Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

10 more glorious years

Gerard Henderson writes in the SMH today that 'the irrationality of so many Howard haters has the unintended consequence of enhancing Howardism' - while completely failing to make an argument in the article for either irrationality or unintended effects. Indeed, he fails to acknowledge that the epiphet 'Howard Hater' is an invention of conservative columnists which carries only abusive, rather than constructive, connotations - and masks the paucity of understanding or humanitarian ideals from the right (unless you consider unbridled free market capitalism an idea rather than an ethical nightmare). As Carmen Lawrence recently observed:

'Hostility to outsiders has become something of a hallmark of this Government and it's cultivated a form of paranoid nationalism... I'm not a Howard hater, I just don't like the way he's conducted his government and I certainly don't put it all down to him. It's a collection of individuals who make up the Coalition parties who've taken us in the direction that I for one, like almost half the population, given the voting patterns, don't endorse.'

The tag of 'haters' seems almost to be deliberately accruing to Howard's notional personality cult by using a pecularly inverse logic: if you disagree with the government, you must hate the leader. Curiously similar to the Bushian logic of the War of Terror - and even echoing the often fatal 'logic' applied to other critics of totalitarian regimes. Indeed, the term seems to have come into use at around the same time the tag 'Bush Hater' gained currency in the US. To call for a blanket 'respect' for Howard without showing any inclination to respect those who oppose his government shows only the greatest hubris - and a desperate need to create an enemy to rally against.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 10:54 am ::