That chilling moment in the modern university when you realise that for
a powerful class of people corporate speak/political correctness is the new ethics: the
management of facades and surfaces with concomitant institutional rewards and
group validation. On these social occasions I’ve wondered, ‘How could a real
human being ever appear in this setting?’
In contrast I was at a recent event where toughness or the appearance
of toughness was clearly a necessary component of male and female capital –
most men were heavily tattooed (three had facial tattoos). I was sitting beside an ex-biker who
had suffered an incapacitating breakdown of health and now lived on an invalid
pension. After we discussed the anti-oxidant effects of blueberries, and he
informed me that frozen blueberries were a lot cheaper than fresh, he spoke of
one of his sons visiting the Sioux Indians, and of his great love for Native
American spirituality but then as if to emphasise that he wasn’t another
disconnected New Ager, and to acknowledge me, he said, “It’s funny, I’ve never
been interested in Koori spirituality."
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