Sydney’s burning: but why did it happen?

People will be arguing about Sydney’s racial troubles for a long time. I thought it useful to reflect on where it came from. In doing so, I will have to explore ideas I do not always, or completely, share.

The French Revolution broke out in 1789, but it had many long-standing causes. Similarly, there has been tension brewing in Sydney for many years.

It used to be true that Australian boys grew up with pillars of authority which kept them in check. These were: first, fathers - every boy I interviewed in Fathers, Sons and Lovers grew up afraid of his father and wanting to be like his father; second, teachers, who were respected members of society; and third, other men who kept an eye on boys.

Churchmen were also an important part of the fabric of society. And wider members of the family also helped keep boys in line: mothers, aunts, grandparents, older brothers.

Significantly, all those pillars of masculinity I mentioned have weakened. Fathers don’t have the same authority they once did. Churchmen are suspect. Most men today would not dare reprimand or even threaten to discipline a badly-behaved child.

What about schools? Schools teach toleration and respect for others. But boys are not getting many ideas of masculinity from school. One report after another shows boys around the world are largely alienated from school; are suspended from classrooms in large numbers; get expelled in disproportionate numbers; and often just go to school so they can play sport and be with their mates. Of course there are differences from wealthier schools to poorer schools. And there are a myriad of private schools - Jewish, Muslim, Coptic, Anglican and so on.

My point is that the lessons of toleration and respect for others are not reaching many of these boys.

Instead, their ideas of masculinity come from media, often American, media: 50 Cent, gangsta and rapper culture, and black youth who live on the street. We don’t hear so much about what happens to the older black men, who are held in enormous numbers in US jails. Instead Australian young men are seized by the excitement of black American youth.

In Cronulla and many other places it’s the culture of the surf. Even though they can be from many cultural backgrounds there is a mateship among surfers. They can be sexist and girls are seen as people to prey on, but there seems to be a matey way of treating female surfers. On most of the beaches the lifesavers maintain order. Surfers and bodysurfers, kids and grannies all coexist fairly peacefully. Compared to beaches in dozens of countries, our beaches have been fairly safe, clean and crime-free. The water is clean and the only major menace has been the occasional shark.

We need also take a look at middle Australians. In Australia we can see a gulf between educated and popular opinion. The weekend Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian talk about varieties of feminism, use esoteric new words, tell us what new books are selling, the continuing problems of the war in Iraq. For the readers, multiculturalism is a comfortable idea because it does not threaten their safe comfortable world. To them it probably means coffee shops and any variety of new and exotic foods, virgin olive oil and chocolate. Academics in the universities scoff at a fear of foreigners, dismissing it as a “moral panic”.

But out in the suburbs, ordinary people struggle to make a living amid rising difficulties. Every day I see people booked for overstaying their time in a parking zone. That’s $75 gone. Speeding fines have multiplied: who of us have not been caught? Every day the media chronicle politicians’ “study” trips abroad and increasing superannuation benefits. The Federal Government has spent somewhere between $60 and 70 million advertising WorkChoices. Raising children is a challenge, as kids want to buy more and more things, while challenging parental authority. Every week we are urged to buy the next new TV, a bigger 4WD, get Broadband, watch Foxtel: you name it.

People get angry and frustrated They feel powerless: they have the increasing difficulty of getting to work without getting fined; finding parking so they can do the shopping; trying to relax on the weekend without spending too much. And they are worried about people living in Australia who do not seem Australian.

Pauline Hanson spoke to these people. She understood how they felt. She challenged so many of the educated classes’ key beliefs such as multiculturalism and welfare for Indigenous Australians. She declared “there’s too much political correctness in Australia, especially in gender”. Ordinary Australian men loved her for it.

Journalists had fun ridiculing Hanson. They mocked her strangled syntax, pretended to be shocked at her racism and in the end they destroyed her. Hanson was one of those people who always called a spade a bloody shovel. They are not always welcome, nor was she. But Hansonism is alive and well.

Ordinary people feel uncomfortable about foreigners. Probably this is true in many countries in the world. They want everyone to be just like they are themselves. Many Australians wonder why if when we are fighting a “War on Terror”, and sending Australian soldiers to Iraq, we have to live peaceably alongside people who - they probably think - look a bit like terrorists. They have been told by the Federal Government to look out for terrorists or strange-looking people. They get scared when they see large groups of males “of Middle Eastern appearance”. Once again, recall the villains in the TV movies you have seen. How many of them look Middle Eastern? Most, if not all.

Tensions have come to a head in Cronulla. It’s a beach suburb in what is called “the insular peninsular”. People are overwhelmingly Anglo-Australian and nominally Christian. They watch football and soccer, play bowls, have a beer and a surf. It’s not that different from any beachside suburb in any capital city. Many Australians see the beach as a place to wind down, have a swim, relax in the sun, chat with friends and be with family.

But Cronulla is on the train line. On the train and in their cars, the youths arrive from Bankstown and Lakemba. Middle Eastern males seem to have a culture in which boys can roam freely, while girls must be shielded, guarded, and dress carefully. The males travel in large packs of 12 or 20. They are swarthy and have distinctive haircuts. They stand out a mile from the surfer guys who walk in their twos and threes and have blonde hair and blue or brown eyes.

It seems these Middle Eastern guys comment to Australian girls about how they dress and behave. It also appears they can walk down the street and onto the beaches in large packs, say what offensive comments they like - particularly to women - and people are afraid to stop them. Locals in Cronulla get annoyed year after year. Tension has steadily mounted. And an attack on two lifesavers was all it needed.

Aided of course, by the media. One of the Daily Telegraph front page headlines was “Not on Our Beach”. This could have been misconstrued as a call to arms by the Cronulla locals defending “their” beach. The issue was boiling all week before Sunday, December 11. The media is always far less interested in reconciliation than in fomenting difference. Talk-back shock jocks gave the issue lots of media time and fanned the flames. SMS messages flew around. And the fires of trouble were stoked.

These ideas may or might not explain what happened. Nobody seems blameless, and everyone wants to justify themselves. Already we are getting revenge attacks in Maroubra and Brighton. But even if the violence does not get any worse, consider the cost so far. Already we have had shameful attacks on women, ambulance drivers and lifesavers. The cost to our national psyche will be considerable. Can we still pretend that Australians are always a tolerant people? Can we still chant “Australia is a multicultural society” and mean it?

We have heard our national anthem and flag being used to justify sickening attacks on people who looked foreign. The parallels with Nazism are chilling. To make matters worse, far-right groups were distributing propaganda. They were there along with troublesome elements from all over Sydney.

What can we do? It’s a bit late now to stop immigration from country X or Y. Education won’t work, as I said earlier. We have to find ways of getting people to understand each other better and make a few compromises. We can’t lock up half of Sydney. Already the cost of locking up someone for a year is around $50,000. Who will pay for the smashed cars, the police overtime, the rising insurance costs? We will all pay for it in the end.

I doubt that this will be the end of the matter. Revolt is slow to start and very difficult to stop. We have lost that wonderful feeling of the year 2000 when we hosted the Olympic Games, and there was laughter and fun on the streets. People sang, danced and spoke a hundred languages. They were all welcome. It seems like a lifetime away in this sad era of terrorism, suspicion, and fear: and endless bickering over who is more intolerant, who cast the first stone. We are all losers in this sad process, from the worried grandparents to the children who will have to inherit the mess we have made.