Marr withers 'White Queen' Pauline

Surely she is the Wicked Witch of the West?

That 3rd paragraph from the bottom (starts with "One Nation") is the most succinct and lucid exposition of the Hanson/Trump phenomenon I've yet come across.

For some Muslims, Islam is their enemy as radical extremists use their religion's koranic military pillar to overrule their spiritual / social / economic / and political obligations. Muftis, imams and ulema-lawyers ... similar to what occurs in every other religion ... may teach nonsense. Yet no religion teaches its believers to recognise nonsense. With my daily christian prayers I recite the jewish Kaddish and the koranic Fateha daily. AlhamdulilLah ! Hear o Israel ! Kevin Aryeh haTitvah Smith ... supreme cross of honour from Benedict XVI 2005 for ecumenism . []

As the world grows ever more complex -- and as education teaches more and more about the geographical, social and religious of the world beyond our own small (and mostly homogeneous) villages -- so many people seem to want to react against that reality and its perception by pretending that simple certainties are real, desirable and attainable. Some of these are to be found in Christianity; others in Islam; yet others amongst secularists. Yet, in seeking to stop immigration -- to "keep Australia as it is and has always been" -- those people entirely forget that, like their forbears, they are immigrants, too. But, simply put, they are WHITE immigrants (or their descendants). The sad truth is that, in the Australian community there is a great deal of racism (and misogyny, as well): inevitably, that will include our political parties, too (and some of their leaders) So, we all need to "examine our conscience" regularly on that question and reject organisations which espouse racism, as "One Nation". What an irony that name is!

Irfan, I was at that 1996 dinner - as a reporter for SBS Radio. Tony Abbott introduced him that night. Afterwards, we followed Howard on an audacious walk of Keating's patch - the sports club - where he shook hands with a few (mostly Anglo) members.

Indeed Jim, Tony Abbott was MC for the night!

I'm 72. My parents' and grandparents' lives were not better, or more certain, or easier to navigate than mine. They had it much tougher. Perhaps our children have it harder than we did but who knows? Being human has always been a struggle. Let us pray for the continued implosions of Hansonism and and all other populisms.

The anthropologists tell us that the human being is a most sophisticated herding animal. We instinctively belong to a herd . Such herds have many unifying influences including race, skin colour, place of birth, religious belief and so on and all of the various herds see their own as superior. Racism is a normal human trait controlled in most educated and thinking human beings who learn to tolerate others and recognise the pettiness of conflict based on differences of belief. The Hansons and Trumps of the world are simply unthinking people. Sadly some who are educated and can think like the Howards of the world are cunning enough to play on the biases of others to their own advantage. They are probably more dangerous than the ignorant ones! It does become very difficult, however, when we add religious fanaticism to the equation since that type of belief is probably the most dangerous and racist of all in that it isolates such people from their own herd in a new herd opposed even to their own. Let's hope Pauline's herd continues to self-implode.

Based on past performance, One Nation is a meretricious phenomenon. They flubbed an opportunity to show their stuff as an 11-seat party in the Queensland Parliament in the 1990s. But at least one of the issues they profess to represent is real. Not because Hanson says so, or Trump, but because Ayaan Hirsi Ali says so. The writer of this article should debate the real message-bearer, not some straw-haired woman or man.

Thank you 'allegedly moderate deceptive Muslim contributor'. from a 'Eureka Street-reading social justice warrior'! (And never underestimate the political value of Vegemite! Becomes Dynamite, in the Right (sic) hands)

'The writer of this article' is actually reviewing David Marr's recent Quarterly Essay about One Nation and its (dear) leader, Roy. But if issues are 'real... because Ayaan Hirsi Ali says so', Roy, then, rather than cherry-pick her comments, you might like to debate what she says about religion generally. See, for example, what she has to say about 'the kind of Christians who picket abortion clinics', or about religions 'where you are required to submit your will completely and conform to what is in [their Holy Book]', or about '[r]eligious groups... telling you what you can and can't do' at < https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/08/ayaan-hirsi-ali-interview >

Irfan, your review of David Marr's Quarterly Essay on Pauline Hanson makes some very important points. I think that when we are being deluged with the politics of hate, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism etc as promoted by Pauline Hanson, Tony Abbott, John Howard and their ilk, it behoves people of tolerance and goodwill, whether they are religious or not, to work together to resist the hate and work towards building a more accepting, fairer, caring and humanitarian multicultural society. One of the important positives in David Marr's essay is that it shows most Australians are in favour of multiculturalism.

Forget all the intricate analysis - One Nation voters are simply fed up with being held to ransom by the two major parties with no policy integrity and no vision. I've been known to vote for equally loony left wing fringe parties out of sheer desperation while standing bleary-eyed in the polling booth.

Like Aurelius, I'm not persuaded that all the One Nation voters are unthinking racists. And while some may be mourning the passing of 'civilisation as they knew it' (should we ever have expected immigration NOT to change the culture?) the majority, I think, are just frustrated with the inability of either of the major parties to offer a strategic vision, a set of just policies based on egalitarian values, and a credible narrative to carry us forward through troubled times. One Nation may very well implode but the vacuum it fills will not go away until our major parties get real.

Ginger Meggs: "....rather than cherry-pick her comments, you might like to debate what she says about religion generally." As with this extract from the article: “In the new book, Hirsi Ali proposes an "enlightenment project" in which "critical thinking" be introduced to her former faith through various mediums, one of which, she suggests, is the Christian church. "That's probably going to be the most controversial," she says, smiling”? What’s there to debate? It sounds like a good idea.

David Marr is probably the most knowledgeable and insightful political commentator in Australia today bar none and he understands the Hanson phenomenon very well. 'Islam' - as understood by Hanson - is her current day catch phrase/call to arms where it once was 'Asian immigration'. This nativist trend is not seen only in Australia but everywhere in the developed world. I was interested to see on TV that one of the people handing out pamphlets for Marine Le Pen was a man of North African origin. He was obviously not a recent immigrant and felt fully integrated. Some of his coreligionists probably see themselves as more 'Muslim' than 'French'. That is a problem many Australians perceive about many Australian Muslims, whether locally born or not. Yasmin Abdel Magied's recent withdrawn Twitter post has not helped her coreligionists although it was nothing about Islam per se. This is not a 'religious' issue but a political one and should be seen as such. We do not need a debate on Islam but to see what Hanson stands for. She does not represent the majority of Australians but she and her party certainly represent what many white working class Australians think.