Brillat-Savarin, the French philosopher, said in 1826, “We are what we eat…” Of course that is not fully true. We are more. However, in 1863 Feuerbach said much of the same thing, “Man is what he eats.” Nevertheless, given modern science and investigation techniques, new insights into behaviour patterns rise frequently. It is true that we cannot hide who we are or what we have done as our words will eventually reveal all.
In Tasmania we have a saying, ‘there are no secrets’. We are a small–town-village-culture at the best of times and the present explosion of information-sharing makes simple information pervasive. In Communications language this is sometimes termed as the ‘Cookie Jar Syndrome’. Who has not raised a family and not caught one of the children in the cookie jar who said, as they looked at their left foot if they were right handed, “I have not taken a cookie!’ (with crumbs dripping from lips) … for me it was liberating bananas! Mother said that I smelled like a banana. How did she know?
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and all people in any authority role are no exceptions to this Cookie Jar Syndrome as people, by habit, hide their actions but almost always fail in stealth. It was easy to trap rabbits in the Canadian North Woods because rabbits do not change their behaviour until they get caught or shot. We humans are not much different. Mostly, it is our words which give us away … or our silence. Remember Bill Clinton’s silence! Yes, words. Someplace along our personal time-line we will reveal things which tell others what we have done or what we are going to do. Really, in terms of disclosing our secrets, Homo sapiens are still amateurs … even after thousands of years.
Words are past rubbish tips of insights and basically we do what we say we are going to do. We may sometimes forget what we said in the past and/or we fudge here and there but what we have said in the past is what we will do in the future. It has been said by Social Psychologists Douglas and Sutton, “By their words you shall know them”, which is a play of St Matthew’s quote, “By their works you shall know them”.
This paper will examine a few of the hundreds of revealing statements which Tony Abbott has uttered. I have chosen to not go back to his younger days when he was a neophyte politician but even then his words and actions were aggressive (remember the punch into the wall when confronting a female adversary to whom he had lost an election). This is not a Social Psychology paper and no attempt at analysis will be given. Instead, this is a simple Communications report about some of the words Mr Abbott has said in the past and WHAT we may possibly extrapolate from those words.
So, what can we deduce about Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia, from some of his recent utterances?
So, what can we deduce about Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia, from some of his recent utterances? Unfair? No; because it is Mr Abbott who is our leader and he must bear the excruciating glare from the torches of accountability. As Harry S. Truman said, “The buck stops here!” It is my feeling that all politicians and people in leadership roles should have this same glare intensely directed at them.
We have heard Mr Abbott use the phrase, “It is a Captain’s Call”. When I first heard him use that idiom I was reminded of the days (seventy years ago!) I was the school football captain. The only time I ever used it was once when the quarterback failed to see something on the field that would have an effect upon the next play; so I whispered in his ear, “Captain’s call” and told him what I thought should be the next play.
What is the etymology of ‘Captain’s Call’? It would appear that it has a military origin and means just that. The Captain makes the decision and everyone follows the command without serious questioning. This command is also used in sport where the Captain is given the task of choosing a direction for the team to follow … again with no arguments. This ‘closed loop’ system shows a padlocked mind-ring of decision-making which is military and episcopal (bishops, priests etc.) in derivation. I believe Mr Abbott has that sort of mind set. He is really a bishop or general who is used to being obeyed.
C. Dweck contends that intelligent people spend a large amount of time believing that their native talents and brilliance will create their success; and it also means one should not trust too many people with decisions. Decision building and making should best be left to the Captain, goes this theory. It was no accident that Mr Rudd had only a few people in his Inner Cabinet. It would seem that he too had the ‘Captain’s Call Syndrome’. Come to think of it, what great leaders of history (and down to the local village mayors) are not infected with the ‘Captain’s Call Syndrome’?
To discover this mind set we need go no further than cut into a conversation MP Tony Windsor had with Mr Abbott just before the raising of Julia Gillard’s election to be the assured PM. Julia was already the Prime Minister, the election was on a knife edge and Tony wanted the job. How badly? His answer reveals the extent of how his mind set and ego were organized and intertwined. We probably need go no further. The brevity of Abbott’s statement reveals he had the hopes of becoming the next PM deeply in his psyche. Tony Abbott said to Tony Windsor (ABC News 28 Aug 2011), “Tony, I would do anything for this job. The only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse, but ‘d give serious thought to it.”
This past week, after the debacle in Questions and Answers, the participant ABC opinion show, Mr Abbott, having that Captain’s mind set, would expect all his front and back bench to follow his lead … no, his command, “For the sake of the Order” (I say with tongue in cheek). Thus, Minister of Agriculture Barnaby Joyce was told to refuse to appear on the Q/A programme. Evidently, Captain Abbott told his front bench they may not appear … so they will not. The Captain has made his call and he has to be right … dare I say it … because he is the Captain and this captain operates on confrontation and best uses war-like terminology.
“I am right and you are not right.”
But this was not the first shoot of spring planting. Captain Abbott has revealed himself in many utterances and mostly that of conflict and closed fundamentalism in that, “I am right and you are not right.” From the www.russell-marks blog we are given a feast of face-falling-foibles which have been elevated from various publications. Mr Abbott is quoted to have said them all. Most of these come from: http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2014/05/27/1401138538/tony-abbott-said
1. He has taken the word ‘tax’ and made it a word of conflict and even war.
2. Boundaries. It is no accident that this is the name of his recent book. It reveals his line in the sand mental set and underlines his confrontational approach to politics. ‘Time for battlelines to be drawn’. P182
3. There are one or two parties that are frankly racist. 19 August 13
4. We want the states to be grown up about government. 14 May 14
5. Labor spending like a drunken sailor. 21 Dec 12
6. The only certainty is that Labor lies. 25 Feb 11
7. Indonesian authorities have been unhelpful, singularly unhelpful. 15 Dec 13
8. …everyone in these centres is there because he or she has come illegally to Australia. 10 Jan 14
9. The Labor government is totally based on fear or smear. 9 August 10
10. He’s (Rudd) going to tell a lot of lies… 19 Mar 10
11. Don’t believe Labor’s lies…18 A 13
12. The vast majority of (boat) people are not fair dinkum refugees. They are economic migrants, plain and simple. 2 July 13 Fact: Vast majority who arrived by boat were eventually found to be genuine refugees.
13. The argument (about climate change) is absolute crap! 1 Oct 09
14. The Climate catastrophists. Sky News 09
15. The sanctity of life is a higher order moral issue than the promotion of social justice. 6 July 07. (Hint: obey me.)
16. Tony Windsor was not finished. In the Tasmanian Times of 4/07/15 he gave the strong opinion that (Abbott’s) “…entire time in politics has been based on forming divisions within society. Whether it be climate science, windmills, school and university education, the strategy is always the same, divide and, in his mind, rule.” ( Tony Windsor: Stop the Brutes )
Perhaps it is unfair to examine a person’s utterances who lives by and for the media. Fair to say that any of us would wilt if our bare feet were put against a blow torch. Abbott’s combative style forces him to be placed under this fire of intensity. However, Mr Abbott chose to achieve the highest office in the land and he therefore must accept this glare and these analyses. My guess is that he does not really care because he already has the prize he “… would do anything to get …”
During his most recent debacle with the ABC, in his normal combative style, Mr Abbott asked of his media listeners/watchers, “Whose side are you on?” This seemingly simple question calls for an easy answer, ‘Yes”, I am on the ABC’s side or “No”, I am not on the ABC’s side. The tonal quality is similar to a father telling his teenage daughter to get home by 9 p.m. “Or else”. In other words, another line has 1. been drawn 2. he has drawn the line and 3. the decisions have already been made … by him.
This is his consistent bravura and standing alone by itself is neither good nor bad; it just is: he must make decisions on behalf of his fellow workers and especially his cabinet who have been told they may not be part of the ABC Questions and Answers programme. When the mental set of, “I know what to do and you will do what I tell you,” becomes the major method of communication eventual hostility and revolutions will take place. That is a given. It will be interesting to discover if Malcolm Turnbull will be ‘allowed’ to be on the Q and A show. Abbott will be a loser no matter the outcome. This is the sort of petard on which fundamentalist communication people stick themselves as they cannot really abide anyone else making what they consider to be the important decisions and when it comes to Abbott’s world view there is only one … his.
Much more can be said about how Mr Abbott arrives at his decisions. They come from a life-long process of believing he was in the right personally, religiously and politically. In the future I will continue to monitor his statements and actions and put the blow torch of public opinion yet again to his ‘feet’; and he will love it as that is how the righteous behave; in their own minds and Abbott’s minions, it vindicates their actions.
• Guardian: John Hewson on Q&A: Australia’s role in Iraq war implicates us in rise of Isis Former Liberal leader tells ABC program that Australia’s decision to join invasion of Iraq was ‘an embarrassment to all of us’
• Guardian: Tony Abbott’s Q&A ban is aimed at ministers, not ABC, says Malcolm Turnbull
