division · Tania de Jong AM

BROKEN

We are broken and I don’t know what it’s going to take to put us back together. I am sitting on a plane flying out of an Australia that no longer feels like home.

In fact, it’s not felt like a safe place to be since 2020, when the mighty division between us was highlighted by the appalling measures taken to control and separate us during the pandemic. The us versus them, the taking of sides, the censoring of any debate or discussion, the ‘othering’ and exiling of those who chose to deeply think about their choices …

How can we become a truly inclusive nation and not allow and enable dark forces to come in and destroy our home? What would it take to stop the enormous greed that forced millions to take experimental injections that damaged so many lives? How might we start to truly care for one another and seek understanding between opposing views? Can we step out of our rigidly defined boxes and start to think differently?

When I was checking in at Sydney Airport this morning, I could not stop sobbing. My heart felt so shattered. Waves and waves of unstoppable emotion for the unspeakable loss and the shocking devastation. So many living in fear and hypervigilance … millions of lives lost over generations and lifetimes; perpetrators and victims living out unspeakable intergenerational trauma without the support and healing tools needed to break the cycle.

The Virgin check-in attendant asked my husband what was wrong. He told the gentleman that I was Jewish. I was crying for all those innocents who had lost their lives and their families, and for all of us collectively. And he came out from his desk, and he gave me the biggest hug. I sobbed even more but it felt like a release, like a letting go of something that had been wound so tightly in my heart and soul for an eternity. Something that came from ancestors long gone, yet still alive in me.

I believe if we could all go up and hug a stranger and start to see other points of view, then we might start to feel safer. We might feel that we all belong; that we are here to connect as a community with one other for a good purpose. We might feel that the lights of lives extinguished was not for nothing.

I have received hundreds of messages from all over the world empathising, weeping with and for us, feeling helplessness, hopelessness, asking how they can help. Some know that I am the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. And everyone is suffering and seeking collective healing for humanity.

Together, we can decide we are going to STOP this ‘othering’ from today and start to see the goodness, kindness and light shining through each of our souls.

What if we really chose to light our candles and walk each other home?

I am sharing my recent song ‘Walking Each Other Home’ inspired by my time with Ram Dass in 2018. May it inspire, illuminate and soothe you. Please share widely. Together we can choose to heal.

Mind Medicine Australia

Don’t sit in silence. It’s your voice. Use it!

First Published in The Spectator, 2 October 2023.

We all have a voice, but perhaps the greatest challenge to humanity right now is that our voices are being silenced.

Too often we silence, censor, attack, shame, and humiliate those we do not agree with. We live in a world where we are afraid to utter a word for fear it may offend someone and destroy our lives. We are divided. We are upside down and inside out; yes is no and no is yes, left is right and right is left, man is woman and woman is man, wrong is right and right is wrong.

We live in a democracy where our politicians, police, and public servants are supposed to serve, protect, and consult with us – not dictate to us and take away our freedoms. That is why we pay our taxes. Similarly, our media is supposed to encourage open and transparent dialogue, so why are diverse viewpoints censored and invalidated?

Did you know that in Australia, the Albanese government’s draft of its Misinformation and Disinformation Bill will, if passed, suppress legitimate free speech in Australia, akin to the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in George Orwell’s 1984? Proposed powers for combating misinformation and disinformation are inconsistent with a democracy that thrives by allowing dissenting views to be expressed and discussed freely. What makes this even more deplorable is that content published by the government, professional news outlets, and educational Institutions is to be exempted in the proposed legislation and will not be considered as misinformation!

It’s not the only parliamentary attack on free speech. Queensland’s Parliament is about to vote on the proposed criminal law bill which could see Australians face up to three years in jail for posting anything on social media visible in Queensland that the government deems ‘offensive’. This could include faith-based and political objections to gender confusion, gay marriage, and Indigenous issues. It promises a reality like that in Britain where police spend more time monitoring Facebook posts looking for objectionable statements than walking the beat.

There are other concerning developments emerging to further censor, control, subjugate, and silence us. The recent Nigel Farage debanking scandal rocked Britain and yet, in Australia, banks can lawfully ‘debank’ customers they deem to be engaged in ‘unacceptable account conduct’ which relates not just to their financial activities, but what they say and do.

For instance, the National Australia Bank’s updated terms and conditions say ‘making profane, derogatory, discriminatory or harassing comments’ or ‘making or promoting threatening or abusive language to any person’ could lead the bank to ‘suspend, cancel or deny an account holder’s access or use of the account, card or an electronic banking service’. What is such conduct and who defines it? Could use of the ‘wrong’ pronouns be classified as ‘profane, derogatory, discriminatory or harassing’?

Imagine your financial existence being taken away under these rules. Criticism of a public official arguably could be branded ‘misinformation’ and ‘threatening or abusive language’. How can we ever truly progress if we cannot be honest about the shortcomings of our society?

This is not how a democracy looks. We are in an era more befitting of a dystopian novel, in which creeping authoritarianism assaults our fundamental human and legal rights. If we truly profess to be a diverse, inclusive, and democratic nation, diversity of thought and freedom of speech really matter.

In the spirit of Voltaire: ‘I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

It is high time we start asking important questions such as:

When have I stayed silent and, in hindsight, wished I had spoken up?
Can I build bridges of understanding, and bring positive change, by speaking up?
What is the worst that could happen if I choose to speak, or ask a question, about something that deeply matters to me?
How do I maintain my presence, listen to my inner voice and speak honestly in uncomfortable circumstances and a world of distractions?
Staying silent allows tyranny, injustice, and atrocities to flourish. Silence keeps dark secrets hidden. Dietrich Bonhoeffer – an exceptional German Protestant minister during the Nazi regime – stated: ‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.’

In a democracy, no one’s voice should be silenced or censored.

Don’t sit in silence. Don’t live in fear.

There are many challenges facing human civilisation and our planet. However, if we remain silent and separate then we have only ourselves to blame for the eventual extinction of everything we have created.

Really listen to what your heart is saying. Then raise your God-given voice, speak your truth and help create the world you would like for your children and grandchildren. No one else will do it for you.

‘When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter,’ said Martin Luther King. How right he was. If it is possible to talk, to discuss, to debate without recrimination, the future might be shaped for the better. You have a voice: don’t let it be silenced.

Tania de Jong performing at an event

Join our newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming creative moments and events from Tania.