As Australia settles into for a customary Christmas holiday across slow-moving days of coast and scorching heat accompanied by the background of Test cricket and cicada song, this year the country’s summer mood seems, unfortunately, like no other.
It would be a significant understatement to characterize the collective temperament after the antisemitic terrorist attack on Jewish Australians during the beachside Hanukah celebrations as one of mere ennui.
Throughout the country, but especially than in Sydney – the most postcard picturesque of the nation's urban centers – a tone of initial shock, grief and terror is shifting to anger and deep polarization.
Those who had not picked up on the frequently expressed fears of the Jewish community are now highly attuned. Just as, they are sensitive to reconciling the need for a far more urgent, vigorous official crackdown against anti-Jewish hatred with the freedom to peacefully protest against genocide.
If ever there was a time for a national listening, it is now, when our belief in mankind is so deeply depleted. This is especially so for those of us fortunate enough never to have experienced the hatred and fear of religious and ethnic persecution on this continent or elsewhere.
And yet the algorithms keep spewing at us the banal instant opinions of those with blistering, polarizing stances but little understanding at all of that profound vulnerability.
This is a time when I lament not having a greater spiritual belief. I mourn, because believing in people – in mankind’s potential for compassion – has failed us so acutely. Something else, a greater power, is required.
And yet from the horror of Bondi we have seen such profound instances of human goodness. The courageous acts of ordinary people. The bravery of those present. Emergency personnel – police officers and paramedics, those who ran towards the gunfire to aid fellow humans, some recognised but for the most part unnamed and unheralded.
When the barrier cordon still fluttered wildly all about Bondi, the imperative of social, faith-based and cultural solidarity was laudably promoted by faith leaders. It was a call of love and acceptance – of bringing together rather than dividing in a time of targeted violence.
Consistent with the symbolism of the Festival of Lights (light amid gloom), there was so much appropriate reference of the need for lightness.
Unity, light and compassion was the essence of belief.
‘Our public places may not look exactly as they did again.’
And yet segments of the political landscape reacted so disgustingly swiftly with division, finger-pointing and accusation.
Some elected officials moved straight for the darkness, using the atrocity as a cynical chance to question Australia’s migration rules.
Witness the harmful message of division from longstanding fomenters of societal discord, capitalizing on the massacre before the site was even cold. Then read the statements of political figures while the probe was ongoing.
Government has a formidable job to do when it comes to bringing together a nation that is mourning and scared and looking for the hope and, importantly, explanations to so many questions.
Like why, when the national terrorism threat level was assessed as likely, did such a large public Hanukah celebration go ahead with such a woefully insufficient security presence? Like how could the accused attackers have multiple firearms in the family home when the security agency has so openly and repeatedly alerted of the threat of targeted attacks?
How rapidly we were subjected to that cliched line (or versions of it) that it’s individuals not weapons that kill. Of course, both things are valid. It’s possible to simultaneously seek new ways to stop violent bigotry and keep firearms away from its possible actors.
In this city of profound splendor, of clear blue heavens above ocean and sand, the water and the beaches – our communal areas – may not look entirely familiar again to the multitude who’ve observed that iconic Bondi seems so incongruous with last weekend’s obscene bloodshed.
We long right now for comprehension and significance, for loved ones, and perhaps for the consolation of aesthetics in culture or nature.
This weekend many Australians are cancelling holiday gathering plans. Quiet contemplation will seem more appropriate.
But this is perhaps somewhat counterintuitive. For in these times of fear, anger, melancholy, confusion and grief we need each other now more than ever.
The comfort of community – the binding force of the unity in the very word – is what we probably need most.
But tragically, all of the portents are that cohesion in politics and society will be elusive this extended, draining summer.
A seasoned gaming enthusiast with over a decade of experience in lottery analysis and casino reviews.
