Outrage has become cheap for both left and right
IF the words “young and free” mean anything, it’s that a cartoonist can make fun of an athlete, and a nine-year-old kid can sit while those words are sung, writes James Morrow.
MANY years ago in New York City, I had the privilege of being present at a lunch with Chuck Jones, the genius animator and filmmaker behind the Road Runner, Wile E Coyote, pretty much every classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck short, and that handsy skunk and harbinger of the #metoo movement, Pepe Le Pew.
Reflecting on what made the enduring struggle between frenemies Bugs and Daffy so timeless, he said words to the effect of: “It’s simple. Everyone wants to be Bugs. But deep down everyone knows that they’re Daffy.”
Which is a pretty good analysis of the way we do politics in Australia: Everyone thinks they’re a radical freethinker, but on both left and right, we all fall into the trap of dreary conformism.
Two stories from this week illustrate the point. First, Serena Williams and Mark Knight.
The spectacle of the progressive, privilege-busting, social justice left taking up in lock-step the cause of the serial tantrum-throwing and seriously rich tennis champ was something to behold — particularly as calmer voices pointed out her code violations at the US Open, her coach admitted to illegal coaching, and statistics put the lie to gender bias.
This was only bested by the collective howls of outrage against Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, who dared to do what’s in his job description and bring the powerful and the poorly behaved down to size with a few strokes of his pen.
Like bees, the left swarmed to protect their queen, and then took out after her attacker with Twitter outrage that quickly morphed into death threats and attempts to have Knight sacked.
Three years after we all marched together under the “Je Suis Charlie” banner, the warning was clear: stick to safe topics.
But — and I say this as someone who generally falls on the conservative side of most issues — the right can be just as bad.
Take the case of nine-year-old national anthem abstainer Harper Nielsen, whose silent protest against Advance Australia Fair quickly made her the Rosa Parks of Queensland’s Kenmore South State School.
Playing directly into her — and her parents’ — hands, a straight news story about the protest quickly became a fulcrum of outrage.
Radio and television commentators were quick to pounce.
Politicians from Queensland’s state education minister (“Refusing to stand disrespects our country and our veterans. Suspension should follow if she continues to act like a brat”) to Pauline Hanson (“Here we have a kid who’s been brainwashed. And I’ll tell you what, I’d give her a kick up the backside”) joined in.
There were even reports of death threats against the family.
All of which had the entirely predictable effect of making her into a martyr — and an ironic one at that, given the anthem’s fairly prominent endorsement of being “young and free”.
Perhaps it would have been better to say, well, that’s her choice, even if plenty of people find it disrespectful.
The outrage also missed the opportunity to ask her defenders if they would be so proud of a student who decided to, say, boycott a visit to the local mosque’s open day because of the Koran’s more problematic verses about the treatment of women and unbelievers?
And for those truly worried about a little girl acting out during the national anthem to sit tight, wait for her to rebel, and contribute to her campaign 20 years down the track to be the newest young federal MP from the Queensland LNP.
Because if the words “young and free” mean anything, it is that a cartoonist can make fun of a multi-millionaire athlete.
And that a nine-year-old kid can, for whatever reason, choose to sit it out while those words are sung.
James Morrow is Opinion Editor of The Daily Telegraph.
Originally published as Outrage has become cheap for both left and right
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