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Convict Legacy - Page 2

"Crime has played an integral part in developing our much-lauded larrikin spirit. It has given us our universal identity as a nation of convicts. " Paul McDermott

Like laws, morality tends to be developed in response to problems in society. For the first 80 years of Australia's urban existence, convicts presented a problem for the new society. Minor problems included theft and difficulty in keeping stores locked. As everyone was in the same boat, Exclusives and Convicts alike, the theft of food was a concern for everyone. Honesty and character tests thus became valued commodities in the colony.

Although theft was a concern, a more serious problem was the Exclusives attitudes towards Convicts and their offspring. It was a prejudice that threatened the social fabric of a people needing to work together to survive. It was a prejudice that saw the barbaric treatment of men, which in turn turned some of them into sociopaths intent on revenge on all mankind. It was a prejudice that saw women raped, then vilified for not knowing the father of their children. In response to these problems, the community developed some morality to address them. This morality included a fierce belief in egalitarianism, a desire to shock the wowser, a hatred of whinging, support for the underdog, and an understatement belief in humanity.

Gallows humour (Convicts value their humour.)

"I sometimes find it too camp and crude but the part of it which most appeals to me is the ever present sense of irony, stoicism and dark moods underlying it - Australians like to joke about tragedies as a way of coping with them in a way that, for instance, the more sentimental Americans would find rather inappropriate."

Australians have a tendency to make jokes out of things that perhaps shouldn't be joked about. For example, when a serial killer kidnapped backpackers and buried their bodies in the Belangalo State Forest, a hardware shop in Moss Vale (near the forest) began selling souvenir shovels with the letters 'B.S.F' engraved upon them. Similarly, when seven bodies where discovered decaying in barrels of acid in the country town of Snowtown, the town's stores began selling souvenir coffee mugs with captions such as "come to snow town, you'll have a barrel of a time" accompanied by an image of a skeleton in a barrel.

 Psychologists have offered two different explanations for the origins of this kind of black humour. The first is 'incongruity theory.' Incongruence is caused when someone experiences conflicting motivations after being presented with disparate ideas. For example, if someone wants to like Australians but also believes one should respect the dead, they will have conflicting motivations about the Snowtown souvenir mugs. This attitude incongruence may cause one of the attitudes to 'give'. For example, they may decide they don't like Australians anymore or decide they don't care about disrespecting the dead. If attitude change is not a desirable outcome, the person may just laugh and then move on. 

The second theory is a 'catharsis release'. Freudian psychologists believe that humour allows people to release tension associated with difficult experiences. This helps them address those issues that they can not openly discuss. For example in the Convict era, Convict etiquette demanded suffering in silence whilst the law considered complaints as insolence and punished it with flogging. As both Convict etiquette and the law prevented the Convicts from discussing their emotional distress, they were forced to make jokes to deal with their emotional turmoil.

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Dislike of politicians (Authorities persuade with the whip rather than the carrot) 

"Leadership is a quality regrettably lacking in much of our political, academic, business, social and even religious life. Much of Australia's leadership has been - and continues to be mediocre. " Dr. Barry Jones

Australians have many admirable qualities but leadership is not one of them. The Australian leadership technique places greater emphasis on the whip rather than the carrot. Although it may be the most common style, such authoritarian leadership has consistently proved to be ineffective in Australia.

For example, a study on Australian business culture found that Australian managers are more domineering and assertive than their British or US counterparts (1). Basically, Australian managers "tell" their employees what to do. This authoritarian leadership style is surprising considering Australia is the very place where ordering is lest likely to work.

Icon making is another area where persuasive skills are woefully deficient. For example, during the 2002 Australia Day awards some scientist named Donald Metcalf expressed his concern that Australians are not giving scientists enough respect. To improve this respect, he insulted the achievements of rival sports heroes:

"I could name 11 colleagues whose accomplishments would exceed those of our cricket 11. They haven't been entertaining people. They have been saving lives."

Due to these leadership deficiencies, instead of Australians being accustomed to seeing leaders with the community united behind them, they are accustomed to seeing would-be-leaders being referred to as elitist wankers. Not only has this denied Australians the positive role models who demonstrate how a leader should act, potentially great leaders may shy away from the spotlight as negativity is usually associated with the role.

Poor leadership can be traced to 80 years of Convict transportation. The authorities never tried to persuade the Convicts, rather they gave them orders and flogged them when they disobeyed. Although their leadership style may have exerted compliance in the Convict system, on the goldfields it led to the Eureka Stockade.

Bushrangers also had an interesting effect on Australian leadership. On one hand, they displayed how a leader should act and as a result, they became community icons that were celebrated in song, drinking and paintings. Even today, the likes of Ned Kelly and Ben Hall are among the very few Australian icons who don't come from the ranks of sport. But the bushrangers also made whinges out of the authorities and concerned citizens. As a legacy, today there are arguably more middle-class whinges in Australia than there is in the whole of England. These whinges find dissatisfaction in their fellow Australians who drink lots of beer, watch sport, value mateship, and aren't cultured enough. But rather promote the alternative or lead by example, they just complain.

1 (T.J Larkin "Employee Behaviour" Chapter 5 Customer Service)

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A fair go - (Convicts ask for fair crack of the whip)

 This courage to stand alone can be explained as stemming from the Convicts being on the receiving end of moralistic crusades. Irish Convicts were transported simply due to their political affiliations. Female prostitutes were sentenced by the same Judges that visited them by night. Wealthy men accused their mistresses of theft when they wanted to get rid of them. In Australia, ex-Convicts were not accorded basic human rights as 'superior' groups deemed that this would constitute ' rewarding criminality'. On one occasion, Governor Phillip pardoned a trooper who had raped an 8 year old girl. A short time later, a Convict informed Phillip that his sentence had expired. As Phillip had lost the relevant papers, he deemed the Convict's insistence upon freedom as a sign of insolence and subsequently ordered that the Convict be given 500 lashes. In the Bushranging era, journalists and officials denounced the likes of Ned Kelly. However to a population that had experienced the corruption of a police force that was a law unto itself, Ned Kelly was merely a victim standing up for himself. In defiance of both public morality and the law, Kelly sympathisers gave him information, food and public declarations of support.

The events of both the Convict and bushranging era, consistency demonstrated that conforming to public morality, or the law, was not always consistent with the title 'decent human being'. As a legacy, many Australians now have the courage to realise the majority is not always right. As a consequence, they will stand alone to defend their morality and justify their actions by saying 'fair go'.

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Religious privacy (Jesus, Convicts and other trouble makers.)

As both Australian culture and Christianity have criminal origins, both have a synergy of values that they promote. Yet despite this synergy, public expressions of worship are frowned upon in Australia. In the words of the Robert Hughes:

"Any political candidate who declared God was on his side would be laughed off the podium as an idiot or a wowser (prude, intrusive bluenose)." 

This scorn Australians have for public expressions of worship is not a sign that they are atheist but rather a reflection upon their cultural beliefs that behaviour should speak for itself and that religion should be a private affair. There are numerous explanations for these cultural beliefs.

  One explanation is that the early 'Christians' of Australia were without kindness, compassion or forgiveness. Instead, they preached words of indignation; backed up with public floggings and hangings. In response, the Convicts became cynical to public expressions of worship. An early example of such feelings can be seen in the rein of Governor Hunter. Hunter was a moral crusader who frequently ordered Convicts be flogged for crimes such as insolence. However when he ordered that they must attend church on Sundays, the Convicts were so outraged that they responded by burning the church to the ground. 

A prominent pastor of the time was Samuel Marsden who was also a magistrate fond of severe sentences. As the Convicts said of him:

"He prays for our souls on Sunday, and takes it out of of bodies during the rest of the week."

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Cynicism to monument worship - (Convicts reject the official's celebrations)

"Dawn Fraser's got it, not because she was the greatest women ever to hit the water, but because like Ned, she's a battler. She thumbed her nose at authority, she took the fall for those who shinnied up flagpoles to remove the flags. Unlike the Americans, we are not a flag waving nation."

 Few Australians know the words to their national anthem nor do they admire monuments in the manner an American admires the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore. Furthermore, if someone allowed the corners of the Australian flag to touch the ground, most Aussies couldn't care less.

 This cynicism to monument worship may stem from Australia's 'Exclusives' creating monuments that champion themselves to which the ordinary Australian is accustomed to mocking. This trait is captured perfectly at a Ned Kelly web site that reflects upon the statue of Sir Redmond Barry- the Judge who sentenced Kelly to death;

" Redmond Barry is a prime example. We build monuments to a man who held little or no regard towards the general community, which to him was every one outside his inner circle of rich and famous. Then again we build monuments to mass murders like Major Mitchell, but hey, he only killed Aborigines.

Go for a stroll along Swanston Street, Melbourne and you will come across a statue of a mostly forgotten man. The pigeons and seagulls seem to take more notice of him than the passers by, judging by the amount of bird shit sitting atop his bronzed cranium.

Who was Redmond Barry? In "A History Of Australia Volume Four", Manning Clark wrote "For him civilisation meant the Melbourne Club, the best seats at the theatre, the bowing and scrapings in the law courts, and all the 'Yes, your Honour' and 'If your Honour pleases', and brass bands on Sunday to give the people pleasure".

In the words of Manning Clarke, Barry was one of the establishment whom "clothed their sadism towards the common people in the panoply of the law".

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Lampooning the 'wowser' (Indignation begets indignation )

"Togo's counsel had also maintained mooning was part of accepted Australian larrikin behaviour and should even be considered a national icon." Mooning 'a political protest' - Daily telegraph 13dec02

In 1978, the Gays of Sydney took to the streets to lampoon those who would judge them.  Curiously, their protest seemed to endear them to the Australian public as year after year, more and more spectators came to be entertained by their parade. The parade has now become so ingrained in the Sydney culture that it receives high profile political support and is televised nationally.   

 Although the Mardi Gras has only been operating for 25 years, the tradition of insulting wowsers (self-righteous moral crusades) can be traced to Convict women. Women were punished or judged negatively for their 'loose morality.' To show their defiance, the women shocked the wowser in a similar manner to a Mardi Gras float. On one occasion, 300 women waved and slapped their naked posteriors at the Governor of Tasmania. Individual Convict women often "exposed her person" to any upper-class lady who displayed an aura of moralistic command.

Religious figures were also a target of scorn. At the female factory in Parramatta, the morality of Convict women was particularly disturbing to the flogging parson, Samuel Marsden. In response, whenever a pregnant Convict was asked who was the father of her child, she would reply Samuel Marsden. 

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Intolerance of bludgers - (Convicts scorn those who ride free on their back)

In the industrialised world, Australians are ranked two in hours worked each year. The hard work ethic doe not stem from a desire to be prestigious rather it stems from the scorn Australians reserve for "bludgers". A bludger is someone whose rewards come not from hard work but from government favours or handouts. The word itself is derived from  "Bludgeoner"; a standover man who would bludgeon people for payment. 

The Convicts intolerance of bludgers can be seen in the scorn they reserved for the Exclusives who became wealthy by using political contacts to attain land grants and subsequently relaxed as the Convicts developed it.

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Respecting the enemy - (Convicts blame the true villains)

On the 31st May, 1942, three midget submarines attacked Sydney. Two were destroyed and the bodies of the Japanese submariners were recovered. Japanese ensigns were then draped over the coffins and three volleys were fired into the air by a naval saluting party. The bodies were then cremated and the ashes sent back to their homeland. Teiiji Yamaki, a surviving submariner from the midget program subsequently said:

"I am extremely grateful for what the Australians did. It would have been unthinkable in Japan at the time to do that for an enemy country"

This tendency to respect their enemy was also evident at Gallipoli in World War I. The Australian soldiers respected the Turks they were fighting, but they despised their own leaders.

Possibly this tendency to respect the enemy is a legacy of Convict floggings. In an attempt to turn Convicts against each other, officials ordered one Convict to flog another (often a close friend). If the floggings were not severe enough, the floggee would be next. However it seems that the Convicts understood that their friends were in an impossible situation. Consequently, they forgave them and instead, they redirected their animosity towards those who had given the orders but had stayed out of the messy work. Evidence of this thinking comes in the form of a Convict tattoo which said:

"Strike me fair, stand firm and do your duty. "

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'Noble' rule breaking - (Convicts live by their own code.)

"Probably the most unusual country in the world. Australia has countless unwritten rules that are never spoken about or discussed." Robert Treborlang

If one's family is starving, should one obey the law and let them die or is it a lesser sin to break the law so that family may live? Similarly, if the law is wrong, is the more admirable person he/she who breaks it or is it the person who obeys the law but does nothing to improve the world? In both scenarios, Convicts felt there was a difference between a law abiding citizen and a decent human being. As a consequence of holding these moral beliefs, many were transported to Australia.

As one Convict wrote:

"What is the measure of the guilt of those transported for killing game, or goaded to robbery by famine and destitution? Then, there are innocent men in the position of criminals, who have been erroneously found guilty upon obscure or implausible evidence or misdirection, or who have been made to appear guilty by the false oaths and artful devices of wicked persons interested in effecting their ruin or destruction."

In Australia, the Convicts again experienced the problematic nature of the justice system. On one occasion, Governor Phillip pardoned a trooper for raping an eight year old girl. Shortly afterwards, Phillip ordered a Convict be given 500 lashes and be placed in irons for six months simply because the Convict had the insolence to inform Phillip that his sentence had expired.

Due to the Convict's belief that obeying the law was not sufficient to to warrant the label 'decent human being' a larrikin streak remains in Australia today. The larrikin streak is often mistakenly applied to mean that Australians have no respect for rules. In reality, Australian have little regards for some rules (some rules of law) but strong support for others (usually social etiquette.)

Australians seem to find it acceptable to break the law if one's intentions are honourable, if the victim is a dishonourable person, if the law is 'wrong', or if laughter will result. 75 percent of Australians have smoked cannabis and the majority were drunk before turning 18. Football fans invade the ground when a player kicks 100 goals, unionists engage in illegal strikes, alcohol is smuggled into sporting stadiums, Australian movies frequently depict the heroes operating outside the law and even police have a tendency to use discretion instead of applying the letter of the law. Wowsers aside, these breaches of law do not invoke judgmental responses from Australians.

However despite tolerating (or being amused by) breaches of law, many Australians find it sacrilegious if rules of social etiquette are breached. Failure to buy one's round at the pub results in social out-casting. It is also expected that Australians bend over backwards to help a mate in need. Dishonesty, fraud, lying, misrepresentation and manipulation are not tolerated in any form. On the roads, cars will flash their lights to warn of other motorists of a speed trap. No car will ever flash lights to warn of a breathalyser.

In the Bushranging era, this sense of etiquette was particularly strong. Matthew Brady, the gentleman bushranger, felt no moral crisis when he robbed wealthy landowners. However when a member of his party threatened a woman, Brady was furious, shot him in the hand, flogged him mercilessly and threw him out of the gang.

A similar sense of etiquette was seen in the actions of Ned Kelly. Ned robbed banks, stole horses and he killed three troopers. Yet when one of his gang stole a watch from a priest, Ned was furious and ordered that it be returned.

On the gold fields, to steal another man's shovel was considered one of the lowest of acts and resulted in ejection from the field. Yet it was acceptable to set fire to another man's dunny, or even blow it up with dynamite, as this was considered to be good fun.

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