Dreams and reality
Posted on | November 29, 2007 |
It is a little like waking up from a dream this week. It’s Thursday already, but I still feel like it might not be safe to open my eyes. (Oh no! I just did! And look what happened…) The fact that I literally partied all night on Saturday may have something to do with my sluggishness! But there is surely a metaphor I should be toying with, about how feeling my way around in the dark seems okay after a decade of sleeping with a heavy heart.
People like me take politics way too seriously, but that’s my reality. When I saw the faces and read the stream of text messages and heard the phone calls coming in from around the country with the results my main response was one of gratitude - that the people I love and value, whose strength I regularly draw on, were finally giving over to something completely unfamiliar: the sheer joy that an important fight was swiftly, peacefully and justly over.
I’ve been trying to convey this to some friends overseas in the past few days, who are wondering how to adopt what has happened to their own context. The thing is, it’s not possible to explain Labor winning in terms of some contagious cosmopolitan Left affect that, if we’re lucky, might ultimately spread to the White House. What has reassured me about this election is how such idealised models for progressive change have been revealed as the least useful way for intellectuals, in particular, to invest energy.
The fact that such an arrogant and calculating presence leading our country has eventually been refused is significant; but it’s the terms for the dismissal that make it more so. The Work Choices Legislation brought attention back to some fundamental distinctions between the Labor and Liberal parties in this country. What is historic about the win is that Rudd’s message focused on this legacy with a view to future — global — economic divisions as well.
Thankfully, there will be plenty of time to expand upon those issues. For the moment I’m happiest for the friends a bit younger than me who seem even more moved than I am. If there was ever any question about whether young people cared about politics, see the photo galleries on Facebook from last weekend’s parties, check the inboxes on all their messaging programs and mobile phones (and count how many are from ex-pats overseas) watch them organise a spate of spontaneous end of year gatherings.
This is a time of celebration for those who grew up under the outgoing government and stayed. So many of them managed to create spaces of pride, subversion and agitation in spite of what must have felt like impossible odds. I hope this isn’t the only victory we get to share.
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November 30th, 2007 @ 10:33 am
I love you Mel! You have so perfectly captured the mood of change and joy which seems to have overtaken everyone I know and interact with.
Dancing on Saturday night after Howard’s concession speech was the most free and joyous I (and the friends I was with) can remember feeling. I am still wary of putting all my faith into the change, but for the first time in years feel as though engaging with political processes through work, activism and debate will be the fruitful and enjoyable experience I believe it always should be, as opposed to the soul destroying pain of dealing with the former Government. And this feels so damn good I still can not wipe the smile off my face!
November 30th, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
Yay! Glad to hear it Amy! x
December 1st, 2007 @ 7:38 am
After Saturday, I was thinking back to last year’s CSAA conference and the vertable glut of papers that attempted (some successfully, some not so much) to voice the frustration of 10 years of John Howard and how CS academics might be able to think through this era. What a difference a year makes! A few things though:
(a) it seemed to me that Rudd was quite beneficial of timing, which is a political asset in and of itself, rather than anything else (work choices, maybe, excepted).
(b) he did though at least project an image of competence. I’m not sure if this is true here but in Canada, a journo named Paul Wells always says that the opposition has to act like a government in waiting to win an election.
(c) his expertise in China is one of the things that seems to be mentioned but not fully appreciated in the election coverage. This is perhaps the biggest reason to celebrate his victory, at least for me.
(d) the fight is not over.
(e) I worked for the AEC at a primary school during election day doing absent and provisional ballots followed by endless vote counting (16 hours of names, addresses and numbers!). The scene during the day was maybe more joyous than after the result.