So last weekend, Dorian and I, with his brother Jimmy and sister-in-law Mickey, went to the St Kilda Festival. Now, I can't say I'm a fan. I think I'm just too old. And unimpressed by queues to toilets that go round the block. The music was good, but it was hot, and there seemed to be just too many drunken people around. Great if you like that kind of thing.
What really bugged me though, was the level of unnecessary rudeness. Maybe this is the Brit in me coming out, but this couple walked straight into me, stepped on my foot, and said 'We're not bloody apologising to YOU'. Which is merely indicative. In the UK festivals I went to, there seemed to be a lot more unnecessary hugs, washing of feet, smiling and general happiness. And giving away of money to nice people like Greenpeace and Oxfam...
My suspicion is that this isn't a UK-Australia difference. Nope, this is the effect of 11 years of neo-conservatism. The festivals I attended in the UK did come just after the Thatcher years, but I think the Howard years were like the Thatcher years on speed. This was no experiment, this was catch-up. And the people are all the more brutalised for it. Individualism, the demise of society, the rights of business (let's all hail Exxon-Mobil for refusing to give into those greedy Venezualans, making the world safe for poverty and want...).... none of this really seems designed to give you what some happy drunken sod in the UK claimed was 'the Glastonbury glow', even if the weather is better.
Or, of course you could just say I'm willing to blame the neo-cons for just about everything. Right down to some bastid standing on my foot and refusing to apologise.
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