In which the pond visits that enemy of democracy, the bromancer, at the home of the enemy of democracy, the reptile Oz ...

The pond thought it might start with a Rowe so we could all enjoy the sight of democracy at work and what a hard-working democracy it is, and more Rowe here ...

It's just a scene setter for a sojourn with the bromancer ...

This morning the pond was marvelling at the sight of the Colonel Blimps at the lizard Oz harumphing about "intolerable rubbish", possibly from a leather chair in the club while savouring a port or a dry sherry, and that seemed a good reason to move on to the bromancer rabbiting on about the "enemies of democracy" ...

Now the pond has heard this chant many times before ... 

Back in the day, anyone who protested against the Vietnam war was an "enemy of democracy" ...

It's such a simple-minded chant ... the bromancer is the enemy of democracy, the reptiles are the enemy of democracy ...

It's a bit like the Donald deciding it'd be a good idea to strip citizenship from flag burners, no matter that this would be a far more sinister gesture than a bit of property destruction (the main basis for the pond's complaint. Forget the national symbol routine, flags aren't cheap, and the materialist pond decries the waste of all materialist things).

Google the notion of "enemies" and you can come up with all sorts of examples of tar and brush "enemy of democracy" at work ...

   

See how the bromancer fits right in with all dim-witted rhetorical flourishes ...though at least it makes a change of pace from "unAustralian."

If the reptiles keep talking this way, with an occasional break for "thought police" and "Orwellian", is it reasonable to wonder whether democracy is a state of total paranoi?

It even makes the pond think that the real enemies of democracy are anyone who peddles the notion of enemies of democracy ...

But if you begin thinking along those lines, who's the real "enemy of democracy"?

Ouch, that one hurts, and more hurty Pope here ...

Well with this preamble, it's time to get on with the bromancer's piece, which, it turns out, is disappointingly short ...

As Woody Allen was wont to say, there's two elderly angry white newspaper columnists at a Surry Hills bunker , and one of them says, "Boy, the columns at this place are really terrible", and the other one says, "Yeah, I know, and such small portions too", and that's essentially how the pond feels about its reptile reading life, full of loneliness, and misery and suffering and unhappiness and enemies of democracy, and it's all over much too quickly ....

Actually, if the pond might say, in a very polite way, it's the bromancer who's fucked in the head and should be unreservedly condemned ... 

A few protestors and he gets hysterical and runs up the white flag? Or even worse, puts up a fence?

That story here,  but this is where fear of fear has led us ...

Well yes, here, and if you think about it for a nanosecond, there are many high value targets around the joint. 

Any of Sydney's or Melbourne's city railway stations, Circular Quay, Federation Square, malls at peak shopping time, the Opera House - does it need a barbed wire fence too? - and dozens of other institutions, from art galleries to museums to police stations, schools, universities, all of which could bunker down, fortify, deny access and turn into remote inaccessible eeries for the 'leets to go about their business ...

So we fence off the entire country?

The more this happens, the more the terrorists have won, the more that we end up a gated community, and there's nothing more depressing than an American gated community, fortified to keep out the disadvantaged rabble ...

Once these things are put in place, it's a long hard road to claw them back.

It's a matter of symbolism, of course. The pond once walked atop parliament, and once was enough - let the sheep have it as their protest turf as they did in the old days with their massive rallies ...

By golly those sheep knew how to stage a protest on a lawn ...

It was much the same when the pond visited Uluru. There was no need to clamber up the rock but it was nice to know it was there, and without a barbed wire fence around it ... though the temptation to desire to herd all the jabbering tourists into a concentration camp was nigh irresistible ...

But a fence around the grass?

And the bromancer rabbiting on about enemies of democracy, when the most visible symbol of democracy is given the barbed wire treatment?

The pond would like to enter the contradiction in a site that's holding a competition for contradiction of the year here ...

The pond doesn't hold out much hope for the bromancer.

The competition is pretty fierce, including these lovelies ...

Of course we've been down this paranoia 'enemies of democracy' path before ...

Speaking of competitions, name the ancient movie with this vision of Sydney under siege and win the pond's movie buff hall of fame award ...

The recent demonstrations will have nil effect, and they were minor disturbances.

If the country can't handle a few protests without heading into dire rhetoric about 'enemies of democracy' we're in even deeper post-Donald dooh dah than the pond realised ...

The coppers took the sensible option in not making a big deal with charges, and if we wanted to go looking for people doing real damage to democracy, the pond could lead with all sorts of options ...

Oh indeed, indeed, and so to a song and dance to wrap it up, and without a single demonising rhetorical mention of enemies of democracy... 

Instead it's just pompous prats who amazingly manage to survive no matter how many pratfalls they perform... and do more damage to democracy than all its enemies might manage (and more whimsical Wilcox here ...)