the time always comes

"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Thursday, September 14, 2006

I was going to maintain a dignified silence through the deaths of Steve Irwin and "Brockie", because I don't like to speak ill of the dead, and, moreover, I've seen what happened to Germaine when she tried. But I will say the following:

It's sad that they died, but they both did very dangerous things to earn their celebrity, and so in a sense died the way that they had lived... a very sad loss to the respective families, but not the tragedy of national proportions the media has turned it into.

Colin Thiele died on the same day as Irwin, and shamefully, NO ONE gave a damn. I'd hope Thiele's classic children's books will one day be viewed as a more valuable Australian contribution to the future than Irwin's circus. I know Irwin gave a lot in dollar terms to conservation, but he also supported the two biggest desecrators of the planet alive today, Howard and Bush (dare I say licked their arses??), and he treated animals like freakshows, jabbing and prodding at them for the dollars of the gaping gits looking on. If you love them, leave them alone!

I didn't think it was possible for so-called fans of a conservationist to be so stupid and cruel as to commit revenge attacks on stingrays. When I heard about this I was ashamed to be human/Australian/alive. I find it creepy when people pretend to mourn someone they never knew, and the celebrity death cult phenomenon that has been around since Princess Di seems to turn ordinary people into self-deluding morons.

Well, I think I've made my allegiances pretty clear. Germaine, you are and always have been one of my idols, and one of the last ballsy, loud, angry voices. Don't stop saying it because the 'bitter, old' men (who dare to lob the same insult at you) try to shout you down.

9 Comments:

Blogger ptolemydog said...

and that hair? what's was that all about - funny centre parting and always looking so clean and bouncy. yuk.

now when i think of australia, i think of a chunky man in tight khaki shorts annoying beautiful creatures, with a load of fat gits watching from a stand, dipping their butcher fingers into buckets of chicken.

but then, just sometimes, i see a glimmering greyness, almost silver; Germaine on a high white horse, pearls falling from her lovely mouth.

You really do have it all. Lucky.




eating chicken from a bucket

8:38 pm  
Blogger Rowena said...

Germaine's article was probably badly timed but I agree with everything she said in it.

SHE is a truly fascinating Australian, unlike these absurd male stereotypes the Aussie masses revere - Crocodile Man and Womasing Racing Car Driver.

(But yes, sad for their families etc)

9:55 pm  
Blogger Susanne said...

Very nicely done.

I hadn't given much thought to the Colin Thiele angle, but you're right- it's not just women academics that aren't given the recognition they deserve in Australia, it's also writers.

I'd really like to see Australia grow up and get past the idea that the hyper-male Aussie larrikan figure is the only kind worthy of recongition.

10:08 am  
Blogger Rowena said...

"Womasing?"

Is that what one does at Womadelaide or something?

I am a spazz.

10:22 am  
Blogger susanna said...

that's ok ro! i knew what you meant. and i was laughing at the idea of 'womanising' in itself. it's a pretty funny concept. are you and i 'manisers'? there are some pretty funny words out there.

10:38 am  
Blogger susanna said...

ps susanne - i'm looking forward to reading your take!

10:40 am  
Blogger Rowena said...

I also think the idea of "womanising'" is absurd. It seems like a relic of another time - there is something about it that suggests a power that I don't actually think men have over women in this day and age.

11:44 am  
Blogger Cinema Minima said...

What's concerns me is the notion that "good Aussie blokes" must drive fast cars and wrestle dangerous animals. These days we condemn risk-taking behaviour in young males, particularly when driving, yet we give state funerals to well known risk takers. What sort of mixed messages are we sending to the younger generation of Australian males? "Worship Brocky but we'll throw you in jail if you behave like him"

2:18 pm  
Blogger Chai said...

Did u see chaser's take on this?
http://www.chaser.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3261&Itemid=26

11:18 pm  

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