Fellow travellers, as international socialists we can all agree that patriotism is an ugly emotion. And it brings out other malignant sentiments, for example the flagrant, insensitive and
deeply racist waving of Australian flags (still, revoltingly, including the Union Jack) by drunken revelers at various Australia Day events and gatherings.
Not surprisingly this brutal nationalism often dredges up the vile prejudice of speciesism as well. Take this regular Australia Day horse racing event that is
held at Hanging Rock in Victoria.
This appalling carnival, which so grotesquely combines equine oppression with unfettered capitalism, has been going on for over a century. But clearly Gaia has had enough. So this year She decided to send Her marsupial offspring to disrupt the event. Her hopping mad army of kangaroos did a fine job of disturbing the location enough to have the event called off - without
frightening the horses.
This was a small, but heartening victory of nature against huMANity, although sadly most will not see it that way. Only special individuals such as myself - and you, my dear fellow travellers - would be capable of divining in it the sassy symbolism of our celestial sister.
And speaking of symbolism: Gaia's choice of location for this feisty, furry act of agit-prop was also highly significant. It was just near the setting for that superlative
cinema classic directed by Peter Weir, Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Without a doubt She was invoking that
golden age of Australian cinema, which was made possible by a deep desire to express our unique Australian cultural identity - rather than simply obey the AmeriKKKan "bums-on-seats" paradigm. Obviously, by sending those roos in yesterday, Gaia was agitating for more government funding for art films with an environmental theme.
