Poor old Gerard “Gollum” Henderson. His stock in trade for many a year has been picking up on petty errors among his foes, yet these days he’s having so many senior moments that his gotchas often as not end up being “gotcha (Media Watch) Dog caught in your fly”.
Here he is, on April 7, in an interminable piece picking up Rob Manne on some alleged inaccuracy or other (tb;dr) in a contribution to a recent anthology:
“Robert Manne’s chapter titled ‘An Academic’s Dozen: 1975-1988’ covers Professor Manne’s first 13 years at La Trobe. [I get it. It seems that ‘the butcher’s dozen’ has now become ‘the academic’s dozen’. What fun — MWD Editor]”
Fun indeed, except that a baker’s dozen is 13 (an extra roll added), while the far more obscure butcher’s dozen is 11 (the 12th cut omitted as the meat is wrapped). Why the slip? Well, Gollum was defending a few people from the murkier depths of the post-WWII right, where Vietnam was a noble cause, not a high-tech slaughter, Suharto’s 1965 coup was sensible politics, not genocide, and apartheid was to be defended to the hilt. Butcher’s dozen indeed.
He didn’t do much better on Good Friday, noting that in the Middle East Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered in large numbers (as a result of the chaos after the Iraq invasion, though he doesn’t mention that). That is comparable, apparently, to the situation in the West, where Christianity is being “sneered at” on Q&A. God no! Not sneering! How will the religion survive? Apparently exercising your free speech rights in the West is the same act as denying them to someone in the Middle East, if the target is an approved right-wing victim.
Curiously enough, the question of whether Gollum himself is still a believer is an open one. Curiously, some years ago, on Q&A, his wife Anne, Bonnie to his Clyde, said that she was a “cultural Catholic”. “That’s cheating, surely,” said the late Christopher Hitchens, who was also on the panel. And it is. It’s using religion to underwrite right-wing politics, without feeling the need to respond to any of relgion’s ethical demands. The injunction against lack of charity, for example, which sin is characteristic of everything Gollum says and does in public. — Guy Rundle
“His stock in trade for many a year has been picking up on petty errors among his foes…” Indeed, a bit like piece of point-scoring from GR. Who looks at Hendo’s media website? Anyone but Guy Rundle? Keep this up Crikey and you’ll be as unread as the Gollum’s vanity blog
Christianity is ‘sneered at’? Surely it’s more accurate to say laughed at. And frequently by members of our society who were raised as Christians.
It is interesting to note that Christians in the Middle East were better off under Saddam, better off under Mubarak and much better off under Al-Assad. Poor old Gerard has made no sense for years though. This is not news. The politics of the Middle East seems to be to achieve the desires of the Saudis, The Israelis and President Erdogan, two of whom are inimical to our interests and the other a collection of land thieves. I don’t think he will address that any time soon either.
“Cultural Catholic” sounds like identity politics to me. Everything stripped of content and replaced with ‘Hello, fellow Catholics’. Surely the textbook definition of Virtue Signalling. Cowards who dare not speak of their true beliefs should be ignored.
It seems that Gerontius hasn’t been on Insiders lately – could that be because he has a permanent gig on Blot’s TV show?