It’s good work if you can get it, this business of lecturing others on what they are morally obliged to do (and pay) if the poor/diseased/downtrodden/oppressed masses of whatever dismal variety you prefer are to be lifted from their benighted misery. The trick is not to get caught being inauthentic.
You might recall the story of the white-as-snow Rachel Dolezal, who lied about her ethnicity and culture to assume the mask, moral privileges and kudos of an oppressed African-American activist. She was an ordinary white woman who, by appropriating the culture and physical appearance of an ethnic group with a goldmine of victimhood cachet, made herself feel very special indeed. Think here of private school kids getting tribal tattoos or Prince Harry affecting the odd glottal-stop or a bit of H-withholding, as in to ‘ow much ‘e ‘ungers for a lager with the lads. It’s the classic case of the outsiders wanting membership of a club to which, presenting as themselves, they can never belong.
Now, with an election looming it’s time to get ready for another cast of political thespians trying to be what they are not, sneaking into our lives and pockets via the belly of the Trojan horse of the Fairness Industrial Complex (FIC). For those who don’t know, the FIC is like the Qantas Club for PFS Operatives — Professional Fairness Spruikers. This is a comfy place where cake-eating clipboard carriers, meeting-minuters, shiny-suited private-school union lawyers, progressive politicians, publicly funded activists and lanyard-wearing, conference-attending, frequent-flyer-points-accruing public servants can relax and thrive in comfort, all courtesy of the proceeds of the FIC and the support it wrings out of others, mostly the taxpayers.
The FIC, unlike its cousin the Military Industrial Complex, is proud to peddle its influence and does so openly. Its foot soldiers often live together and work together, as seen at the ABC, where sharing a bed and daily breakfast with someone already on the national broadcaster’s payroll is always a recommendation on any job application. Their strength is in their numbers. For instance: alone, one member might be thought a poseur or a grievance monger; but as part of the many, an activist or a social justice warrior is more than a mere and clamorous pest. Rich, greedy and lazy, the Western world shrugs and indulges the snivels of what amounts social-issue hypochondria. Should anyone raise an eyebrow or dare to disagree with the narrative, cue a mob pile-on, maybe even a lynching. Supporters of, say, traditional marriage are howled down, interrupted ceaselessly in mid-sentence by Tony Jones, branded “homophobes” for daring to disagree, no matter how politely, with such a fashionable cause and meme.
Membership of this house of smarm and sinecure has its privileges, but there are rules. First and foremost is the possession of a compassionate ‘false self.’ Now we all have ‘false selves’ – split-off bits of our character that represent the sort of people we’d most like to be and be seen to be. Con artists knowingly cultivate such personas for the purpose of criminal enterprise, which at least blesses the then the virtue of honest self-knowledge. Fairness spruikers, by contrast, are often blissfully unaware of their impostiture; they think their false selves represent the totality of their personhood.
