Julian Burnside: Alienation to alien nation: I had a conversation with Tim Costello some years ago which significantly changed my way of seeing things. He told me of a time when he was running the Collins St Baptist Church. A guy who had been sleeping rough for quite a while had turned up at the Church wanting a feed. Tim was talking to him. The guy said that that conversation was the first time in two weeks he had had eye contact with any other human being. I can scarcely imagine what that must be like. That man had, at least in his own mind, completely disappeared. I have thought about that conversation often. The idea of such alienation haunts me. But there are many people in our society who have, at least in their own minds, disappeared. These are the people who, because of mental health problems, or simple bad luck, find themselves nursing a grievance that no-one wants to hear about. The more they complain, the more they are ignored; the more they are ignored, the louder they complain. The louder they complain, the more they are avoided, viewed with suspicion. And once that cycle sets in, their problems become more and more real to them, less and less real to those around them. These are the people who ring late night talkback radio and harangue the host until even the panel operators know to filter them out. They are the new outcasts. ..... read on at the link theconversation/julian-burnside-alienation-to-alien-nation-18290
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 02:21:50 +0000
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