#illpreenwithyou

What’s wrong with #I’llridewithyou? Although more honoured in the mocking than in any expectation it might achieve its  purpose of protecting Muslims from red-necked (and still mythical) vigilantes, not a great deal, really. Childlike in its simplicity, doesn’t it feel great to #bekindtopeople. Like the ability to appreciate the perfect mignardise at the end of a superb meal, it conveys the delightful sensation of standing apart from the oafs, bores, racists and you-name-its that constitute the greater body of the insensitive and unwashed.

What probably should concern us, rather than the ostentatious parading of presumed virtue, is the triumphalism of the postmodern mind, which demands we interrogate every seemingly straightforward situation through the lens of gender, culture, race and sexuality. This time it meant that even before another mad Muslim had killed quite as as many hostages as he would have wished the effect on ‘the other’ had to be taken into account and elevated to a matter of primary importance. How dreadfully decent! This is what you might call preventative cross-culturalism. (note to self: must start hashtag.)

And not just any common or garden-variety  ‘other’, mind you. Nice ladies in headscarves are so pleasant to ‘ride with’, so appealingly unthreatening. Who would regard adjoining seats on the omnibus, together with some patronising chit-chat, to represent a daunting mission? What a deal: you get to cover yourself in kudos — self-generated, admittedly — while facing a risk no greater than that of handling the security detail at your kids’ ballet concert. Toss in a commemorative T-shirt to let everyone know of your heroism and you can bask in valour until the next opportunity for conspicuous bravery comes along.

The irony, of course, is that poor old Monis and his ilk aren’t getting a bit of sympathetic attention, which is just so unfair. Homicidal maniacs clearly represent a minority in the community, and by po-mo definition that means they must be oppressed, disenfranchised, unempowered and subject in their impotence to all the other indignities an intolerant and inequitable society can inflict.

So who wants to go riding with a Koran-quoting loon, most likely an armed and dangerous one? Any takers, you virtuous riders? Come on, there must be someone… anyone?

Dr Murray Walters is a Brisbane psychiatrist