Fifty two years ago, on this day, June 18th, 1972 Australian author Patrick White, who would next year win the Nobel Prize for Literature, got involved in politics, very very reluctantly.
“On 18 June 1972, Patrick White made his début as a public speaker from the back of a truck in Sydney’s Centennial Park. He was there to address a rally against the state government’s plan to turn the area into a sports centre, which would have ruined the ecology and amenity of the park.”
Peter Ferguson “Patrick White, green bans and the rise of the Australian new left”.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2024 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Sydney was in the grip of the developers who could only see dollar signs. The unions were trying to stop them. Civil society was trying to stop them. And even Patrick White, the intensely private, Australian writer who was about to win the Nobel Prize for Literature was reluctantly willing to use his status to help the cause.
What we learn is that social resistance to the megamachine/the Juggernaut requires a full court press from not just workers but artists. A popular front you could almost say. And even then, its victories will be partial, because greed is astonishingly motivating. You could almost say that capitalism is a form of acid eating away at institutions to coin a phrase entirely. De novo.
What happened next, Patrick White won the Nobel. Sydney was not entirely paved over, but that’s no thanks to the politicians. What was saved was saved by popular pressure forcing them to be slightly less short-sighted, albeit briefly.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
June 18, 1976- UK Meteorological Office explains things to Cabinet Office
June 18, 2008 – Carbon Capture and Storage is going to save Australia. Oh yes.