Still trying to understand the mechanism of Australian woke culture, my research lead me back to some of the founding studies in psychology through the 1950s.
Denial of accountability is the behavioural indicator that something is not quite right. Most civilisations are based upon the concept of being accountable.
‘Accountability is a fundamental concept in many civilisations and nations, particularly in those with established governance systems, such as democracies. It plays a central role in public sector management, human rights, and ethical governance across various cultures and societies worldwide.’
— DuckDuckGo Search Assistant
Having just watched the Labo(u)r’s Ms Gallagher become aggressive and petty was disturbing: she repeatedly attempted to not just deflect a simple question, but then engaged in abuse of the questioner.
Underlying this behaviour is a determined attempt to deny accountability, which is odd in this context, as the information being requested is the purpose of the Legislation Committee, and also the information could be accessed otherwise. The senator’s overtly defensive reaction and the content of her comments bore further scrutiny.
Being asked to account for the budget blow-out resulted in the senator engaging in belittling and snide remarks against the questioner. This is behaviour acceptable in a playground at kindy, or perhaps at high school, but a middle aged, well-educated woman in politics?
The intersection between woke ideology and public identity has resulted in this instance: denial of accountability.
In psychological terms, treating someone with complete disrespect and as a threat is a function of normal behaviour when someone identifies with their social group: this is called group membership.
The more someone relies on their group for self-esteem and social role validation, the more strongly they embody their group, their in-group, and more easily condone harmful behaviour to people who do not belong to their group, or to another group, the out-group.
You can readily observe this behaviour with religions, political parties, Woke vs non-Woke, family vs stranger, rich vs poor, etc.
Denial of accountability is woven into woke ideology in several ways: blaming others for perceived injustices, holding prior inequality as current narrative truth, holding individuals responsible for structural inequality, and elevating feelings and perceptions above evidence.
Members of woke do not engage in denial but define this behaviour as reframing, redistributing and soothing. Accountability is projected solely onto the out-group. There is no deliberate evasion or deceit or avoidance, ‘just’ changing the context of who may be held to account.
Psychological studies have repeatedly observed in-group soothing and out-group harming. The most horrific actions committed by our species over the past 3000 years have been based on this in-group/out-group function.
Secularism – using reason, making impartial judgements, untampered evidence, and conduct of least possible harm – evolved through the millennia as the mechanism which elevates us and our societies. This mechanism has resurfaced in every society which seeks to reduce chaos and harm, and discover that which is better in all of us. It is not exclusive to any one culture or any one language, nor any gender or race.
Yet here we are moving retrograde into tribal wars with hierarchy determined by one’s allegiance to the current definition of ‘woke’. The Australian Labo(u)r Party and the Greens are pursing an ideology which is in contrast to ‘public sector management, human rights, and ethical governance’ with accountability something only the out-group retains.
We know the psychology, we have the law, and we have the mechanism to lead greater lives than this.
A D R A N 