Clive leaps into the fray

Death becomes an excuse to savage 'elites' - now that's nasty - Opinion

The ruckus over Steve Irwin's status within the Australian psyche gets kicked along further by Clive Hamilton today.

Let's make it clear: my personal cringe factor about Irwin was pretty high, and I initially assumed (like just about everyone) that his on-screen persona was an act. However, over the years, there were so many people who had worked with him who said that he was really like that in private, that I found there was no reason to disbelieve them.

That he went on about conservation for crocodiles, when in fact they seem to have been conserved to excess in far north Australia for many years now, always struck me as a bit phoney. But the fact that he had a genuine affection for animals and a general concern for conservation of wild life habitat seems beyond doubt. His zoo is well run and seems to have a high level of comfort for the animals. (And unlike older style zoos, pushes the importance of conservation continually.) On the other hand, his attempted justification at taking his baby into a crocodile enclosure was hard to watch, and definitely the low point of his public life.

You get the picture: I don't idealise him by any stretch of the imagination. But the nature of the criticism by Greer, and Clive Hamilton, really is just over the top.

Clive, for example, thinks that Australians feel bad about his death because we feel guilty for encouraging him!:

But, if we are honest, the vitriolic attacks on Irwin's real and imagined critics are rooted in guilt. Whenever Irwin provoked a croc to open its jaws and lunge we were all excited by the prospect that the beast would get him, just as we watch car races anticipating a crash. The filmmakers understand that it is the frisson of danger that makes these shows popular. The close call is the money shot and any real injury would be replayed over and over.

Now Irwin has met the grisly end that excited us, we feel responsible.

In this turmoil of guilt and grief, what a relief it was to find a real target for bitterness in the form of Germaine Greer, whose only mistake was poor timing.

God Lord, how does anyone take Hamilton seriously.

Just maybe, Clive, people feel bad about attacks on him because absolutely everyone who had ever actually known him praised him as a nice guy, with a great enthusiasm for life, good intentions, and he leaves a young family behind.

On the other hand, Germaine (with, for example, her "I seek aboriginal consent whenever I want to return to Australia") presents as the genuine article when it comes to posturing dills.

UPDATE: Matt Price writes well about Irwin today. The Australian also talks about Irwin's land purchases here.