody anywhere are best viewed, as I think Kierkegaard said, as a form of unconscious sarcasm. I rejoiced in our small piece of that fantastic sarcasm, and viewed it as such. CAJ: When Enjinue invited Autarky to open her Australian concerts in 2009, your CD became a cult classic. Can we expect another album? Autonomy: [Why? Because we owe it to the people?] For me, the appeal of Autarky was that not one of us could properly play or even accurately tune our instruments. Since then the other band members have learned guitar, drums, synthesisers, whatever, and have labelled themselves musicians. They’re performing poodles who meekly accepted being house-trained. That’s of no interest to me: acquiescing to yet another kind of restraint, in this case, definitions of profession and prescriptions of acceptable sounds. CAJ: You’ve been critical of artists’ dependence on Australia Council grants, yet you’ve received several grants yourself. Can you explain that contradiction? Autonomy: There’s no contradiction. It’s called learning from experience. I realised that I was in danger of becoming a tame, domesticated artist. It’s simple: if you get a grant it’s because you’ve become acceptable to the bureaucracy that distributes them. It dawned on me that I’d traded freedom for security. As the proverb says, it’s like selling your breeches to buy a wig. Worse, I saw the artists who got grants continued to cast themselves heroically, as if they were still making brave choices like Gauguin heading off to Polynesia or Van Gogh impoverishing himself for the sake of his painting. Pfftt!! The reality is that grants are the art industry equivalent of battery-cages for chickens. But there are so few eggs. CAJ: You had to get work in regional abattoirs to support yourself. Is that a better option? Autonomy: Yes, absolutely! It brought me freedom and inspiration. I worked for six months each year in the boning room where I developed skills that made me readily employable when I needed money. And when I’d had enough of that, I lived with liberty and did my art, such as it is, until my money ran out. Then I worked in the boning room again. The other immense benefit was that abattoir work gave me deep respect for the instinctive life of animals. CAJ: Frustration seems to be a recurring motif in your conversation and a trigger for your performances. What in particular frustrates you? Autonomy: Primarily this: that we believe certain things but we build ramshackle halfway houses well short of where our beliefs would lead us. But again, that presupposes notions of logical coherence and integrity: more arbitrary rules. We can’t escape them. We’re trapped whatever we do, or don’t do. Thought and action seem almost futile. Madness might have as much credibility as rationality. [CAJ: But where will that lead you? At this point the interview ended: the artist or being known as Autonomy started to grunt, spit, make popping sounds, mewl and bark.] Artist’s biography: Autonomy (birth name: Felicity Christina More) b.1980, d.2021. Educated at Katoomba High School; arts training Katoomba TAFE & University of Western Sydney. Recipient of Travelling Art Scholarship. Australian nominated artist, Venice Biennale. Represented: Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW; National Gallery of Victoria; NSW Art Gallery; Blue Mountains Art Gallery; Penrith Regional Gallery.

Gary Furnell, who lives in New South Wales, is a frequent contributor of fiction and non-fiction. An early version of this story appeared in Studio, 2013, Number 126.

108 Quadrant March 2021 S t o r y

Different in a Film Duncan Richardson

n the staffroom, the other teachers called Volvo the “Animal’s Animal” and joked about his knuckles making scuff marks on the ground as he walked. He was in Year Ten and his name was Gary Vollenheim but nearly everyone called him Volvo. After the trucks, not the cars. It would’ve been different in a film. I would’ve insisted on calling him Gary and spoken up when the small-town gossip turned to the Vollenheim family. Instead I listened. I“Have you seen his mother?” someone would say. Usually Warren, one of the fishing men in immaculate white shirts, shorts and long white socks. “Does he have one? Thought he was a Frankenstein job,” Davo would say. “If you’d seen her, you’d know, eh Trevor?” Warren grinned. “Yeah,” Trevor said and the skin on his face tightened. He’d never been fishing. Didn’t know one end of a rod from the other and probably, like me, wondered why he was sitting there at all. “Young Trev had a bit of hassle with Mrs Volvo last year,” Warren said. “What happened?” “Seems Trev was a bit sarcastic one day at Volvo’s expense.” Warren looked around, as if judging whether his audience merited a full-blown re-telling. “Next thing we know, we had this humungous woman stomping up the stairs, heading right for poor unsuspecting Trev. Luckily someone warned him and he escaped into town. The boss managed to calm her down a bit. She used every swear word in the book when she was up here. Plus a few new ones.” Volvo was in one of my classes. Kids like him always are, if you’re first year out. Baptism of fire. He used to sit there, surrounded by an aura of putrid smells in his uniform that hadn’t been washed for weeks. Not that the other kids noticed. Most of them were pretty expert at disrupting lessons with a well-timed fart or burp, then belting others for doing the same. “Stop picking on me, sir,” Volvo would say. But with the thought of his mother in the back of my mind, I was already being especially careful. I’d just say, “Your book looks like it’s lined a chook shed,” or “Have you been using it as a carpet on the bus?” That must’ve been tolerable because Mrs Volvo stayed away. Volvo’s output of words on the page peaked at about six per lesson, although if he’d written down everything he said he could’ve filled half a dozen exercise books with his refrain of obscene advice and suggestions to the kids around him. Sometimes, about eleven o’clock at night, I’d see him hanging around the town hall green, with a large Coke bottle in his hand, swigging occasionally. The first time he stunned me by waving.

Quadrant March 2021 109 Story

“Hi, sir!” I couldn’t hear any of the expected aggression. “Huh, hi, Volvo!” I said and nearly added, “What are you doing here?” The silence in the street and the shadows would’ve made more words ridiculous. I thought of the restaurant I’d just left, the wine and the starched tablecloths, as far from Volvo’s world as another planet. If this were a film, I thought, I’d be able to say something really insightful now, which would show him I wanted to help, because I was different and didn’t call him the “Animal’s Animal”. Next day, he started a fight in the first minute of my lesson and only the thought of losing my job restrained me from knocking heads together. I thought of Mrs Volvo too, I’ll admit. Day after day, I said, “Get on with your work and be quiet.” And Volvo said, “This is boring. Why should I?” and other things under his breath so I knew he was controlling himself too. I’m sure that, in a film, I would’ve discovered Volvo had a hidden talent which would change his life, even if the other kids were hopeless. Perhaps he would’ve turned out to be a great artist, fisherman, snooker player or even pig shooter, but if he was, he kept it well hidden. Why don’t you leave school? I wanted to shout. And one day I did say it, although I thought I had the answer in his large oval shape under the trees on the town hall green late at night. But instead he replied, “It’s good fun, stirring teachers.” The other kids laughed. “Yeah.” Volvo grinned and I saw his teeth, nicotine-stained and crooked. “Nothing personal.” That was another opening. If only I could convince him to stop wasting his time getting into trouble, he’d be reformed overnight. But the words didn’t come. Then one sultry afternoon in November, Volvo’s last month of school, when he was still unrescued, something happened. The class was amazingly quiet, whether from the heat or some brief spasm of concentration, I wasn’t sure. I felt something well up within me as I stood at the back of the class and before I could stop it, it was out. I moved away quickly. At first no one noticed, then the groans began. “Jeesuss!” one of the boys said. “Was that you, Volvo?” He looked insulted. “Piss off, it was Peterson.” Peterson raised a fist. “Hands to yourself,” I said in my best teacher voice, which worked, as it did occasionally. Revelation spread over Volvo’s face. “Hang on. That came from ...” He gawked at me. “Sir! You ...!” “Careful, Volvo.” I hoped my face wasn’t red. The others giggled but they hadn’t caught his logic. Volvo grinned. “You’re one of us now, sir. Congratulations.” “Thanks, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now let’s get back to work.” Volvo just kept on grinning. After that he grinned at me every day and did a weirdly twisted salute with his left hand, as if I’d been admitted to a secret brotherhood. But it didn’t stop him thumping kids or ripping up his books. As he said, it was nothing personal. So why should a fart make any difference? We weren’t in a film.

Duncan Richardson is a writer of fiction, history, haiku, radio drama and educational texts. He teaches English as a Second Language part-time in Brisbane.

110 Quadrant March 2021 sweetness & l i g h t

Tim Blair

ho will be the last man kneeling? racing cars be painted black as a sign of support for The quaint modern custom of “taking the Black Lives Matter movement. a knee” was pioneered by San Francisco (Hamilton may not be aware that a black W49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 as a Mercedes was the vehicle of choice for a notori- way of protesting against the treatment of black ous mid-twentieth-century leader of Jewish Lives people in the US. Interestingly, Kaepernick’s first Don’t Matter. F1 drivers tend not to be great mili- form of protest during the pre-game playing of the tary historians.) US national anthem was to sit down rather than Kneeling was the pre-game entertainment at stand.The knee-taking came along a few games crowd-free AFL matches in June last year. Then it later, presumably because Kaepernick foresaw that spread to cricket. All players took a knee prior to his action would become known as “taking an arse”. three Test matches between England and the West So kneeling it would be. Indies. In Australia, the Big Bash League intro- “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a duced the Big Kneel before games. flag for a country that oppresses black people and Just a few months ago, it seemed very likely that people of colour,” Kaepernick, who was at that taking a knee would become a permanent feature point on an oppressive $160 million contract, told a of all major sports events—sort of an international reporter in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than foot- version of our irritating welcome to country cere- ball and it would be selfish on my part to look the monies (devised, of course, by Ernie Dingo in 1976, other way.” when the comedian was just twenty years old). Hundreds of similarly oppressed million- Then something happened. Well, quite a few aire black NFL players soon began following things happened, in fact: the broader public became Kaepernick’s example, although after the 2016 sea- aware that Black Lives Matter martyr George son that first heroic kneeler was no longer among Floyd wasn’t exactly an angel, BLM riots destroyed them. Kaepernick was cut from the 49ers, who evi- many black-owned businesses and BLM leaders dently believed him to be smaller than the game, were revealed to be motivated more by Marxism and has not been picked up by any other team. than by racial injustice. His most prominent moment since his playing Also, crucially, the US election ended with days was an appearance in a Nike ad three years Donald Trump’s defeat. This removed the political ago which featured the line: “Believe in some- purpose behind displays of conspicuous contrition. thing. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Belatedly, a few sports stars began declining to Amusingly, Kaepernick’s sacrifice of “everything” take a knee. Instead, they took a stand. In the Big involved a multi-million-dollar Nike contract. Bash League, Melbourne Stars wicketkeeper Ben The former 49er may be gone, but his kneeling Dunk did not join other players who knelt. He was lives on. Basketballers took up the hobby, as did joined by a number of other cricketers. college athletes and a woke Olympic fencer named Now the momentum is with the vertical. In Race Imboden, a white guy who provided a barrage early February, all but four of Scotland’s rugby of reasons for his gesture: “Racism, gun control, union team stood rather than kneeled during one mistreatment of immigrants, and a president who minute’s silence ahead of their Six Nations tourna- spreads hate are at the top of a long list.” That’s ment win over England. Several England players quite a grievance catalogue from someone who stood as well. So did all the match officials. makes his living poking a bit of wire at people. This upset UK Sky Sports news editor Anthony By last year, multiple Formula One world cham- Joseph. “#AsOne is the message from Scottish pion Lewis Hamilton—one of the richest athletes Rugby. But the players don’t seem to be ‘as one’ on earth—had also adopted pre-race kneeling. He in their stance against racism,” Joseph complained additionally demanded that his Mercedes-Benz online. “It’s less about ‘they should kneel’ and more

Quadrant March 2021 111 sweetness & light about ‘why wouldn’t they?’ What do they feel so the COVID-19 battle. Yet we’re still, with the noble strongly about to not be part of an anti-racism exception of New South Wales, shutting down gesture?” borders and closing down cities in response to soli- It may be that they don’t perceive it as an anti- tary coronavirus infections. Rather than fighting racism gesture. That was certainly the view of the next war, which will be against economic ruin, non-kneeling England player Billy Vunipola, who we remain engaged in a previous conflict. is Australian-born of Tongan background. “What And our states—again, New South Wales I saw in terms of that movement was not aligned excepted—keep using the same financially destruc- with what I believe in,” Vunipola said of BLM last tive blunt-force tactics. They compound their year. “They were burning churches and Bibles. I Covid-coping incompetence with coronavirus can’t support that.” cowardice. Some believe that the decision by English and Victorian Premier Dan Andrews turned up on Scottish players not to kneel before that match was television as I was writing this to announce a five- simply due to there being no plans for kneeling. day economic hammer blow; they’ve got thirteen- None of the players or officials spoke of it. But the odd people who’ve tested positive in Melbourne, issue was widely known and spoken of prior to a so Australia’s creepiest leader has closed the entire subsequent Six Nations match between Ireland and state. Wales. Suppose you were planning a wedding in Not a single player took a knee. Not. One. Player. Mildura. Perhaps you were looking forward to a Impressively, this did not cause any kind of social family barbecue in Horsham. Or maybe you simply media meltdown. If anything, opinion seemed to wanted to travel more than five kilometres from run in favour of the standers. “Maybe sanity is your Ouyen home, which for some farming proper- starting to return,” one Twitter poster, who goes by ties out that way may be the length of the driveway. the handle “Erasmus”, wrote. “Maybe players are No dice to all the above, otherwise you’ll be actually looking into what BLM actually stands for. fined. All because barely a dozen people many hun- Clearly the administrators haven’t—especially here dreds of kilometres away returned positive corona- in Australia—but this is a good start.” virus test results. It certainly is. Perhaps taking a knee will in The worst thing about this—you know, apart future be seen as simply a performative quirk pecu- from beautiful regional towns being absolutely liar to our era, as disco was to the 1970s. Those of us smashed for no good reason at all—is that Andrews who make it to mid-century may occasionally take is obviously reviving his daily press conference rou- a knee for nostalgia’s sake, or to draw a laugh from tine. Poor Victorians. Not even the tragic souls our fellow residents at the home. who voted for Andrews deserve this. Nobody does. And then we’ll need someone to help us up. Those press conferences may still be under way Taking a knee is a young person’s caper, which is by the time you are reading this column. If they another reason to wish it gone. are, I advise one way of maintaining sanity during Dan’s daily deluge. Just pinpoint the latest focus- ake Victoria out of the equation—what a group-tested phrase to enter Andrews’s vocabulary. delightful thought—and Australia at this time The most recent is “precious thing”, as in: “We ofT writing has lost eighty-nine people to the coro- cannot risk the precious thing we have all built in navirus from a population of 20 million or so. Victoria.” Andrews used that Godawful descrip- That’s a death rate of just 0.44 per 100,000 tion three times in less than an hour. Some of his Australians. As a point of comparison, our non- more devoted online fans began repeating it to each Victorian coronavirus mortality rate is almost other approvingly, like a call-and-response during exactly equal to the rate of worker fatalities in prayer. the UK. Regrettable, obviously, but by no means Oh, and he’s calling this latest lockdown a “cir- epidemic. cuit breaker”. Circuit is a strange synonym for busi- Other points of comparison: the worst-run (that ness, but who are we to question Dictator Dan? is to say, Democrat-governed) states in the US have There will no doubt be other lockdowns and coronavirus counts per 100,000 people that are in border closures following this one. A single sneeze triple figures. New Jersey, the worst of the lot, is in Brisbane can slam a border shut faster than a at 251. New York is on 233. Massachusetts is also US Democrat closing the books on a bent election. unimaginably high, at least from an Australian West Australians close their capital if someone perspective: 221 deaths per 100,000. yells “Covid!” in a theatre. By any reckoning, Australia has basically won And our reward for this is we all get to be broke.

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