When I was a kid I remember the blatant racism before globalisation of the media and when information wasn't at our fingertips. I still saw my fair share of it - the underlying current that has always scuttled under the surface long before the 'white Australia' policy began in 1901 and long after those policies were progressively dismantled after 1973.
My father has darker skin and a different heritage from my mother's whiter-than-white Irish, German and Danish family origins. And we certainly paid for it at times. It has always been okay to abuse people who are 'different', who have different skin colour, looks, mannerisms or ethnicity in this country. It has always been okay to persecute people who are different in any country. One only has to look at Nazi Germany to see to what extremes some are willing to go to exterminate those who are not considered 'standard'.
It has been difficult for me to compare what my father and other people went through when I was growing up with what is happening currently with regard to right-wing extremism and radical behaviour that appears to be building up more momentum in the last few years - but it shouldn't be. The myth of white superiority or the superiority of one race over another has been perpetuated long before written history. While the term 'racism' has only been used in recent history, a perceived superiority of some over others has been apparent since man first realised he could control people through power and influence - particularly if the benefits and rewards were greater than the risk. The subjugation of other ethnic groups has been re-enacted long before Roman times for the specific purpose of attaining more wealth, influence and the ability to dictate the reality to those who have been defeated and/or enslaved. One thousand years after the Roman conquest of Britain, rich British merchants were major participants in the Atlantic slave trade of African people.
The concept of imperialism and colonialism is buried deep within the psych of our country - and, indeed, throughout Europe. The idea of a 'ruling class' of people who deserved their positions of wealth and prosperity based on their birthright has long been played out throughout European history, where slavery was once accepted and serfdom - where a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot and obtained their subsistence by cultivating that plot of land owned by a lord - was the done thing.
Colonisation of other countries allowed these belief systems to extend into new environments. The white, national identity became well established during settlement of Australia in the 1700s to Federation in 1901. While it is true that there were many different types of immigrants from differing cultures who came to Australia during this time, the majority of immigrants were clearly British. They weren't calling themselves the subjects of the British empire for nothing. It didn't matter that the country had already been settled 65,000 years before their arrival. They considered it their 'imperial' right to carry on the traditions of the 'mother country' and to encourage conformity. At the time of colonial settlement, possession of the land was taken on behalf of the British Empire, irrespective of any rights that Indigenous people already living here may have had. Colonists were heavily influenced by their 19th-century attitudes of superiority and rationalised that because of the behavioural differences in Indigenous people, there was a distinct lack of intellect and therefore they were no better than animals. This train of thought gave licence to commit atrocities on our First Nations People that are still being denied in part to this day.
This inherent superiority-inferiority conflict has wafted through our history, bringing with it a putrid resentment of anything 'different' - whatever that means - and has transferred itself into a seething nationalism of sorts that festers away in those who think they have an inkling of knowledge in regard to what it means to be a 'true-blue Australian'. They feel that public and social media displays of xenophobia with T-shirts proclaiming "If you don't like it here, leave" - are okay and racist jokes and put downs are a part of our 'culture'. Government inaction and failure to condemn comments and behaviours of errant MPs does nothing to encourage cessation of the same in the general public. While multiculturalism has played a major role in our society for decades and is recognised as such - at least on paper - the superiority-inferiority white-nationalism conflict is a handy go-to for those with more rigid beliefs regarding immigration, individual liberties over democratic rights of the many, natural hierarchies and reward for utility. This ideology is easily latched onto by those who feel dispossessed, threatened or alienated by a more progressive notion where the rights of the many are expressed in a more democratic or socialist way.
The fires of their 'racial alienation' are continually fanned by the media and, more than ever, social media sites where they can engage with like-minded people and express themselves freely without fear of reprisal or condemnation. Right-wing extremism is on the rise, not only in Australia but around the world. While it is rooted in white nationalism and borrows from the ideology of imperialism, many people are responding to less-than-subtle overtures from various government departments around the world over the years regarding sovereignty, national pride, the dangers of immigration, the dangers of terrorist threats, cyber security and what we must do to protect ourselves. In Australia for example, the government has responded to and marketed the threat of asylum seekers and terrorism - when on 6 October 2001, the Howard government insisted that asylum seekers had thrown children into the sea in an attempt to be rescued and brought into Australia. This was later proved to be untrue. Shortly before that incident, on 11 September 2001, the Word Trade Centre and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists with great loss of life. Was the Children Overboard incident a coincidence? Perhaps not. The Howard government were re-elected shortly afterwards and there have been approximately eighty-two anti-terror laws enacted since 2001 - which have been ironically more damaging to freedom in this country than any other country in the world.
The constant influence of the government and media have had an influence on right-wing activities world wide. Here in Australia where seventy percent of the media are owned by News Corp, Fairfax Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media with clear and verifiable links to conservative, right-leaning groups and the LNP government - it is difficult to see the trees on the left for the trees on the right. There is a single-minded directive and limited subject matter peddled out to an ever-increasing audience online, on TV, on radio and in the print media. Right-leaning politicians' views are echoed and validated to deafening levels while left-wing views are opposed, ridiculed or silenced. Climate-change deniers are encouraged and the outrageous views of tin-foil-hat politicians are megaphoned while our prime minister does little to stop them. With diminishing responsibility of government and nobody of influence to negate their argument - it tends to validate the core beliefs that the right-wing ideologies must be protected from threats. Those threats could be anything from 'lefties' and 'communists' to Muslims praying in a mosque.
Right-wing extremists use media opinion and conservative government ideology, combined with the far-right opinions of anyone who suits their purpose. They generally move beyond rationale of even the worst of the right-wing mainstream commentators and use it as a platform to take it further. They believe in authoritarianism as it mirrors their belief that this is the only way to control the things that they despise. It's not uncommon to see these people sporting the swastika symbol at various rallies and groups popping up online with set agendas based on being white and national.
I believe the rise in right-wing extremism in the last few years has been triggered by unexpected events in politics. The election of Donald Trump in America, the election of Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom, the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 in Brazil and, of course, our own self-promoted Pentecostal prime minister, Scott Morrison, in 2019. Some of these self-serving politicians have been helped along their RW-ideology happy trail by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, who promotes the same ideologies for his own monetary benefit. The rise of right-wing politics with a complicit media has emboldened extreme right-wing groups to expand, with online participation becoming more extreme and often used to recruit more support. Participation and shared beliefs gives them a sense of purpose and significance to their cause.
The recent Capitol riots give us some indication of just how far people are prepared to go when they are influenced by politicians, the media and are legitimised by far-right groups on social media. It's a frightening perspective. I wonder how we've slipped so far down the rabbit hole but when I ponder on the unbelievable racism, discrimination and subjugation through the ages, I wonder if we will ever be able to shake off this unnecessary hatred of others simply because they are different.
I can't speak for the Christians, but I aspire to the theory of evolution. Even as a theory it's not infallible but I would prefer to believe that we evolved naturally through a process of mutations over an insurmountable period of time - to arrive at this point. All with roughly the same DNA - apart from some minor regional adjustments. The rigidity of the mind of a white supremacist is unlikely to believe, however, that at one point in time we may have all come from the same small grouping of Homo sapiens who migrated and expanded all over the world - and we once all looked very much alike.
Evolution, I suppose, can't fix stupid.
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