Just when I thought I’d never be writing another Scummo-themed newsletter, our late, unlamented PM turns up at an evangelical rally in Perth, telling everyone not to trust government and put our faith solely in The Lord. It was a remarkable performance from someone who was the head of government only a few months ago, and it shows us what we would have got had this prating hypocrite been re-elected.
In the same week we learned that Scummo had not been averse to giving the Lord’s work a little assistance in the last hours of the campaign by announcing that Border Force had intercepted a Sri Lankan boat – contrary to all previous practice and all security protocols.
Celebrating the 27th birthday of Margaret Court’s Pentecostal church, Scummo sermonised: “We trust in Him. We don’t trust in governments. We don’t trust in United Nations, thank goodness.”
Given that Margaret Court has spouted enough hate speech for any self-respecting politician to give her a wide berth, it was entirely in character that our former PM felt himself to be among friends. He told everyone he has been dealing with the anxiety caused by election failure with liberal applications of “the ointment of God”, which sounds pretty kinky. If he got thumped in May it was because God has a plan for him, although that plan seems a little vague at present. Let’s hope it entails leaving politics and moving to a hermitage in the Ethiopian desert.
Nothing could serve as a better warning of the need to keep religion out of politics. Whatever people choose to believe in their own space and time is fine, but they should not seek to impose their religious values on everybody else. The Mullahs in Iran are arresting filmmakers again. The United States is a powder keg today because of the Supreme Court’s holier-than-thou decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, contrary to legal precedent, and to the judges’ own stated commitments. As one in four women in the USA has had an abortion, the practical ramifications of this decision threaten a social catastrophe.
The appalling “trust the Lord” mentality entails a complete abnegation of responsibility – which is pretty much the whole story of the Morrison government. If people lose everything in fire or flood, if they’re dying of COVID-19, if they’re struggling with disabilities or lack of employment, it’s all part of God’s plan. The Libs are the chosen people, Labor Satan’s minions. Whatever the chosen ones do is OK, because Scummo had a personal understanding with Jesus.
Albo’s prosaic response was that it was all “nonsense”. But pernicious nonsense.
I’m tempted to quote’s Freud’s blunt view of religion from Civilisation and its Discontents:
The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life.
Hear, hear, Dr. Freud. Nothing too complex or controversial about this analysis. It would be a more complicated process to figure out the swamp of narcissism and delusions of grandeur that constitutes Scott Morrison’s personality. Something must have gone seriously wrong during toilet training.
The art column this week has obvious Freudian implications. I Loved You at the White Rabbit Gallery brings together a diverse group of works by Chinese contemporary artists on the theme of ‘love’. It is, however, love in the broadest sense of the term, with many unexpected variations. As usual, it’s another engaging, beautifully presented exhibition, even though our physical access to China has been blocked for the last few years. That may be why there are more videos than usual, as these works travel more easily than paintings and sculptures.
The film being reviewed is Official Competition, another wicked Spanish comedy, starring three big names. Argentinian directors, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat have created a satire on the film industry that will ring true in all countries where movies are made – even countries like Australia, where very few films are made, and most of them eminently forgettable. It’s the Kiwis and the Spaniards who are producing notable comedies nowadays. In this country we seem to reserve all our comic instincts for politics.