Greer is simply a sophist!

People like Greer have more than entertainment value. They also serve as useful touchstones for keeping one's own opinions reasonably balanced. Just ask yourself now and then: "Am I starting to sound like Germaine Greer/John Pilger/Al Gore/Gerard Henderson?" If so, it's clearly time for a reality check.

First, we are all racists. If we are not, there is something lacking in our psyche.

Perhaps you should stand back a bit and look at what points of Greer's thesis you can find agreement with and start a dialogue with her. She is more than just a pretty face.

David

I have a great deal of respect for Marcia Langton and this essay is very good.

However, I think that Germaine may be on to something important, as she usually is.

The author of a book titled Sitting In The Fire http://www.aamindell.net maintains that all social conflicts, large or small, are the expression of deep seated psychic and psychological forces. And that the losers of all social conflicts suffer deep seated traumas which manifest in all kinds of pathological ways.

The author calls them time-spirits.

He also points out that until these deep time-spirits are acknowledged and released via a patient SITTING IN THE FIRE process of mutual reconciliation nothing much ever changes.

Another book which addresses the disintegration of a once proud indigenous culture was/is The Mountain People by Colin Turnbull.
A book which also has much to say about the condition of mainstream Western culture, and where it is heading.

I have read quite a few articles on the situation, but to see Greer implicated as a racist because her assessment of the situation differs (with reason) from yours is a little rich.

The situation is complex as any action taken to resolve the issue will result in some unpleasant consequences.

The only way to remain politically correct with this issue is to say nothing at all.

"First, we are all racists. If we are not, there is something lacking in our psyche."

This is an interesting comment in the context of this debate. The importance of the comment is that it shows there is a good element to racism (where people recognise they are different to others and feel the need not to mix so as to preserve what they feel is unique to, and good about, themselves) and then there's the other type of racist which is the cloak that boofheads use in order to cover their very dubious and thuggish propensities. It's good to make this distinction.

In this context, how exactly is Greer a racist? And is Marcia saying it's the good type or the bad type? Or is Marcia just using the racist tag as a euphemism for a different criticism of Greer: that's she's all lefty/idealistic talk and no action?