Went to the Newtown Festival yesterday. It was absolutely huge, as usual. And also as is normal, the usual mixed bag of yuppies, goths, dykes and poofs, uni students, hippies and god knows what else. Also, the usual stalls run by Green Left and Socialist Alliance on King St. One of them was selling a t-shit with a rat on it and 'Don't blame me. I didn't vote for the lying rodent.' I had a half-smile but there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. It's all very well wearing something expressing this sentiment but after the last election, who cares? Who's looking for someone to blame when the majority voted for the bastards? You know if you wear it around Newtown that most people would nod in agreement. This is just such a mircocosm though, such an isolated area of absolute leftness. I think this is why some of us around this joint found it so hard to comprehend the result. Everything we saw, everyone we knew were voting left. Who the hell was voting right? For me Newtown is completely normal. It's scary to think that it's 'out-there' in comparison to the rest of the country. I'm not talking in terms of dreadlocks, tatts and dogs on rope leads either. I know people here dress, er, eclectically. It's the politics. I honestly thought the feeling felt here was a general trend. How wrong I was.
And that, dear friends, is my last post on the election. I promise.
1 comment:
It's a sad shock when you realise that your ideals are not held as closely by the majority. It shocked us enough that it's one of reasons we've started looking around for a new country to call home. (We're not really that dramatic, there are other reasons prodding us along as well).
The only thing I've been able to take heart in so far is finding some Rodent voters (and how hard are they to find??) who said they didn't want to vote for the Rodent but had no choice as the opposition is so lame. Maybe the only lame thing is their excuse...
Post a Comment