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Challenging the orthodoxy

By Kellie Tranter - posted Thursday, 30 October 2014


It seems that the 'hostility of respectable liberals and social reformers' is what the elite fear the most because, according to Powell, 'it is the sum total of their views and influence which could indeed fatally weaken or destroy the system' because they 'exert enormous influence far out of proportion to their numbers'.

The lesson is that people protesting, including the left, need to recruit and encourage small-l liberals to raise their voices about issues of concern because, as Susan George describes in her satirical book 'How to win the class war', the target of their foes is and always has been institutions, groups, organisations, or centres of power 'where ideas are developed, discussed and disseminated' and which may ultimately shape the thinking, attitudes and emotions of the population.

Powell's tactics to maintain the status quo and block change can be clearly seen throughout Australia today: concerted attempts to try and silence critical comments from 'respectable elements of society'. Conservative think tanks yield a constant stream of critics of progressive ideas who are given disconcertingly regular and disproportionate airtime. The Australian newspaper regularly disparages intelligent critical commentators and their opinions. But the attacks aren't limited to publishing opposing views on television or in print.

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A perfect illustration is social media sensation Father Bower's interview with Chris Kenny on Sky News in August this year during which he was accused of directing his church signage to the Green/Left end of the political spectrum, for not being able to separate religion from politics, for favouring the former government instead of the current government and for criticising the current policies of the government. Kenny litters the interview with false premises and unjustified assumptions, as Father Bower attempts to point out.

Whether its trouncing the views of Cate Blanchett for participating in a climate change advertisement, litigation against Professor Jake Lynch for his refusal to sponsor an application for a fellowship in Australia by an Israeli academic because of Lynch's support of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, or continued complaints that conservatives are not employed in prominent positions, all are tactics raised in the Powell rule book.

When you understand the tactical rationale of this institutional criticism, and its methods, it becomes an object of contempt and something that can be dealt with rather than a source of fear. The same applies to publications online and in social media which always attract similar disparaging comments from pseudonymous trolls – and there's an army of them out there.

Speaking out almost always attracts some sort of criticism, but different viewpoints and rational criticisms are a fair price to pay for being able to say what you need to say. Living your life without ever speaking out, suppressing your need to be heard in support of things you regard as socially good and your need to express your questioning of or opposition to things that are socially bad, is no way to live at all.

We all have an obligation, both to ourselves and to society, to speak out and to act when we see unfairness, injustice and the orchestrated manipulation of true discussion of issues that affect us all.

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About the Author

Kellie Tranter is a lawyer and human rights activist. You can follow her on Twitter @KellieTranter

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