Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Interlude

At the entrance to Sydney’s Central Station, an older bloke from the Citizens Electoral Council was handing out pamphlets. I stopped and took one. Fingering my lapel, he remarked: “You are the first suit who has taken one. Why is this so?” “I can’t answer that question”, I replied. We both laughed.

I browsed the pamphlet as I walked to my train. The world according to the CEC had not changed. “British SIS/ASIO planning a terrorist attack on Australia?” blared the main headline.

The Wikipedia article on the CEC suggests that it began as a spin-off of the League of Rights in Queensland in the 1980s that was then taken over by the LaRouche Movement.  It’s older than that, for if my memory serves me correctly, the CEC was around in Northern New South Wales in the 1970s. The modern CEC is a strange melange of views, old and new, unified by a central conspiracy theory.

I put the pamphlet away, my momentary curiosity satisfied. Time to move on.     

2 comments:

Legal Eagle said...

I always take a number of such pamphlets. Then I put them in the bin after I've walked a little while. I figure I'm doing the rest of the world a service...

They never change. Never. Always rants about Jews, rants about Prince Philip (why do they hate him and the Queen so very much), and huge conspiracy theories. It's awful and kind of pathetic.

Free speech 'n' all that - I wouldn't stop them, but I can't pretend that I find them very palatable. I rely on the fact that the rest of the world will look at the pamphlets and feel the same as me.

Jim Belshaw said...

I can see your point, LE!