Just how does this man’s brain work? One answer would be: it doesn’t work at all.

Comparing how we feel about our own people – victims of a natural disaster – with interlopers who were not invited here, but still came, is bizarre, even for Greg Barns.

Speaking of ‘compassion’, that done-to-death word that the loony Left think they have the rights on; how much does Greg Barns think about the majority of citizens in the countries these ‘refugees’ paid good money to get away from. They have to stay behind and put up with whatever the illegal entrants to Australia fooled immigration authorities into believing they suffered.

The bleeding hearts and advocates for illegal entry to Australia seem to exhibit the same selective ‘compassion’ Barns accuses his fellow Australians of having.

Barns admits that compassion is selective, so what’s his beef? Perhaps he thinks that he can encourage people to alter their genetic wiring; perhaps he wants us all to be posers like he is and pretend that we are not the way we were made.

People who claim that they feel the same way about groups different from their group as they do about themselves are, at best, deluded, at worst liars and posers. And, the genetic blueprint which dictates that we favour and defend our own group is not confined to white, Anglo-Saxons as the self-haters like to think. For example, Vietnamese would-be illegal entrants to Malaysia were machine gunned. We, more enlightened Australians – the ones who are supposed to be the bad guys according to Barns, allowed illegals to enter and – most – to stay.

Yet, Barns still talks about “The ugliness of Australia…” when even Australians who were and still are totally opposed to allowing ‘boat people’ into our country would always look for a humane solution to prevent them from trying their tricks. But, Barns even overlooks the fact that most of the illegals remained in Australia anyway.

Predictably inane comment from Leigh. Must be his genetic wiring.

Take this: 'interlopers who were not invited here, but still came'; it gives the game away. Use of words like 'illegals', 'boat people', 'their tricks' confirm this. He's really talking about prejudice, not compassion, and appears not to know the meaning of the word. According to him, since we didn't actually machine gun the 'illegals', Australians are indeed compassionate people. Now, isn't this an example of the relativity of compassion? His comment merely bears out what you have said, Greg.

I found it interesting to see the way the media, mainly TV but not excluding even the so called quality newspapers, just about sucked the life and most meaning out of the tragedy. Ross Gittins wrote a very bold piece, in the SMH I think, about how he can't stand being expected to think and feel like everyone else at the same time; the mass coverage and exposure of human emotions seems to leave little room for private grief or any other kind of reflection or response. Yet, the apparent tidal wave of grief seemed to turn at some point into curiosity/voyeurism, followed by finger-pointing ie. blame, and finally vengeance directed first at some alleged looting and rorting, and later at one alleged arsonist. He was tortured and burnt alive a thousand times - metaphorically, or should that be 'virtually'? - on Facebook and elsewhere. The logic of people like Leigh would suggest that in their eyes he doesn't deserve a fair trial; just as the 'illegals' don't deserve compassion.

Finally, there is one thing we are possibly the best in the world at, and this is where the mass media coverage ended up, after the mythologising had begun: self-congratulation.

I completely agree with the sentiments expressed by Greg in this article. In particular, the self congratulatory nature of the press around the quantity of donations to bushfire victims is particularly irritating. Australians must be the only people in the world who help out their fellow countrymen when in trouble, judging by the way the press goes on about it!

And we are obviously the only country in the world where 'mateship' is valued and practiced! The fact that many Indigenous communities don't have access to basic services and live in terribly disadvantaged communities doesnt inspire much compassion or 'mateship' from the majority of white Australia.

And as for Leigh's comments that "People who claim that they feel the same way about groups different from their group as they do about themselves are, at best, deluded, at worst liars and posers', well Leigh, I'd rather not receive any compassion from you!

As a white Australian woman married to a man from South East Asia and having lived in his country for a period of time I am then, at best, deluded into believing that I can feel compassion for all people of the world, no matter what their background. I can even feel compassion for you Leigh, as I'm sure you need it sometimes!

One might have thought that a supposedly educated person like Greg Barns would know better than to write this. But it appears not.

His passion to bring attention towards those who sought asylum in Australia has got out of hand.

And if such passion is to remain focused there – would it not be appropriate to apportion some of it towards the women forcibly enslaved to a high rate of fertility with all its horrific downsides, including health, education, nutrition, and societal aspects; all of which give rise to the asylum-seeker syndrome? That, rather than pour it all out on some blame-game sprayed entirely onto his home turf.

Governments, by necessity look at the bigger picture. The Howard government’s policies were aimed not at refugees per se, but to counter people smuggling and secondary movement asylum seekers.

Secondary movement asylum seekers are asylum seekers who move from a first country of de facto asylum, moving long distances around the world through countries with little interest in persecuting them, in order to settle in an affluent Western country.

Almost all secondary movement asylum seekers arrived in Australia without identity papers or travel documents, destroying them to make the determination of their identities and verification of their stories of persecution and return to their countries of residence a very time consuming, difficult and costly task.

Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya is one of the largest refugee camps in the world with more than 80,000 refugees from nine different countries and dozens of different ethnic groups. The refugees there are forced to deal with hostile locals, an almost total lack of economic opportunities, frequent gender based violence, high rates of crime and food shortages. Life is particularly harsh for single vulnerable women who have nobody to protect them. Australian’s refugee resettlement program enables women and other refugees in such refugee camps to be resettled in Australia, virtually their only chance of escaping their horrific situations.

For a time until people smuggling was effectively halted Australia’s refugee resettlement program had to be suspended as all resettlement places were being taken by secondary movement asylum seekers. The obvious question is why refugees in camps such as Kakuma did not themselves become secondary movement asylum seekers and travel around the world to seek refuge in affluent western countries. The unfortunate reality is that most of the world’s refugees live in abject poverty, obviously not having the many thousands of dollars per person required to pay people smugglers.

So, perhaps the general public’s “collective compassion” was for the refugees in horrific camps like Kakuma, contrasting with Greg Barn's "selective compassion" for secondary movement asylum seekers having many thousands of dollars to travel around the world with the aim of settling in an affluent western country.

Yes, pmac, I'm another of those 'deluded' 'liars and posers' who can actually feel compassion for any person suffering pain, hardship or loss, no matter how different they might be from my own group, whatever that might be. I even feel compassion for the suffering of animals, so who knows where that puts me, according to Leigh's perverted logic. Hang on, no of course, I'm a 'bleeding heart loony leftie'. End of story. Silly me.

Great article, Greg. Spot on about the selective compassion, the ugly vigilantism and the overblown patting of our own backs. Very perceptive and heart-warming comments too from Rapscallion and pmac.

Yes, we all feel empathy and compassion for the victims of these horrific fires. We've all been shaken to the core as it dawns on many of us for the first time that this is the way of the future, and that the dream of living in the bush that sustains so many of us will never again be quite the same. But, fortunately, the human spirit doesn't have to be limited to feeling compassion for only those who walk our own path and live a dream the same as our own. Most of us have the capacity to reach much higher.