Rudd and the cultural elites

Elizabeth Farrelly, in her tour de force on this issue, “Adults overboard”, points to the Henson affair as a turning point in the history of the Rudd administration.

She claims that until now it has been possible to remain optimistic towards Rudd, but now there is the sinking feeling that things are no different under Rudd. As a fellow member of Australia’s small cultural elite, those who are somewhat alive to artistic considerations, I share Farelly’s feeling, and this is precisely the point: Rudd’s comments have powerfully alienated the Australian cultural elite. And this was not a smart move politically.

Though the cultural elite are not the opinion-leaders they might be in some other societies, nor large enough in numbers to matter electorally, we are somehow an important part of the fragile consensual coalition gathered behind Labor’s conquest of state power.

Rudd’s 2020 summit always seemed to me to be a mark of how seriously he took our role. But it’s hard to overstate how offended we are by his philistinism. For me, Rudd’s comments were much more disturbing then anything Howard ever said, because with Howard we knew he was evil and hoped for deliverance via a Labor victory. With Rudd, there’s no hope for salvation.

Now, this might generally incline us to allow Rudd his populist foibles. The problem is here that he’s crossed an absolute line by associating himself with a crackdown on high culture itself. Rudd in these circumstances becomes unsupportable for a cultural and intellectual elite for whom free speech is everything (that and grant money, but free speech first, please).

Indeed, with Malcolm Turnbull taking the opposing view on this issue, and with it being very likely that he will lead the Libs sooner rather than later, this becomes a cultural wedge issue that confuses the choice of who to support for intellectuals who grew unquestioningly antipathetic to the Coalition during the Howard-era history wars.