2009 Hoons, Orwell, The Advertiser

What was I saying just two days ago about being proud to be an Aussie at last?

Maybe I spoke too soon. I loathe the media here (and everywhere else for that matter)

I don't deny we really need them to tackle the corruption of politicians and keep the bastards honest.

But they could so much more if they were more responsible. Why do they always have to pander to the basest element in our nature? After all, in any relationship  is it not considered ethically reprehensible for a person to pander to the base elements in human nature?


The problem  is greed. The newspapers want to make more money.

I woke up on Sunday morning to find someone else has bought the Adelaide Advertiser. I have recently stopped buying it and get all my news form the net. The main story is the usual knee-jerk, self-righteous, 'blame the victim' approach of the Adelaide Advertiser ...

'Mob Rule- Nightmare on Main street!'

Oh! Shock! Horror! Oh dear! How awful!

Boys letting off a bit of steam were they?

Why don't we put them in boot camp?

Or send them to Guantanamo Bay?

orwhy not "secretly render" them to the CIA in Thailand for a bit of waterboarding? We can 'Outsource' them forever!

Yes, hoon driving is sad, socially undesirable, tragic even, in some cases.

But no-one asks the question WHY does this happen in Adelaide?

Oh no, that might raise some awkward questions for ourselves? Why do grown men feel the need to behave like this in the middle of the night?

There are always the Conservatives who will take the eugenics approach and just say that hoons are genetically defective, born that way and deserve to be extricated from society.

Such people are part of Adelaide's huge cadre of petty officials and buraeucrats who only feel comfortable when criminalising everyone around them, including motorists. Such people (not the hoons) were responsible for allowing Hitler's thugs to take over Europe. In fact, such people colluded with thugs in Hitler's Germany. Some even encouraged Hitler's thugs to do their dirty work.

In my opinion it is possible that such 'criminalisers' are born that way. I hope I am wrong. But there seem to be so many of them - even though they have been totally discredited as having brought the world to the brink of the current economic catastrophe.

No, I don't really  buy the eugenic criminal theory.

One comment in the article from a self-confessed 'Hoon' is worth listening to.

"If there was a dedicated drag site in Adelaide-this wouldn't happen"

Well, then let's build a dedicated drag site for God's sake!

That was easy!

But I'm more interested in the reason they do it. This is where my mentor, George Orwell and his '1984' is relevant.

This is more than just drag-racing - I believe it is a symptom of a growing (I hope) subversive subculture which is challenging the status-quo.

The ludicrous, sanctimonious over-reaction of the Adelaide Advertiser attempts to tap into the Conservative 'lust' to blame the victim in order (for the Advertiser) to sell a few more newspapers.

This is the real problem for all of us: blaming the victim. Because, as in Orwell's 1984, the manipulation is so subtle most of us don't even see it.

I have a forlorn hope that  Adelaide's conservatism, conformism and notorious officiousness is finally being challenged from within it's own ranks.

I'd rather have a few hundred 'Hoons' harming only themselves, than the Talibanic conformism which characterises daily life here.

Its not just women who are kept in the home and not allowed to speak to strangers in Adelaide -it's everyone!

Rush! Rush! Nobody speaks to each other - no time! 'I'm too busy!' Everyone is suspicious of each other and are either too busy to talk to co-workers, friends, or too xenophobic to talk to foreigners.

Such attitudes are anchored firmly in place by the organs of power here such as Newspapers, Television and the police.

So, if a few hunderd 'Hoons' are on the street in the middle of the night then I, for one, am glad to see it, although I'd prefer them to have their own dedicated drag site somewhere close to the city.

I might even go along myself to see them.

Its a sign that people are still alive here.