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Abstract

BUT, HOW MIGHT WE LOSE THE PEACE? We will lose the peace if we do not put an end to the shouting match between the culpably polarised sections of Australian society.If forced far enough apart we could create the conditions for civil war. That would certainly be losing the peace.But it doesn’t have to be as total a failure of civil war to lose the peace. On five occasions in the past Australians have been so deeply divided that rioting has erupted with fatal consequences.And it doesn’t even require actual physical violence, but merely the paralysis of the whole society to lose the peace.That kind of failure arises because people in ideological bunkers refuse to talk to each other: refuse to negotiate — holding out for an all or nothing win, despite knowing that an all or nothing of stand-off always ends in nothing for all.Do you feel powerless? Unable to believe that you could make a difference in such circumstances?So let’s make this personal. How can I make a difference?If I think of the person opposing me, not as a cardboard cut-out but as a fellow Australian, how can I insist that my opinion is right?This doesn’t mean that I should change what I believe, but that I should accept that it is OK for people to hold different beliefs and make different choices.When I accept that people have the right to believe different things and make different choices, I can’t have a shouting match with them and I certainly can’t shoot them — which, let’s face it, is what we do in a civil war.What it comes down to is this: I tell myself, I no longer want you to change when we are disagreeing. I am the one who can change, not by changing what I believe, but by not insisting that you are wrong if you don’t believe what I believe.It is then possible for me to talk to people I disagree with, to negotiate, compromise and achieve together what no one can achieve alone. A whole nation of people talking to one another instead of shouting and sulking — that’s where we need to head because to do otherwise will be to lose the peace, and those who fell securing the peace will have died in vain.HOW DID WE GET HERE?This polarised situation that we are in is due, in part, to the Allies victory in WWII, paradoxically; and in part to our failure as a people to respond adequately to the opportunity that victory thrust upon us.The allied victory produced two new political currents that drove far reaching change in the whole of the Western world; change that was enthusiastically pursued by some but which left others behind, resulting in the polarisation of our society.The first of those currents is our knowledge of and response to the Holocaust. The second is Decolonisation and how it changed us.Had the Axis powers won the war we would never have known what happened in the death camps; and decolonisation as we know it would never have happened.But the Allies did win the war and when we found out about the Holocaust we responded by systematically and comprehensively questioning every assumption and certainty we have ever held and be # Options gan redefining our values and commitments.The most compelling proof of that is that a century ago we went to war in support of an empire to preserve White Australia. Today we are a multicultural society that supports self-determination where ever it is possible in the world.That is real change in values and commitments.Decolonisation — self determination — enabled the overwhelming majority of people in the world to seize back their own voice, and that in turn became the opportunity for us in the West to redefine who we are: no longer masters but partners — more evidence of real change in our values and commitments.Change like this becomes confronting to some people and in this country has lead to shouting matches and the polarisation of Australian society into mutually hostile camps.WHAT ARE THOSE CAMPS?On the one hand, those who are accused of political correctness, and, on the other, those who feel excluded by the way our society is changing.The situation is a product of victory and failure. The Allied victory gave us the opportunity to transform ourselves. But we failed to do so in a way that was guaranteed to bring the whole country with us. Some of us were impatient for change and others reluctant to change at all. Both sides dug in. The result is verbal trench warfare of the present day.WHO WILL LEAD US OUT OF THIS?Who has most to lose? The Veteran community clearly has a great deal to lose.No other section of society is so closely identified with those whose sacrifice secured victory for us. No one has a greater responsibility than the veteran community to secure the future — to act in the present to take the initiative.Our interest and concern, as the veteran community, can’t just be about what happened a century ago. It should also about what we have become as a people since then — how we have both embraced and resisted the opportunity to become a truly inclusive people; a people who remember the cost to all of our good fortune, especially those who fell serving the nation we are still becoming.ANZAC Day and remembrance more broadly could reflect how we who honour the fallen can contribute to the healing of our own society to ensure that those who fell will not have died in vain.What we do as the Veteran community, especially on ANZAC day, needs to be rethought in the light of a century of change. If what we do includes an acknowledgement of the change to our values and commitments since 1914, we would be in a position to recognise Australia as a work in progress, and to admit that the progress achieved so far is vulnerable to civil sectarianism and disorder.We who honour the fallen might take the lead in reducing the civil sectarianism by questioning our certainties and treating those who don’t share our convictions as fellow Australians rather than the enemy, and hoping for the same from them.We would then be in a position to say that this is what our predecessors gave up their lives for, and that by giving up our cherished certainties for the greater good we are doing what we can to ensure that they did not die in vain.</article></body>

Image by: Amy Scott — Director, Sedulous

No Silos, Please, We’re Australian

Silos are good for storing grain, but not opinions

ANZAC Day is the day on which Australians gather to remember our war dead. The following is the occasional address, introduced by the Masters of Ceremony, given during the pre-recorded online ANZAC Day service in Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia in 2020 (the Year of Covid 19, when there were no public services anywhere in the country).

Master of Ceremonies 1 In 1914 we went to war in support of an empire to preserve white Australia. In 2020 we are a multicultural society that supports self-determination where ever it is possible in the world.

Master of Ceremonies 2 We gather today to remember who we have been as a people while honouring those who fell serving the nation we are still becoming.

Master of Ceremonies 1 Speaking of remembering who we have been, and of the nation we are still becoming, is a way of saying that, what it means to be Australian is not carved in stone. We are a work in progress.

Master of Ceremonies 2 Our values have changed in the 106 years since the outbreak of the Great War. The most significant change is the flourishing inclusiveness of our society. An aspect of that inclusiveness is reconciliation with former enemies.

Master of Ceremonies 1 That spirit of inclusiveness that has has flourished in our society since the Second World War, visible as reconciliation with former enemies, has driven a widening gap within our society, between those who are comfortable with change and those who are suspicious of it.

Master of Ceremonies 2 That gap is now so wide that though the Allies won the Second World War, we are now in danger of losing the peace — a society so at odds with itself that social unrest and political violence cannot be ruled out.

Master of Ceremonies 1 Should that happen — should we lose the peace — those we gather to remember will have died in vain. Remembering the fallen, therefore, cannot merely be about valorising the past. It requires action on our part to secure the future.

Master of Ceremonies 2 Please welcome Paul Smith to ponder aloud about what action we might take to ensure that having won the war we do not lose the peace.

OCCASIONAL ADDRESS

I begin by restating the challenge we face:

How do we honour those who fought to defend our freedom so that having won the war, we will not lose the peace?

Is is enough merely to valorise the past, or do we need to be proactive in continuing to maintain the peace?

Clearly, we must commit to doing whatever it takes because, if we lose the peace, those who fell securing it will have died in vain. We don’t want that on our watch.

Not losing the peace means focusing on what most threatens peace in our time and finding in ourselves the same courage and commitment to deal with it that the ANZACs took to their fight. It is our turn to be courageous and resourceful; and willing to lose what we have for the greater good.

BUT, HOW MIGHT WE LOSE THE PEACE? We will lose the peace if we do not put an end to the shouting match between the culpably polarised sections of Australian society.

If forced far enough apart we could create the conditions for civil war. That would certainly be losing the peace.

But it doesn’t have to be as total a failure of civil war to lose the peace. On five occasions in the past Australians have been so deeply divided that rioting has erupted with fatal consequences.

And it doesn’t even require actual physical violence, but merely the paralysis of the whole society to lose the peace.

That kind of failure arises because people in ideological bunkers refuse to talk to each other: refuse to negotiate — holding out for an all or nothing win, despite knowing that an all or nothing of stand-off always ends in nothing for all.

Do you feel powerless? Unable to believe that you could make a difference in such circumstances?

So let’s make this personal. How can I make a difference?

If I think of the person opposing me, not as a cardboard cut-out but as a fellow Australian, how can I insist that my opinion is right?

This doesn’t mean that I should change what I believe, but that I should accept that it is OK for people to hold different beliefs and make different choices.

When I accept that people have the right to believe different things and make different choices, I can’t have a shouting match with them and I certainly can’t shoot them — which, let’s face it, is what we do in a civil war.

What it comes down to is this: I tell myself, I no longer want you to change when we are disagreeing. I am the one who can change, not by changing what I believe, but by not insisting that you are wrong if you don’t believe what I believe.

It is then possible for me to talk to people I disagree with, to negotiate, compromise and achieve together what no one can achieve alone. A whole nation of people talking to one another instead of shouting and sulking — that’s where we need to head because to do otherwise will be to lose the peace, and those who fell securing the peace will have died in vain.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

This polarised situation that we are in is due, in part, to the Allies victory in WWII, paradoxically; and in part to our failure as a people to respond adequately to the opportunity that victory thrust upon us.

The allied victory produced two new political currents that drove far reaching change in the whole of the Western world; change that was enthusiastically pursued by some but which left others behind, resulting in the polarisation of our society.

The first of those currents is our knowledge of and response to the Holocaust. The second is Decolonisation and how it changed us.

Had the Axis powers won the war we would never have known what happened in the death camps; and decolonisation as we know it would never have happened.

But the Allies did win the war and when we found out about the Holocaust we responded by systematically and comprehensively questioning every assumption and certainty we have ever held and began redefining our values and commitments.

The most compelling proof of that is that a century ago we went to war in support of an empire to preserve White Australia. Today we are a multicultural society that supports self-determination where ever it is possible in the world.

That is real change in values and commitments.

Decolonisation — self determination — enabled the overwhelming majority of people in the world to seize back their own voice, and that in turn became the opportunity for us in the West to redefine who we are: no longer masters but partners — more evidence of real change in our values and commitments.

Change like this becomes confronting to some people and in this country has lead to shouting matches and the polarisation of Australian society into mutually hostile camps.

WHAT ARE THOSE CAMPS?

On the one hand, those who are accused of political correctness, and, on the other, those who feel excluded by the way our society is changing.

The situation is a product of victory and failure. The Allied victory gave us the opportunity to transform ourselves. But we failed to do so in a way that was guaranteed to bring the whole country with us. Some of us were impatient for change and others reluctant to change at all. Both sides dug in. The result is verbal trench warfare of the present day.

WHO WILL LEAD US OUT OF THIS?

Who has most to lose? The Veteran community clearly has a great deal to lose.

No other section of society is so closely identified with those whose sacrifice secured victory for us. No one has a greater responsibility than the veteran community to secure the future — to act in the present to take the initiative.

Our interest and concern, as the veteran community, can’t just be about what happened a century ago. It should also about what we have become as a people since then — how we have both embraced and resisted the opportunity to become a truly inclusive people; a people who remember the cost to all of our good fortune, especially those who fell serving the nation we are still becoming.

ANZAC Day and remembrance more broadly could reflect how we who honour the fallen can contribute to the healing of our own society to ensure that those who fell will not have died in vain.

What we do as the Veteran community, especially on ANZAC day, needs to be rethought in the light of a century of change. If what we do includes an acknowledgement of the change to our values and commitments since 1914, we would be in a position to recognise Australia as a work in progress, and to admit that the progress achieved so far is vulnerable to civil sectarianism and disorder.

We who honour the fallen might take the lead in reducing the civil sectarianism by questioning our certainties and treating those who don’t share our convictions as fellow Australians rather than the enemy, and hoping for the same from them.

We would then be in a position to say that this is what our predecessors gave up their lives for, and that by giving up our cherished certainties for the greater good we are doing what we can to ensure that they did not die in vain.