Eclectic Effusions

News.com.au Gotcha Blog

Peter Brock is a motor racing legend in Australia. I watched him race every year at Bathurst, getting up at 7.00 am to revel in his sporting wizardry. Last month, he died in a racing accident. 'Brocky' was affectionately known as 'Peter Perfect', more for his flawless racing than any other reason. But soon, the moniker jumped from the sporting realm, and into Brocky's personal realm. And no doubt, without his agreement. However, cracks appeared in the Brock facade, and this prompted one of Australia's most misguided journalists and reporters, Derryn Hinch, to publish an expose on the 'real' Peter Brock. He hit on a couple of issues I feel passionate about, and decided to Blog....

News.com.au Gotcha Blog:

I can’t hack Hinch. The bastard makes a career out of indecency, sensationalism and these types of gutless, spineless attacks on the dead. Yeah, Hinch is just as low as the people he defames.

But, here’s the clincher. We need low-lifes like Hinch. Our public perceptions are moulded by the self-interest of the media. Much like the way we secretly revel in the muck Hinch rakes up. However, I’m not a big believer in either ‘spin’ or dishonesty. So Hinch’s revelations therefore, have some merit.

Domestic violence is insidious. I know. I lived it for 10 years, then lived the consequences of it over the remainer of my lifetime. It needs airing, and perpetrators need to be treated (notice I didn’t say ‘punished’). People who perpetrate domestic violence (and let’s get this fact straight, both male AND female), need to be stopped, then treated. Hinch shows us that a lifetime of getting away with domestic violence leaves a perpetual and distasteful legacy for generations to come. Those that helped cover Brock’s reputation are as guilty as Brock himself of that legacy.

The second point relates to Hinch’s propostion that it’s ‘safer’ to disparage the dead than those living. Well, as a firm believer of ‘what goes around, comes around’, Hinch will want to be bloody careful that he doesn’t slip. His fall could be mightier than any whom he has carved up. However, he touches on a certain truth. Again, this is born from personal experience. Perpetrators of abuse become VERY expert in plying their trade and ensuring tracks are covered, threats linger, webs of lies and deceit are laid, and accountability and responsibility are deferred. They have rights under law, and they become acutely expert in their utility. Abusers have a vested interest in protecting themselves, and given that the vast majority of perpetrators are victims of abuse themselves (thus the reason I say they should be ‘treated’ ), they have the intense wherewithall to ensure they protect themselves, and their errant reputations and behaviour, from further discomfort. So, death appears a VERY good habour in which to lay anchor and reflect on truth. For both the living and the newly deceased, I should say. I am personally the victim of domestic violence and serious abuse. My perpetrator, a close family member, has woven an intricate and almost flawless web of deceit, lies, fabrication, smoke screen and manipulation, to ensure I could never come out in public and accuse her without transgressing laws of defamation. However, she also has months to live from cancer (what goes around...), so whether I am believed or not, I shall, as empathetically as possible to those innocents around her, like her son and husband, disclose her abuses of me some time after her funeral. So, Hinch has a point. And to those who may think I am perpetrating the same cowardice as him, I defer to the point of ‘core motivation’. I seek justice, Hinch’s motivations perhaps need to be further explored.

Lastly, there is the issue of besmirching a dearly loved, public figure. Well, I liked Brock because of my perceptions and knowledge of him as a good man. Now that Hinch has further educated me, and with solid journalistic evidence I must say, I feel thankful that I am not now honouring someone who had me thinking hew was something that he was not.

So, I was confused at how to best describe Hinch. Brock is a little easier. He was an abuser who ‘got away with it’, and was able to perpetrate and protect himself like all abusers do. And he lived a life of fame, popularity and respect that he was otherwise not entitled to. Similarly, that equates to Hinch, perhaps.

And a final note to Hinch, 'If you lay down with dogs, you are likely to catch fleas'…

posted by The Eclectic Warrior @ 12:16 pm