Laughter, said Henri Bergson, in his great work, erm, Laughter, “laughter is a social sanction against rigidity”.
Thus one classic type of comedy sketch is the “X at home”-type sketch. What is a taxi-driver like at home? Do they face backwards from the dinner table and talk about the news of the day over the back of their chair? Do they take the dishes to the table, via the hallway and the living room? Etc.
Or consider the old visual gag of a man slipping on a banana skin. The humour is in the sudden shift, from being a purposeful human being, full of projects and intentions in control of one’s destiny — and then suddenly being nothing more than a sack of guts, subject to gravity.
The art of the physical comedian consists of maintaining the same attitude — purposeful, marching ahead — even as the world slips from under you and up you go.
The question there is — is Bergson a better guide than Bonhoeffer to the current behaviour of the Rudd government? Is a pattern developing, that of a team that is not so much clever as too clever by half?
The Oceanic Viking is one example of this. The whole idea seemed so cute, so neat — not only live up to the idea of not landing refugees, but emphasise multilateralism and a regional solution.
Too clever by half. In Australia the moral discourse comes back full force and flips them up in the air. As they land, a grinning Indonesian governor mows them down in his jalopy, with remarks about looking forward to the “display of human rights we are always hearing about”. Staggering up, we see someone unloading anvils from a third-storey window, marked “suicide threats”. Uh oh.
You can also see the pattern in the appointment of Costello to the future fund. Great idea, at first. Grab a couple of moderate Liberals that the trog party core never liked much anyway, Robert Hill, Bonkers Nelson (“thank you”).
To keep going is to misunderstand the effectiveness of what you have done. Rich Hall once remarked that it’s impressive to see someone sing, play guitar and harmonica at the same time — but the moment you strap cymbals to your knees …
The Costello thing may be that moment. Or it may not. Excuse that paulkellyism, but there’s no way to tell. Paul Keating may be right — the government severely compromises its ability to hack into the last government if they’ve employed the chief architect of the alleged brutopia.
On the other hand, Keating may be seeing this in the terms of the ore direct combative politics that reigned during his era. What Rudd seems to be trying to do is to make his team look like the unquestioned natural government of Australia — a government so unquestionable that it extends from the upper reaches of the public service, through the actual Labor party, and all the way over to a series of Liberal grandees.
The hope would be that this sharp transition from an insurgent oppositional force — standing against the brutopians armed only with our Ideas! — to a massive administrative managerialist operation would make the voting process quasi-automatic. The Rudd government is just there and you vote for them. Who else could you possibly vote for?
Very clever. Too clever? What do they do if Costello takes the piss? Finding safe harbour aboard the ship of state, he refuses to leave, despite continuing to denounce the government by means of messages in bottles?
There’s a bit of this going on around the joint — witness the mess in Afghanistan, with Abdullah Abdullah throwing the re-organised run-off election (guaranteed 37% less corrupt) into chaos by refusing to contest it. Knocking back the role of performing monkey, cymbals strapped to his knees?
What if our wonkette leaders are faced with people less interested in being cute than in being determined, resilient, crafty, and uncompromising?
What if cleverness is not enough?
Who’s laughing then?
Ummm, Guy Rundle: did you consider that the electors of Higgins, the ones for Bradfield, the ones for ……, now have one less reason to stick to the Libs in the by-election, and at the next federal election? How about undermining the electoral heartland of the Libs?
Agree with all this and comment #1.
But there is more effect too. Now Costello and Nelson won’t speak out against Rudd at Copenhagen or on climate within the Coalition party room. Not while commenced on govt payroll. They could theoretically but why bother. That was yesterday. He’s effectivley promoted them out of the fight on climate policy which is the main game.
However, the notion of excess cleverness, and indeed playing with your rival’s mind (meaning the official coalition leadership) is also very sound. Here’s a real life experience of similar from little people land:
Bondi local councillor. Local objectors want to scale down a neighbouring development. They organise, militate, vocally press their cause. Councillor with natural platform to help oppose knows they are in for a hiding. They don’t have the rules in their favour (within height restriction, surrounding density comparable etc) and the planning staff have already drawn the development back and positioned the developer into a compromise. 1/2 of something is better than all of nothing thinks too clever councillor. Democracy loving objectors wanted to fight all the way, including lose if necessary. They want the challenge. And who is to say they are wrong? They deserved their chance at a famous victory against the odds in a real democracy, and they had their share of leadership.
That’s what Rudd is doing – he’s short circuiting democracy and grassroots leadership beyond himself and methinks democracy won’t stand for it. Not in the medium term. Notice symptoms like Howes and Keating lately.
In the end most people like to see excessive success/cleverness cut down, especially when it is genuinely excessive/patronising.
Come on, the Future Fund was always pending a political appointment. Who do you think should be on it, someone nice from the ALP like Bob Carr? Brian Burke?
Costello is a natural for the position. He understands the purpose and history from the inside. He was present at the birth. He helped find its funds.
He is a generally good bloke with a good work ethic. Unfortunately, he was led astray by the company he kept, especially a rodent who held him spellbound.
If he ends up defending the FF against attacks from the Right, it will be music to Rudd’s ears.