Lest We Forget, Or Selective Memory!

Ok, this isn’t really about selective memory… It’s about selective attention.

But let’s remember what happened on Anzac Day. Well, not the original Anzac Day but Anzac Day 2017. A young woman tweeted “Lest. We. Forget. Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine…”. Her tweet was criticised and she removed the references to Manus, Nauru, Syria and Palestine, adding:”It was brought to my attention that my last post was disrespectful, and for that, I apologise unreservedly”. Alan Jones called her “cowardly” for removing the tweet; one wonders if he’d have called her brave if she hadn’t.

Of course, you all remember this. Just as I’m sure you remember the outrage from various people that she should dare write such a thing because, well, one shouldn’t use the phrase “Lest We Forget” in some sort of political comment. From politicians like George Christensen suggesting – with a wonderful oxymoron – that she should consider “self-deportation” and Peter Dutton’s calling her tweet was a disgrace on “our most significant national day” to the newspapers and shock jocks, there was outrage on a large scale. There was even a petition calling for her sacking.

Was this because she’d expressed a political view? No, we were told, it was the hijacking of Anzac Day and, in particular, the phrase “Lest We Forget”.

So for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been waiting for the outrage over this Mark Knight cartoon. I apologise for its quality because but I never buy “The Herald-Sun”; as I’ve said before I grab it in coffee shops to prevent feeble-minded people reading it and actually thinking that it’s true.

Now, because you probably can’t see what’s there: Somebody is laying a wreath at the “Tomb of The Unknown Aussie Larrikin” with a further inscription telling us that he was killed by political correctness, and in the corner there’s a speech bubble with the words, “Lest We Forget”.

Surely, this cartoon makes a mockery of Anzac Day and its traditions! Surely, there’ll be a petition for me to sign, demanding Mark Knight’s sacking. Surely, the same newspapers who so readily condemned the tweet must also condemn the cartoon… Oh wait, they published it.

Isn’t there some inconsistency here? Are we meant to conclude that Anzac day is our most significant day and should be respected, but only on the day itself?

Or is it that the cartoonist’s name is Mark and he works for the Murdoch Muckraker, while the tweeter’s name is Yasminn and she worked for the ABC?

Surely not. Surely we’re all equal in Malcolm Turnbull’s Australia*.

*Yes, I know that I may be wrong to call it Malcolm Turnbull’s Australia, but at the time of writing, he still hasn’t been removed by the Liberal Party.