with the emergence of strident oppositionrnto Blaincv, the shrewder and morernself-interested enironmentalists did anrnISO-degree turn. They had realized thatrnthose who activeh’ wished Australia’srnpopulation to decrease were, if only byrndefault, advocating reduction in immigrationrnlevels; were thus laving themsehesrnopen to charges of racism; andrn\’erc guaranteeing that Blainey’s fate inrnci ie discourse would be their own. Neitherrnthe responsibilities of upholdingrntruth, nor the desire to warn a wide publiernof threats to the ecosvstem that anrnaugmented Australian population mightrnbring, retained am force against the parahrnzing terror of being subjected to thernsame treatment which Blainey had experienced.rnBeside the prospect of that destin,rnmere Malthusian isions of nationwidernhunger came to resemble the mostrnevanescent bagatelles.rnGB: In the I970’s, the “dark greens”rnwere a powerful source of support forrnAustralia’s low-immigration ]3oliev.rnBut when I started to make speeches, thern”dark greens” retreated almost immediatelvrnfrom the immigration issue.rnThere’s a book by Katharine Betts, Ueologyrnand Immigration, which mentionsrnwhat happened.rnDr. Betts, a Melbourne sociologist, discussesrnin her 1988 olume the AustralianrnConservation Foundation’s plan to holdrna conference on population in Augustrn1984. This event was cancelled, shernwrites, “out of fear that the organizationrnwould be associated with the Blainevrnphenomenon.” She continues:rnThe response to Blaine’ highlightedrnthe wav in which the taboornfunctioned but it did not removernit. Rather, his experience stood asrna salutar- warning of the risks of ignoringrnit. hi the absence of Parliamentarvrnopposition to the goal ofrnpopulation increase, and the absencernof sustained critical attentionrnfrom the intelligentsia, the growthrnlobb experienced no real check.rnl\elc vcars on, the climate of Australianrnopinion has in some respects mellowedrnalmost unimaginably. Blainey isrnnow Chancellor at the Uni’ersitv of Ballarat.rnwhich gold-mining metropolis hisrnwritings so often celebrate. Last year thernKeating goernment, with uncharacteristicrnfreedom from fanfare, reduced Australians’rnimmigrant quota (which stillrnstands at over 90,000, so wc are not exactlyrnabout to endure Ethnic CleansingrnTime). And vet one onl” has to pick uprna morning tabloid for the plus a changernsyndrome to spring into renewed life.rnThe scandal ol^ compulsory voting,rnagainst which Blainev has long and thusrnfar fruitlessly inveighed, continues: coupled,rnwhat is more, with a citizenshiprnpolicy that makes it literally easier to getrnan Australian passport than to get anrnAustralian dog license. As of 1984, anyrngrunting Third World monoglot whornhas managed to reside in Australia forrntwo ears has become eligible for citizenship.rnNor need he give up citizenship inrnhis countr of birth; indeed, an entirerngovernmental propaganda machine existsrnfor encouraging him—even when hernneeds no encouragement—to keep suchrnprior affiliations, this being a staple ofrnthe multicultural nirvana. Seen in thernlight of this information, the desperaterndesire of Labor at both the state and federalrnlevel to keep compulsory ‘oting onrnthe statute books can be understood.rnWherever ethnic lobbies are at theirrnweakest (Queensland, Tasmania, SouthrnAustralia), there Labor is now also at itsrnweakest.rnAt the March 2 election, )ohn Howardrnbecame Prime Minister with a majorityrnof 42 seats in the I louse of Representatives.rnGraeme Campbell casiK defeatedrnhis ALP opponent (Western Australia’srnformer Deputv Premier Ian Tavlor), andrnobtained 62 percent of the popular vote.rnWestern Australian Labor parliamentarianrnGraeme Campbell, Blainev’srnfirmest supporter in the House of Representativesrn—and one apt to condemnrnmassive immigration in far sharper termsrnthan Blainey has ever emploed—wasrnstripped last year of his party’s endorsement.rn(I Ie contested liis Kalgoodie constituencyrnas an Independent.) On whatrnwe must apparently continue calling thernopposite side of Australian polities, Liberal-rnNational Coalition leader JohnrnHoward made it his most earnest endeavorrnto promise even more handoutsrnfor ethnic nomenclatures—not to mentionrnwhales, AIDS-infected gay activists,rnand otlrer such great Australians—thanrnthe Labor Part disseminated. Howardrnhas not forgotten the media abuse he receivedrnbetween 1985 and 1989, when inrnhis first term leading the Coalition he actuallyrndared to suggest that heterosexualrncouples warranted more support thanrnhomosexual ones, and that heterosexualrncouples who got married and spoke Englishrnmight be more deserving still.rnAmid such spectacles, we could dornmuch worse than ponder a weighty andrnyet unassertive sentence that Blaineyrnpublished eight years ago: “Democracy isrna freak condition in the world’s history:rncivil liberties are not common libertiesrneven today, and most people in the w orldrnhave never possessed them.” When therneupeptic delusions of Fukuyama havernbeen altogether lost to memory—or elsernrelegated to a footnote of unsavory scholarship,rnrather like Kraft-Ebing—the stoicrntemper of a Blainey will remain to reassurernand daunt: a temper simultaneouslyrnas antique as Seneca, and as modern inrnits unillusioned patience as Primo Levi.rnR./. Stove is a writer and broadcasterrnin Sydney.rnLetter FromrnLagado UniversityrnbvJohnN. FraryrnResourcemammalrnEroticismrnReaders who have been attentive to thernslashing edge of the Postmodernist Projectrnwill be aware of Lagado University’srnvanguard role at the Modern LanguagernAssociation’s 1995 meeting. On that occasionrna session conducted entirely byrnthe Llf English Department’s faculty,rn”Intersections of Sex and Animal Husbandrv:rnThe Love that Dare not Low itsrnName,” was rated the most innovativernpresentation in MLA history. OscarrnOdsodd’s “The Erotic Moos: Articulationsrnof Bovine Buggery,” Vito-ExtravagaiizornPiustranostrano’s “Sheep Thrills:rnEngendering the Ovine Other,” andrnHector Mondo-Bizarro’s “Phrasing thernGraze: Intimations of Man-Kine Eroticismrnon Alluvial Plains in EighteenthrnCentury Spanish Pastoral Poetry” concertedrnan unprecedented challenge tornhomospeciesnormativity’s underlyingrnassumptions. It was received with anrnenthusiasm befitting its importance.rnIt is not surprising, then, that the Lagadornfacult) ‘s papers drew large audi-rnSEPTEMBER 1996/35rnrnrn