A neighbour wished me “Happy holidays” as I emerged from my house yesterday.
“Merry Christmas,” I replied with an aggressive tone not usually associated with neighbourly greetings. I added with even more emphasis, “Christ is born.” The neighbour looked at me confused, so I repeated it more slowly so he could get it.
This rather surprised my wife as she came out of the house behind me. If I’m honest, I surprised myself too.
But stuff it. I’m sick to death of putting up with people who deliberately contribute even in minute ways to the death of our culture and civilisation by denying the true source of our freedom and prosperity. We’ve been conditioned to tolerate these people for decades, and the consequence of doing so is now becoming blindingly apparent.
Correcting an atheist’s offensive redefinition of Christmas is nothing compared to what some of us will in the next few years be called upon to do at any moment’s notice.
Like most people, I’ve watched videos of the shooters at Bondi over and over, from a variety of angles. My primary thought — indeed my only thought — is how I might have been able to rush one of the shooters from behind and disarm him, and what would be the odds of this action being my last.
I became so preoccupied with this that, in dark moments, I actually became envious of the few people in those videos who clearly were prepared to risk approaching the gunmen. They stepped up. They also now know the answer to the question that all of us ask ourselves these days.
This scenario will become increasingly common in Australia, and more of us will be tested by it.
Some people have argued that the cops did all they could to end the carnage. This might be true in some cases but clearly not all. There will be no public inquiry into what happened, which proves to sceptics like me that some of our police officers lost their bottle that day.
Under normal circumstances our police officers enthusiastically enforce relatively harmless offences committed by otherwise law-abiding citizens but when someone starts committing more serious crimes their enthusiasm for the job suddenly disappears. As I said in an earlier piece, this isn’t entirely their fault. Our state governments redesigned their respective police forces to impose state control over the masses during Covid. It’s my theory that all the good cops left.
But the citizens who acted bravely that day were the exception. Again, in the absence of an inquiry that investigates exactly who did what during those terrifying nine minutes, we are unlikely to know everything about who stepped up and who didn’t.
One thing is for sure. The jihadis who visited Bondi that day did so knowing that they would be met with minimal resistance. Half our police officers are women who, even if they show unusual valour, are still no match for a bloke, especially one armed with a rifle. Also, Australians aren’t armed. And thanks to the government’s response to this massacre, we will be even less so when the next attack happens, as one surely will.
But we have also recently revealed ourselves to be more cowardly than our mythically tough image suggests. The killers almost certainly drove past Bondi Junction shopping centre on their way to the beach that day. This is where, in April 2024, a lone psycho armed with a single knife was able to kill four women in a crowded shopping centre. I was working for a TV network at the time and posted a video essentially asking, “Where were all the men that day?”
The answer is that they ran away while women screamed for help. Could those men have saved a woman’s life by running towards the screams instead of away from them? It’s highly possible. Those men must now live with that decision for the rest of their lives.
There are people amongst us who wish us harm, for the most psychotic of reasons. In the 11 days since the attack at Bondi, our government has repeatedly confirmed that it will do nothing to prevent the next attack. If anything, it is making such an attack easier. It might seem a little incongruous to remind you of this today, of all days, but this is in fact what Christmas is about.
Christianity built the modern world. We discovered the new lands, introduced civil institutions, invented most of the technology and established the aesthetic and philosophical foundations for most of the happiness and prosperity that exists today. It was the birth of Christ, and the joy and love that it symbolises, that made this possible.
But there are now people in our midst who are intent on colonising and destroying all that we’ve created. We don’t deserve the benefits of our civilisation if we are not prepared to defend it.
Merry Christmas. Christ is born.
