I do remember when Barack Obama was sworn in and carried the hope of millions on his shoulders and I was touched when he and Michelle Obama danced and Beyonce sung 'At Last', sure. But mainly I just love Beyonce and Etta James and the lighting was beautiful and I'm a serious romantic and was more inspired by pretty love between a nice couple than I was engaged in a whirlwind of hope for the future of America and the world. I remember when Julia Gillard took over from Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia and I was not pleased, not inspired, not impressed by our first female Prime Minister - just mainly pissed off and disillusioned with the deceit that got Gillard to where she is today. And that's not to say she's the only one, either. Each of the potential leaders of this country - Gillard, Rudd, and Tony 'Red Speedo' Abbott - have proved themselves to be idiotic, offensive, rude and/or sulky. On a global scale our leadership crisis is an embarrassment to Australia.
I feel like the consensus on the 'apathy' of my generation in general, however, is overestimated and unfair. I care about lots of things, including my family, friends, the state of my country and its environment, climate change, Aboriginal Australian rights including land rights and education and life expectancy discrepancies, homelessness, immigration and multiculturalism, equal gender and marriage rights - even between drinking bottles of cheap wine and listening to Lady Gaga and substituting 's's with dollar signs and refreshing Facebook people my age really do care about things like that. From my experience, anyway, being surrounded by relatively intelligent lifeforms of around 16-21 years of age and being within this age bracket myself. We do care about stuff.
One event that did fill me with some semblance of hope was the apology to Aboriginal Australians, made by Kevin Rudd when he was Prime Minister. Long overdue and side-stepped by haughty white men it was a relatively simple concept that seemed to go a long way. That day I felt a slight release from the confusing guilt and sadness that consumes me when I think about past atrocities; bemused shame would keep me distant from blackfellas I saw around even rarely, knowing the sad state of their people, who are, as a whole, gentle, fun-loving and sharing of a careful and nurturing connection to our land.
But of course the promise that provided inspiration to our country faded as the heady glow of TALK diminished without the follow up of action. Sure, policies were put in place in order to improve the lives of Aboriginal Australians, laws made, whatever - but have things really changed? It will take years, I know - but surely there is more that can be done?
What I'm seeing, in all my youth and naiveté, is a country run by politicians who are so afraid of being robbed of power, or afraid of backlash, or are too full of pride, or a combination of the three, to actually DO anything. Our country is floundering under the weight of uncertainty and our society is suffering as a result. Maybe not like REALLY obviously or really badly, like in the way that, say, Burma's people are suffering, but still. I guess life will always be unpredictable but I know for myself, anyway, that a government should strive to create for their people some kind of sense of the following: security, happiness, hope, equality.
I probably don't know enough about politics to be making such assumptions. I don't know much about much other than The Brady Bunch and Joni Mitchell's discography but as they say, I'm just 'putting it out there'. I do think, though, that maybe, just maybe, if our government took more of a sincere interest in my generation, and people my age began to take more interest in our government, we could come to some kind of state of mutual- heightened interest. It takes two to tango I guess.
I'm out of my depth. Here are some pictures of Phar Lap because I like him. The ultimate taxidermy.
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