"I've got a little list"

There’s been a bit of a controversy this week about the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s ‘The Very Best of G&S’ show at the Opera House. One of the songs, the Lord High executioner’s ‘List Song’ from the Mikado, which seems designed to have its lyrics tailored to the contemporary events of the day, mentioned Hillsong Church in an allegedly derogatory way. The lyric deemed offensive was as follows:

“That Hillsong lot on television, all joyfully singing psalms, I wish they would desist, and their happy claps resist.”

Apparently, Hillsong’s lawyers wrote to the Sydney Symphony, asking to see the lyrics. I suppose the fact that the song is basically the executioner listing the people who should not be missed by his execution campaign, makes it a bit unkind. But they’re not the only ones to be targeted. A blog comment by the show’s conductor, Guy Noble, notes that “Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Clover Moore, Justin Bieber’s dermatologist, lovers of the music of Brahms, any aunty who has a moustache, anyone with a mobile phone, Westfield” were also included in the list of social irritants.

Having seen a full performance of the Mikado (by Opera Australia a few years ago), I can attest that it's a very funny song and the whole point of it is to poke fun at the joke-butts of the moment and draw the audience into an in-group of people who have the same attitudes about things relevant to their society. The Sydney Morning Herald (25^th June 2011) reported Maunder (who played Ko Ko, the executioner) as saying “If you are in the public arena, you are fair game... I'm very surprised anyone would have taken offence. It's affectionate and charming. It would be a mistake to say there was any malicious intent.”

But as always with these kind of 'what are they complaining about?' comments directed at Christians, I wonder whether the same joking treatment would ever be levelled at adherents of any other faith. Can you see the Australian Islamic community being written into the lyrics? I think not... The effect would be (as it is here) ‘We all think these people [insert name of individual or group] are a bit strange, but they sure provide us with something to laugh about together’. It’s great for creating an in-group of those who agree, but it also suggests that those who think differently are excluded.

While I have my criticisms of Hillsong, I think they have a right to draw attention to this public mocking disguised as musical culture. But it would have been a good opportunity to invite people to see what they’re all about, or to gently provoke discussion in the public arena about why it is that the Christian church is fair game for poking fun at in public while other faiths are off limits. I wouldn't have made it a legal issue, though. The Bible is full of references to the people of God being mocked by the world around them. It should be no surprise to Christians when they find themselves in the same situation. Jesus himself was mocked mercilessly even while he hung on the cross. The Gospels tells us that Jesus predicted that it would happen to him (e.g. Luke 18:32) and indeed it did, from various directions (e.g. Luke 22:63, Luke 23:11, Luke 23:36). He bore it with dignity, and rather than trying to take his mockers to court (he knew it was coming, after all), he mercifully offered to represent them, as he represents us all, in the highest court of God’s judgement.

Workaholic culture

There is an ad campaign on the buses I catch and the moment (probably elsewhere too) for Bank of Queensland which promotes their service based on the dedication of their staff to solving customers' financial issues quickly. One such, over two posters, quotes a bank manager saying 'Finance for their first home FELL THROUGH' followed by another adjacent poster saying 'I worked overnight to get approval in 24 hours'. Another tells of a bank staff member staying back over a half-day public holiday to get the approval sorted out for some guy to put a deposit on a ute.

Does anyone else see something wrong with this? I am all for working conscientiously and helping people, but at what point do work hours stop and rest hours begin? Why has it become necessary for people to demand 24 hour approval for something they will spend most of the rest of their life paying off?

Because of the nature of competition, now that this bank has made this commitment to working in their own time, it's likely that the others will follow suit. And then what is to stop consumers demanding businesses in all the other industries from doing the same?

The academy is not immune from this mentality of 24-hour availability. Many students who send emails to teachers out of office hours are disappointed and sometimes openly critical if they do not receive an immediate response - especially if it's a weekend and the assignment is due on Monday! Apparently it is no longer the responsibility of the student to ensure they ask their questions well in advance of the due date. You can almost feel the frustration in online discussion board posts where a question is posed out of hours and is met with silence (at least from faculty).

To a certain extent, many of these teaching and learning technologies have been developed precisely to enable students greater access to learning resources, including the community of scholarship, and especially where students would otherwise be isolated from such contact by geography or life circumstances. But people's need for rest each week needs to be acknowledged, respected, and, even better, reintroduced as a valid idea.