Have a tv interview with Lt. General David Morrison, the head of the Australian army who last year made heads snap upright with an uncompromising talk on sexual harassment. “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”; remember that guy?
In this interview he talks to Annette Young of France 24. He starts off by talking about the necessity of empathy, which is not something I usually expect from military brass. Young asks him if he calls himself a feminist and he says, with speed and emphasis, “Yes. Proudly.”
I wish we had generals like him in the US military.
H/t Stewart
Can’t put it more clearly than that.
Agreed.
In response to almost every question he gives clear and unambiguous answers, and states fundamental principals with absolute certainty. Questions where many a general, politician, business leader, etc would prevaricate and hedge around with “ifs, buts and maybes”. I particularly liked (when talking about his statement on sexist emails sent by senior military officers) “all it is, is a man telling his workforce that treating their colleagues with respect is a precondition of their employment.”
I think that kind of clarity, and that certainty in the strength and righteousness of your position, can only come either from deep ignorance and arrogance, or from long, thoughtful, and humble, consideration of reality. It’s pretty clear how Lt. Gen. Morrison got there.
The one part where he did hem and haw a little was when he was asked whether such policies could be applied everywhere in the world…”I realise there may be cultural or religious objections blah blah blah.” Which I thought was a slight cop out. What I’m not sure about is whether that came from a desire to be diplomatic, or a lack of time spent considering the issue outside of the Australian/Western context.
Man, right now I could really go for a military coup.
Have you heard of his speech writer Lieutenant Colonel Cate McGregor? She’s really cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lgft-8xCJI
@2:
It could also be a pragmatic appraisal of the reality of the world outside Australia and the West. I think Morrison probably thinks such policies should be applied and just questioned whether they could in the most practical sense, due precisely to the kind of religious and cultural mores that right now, in many countries, are far behind where we are now. After all, it’s hard enough to get modern Western nations, corporations and militaries to adopt gender equality as a core value; in a dynastic patriarchal theocracy like Saudi Arabia that kind of thinking is decades away at least, barring an epic flare-up of Muslim feminist activism.
This guy is not to be confused with our current Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who is responsible for putting children into offshore concentration camps with the help of the Australian navy.
David Morrison is great, but his views are not exactly mainstream and the reality is very different, in a country where the minister for women is a catholic man, and a mere one out of nineteen cabinet ministers is a woman.