On Fox, Shit and Post Modern Tasmanian Social Pathology

RICHARD BUTLER
There is a social pathology in Tasmania. It is evidenced by a small number of inter-generationally repeated behaviours.
1. The ‘Search and Destroy” pathology sees the mobilising of large groups of men to go out and find stuff and self validate by both the search activity and the destroy activity. For this generation it is the fox.

2. The ‘Entitlement’ pathology – which sees organisations behave identically to juvenile lottery winners – they simply squander their loot ‘because they can’ . In Tasmania this is best described by its consumption and destruction of native resources, and the continued denial that anything is wrong.

3. The ‘Mythologistic’ pathology which sees lots of important people, preparing lots of important reports, for a few more important people to present to an even more important parliament – for the ultimately, and most important activity – the commitment of all those terribly important results of all the important activity to public official history – Hansard. It is where myth is pitched and recorded as fact.

4. There is the ‘Hero’ pathology. Each successive generation has a small group of utterly incomplete and emotionally inadequate people (most commonly men) who feel they can do ‘stuff’ in government that helps the state along its downward slide into a form of bankruptcy too frightening to imagine. Immediate past and current premiers are reasonable examples of this. Evidence of the Hero pathology has its roots in Tasmanias treatment of its Native Tasmanian humans, and its large native Tasmanian marsupials. Over time and because those 2 were completely fucked over – The post-modern Tasmanian focus has concentrated on the destruction of its native forests.

But back to Reynard – If it wasn’t the fox, government would be focussing on something equally as emotive and distracting as the fox. Maybe a long bike path for those hordes of riders. Better to do that than actually address the big issues. The introduction of the fox (either accidental, planned, real or fictitious) is a government pr man’s dream. There is now a strategy to deflect the main story.

But why the fox …

Well, Fox are cool – they have a (projected) personality and they are everything many Tasmanians in government are deeply envious of – they (fox) are sophisticated, cunning and they steal what isn’t theirs. Fox are every Tasmanian major party politician’s dream. But there is a catch – Fox are also clever, and time of writing this piece we hadn’t found a government equivalent. It is perhaps one reason why they (the fox) are so desirable. A fox even has character. Much more so than a bandicoot.

Few government officials are as passionate and motivated by fox and their shit as they are on the contaminates in the Tasmanian drinking water. It’s because the poisoning of Tasmanian drinking water isn’t nearly as sexy as finding a fox. Poisoning the water is legal. Who has been charged for that ? There is no symbolic journey – it’s just all out there in front of everyone. Legally agri-poisoned water is within a 10k radius of most Tasmanians and a short car trip away. You don’t go and buy guns and bullets and scopes and aircraft landing lights to find poison in the water – you just drink it. And it’s free.

Somewhere in all this is a picture of how Tasmanians in government value themselves and the communities they represent.

For example, there seems to be greater government concern on the presence of fox, than the fine particle pollution from human lit forest fires, the failed education system, the global issues of carbon emission, the decline of local property values and the extreme likelihood of major job loss if the mill proceeds, the wholesale application of agri-poisons and the unregulated experiment in long term low dose poison consumption.

This government would have us all saddle up and go find the fox, whilst allowing the destruction of the Great Wedge Tailed eagle, and many other species. Ah – but its OK if WE do it – it’s just not OK if a fox does.

You think I’m wrong ? Then show me the $1000 reward for the scalp of a human who through their industry kills native animals.

Industry that leads destructive strategies and practice in Tasmania is rewarded with government subsidies. Subsidies from people who largely don’t want their money used for that purpose. More conflict. There is a deep governmental and industrial sector commitment to the construction of material that reassures it (everything) is all OK. The ‘comfort messages’. A bit like the captain of the Titanic explaining ‘that large bump was actually just a small scratch’. The finely constructed messages are delivered by dumbed down and comparatively primitive spin doctors. Here in Tasmania, dishonesty is classified as truth simply because the person delivering it wears a suit and is on a government or corporate payroll. These briefings are like cup and cake parties – where they all get to show the ‘media and the people’ that they are serious, time pressured and oh, so very clever and important – and they have just found a silver bullet – and in the face of great adversity. Its the sinking ship that no-one is prepared to face, and no-one wants to tell us about.

Tasmania might be starved of fresh air, clean water and the native forests it once had – and some sensible tourism strategy – but the one thing it has got in spades is its inconsistencies. More so than any other state government – or even a few of the bad ones put together. A kind of governmental pancake stack of idiotic, symbiotic and stupid behaviours all drizzled with media spin.

On one hand there is concern for the Tasmanian Devil, and on the other no change to potential causal activity. The ‘hero’ pathology seems strangely dormant on this one. There isn’t a leader or even the shadow of one on the horizon – unless it’s about road building – and then it will all be a question of heroic election-driven timing. Forestry will say “it’s Tourism’s road”, and Tourism will have to keep re-building the washed away bridges – a gift to the West Coast from Forestry caused by forestry laden flood debris and forestry caused erosion. All the while 98% of the traffic will be tourist log trucks carrying lots of tourist logs with one way tickets….

Tasmanians can even use history as a guide for behaviour. If you want to know what’s in store – reflect on what has already happened. Our white fore-fathers shipped the remnants of the once majestic native Tasmanians to Flinders Island and I hear someone wants to do that to manage the Devil cancer issue. They are both acts of desperation of one kind or another. (Im not suggesting preserving the devils on an island is wrong – but it’s the same desperation repeating itself and driving behaviour). Tasmania commenced with a kind of conflict that hasnt really ever gone away. The conflicts of today and those of previous history are of a scale immeasurable. At the heart of it all is an inept/ simply stupid government, a profoundly selfish and equally as dumb industrial sector and those who try and with increasing tiredness explain alternatives. With fatigue starting to become apparent – one day soon someone will pick up a large bat and ask for a game of ball.

As I have said before, if a second rate Victorian municipal council behaved as poorly as the Tasmanian State government – there would be a heap of people calling breach of the local government acts and ushering the whole lot into administration. People would be charged and careers ended. Gaol for some. In Tasmania though, its a promotion or a pension or both. Im reminded by this odd behavior to Jim Morrison’s lines – down here ‘we are stoned immaculate’. Well It’s either that or they’re just plain stupid. Attached to all that are the dolts, fascists, actual and self styled experts – like those who say ‘there is no evidence’ that poisoned water is unhealthy, and that the chain harvesting of square kilometers of rare forests and the aerial application of napalm should be accepted as useful for jobs. One wonders what happened to integrity and ethics – a sense of rightness and a sense of connectedness with the environment – but then again, in many cases these are those who help form and operate Tasmania’s education system. That is – the one held together with sticky tape, brown string and staples. The system that consumes teachers like the logs dragged out of the forest.

Back to pathologies – I missed one – there is the ‘FIGJAM’ (fuck Im good just ask me) pathology – or the Pathology of Narcissism. Some call it the Bartlett syndrome – but my guess is you are the best judge of that.