21 May

Election day musings. No other country in the world has an election day like ours, it’s like Grand Final Day but even bigger. It’s really hard to describe what’s unique about Australian society. But I think there is a word which captures it a bit - communitarian. (Not to be confused with communism or socialism, entirely different ideas.) Communitarianism means having a community basis for your society. You can see that at every level of Australian life. Sporting clubs, for weekend sports (amazingly non-existent in many parts of the world). Surf lifesaving clubs. Clean Up Australia Day. FireFight for bushfires. RFS firefighting. Etc. etc. Elections (one of the few societies where everybody votes.) Doing things as a community, as simple as that. A community is defined less by geography or maps than by shared interests and activities. I think this is a result of both our convict past and our encounters with indigenous Australians over the centuries. It has to be learned, practiced. The reason I attack political libertarians and other modern conservatives is that they try to transplant UK and US political ideas into this communitarian society. All that rubbish about individual freedom, replacing communities with ‘economies’ and de-personalised ‘markets’. Those ideas will destroy Australian life, if they take off. The damage has started.