Is Tony Abbott ‘a good man’ as Finance Minister Mathias Corban has it? Yes, if you perceive society as a fragile glass ball owned by the educated, which needs to be stringently protected from destruction by the uneducated and poor
Does Abbott deserve to be given ‘a break’? Don’t we all? But what lucky break has this man not already had and exploited? A good education. Raised male, English-speaking, and white. A supportive marriage, healthy children. Meanwhile he has spent much of his career depriving other people of such boons. I’d like to see the lucky breaks more evenly distributed.
To those who mourn his political passing, I’d say: I think it’s possible to support women leaving violent husbands, to support Indigenous self-determination and the arts, to build renewable energy sources whose economic demand is climbing and to fairly tax miners and manufacturers, without ruining the world as we know it. I’d say more moral generosity is what this world needs right now. And to those who feel they hate the man, I’d say: you can’t beat them by joining them. Hate is the refuge of those who have forgotten or are hiding their kinship with this real fellow human. Us and them thinking leads to dehumanisation of asylum seekers, neglect of homeless children, deaths in custody, rapes. I’d say more moral generosity is what this world needs right now. We can all contribute that.
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