Palestinian cause adds to historic folly of radical chic

Surely the widespread wearing of the keffiyeh by lefties and luvvies is considered “cultural appropriation”? Expect to see them on the covers of fashion magazines soon.

A pro-Palestinian rally in Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

There is a new film on Netflix a lot of people are talking about. For those of you who have been living in a cave, it is called Maestro, and for those one or two average suburbanites who aren’t addicted to Netflix, Maestro is about Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia, promoter of fashionable good causes and wealthy Chilean-born socialite. Lenny, as he was known by his contemporaries, was a great American composer and conductor. Most people know him for West Side Story, justly, because it is probably his masterpiece.

However, what most people might not know, let alone remember about Lenny and Felicia, is the shocking semi-comical furore they caused over a fundraising party they gave in their Manhattan residence for the notoriously violent black separatists of the late 1960s and ’70s, the Black Panthers. This was the naive pre-virtue-signalling of rich white capitalists falling over themselves to support and entertain a bunch of murderous thugs, some of whom were in jail for threatening to blow up public facilities and trying to raise bail for those accused of similar crimes. The party was brilliantly and unforgettably satirised by Tom Wolfe in New York magazine as “radical chic”.

Wolfe was of course satirising the breathtaking stupidity of a fashion, born of vanity, of supposedly intelligent people who included some of the greats of the artistic milieu of the day. As the Black Panthers blathered on about their manifesto, having their own society, getting rid of white oppression, using violence in “self-defence” and so on, Lenny and the invitees lapped it up with the odd “right on” and Lenny’s favourite, “I dig it”. They were inspired by the thrill, the romanticism of danger, without actually understanding anything the Panthers said, and blithely ignoring what they had done. However, the glitterati were acutely aware they were setting a trend. They were the embodiment of radical chic.

Radical chic isn’t a new phenomenon. It was around in the days before the French Revolution when Marie Antoinette entertained the harbingers of the revolution that obliterated the monarchy. Today there is a lot of radical chic going around. Social media and films stars are addicted to it, for all sorts of causes. The most obvious example is the Palestinian cause, symbolised by the wearing of the keffiyeh.

This imagery of identification with the Palestinians has surfaced not just at demonstrations against the Israeli incursion into Gaza, but as a symbol of “solidarity” with Palestinians after theatrical performances in Sydney. It is no accident it has been taken on by people of the theatre. They love to dress up. Be prepared to see it on the cover of fashion magazines in the not-too-distant future, like the European models sporting laboriously teased-up Afros in the ’70s.

In fact, the keffiyeh has been fashionable for a while. I even bought some while travelling in the Middle East for my own kids. They loved them. Mind you, they were made in Jordan, not China, as doubtless many of the keffiyehs youngsters are wearing are made.

However, this is not about “cultural appropriation” and the wearing of a garment that has deep cultural significance. The keffiyeh is worn all over the Middle East and I’m sure some of the demonstrators have their Palestinian ones confused with their fetching red Jordanian ones, but even more confusing is whether the keffiyeh wearers bursting on stages and yelling at shoppers really think this is furthering their cause? After all, this is Australia. No one can stand between a shopper and his new large-screen television.

The truth is the history of the Middle East is a mystery to most young Australians. If our appalling education standards are anything to go by, most Australians under about 40 are too ignorant of any stuff about their own country’s history to indulge in immature disruptions for a political cause that has nothing to do with them. I suspect the newly aggressive tone of these demonstrations is more about upsetting despised Mr and Mrs Ordinary Australian, residents of despised capitalist suburbia, than the origins of the Arab Israeli conflict. I have no doubt the slogan-shouting keffiyeh wearers are being manipulated by the same Trotskyist-inspired mob that was calling for the destruction of Israel when I was at university more than 30 years ago, ignoring that it was the only stable democratic state in the Middle East. It would be more difficult for young Australians to study the history of the various cultures of the Middle East than to yell at shoppers to “support” a people whose culture and history they wear, as it were, lightly.

Orderly demonstrations on behalf of Palestine, or calling for a ceasefire, are perfectly justified. I too would like to see another pause, and although having been to Israel and admiring that nation, I have reservations about some Israeli policies. However, as a Christian Palestinian said to me: “Allies are important, but true allies know their place – and where their experience is limited.” The new “right on” keffiyeh wearers forget their limitations.