Last week a couple of surf life savers got beaten up on Cronulla Beach, so I wrote this Acid Tongue column on Friday for Monday's issue of the mag:
"You know what’s tops? Fighting. Fighting is unreal. You know, when you get a bunch of friends together and you just go out and pick an easy target and you get stuck into the prick. It’s the fucking best. And it’s no fun if you do it by yourself – you’ve got to do it with a heap of friends. Less risk of getting hurt and then you’ve got guys to sit around and laugh about it with when you watch the news reports on TV.
There are soooo many good things about starting fights... it’s free, and you feel tough and you really show people who’s The Shit, and it just makes you feel good to know you’ve put some fucker in hospital. Pricks deserve it because... well anyway, it’s just the best. And the absolute best thing about it is that the media laps it up and they put it out there and the police have ‘spokespeople’ announcing that there are going to be increased numbers and fuck it, if they’re going to increase numbers, so are we.
Everyone gets involved then because it’s us against the police which it makes it even more real. It’s like... it’s fucking a war! They’ve declared war and that makes my balls tingle and my little itty bitty dick go stiff. Shit escalates and it’s on the news again and you get to shout and carry on like a mad fucker and it’s like you’re a celebrity, and you blame everything on society and the police and with any luck we’ll put a few cops in hospital too, because who the fuck do they think they are? They think they’re going to stop us? No fucking way! Cops are the worst because... well they’re just fucked, that’s all. They think they’re so tough with their uniforms and riot protection shit and their reinforcements, and it’s just a great chance to show them and everyone else who’s in charge because we rule the streets and the beaches and we’ll do whatever we want because, you know, we’re, like, warriors...
Meh, it’s no good. I was trying to get inside the feeble minds of the sorry dipshits that beat up the surf patrol guys, and I made myself laugh with the warrior line. Tragedy of it is, I bet it’s not that far from the truth.
Grumpy."
I thought something might flare up, but arriving back from the Erisian Fields party, watching the news on Sunday night, I was absolutely appalled at the scale of what was going on out there. Full scale riots, bashings, stabbings... madness in the suburbs. What the hell is wrong with people? This is a peaceful country with (white settlement aside some 200 years ago) a comparitively mild political climate, a general ethos of racial and religious tolerance and acceptance, and now race-motivated riots making world headlines. Over what?
Clearly this place is not as tolerant and as accepting as we like to believe, and it makes me think - not for the first time - that multicultualism, in the long term, cannot work, because there will always be some testosterone saturated moron who needs to vent their aggression, who needs to rail against the insignifigance their shitty little mind has mapped out for them and who will surround themselves with like-minded dolts and lash out at what is different to them.
The scale of stupidity displayed by both sides of this whole sorry affair is utterly mind-boggling.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1529509.htm
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5 comments:
That violence surprised me because I've always thought of oz as place that believes in 'fair go.'
I had the same fleeting thought too, about multi-culturalism, that different people just can't mix in the long run. [Ha. People? Did I say 'people'?]
But then I think the nature of some is to be violent and they would find their excuses no matter what.
I felt sad for oz.
If you've ever been to Hawaii, you know that multi-culturalism can work. And although I think Hawaii is the exception to the rule, I'd never rule multi-culturalism out... Aside from that fact that it's inevitable - Without it, what will we be in 200 years? Xenophobes?
By and large multiculturalism works here in Australia too, which is why this has all been so wrong. There are always problems, of course, but overall most people are reasonably accepting and welcoming.
I agree that multiculturalism is inevitable, but so to is the outbreak of violence based on race. So stupid when we are all part of the same species.
I think we really do eed to come under attack from cranky space dudes to make us get our shit together.
Multi-culturalism does work. I live in a country where many customs, many religions rub shoulders.
We go to each others homes, weddings, funerals, eat different food...
I don't think 'race' is the problem...in countries where folks look the same the violence is there.
Them cranky space dudes might get beaten up by some o' these folks we have on earth.
how spot on were you with these post - freaky considering you wrote it before it all blew up
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