g’day
i’ll be honest, i’ve laboured on this email for days.
early drafts were too emotional, too long-winded.
but what i’ve realised is:
when speaking plainly feels scary, you’re probably near something uncomfortable.
bondi did that to me this week.
australia is a young and remote nation. we have been (mostly) protected from history’s brutality.
but sunday’s attack felt like a loss of innocence.
this felt more coherent, and less random, than port arthur.
many have told me they weren’t surprised at all.
(after all, in europe, there are jihadist attacks every year).
it raises the question:
are we happy to become europe, where attacks are a new normal?
and going deeper:
do we still have a shared set of values, or are we becoming a set of tribes who coexist but don’t actually agree on the basics?
and then, above all:
are we prepared to debate the above questions openly?
when a topic becomes politically or socially uncomfortable, it takes courage to just say it.
this week, we saw our leaders reach for politically safe language.
generic “extremism”. guns and machetes. hate speech. nazi salutes.
more laws. more bans. surface level stuff.
let’s be clear: the problem is violent islamist ideology taking root here.
when we can’t name the deeper thing, we can’t stop it at the root cause.
australia sits at a fork in the road: protect what we hold dear, or go the way of europe and let our standards decay.
this hit jewish australians first, but it changes the whole country.
after sunday, it looks like we are in cultural cruise control.
taking the australian way of life for granted.
social cohesion was our best security, and it is thinning.
australia, now, has hard decisions ahead.
but first we must have the courage to describe them.
as they say: hard decisions, easy life.
also: if you’re feeling powerless about this, send your local member an email, and give them the courage to speak plainly.
charlie
ps – this will be the last email for a little while as i recharge with some family time. i do have some videos in the backlog i will share soon. until then, enjoy your christmas, new years and ashes cricket.
pps – thanks for your emails about who you’re hiring. here are some cool jobs you may be interested in (each with sweat equity). ping me if you’re interested.
Pillar is a fast-growing global australian sports performance brand, has a die hard following and is looking to hire a Head of Ecommerce next year.
Heidi is one of the country’s fastest growing startups, providing AI voice transcription for doctors globally.
Holdpoint AI (electrical compliance automation) is looking for a mobile-first CTO: someone who's built offline-sync apps for field workers, starting at 40% equity.
