You must need an attitude adjustment

Years ago I mixed with radical working men and women on the NSW south coast. I recall hearing people say quite often "Those ideas are fundamentally incorrect and anti-Soviet". Meanwhile, anyone supporting the idea that teachers might go on strike for better pay was accused of being unprofessional. (Readers, please forgive my recounting stories from the 1960s. It was before the internet had been created. So no, I can't provide evidence that they can Google or check on Wikipedia.)

Where are we in our presumably civilised society when we can't say anything for fear of being accused of being against this or antithat? The old cry, J'Accuse ! (I accuse you of…) puts the object of accusation in fear and forces them to be on their guard. Surely we can move beyond this endless culture of complaint, as Robert Hughes argued.

But J'Accuse ! seems to be a theme endlessly run over and over in the media, who can't find anything more intelligent to say. And I find these accusations tedious. Am I getting older? (Don't answer, please). I seem to be getting a hardening of the attitudes.

I hear, by the way, that they are printing a new batch of Euros. They need to do it on Greece-proof paper.

If you find that funny, you must be anti-Greek.

A final story, if you will indulge me. One of my brothers was getting a magazine once a month. My dear old Mum was upset about it.

"Now. What's this magazine you're getting? I want to know!"

"Mum", he said wearily. "It's just the Humanist Monthly. My friends read it and it comes once a month".

"Yes, I can see that!" she stormed. "What is it, I want to know! Who are these, these humanist people?"

"Mum, they're just people who want to be nice to other people".

"Yes, I'm sure. Well I won't have it in the house. It's anti-Catholic!"

"Mum it's not anti- Catholic", he said with a sigh of despair.

"Well it's anti something and you're not getting it anymore!"

God help us, when we're always afraid that people are anti something. Most of us are, frankly. We must all need an attitude adjustment.