Dogmas change but habits remain

When I tweeted a sarcastic "Thank You" for saving us and our kids from advertised gambling, while noting his campaign categorised him as a moralist little different to those religious crusaders he so despises, The Sydney Morning Herald columnist replied: "So the church is the last word on morality? Please. Have you been following the Royal Commission in Melbourne on paedophilia?!"

And here we have the great moral contrivance of secular society.

As with the past, our cultural elite is only interested in compounding fear, hatred and cynicism. Open discourse regarding the true role of government and what we really signed up for with democracy, is consistently avoided. It's all about exercising raw political power in the sacred name of right and wrong. Shame, bully, ridicule, do whatever is necessary to reform those deemed undesirable.

And when confronted about such pontificating hypocrisy, immediately shift the debate to previous atrocities perpetrated by Dead White Male organisations who, interestingly, were brought undone by the very same arrogant, misplaced faith in social engineering.

Eddie Maguire's recent King Kong comment serves as another great example of how the rank emotionalism trumps all common sense.

Also writing in The Herald, Sam de Brito went on a rant in an article titled "Get real about racism".

Apparently, we "don't get it, because there are no consequences for being an ignorant, smug arsehole in this country". Australians have never given full acknowledgement to "the anger, the shame, the frustration, the bitterness and sorrow of what was taken from indigenous Australians".

And de Brito's healing solution for overcoming the well-intentioned yet appalling actions of a previous culture animated by Western moral superiority? His answer to how the "maggot" Maguire needs to learn his lesson?

It's as simple as it is ignorant: punishments proposed by morally superior and smug intellectuals.

Like the medieval church, the core business of the Australian government, usually at the behest of the popular media, is to make clear statements of belief for the purpose of formulating detailed doctrinal orthodoxy that is then imposed upon the willing and unwilling alike. It is certainly not encouragement of individuals to think for themselves, trust their own moral instincts or have their conscience cope with the consequences of their actions.

Which is fine and well. We can remain indulgent adolescents, and have the likes of FitzSimons and de Brito continue to convince us secular crusades based on their better versions of absolute truth is a winning formula.

But let's at least have the balls to admit that such a mindset will never honour the great sacrifices of the past.