John Howard calls such hollowness as he sees it. In Tasmania, in the week prior to his re-election, he challenged mainland, urban Greens supporters, “If you live in other parts of Australia, you don’t carry any of the burden, you only enjoy the aspirations”. Urban Greens are left “off the hook” of losing a job to save a tree.
Bob Geldof emoted the night before the G8 meeting:
We must remember that the chips we are playing with are the lives of people who will go to bed hungry tonight. I know that is almost crappy sentimentalism but unfortunately it is the reality.
Advertisement
The reality is that a mob driven by sentimentalism cannot only share in moments of exquisite silliness. A mob driven by romantic high miserableness can also commit acts of terror. And they feel good about it.
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.
22 posts so far.
About the Author
Paul Comrie-Thomson is a former senior editor of the Australian edition of Rolling Stone magazine and was recently awarded a Master of Philosophy degree from Sydney University. He lives in Sydney and works as a freelance writer. Paul wrote the introduction to the Australian edition of the book Conspicuous Compassion published by the Centre for Independent Studies. His articles have appeared in The Australian, The Melbourne Age and The Newcastle Herald.
reddit this
Del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
StumbleUpon
