The Public Sphere - a fucked up poem – or just TICK the Box!

 

The Public Sphere - a fucked up poem – or just TICK the Box!

 

1.

 

It’s been a couple of decades since I read Habermas on the Public Sphere

But I liked it

& it was part of the reason why I liked pubs so much 

At least one or two anyway

(Drunk’s memory you understand)

But since governments have taxed alcohol so heavily

Arguably since the smoking ban

Pubs have lost their function & become merely businesses

& since the rise of the smart phone

& a repressed COVID generation

I argue that each generation becomes progressively more neurotic

Anyway, pubs are no longer a place to chew the fat

& discuss topics of the day or any day

& be a bit provocative & playful 

People now come to the pub

Not to sit at the bar or walk around & mingle

They sit at tables with their friends

With their backs to the world

What pop psychology calls "boundaries" with a vocal fry

Anyway, since discussions between strangers have become more factious & fractious

& weaponised

I was thinking about something

If one makes a statement of an unpleasant or lesser known fact

Then one is met with hostility

As if one is saying a bigoted thing

Whereas one’s merely spelling out the situation

Maybe it's my compulsion to taboos?

Or maybe people have become more easily scandalised?

For example

The majority of the British population

Was living in near-slavery

At the time Cook sailed to Australia

Doesn’t mean I’m justifying genocide

I’m sickened by it

As anyone with a heart & a mind would be

& its legacy motivates me

Then I’m Irish not English

Still I’m glad I’m here not there

It rains every day

& I when I'm in Ireland

I feel I’m Australian

So how does that work?

We don’t quite click

So it’s not so simple

I’m glad I live here even if the land is stolen

Anyway I digress

Now the pub used to be a place to let one’s hair down

& discuss any topic

Wowsers went elsewhere

& I generally pissed people off

But I thought it was all interesting

& anyway I never got kicked out

Till I was older, post-COVID incidentally

It was an egalitarian place

True freaks (not fashioned) were welcome

It had humour

It was super tolerant

At least the pubs I liked

Sure there were shockers

There were heaps of shit pubs

But things weren't so serious

& the warped humour I had of old drunks

Heckling me as I sang angelically as an 18 year old

With

"I think I wanna kill myself!"

Man it was messed up

But somehow it was funny

I used to tell mum

I wanted to lick the footpath

Somehow it was interesting

& I find it all now

So SAFE & boring

But is that it

When I was in Nhill recently

There was humour

Offset by some revolting racism

To the point where I didn't go back on my second night

But just waited out my stay in my motel

So I'm not sure I ain't barking up the wrong tree?

It was definitely funnier

I don't know what was it?

I can't quite remember or think

If funny is the price for racist

But now it's a cold war

& not even Metro Melbourne voted for the referendum

So where are we

I'm in the middle of blogger

Not the best platform I've been told

But who cares not the point

Entropy seems to be the current trajectory

I don't know

Can we talk & laugh

Or do we just stand off & kill each other

What are we good for

& I lose faith in Humanity

Which is exactly what the elites want

We're their play things

But there WERE good pubs in the 90s

When I was in my 20s

Before St Kilda got sold off

The Prince of Wales Back Bar in St Kilda, you can give me that

Before Kennett’s Grand Prix

When you saw gatherings of Aboriginal people all the time in the heart of Fitzroy Street

That was good

The Back bar

Incredibly diverse & welcoming to all

Trans, Aboriginal, Stockbrokers, Feds, Prostitutes, Me & Gitch, Queers, that was good

I’ve stopped going to pubs

They’re not fun anymore

The drinks are overpriced

The service is generally sullen & surly

Few are up for a yarn

Seemingly everyone has algorithmic agendas & are closed

They don't see you

With their massive chips on their repressed shoulders

Whatever happened to just having an open conversation

Where things twist & turn

James Brown was right when he said “It’s getting to be a drag man!

A man can't do nothin no more”

 

2.

 

Anyway

Fuck this poem

Premeditated stiff atrophied

(Growing less so by the minute, as it mutates

But once concretised it’s hard to convincingly shift

Like its soul is done

Can we redeem it?

The 21st century says no

It doesn’t believe in redemption

Its hate is to the grave)

I would like to emerge like caterpillars into butterflies

Couldn’t stink of an example

Just been on trial

Since I walked into this town

Town gossip

Divorced man

I’ve always had problems with middle class white Australians

So privileged, so mollycoddled, so ignorant, so easily scandalised

The traumas of my life would blow their tiny minds

Culturally poor

I heard a guy on public radio

Cringe at the thought of a sister & a brother singing a love duet together

& said something self aggrandising

Under the ruse of self-deprecation

“Of course I’m speaking from cultural privilege”

Man, you have no idea how culturally poor you are, bitch!

If you’ve never sung a love duet with your sister

Have you ever heard of ACTING?

Have you ever heard of letting go?

Jesus! God help us!

 

3.

 

Anyway I’m in a bad mood

Largely coz I couldn’t think of an example in part one

Until I later edited it

& then went mental

Which is still not what I was looking for

& has got me into hot water

Still tourists pay good money for a Japanese onsen

I don’t enjoy writing on the computer at the moment

It feels stilted & sterile

It slows me down

I just want you to know I’m not happy with it

I don’t wanna bitch & moan

There’s so much doom & gloom around

All I want to say

Is that we need public houses to keep alive the public sphere

If it’s not illegal

Then we should be able to say whatever we want

Because the silence that rules Australia’s Britannia

Fucks over a lot of lives

& the way out of the woods is not so straight forward

Main thing to except

If you’re on the side of truth & justice

You’re sure as hell not going to come out of it clean

Middle class Opinionists:

You can’t have your cake & eat it too!

What does Peter Tosh say?:

"If you live in a glass house

Don't throw stones!"

The affluent Australia

Appears a nation of umpires

To silence the human psalm

& I’m just saying

Why can’t we let our freak flags fly?

To borrow from Hendrix

A serious age, a pompous age, an ignorant age

Where people aren’t really in their bodies & minds

But in their devices

They’re not really in the public

They’re in the virtual

& everyone has a different electronic algorithm to create their point of view

& Durkheim is right

That Anomie is rife

& we can’t seem to get along

Why can’t we get along?

I’m not in power

Why are you mad at me?

I’m one of masses

But I promote agency

As I did with my students yellow, brown, black, white

Encouraging them to embrace the world

To participate in our Democracy

Know your history

Know where you are!

Know your ancestor's stories

To foster respectful relationships

That people aren’t as bad as the media says

& of course for doing so

I copped a beating from leadership

For caring

For recognising how the stakes are high

As they always said

Just tick the box

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.