Opinion
When we look at the violence around the world some of us can't help but to compare that frightening reality with our own.
The sight of soldiers massing on borders, riots sparked by violence against race and for freedom and self-determination - these are all signs of growing global unrest amplified by a frustrating pandemic.
There is a growing realisation that all the wealth we slaved for, and pushed into great piles in the expectation that others might manage it better, may be at risk of burning up like microbes in a drought.
Where's the hope in that?
Take a gander across the Pacific at what is becoming of the United States of America and the evidence for growing world disorder becomes more alarming.
Why look the USA? Just ask Scott Morrison, who restored our ties with that conglomeration of individual entities by signing a new nuclear deal, but more than that we share a national pride, formed out of stubborn passion for freedom. New settlers in both new countries carved a place out of nature which dealt enough challenges to keep humans working together, rather than against each other.
But something happened in the USA, as distinct from Australia, and even Canada next door and this set the young nation on a deadly trajectory. It was gunfire, decorated and worshiped in militia colours. Muskets defeated the British masters, with volunteer soldiers sniping from behind stone walls. Just as well Benjamin Franklin was a master diplomat and persuaded the French to finish the job.
War against the British hierarchy was repeated three decades later and the win for the good ole' USA created a huge sense of optimism and with that smug confidence and power. To defend this position more guns were needed and an industry like no other was built to service the demand.
This national pride and sense of individual power crept into a young population, fostering stoic individualism - always defended with a gun. Made in America.
Liberty's next war was against her own, brought about by jealousy and hatred of those who had, and those who didn't. Racism was at the core of that fight and the anger fuelled by killings and unjust brutalities simmered for as long as those stories were told - from generation to generation.
Modern writers like Cormac McCarthy drew on that hate and violence to pen popular prose, so influential that the last POTUS must have consulted those books often, given Trump's deep desire to keep the Mexicans at bay, and to praise the likes of the Proud Boys, who would fit right in with a south-bound scalping party.
Back in US civil war times the line of hate followed latitude. Today, however, the numerous individual cells of anger - fuelled at their heart by anxiety - are so scattered that the chance of striking one is like catching COVID.
Nothing's changed in the States despite the election of an opposition. Red and Blue, Yankee and Confederate: The divisions are frighteningly clear with no chance of mending this century. If I was a punting man, I'd bet the worst is yet to come.
Meanwhile, Downunder ...
It's Christmas time in the land of sun and rain and for a long time now Australians have learned to defend their community against nature's hot ire in the form of bush fire and drought. Nowhere on this great continent is the black pall of humanity's hatred and distrust the least bit visible compared to nature's wrath.
It is very fortunate that the rain and wind, fire and fury, are the dominant forces down under, because this ensures Australia's good people work together in common cause.
In this way our environment helps foster random acts of kindness.
How can you say?
This was clearly demonstrated during those Christmas bushfires two years ago, when paddocks were scorched and cattle had to be sold - into a drought-depressed market.
For one family, the sight of a B-double load of hay was welcome relief but why it had come so quickly on the heels of disaster was a mystery, until it became clear. The gift of feed had come inter-state, from another family who had been assisted through a similar predicament 25 years prior. So the gift was kindness re-payed.
A similar story was repeated all along the fire front, with neighbours helping neighbours not only during the fight but long afterwards, when trauma played on victims' minds.
In the true tradition of human story telling, these acts of generosity will be repeated, again and again until it is a tale told through the generations.
The greatest act of kindness undertaken by everyday Australians was their universal compliance to send all the precious guns to the furnace. Who would have guessed the decision to act came out of a Liberal government and who would have predicted the outcome would be so successful. Crime in our country continues to decline, despite the belief otherwise.
The cry that says criminals are the only ones with guns does ring true, but those blokes mostly shoot at each other. If every poor defenceless victim had a pistol there would be collateral damage all over the district and then we would be talking about hate, not co-operation and unity.
People don't trust those in authority, even if they are being well looked after and their cries for our attention have all the hallmarks of a population being duped by forces for evil who want supple minds to believe the worst, and to live in fear. But don't mind me, there are many who call this reporter a Polyanna. But I believe what I see and there is more good than evil.
In fact, the well-marketed voice of conspiracy theorists in Australia is to suggest that we aren't being governed well at all, and yet sickness and death are kept so far from our eyes domestically that we have to seek proof of impending disaster overseas.
People don't want to believe in good things because we are trained to look for evil - television drama tells us so but we can do better than that in Australia.
Where to start? Generate random acts of kindness - in foul weather or fair.
Further reading:
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