Humiliating the ANZACs on their day

 

 One of the lessons of history is that emergencies bring out the authoritarian streak in those with power. The COVID-19 epidemic certainly saw the rise of authoritarian tendencies across the globe, even in liberal countries. But authoritarianism is often fickle, because authoritarians are often hypocritical, and that is when they display their lack of principle.

 

In the recent ANZAC Day Dawn Service in Melbourne, Australia, a city that has had only one locally acquired COVID-19 case in two months, hundreds of people, including veterans, were forced to watch the Dawn Service behind a wire fence, nowhere near the eternal flame. This is because the organisers capped the number of attendants of this open air event at the Shrine of Remembrance at 1,400 due to COVID-19 concerns.

 

On the same day, less than 2km away at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest crowd in the world since the COVID pandemic gathered for the ANZAC day Australian Rules Football match.

 

Roll this around the tongue a bit and see what taste you get – more than 78,000 boisterous fans were allowed to cram into the stadium to watch a game of football in the name of the ANZACs, while many actual ANZAC veterans, active servicemen and women, and their families were forced to pay their respect, reflect, and morn while standing behind a wire fence at their own solemn and open air service.

 

This preferential treatment for money-making sports is not new – in February, when there were more COVID-19 cases, the Australian Open tennis tournament was allowed to proceed in Melbourne, with a cap of 30,000 daily spectators. While thousands of international players and their staff flew in from all over the world, tens of thousands of Australian citizens were trapped overseas and unable to return.

 

The organisers of the football and tennis were clearly right, while the organisers of the Dawn Service should rightly be criticised. The risk of the virus is so low in Melbourne that even the timorous state government had dropped its mask mandate and travel restrictions weeks ago. There is no reason for such a low cap on attendees at an open air event. To highlight the absurdity of it, only a kilometer or two away, you can walk around mask-less in downtown Melbourne, rub shoulders with squadrons of strangers, eat in crowded restaurants, and dance in bursting nightclubs.

 

After months of draconian lockdowns, with mental health issues surging, as shown by the greatly increased number of calls to mental health hotlines, something as uniting, normal and joyous as enjoying live sports in a city famous for its world-class facilities is a welcome sight.

 

But what the ANZACs represent is at a much deeper foundational level of the Australian psyche. In an increasingly secular society, ANZAC Day is perhaps the closest to a sacred national day. That their day was so traduced, and that veterans and serving members of the military, as well as their families were so humiliated by craven bureaucrats is exactly a case of lions being led by lambs.

 

The ANZACs battled the worst of authoritarians, with more than 34,000 losing their lives in WWII. Their ultimate sacrifice reminds us of real courage, of self-sacrifice, and of mate ship. It reminds us of how lucky those of us who live in countries such as Australia are, in spite of the pandemic. And it should also remind us of the dangers of authoritarianism. And few things speak of authoritarianism more than fencing out those who fought for liberty from their own day of recognition.