A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion. - George Orwell
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://theharshcouch.com/thc/2015-02-03/
The Harsh Couch - 2015.02.03 Democracy IS a popularity contest
wibbly
#1
I’m struggling to think what Abbott has been “strong” on over his term other than questionable rhetoric on domestic terrorism and people in boats.
Whether he’d win a leadership spill or not, there has to be a challenge to resolve the question.
Fodder for parallels:
The downfall and death of Fra Girolamo Savanarola, the original Mad Monk - Wikipedia says:
On May 12, 1497, Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Savonarola and threatened the Florentines with an interdict if they persisted in harboring him. On March 18, 1498, after much debate and steady pressure from a worried government, he withdrew from public preaching. Under the stress of excommunication, Savonarola composed his spiritual masterpiece, the Triumph of the Cross, a celebration of the victory of the Cross over sin and death and an exploration of what it means to be a Christian. This he summed up in the theological virtue of caritas, or love. In loving their neighbor, Christians return the love which they have received from their Creator and Savior.
Savonarola hinted at performing miracles to prove his divine mission, but when a rival Franciscan preacher proposed to test that mission by walking through fire, he lost control of the public discourse. Without consulting him, his confidant Fra Domenico da Pescia offered himself as his surrogate and Savonarola felt he could not afford to refuse. The first trial by fire in Florence for over four hundred years was set for April 7. A crowd filled the central square, eager to see if God would intervene and if so, on which side. The nervous contestants and their delegations delayed the start of the contest for hours. A sudden rain drenched the spectators and government officials cancelled the proceedings. The crowd disbanded angrily; the burden of proof had been on Savonarola and he was blamed for the fiasco. A mob assaulted the convent of San Marco.
Fra Girolamo [ie Savanarola], Fra Domenico, and Fra Silvestro Maruffi were arrested and imprisoned. Under torture Savonarola confessed to having invented his prophecies and visions, then retracted, then confessed again. In his prison cell in the tower of the government palace he composed meditations on Psalms 51 and 31. On the morning of May 23, 1498, the three friars were led out into the main square where, before a tribunal of high clerics and government officials, they were condemned as heretics and schismatics, and sentenced to die forthwith. Stripped of their Dominican garments in ritual degradation, they mounted the scaffold in their thin white shirts. Each on a separate gallows, they were hanged, while fires were ignited below them to consume their bodies. To prevent devotees from searching for relics, their ashes were carted away and scattered in the Arno
The next Mad Monk I’m aware of is Rasputin. Rasputin’s assassination entry in Wikipedia is too long. Basically, a Russian noble invited him over, poisoned him with cyanide tea, then shot him when that failed, then shot him again, then (along with co-conspirators) dumped him in a frozen river.
I think the history of Mad Monks would make for an interesting book. I looked for a book on this topic a few months ago, but unfortunately Savanarola and Rasputin are the only two who stand out as big headliners in Christian history.
Harking back to the Jesuit education of both Abbott (Riverview) and Hockey (St Aloysius), there may be parallels in the volumes of history on the Jesuit martyrs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Jesuit_martyrs
At St Aloysius, the school houses are named after Jesuit martyrs and the annual school diary had stories of their martyrdom in the back. Those were generally grisly stories of torture. I was in Ogilvie, named after St John Ogilvie SJ. This poor guy was kept awake at daggerpoint for 9 days (SJ Web) as part of his pre-trial torture. A few Liberals may be in a similar state of sleep deprivation by next Tuesday.
Most of these saints were martyred trying to reintroduce Catholicism into England and died at the hands of the English protestant state. That spoils the historical parallels with the Jesuits a little, as the most immediate trigger for Abbott’s fall was knighting the husband of the Defender of the Faith and nominal head of the protestant Church of England, Queen Elizabeth II.
Pretty good summary of the Abbott mindset: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/06/tony-abbott-is-in-trouble-because-he-never-let-the-junkyard-dog-go
Twenty years of political brawling in Canberra didn’t touch Abbott’s romantic notion that he would grow once he had power. From childhood his heroes had been men like Churchill who transformed themselves when they came to office.
In the belief this would happen, a chunk of the electorate was willing to vote for this startlingly limited man in 2013. They took him at his word: that he would be able to dig down to his better self and be the leader the nation needed.
But it didn’t happen.
The junkyard dog united a shattered Coalition and proved himself the most resourceful leader of an opposition in 50 years. But no transformation followed. The prime minister’s problem is not the captain’s picks, not his failure to consult, nor the micromanagement of the cabinet by his office. He failed to grow.