Australian elites are eroding Australian values. By David Pearl, in The Australian.
Let’s consider the shocking and unexpected rise of antisemitism in this country since the slaughter of 1200 Jews by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
While this form of hatred has always been with us, before that day it was no more than a niche, underground phenomenon. You could find it in a handful of mosques in western Sydney, the odd elite university lecture theatre, and among local neo-Nazis, but virtually nowhere else.
Yet today, antisemitism has been mainstreamed and even glorified under the guise of hostility to Israel and Zionists.
Elite promotion of antisemitism:
Why? Because our local elites have looked the other way, and in some cases even promoted it, with our elite university vice-chancellors the worst culprits and few top people in corporate, public service or cultural circles bothering to speak up (until Bondi shamed a small number of them into action).
Nor has there been any leadership shown by our law enforcement officials and political leaders, with NSW Premier Chris Minns an honourable exception.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrations:
When I look at footage of the pro-Palestinian rallies, I don’t see any Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese or African faces. Nor do I see tradies or other working-class Australians.
Aside from the usual contingent of Muslim radicals, the vast majority appear to be white, upper-middle class university students – our future progressive elite.
Our elites obviously hate us and our society:
The pernicious influence of local elites extends well beyond the rise of antisemitism.
For decades now, they have been peddling an imported, hateful progressive ideology that has eaten away at the foundations of our social cohesion and cultural inheritance. Our patriotism. Our sense of community. And our distinctive Australian creedal values.
They have assaulted the distinctive brand of Australian patriotism that emerged after World War 1 – less demonstrative and historically obsessed than that of Americans; less triumphalist than the British version. Instead, they teach our children that our history is shameful and something to apologise for.
They have undermined our sense of being a single, cohesive community — ethnically, racially and economically diverse, but all of us at heart Australians — by dividing us into a rigid hierarchy of identity groups with conflicting outlooks, ambitions and interests. ..
They sneer at and seek to undermine what I call the Australian creed – our instinctive egalitarianism and mateship, our love of freedom, our tolerance of difference, our respect for merit and character, and our healthy suspicion of authority.
In the interests of social justice, they tell us we must sacrifice our political freedoms; including the freedom of speech, the idea of equality before the law and (with the voice) equal democratic rights.
They started with feminism, then copied that success into forming many other identity groups. Now they are even importing new, incompatible identity groups, and they have abandoned assimilation.
Classic liberalism and individual responsibility is almost dead now. Our elites have returned us to the long tradition of tribal polics and groups. What a big step backward.
The big political achievement of the last few centuries, first in Britain then in Europe and North America, was to hold the individual above the group, to break away from tribal polics. This enabled the modern world. And now our midwit nincompoops are throwing it away.