Horse 2935 - An Open Letter To The Melbourne Protesters

Dear Melbourne protesters,

Your cries for attention have been heard by us in the rest of Australia. The problem is, that all you have done is squeal and cry like a bunch of toddlers having a temper tantrum and for not exactly sensible causes.

This is not some great existential crisis like the American or French Revolutions, this is not a breakdown in the nature of civil and civic law which kicked off the revolutions of 1848, this is not some grand push for expansion of the franchise, working conditions, or other civil rights; rather, this is a borderline violent rabble having a squeal because you are complaining about the possibility of considering other people in the Commonwealth as worthy of your civic duty.

We had our eyes on you this weekend and I was prepared to listen to any cohesive and sensible line of argument that may have been generated but all we saw was QAnon signs, unhinged anti-vaxxers, actual neo-nazis with megaphones and the swastika flag of the Third Reich, incredibly incoherent messaging about what you want except for the issue of who you'd like to kill (which includes the Premier of Victoria, refugees, Islamic people, Jewish people, and Asian and African migrants); all topped and tailed with increasingly insane lies about inflated crowd sizes. With no actual grievances other than wanting to see the Premier of Victoria dead, you've given the government a licence to ignore you as Victorians unite against you.

Normally I would heartily reciprocate and acquiesce with people's demands for freedom. As a concept, freedom is best expressed when people are treated as our best selves; and this is when civic philos is embiggened. However, you aren't calling for an expansion of civic philos but rather an exemption from it. What you are calling for is an ability to ignore the health and wellbeing of your fellow citizens of the Commonwealth, and in actual fact the ability to endanger it through your deliberate indifference and negligence.

Granted, there are some people who have genuine medical reasons for not being vaccinated. Those reasons have to do with empirical medical conditions; which can lead to death. What someone who wants an exemption from the vaccine and/or the relevant health regulations which surround the protection of public health, is that their own personal selfishness is worth more to them than even the lives of others.

The whole notion that someone's right to freedom and the ability to swing your fists, ends where my nose begins is quite frankly, rubbish. I very much argue that as a member of a Commonwealth, your rights, whatever they happen to be, co-exist and are expanded in commonwealth together. Whatever notions of freedom that you might have, they are immediately bankrupted when they cease to acknowledge the lives of others. Furthermore when it comes to the transmission of an airborne aerosol disease, you're not just swinging your fists in front of people's noses, those fists are nanoscopic and are being sent as a legion into people's lungs and bodies.

The state of Victoria is open. The restrictions of movement, meeting and assembly are gone. More than 9 in 10 people have now been vaccinated. Those people have demonstrated their concern for your health in commonwealth but you do not acknowledge or respect their act of service to you. Your cause was lost long before today, and what you are doing now amounts to nothing more than people throwing tantrums. The people of Victorian clearly back the Premier Dan Andrews and the government they elected and they want absolutely nothing to do with your lawlessness. 

Is it vaccine mandates we've known about for months being protested? Because if it is that, then are you really in favour of endangering the lives of others? Is this anger at a bill before the parliament that you haven't read and do not understand? There are no restrictions now; so it can not possibly be that. Or is it just angry, anti government, mostly white wingnuts with an audience and appetite for violence?

Actually if it is true that you hate it here so much and you love Mr. Trump as much as the flags at your rallies appear to indicate, then perhaps you should rightfully exercise your freedom of movement and leave for the United States. 

If we are to live together in community and commonwealth then the greatest freedoms are actually achieved when we set aside personal pride and freedom. To be perfectly honest, I am less impressed with acts of demands for freedom and rights, than I am with acts where the needs of others are preferred. This is what I really don't understand about protests like this. Surely that’s an act of true freedom. If people bite and ravage each other, then in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

Go home. Stop it. You're not sensible.

Aside:

The use of the Australian Red Ensign flag is deeply silly. As this is the flag of Australian merchant ships, are we to assume that the people who fly this flag are declaring they are not people, but instead are registered Australian merchant ships?

It is worth remembering that before 1953 there was no official Australian flag and that the red ensign and the blue ensign were used interchangeably. It is also worth remembering that the red ensign was used by the New Guard, which was the Australian chapter of the Fascist party in the 1930s, which had supporters throughout the army and the judiciary. Are these people declaring that they'd like to be fascists?

Aside 2:

When the Australian flag is flown upside-down it means that the ship which was previously in distress, has been abandoned. This means that the crew has officially given up any right on the vessel or its cargo and anybody who manages to get to the ship has the right to both the ship and/or its cargo.

I can only assume that this person who is flying the Australian flag upside-down, has officially declared that he has abandoned any claims of his person and his stuff and so one can only assume that if you were to take his wallet, he'd be fine with that?

Aside 3:

Use of the Eureka Flag doesn't really make that much sense outside of the context of a union. Use of the Polish flag and the Serbian flags make even less sense.