The emotional response displayed by the cultural elites on social media came from a deep place. The Yes supporters’ image of themselves was suddenly at stake. These are people who pride themselves on having the judgement and wisdom to diagnose social ills and prescribe solutions. The No result was as much a rejection of them and their worldview as it was of the Voice proposal itself.
As we have seen following similar acts of popular insurrection, like Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election, the elites reacted like cornered cats. ‘Fuck Australia’, wrote ABC broadcaster Jonathan Green. ‘I mean seriously. What the fuck? How can you say No?’
According to the Yes campaign, Aboriginal Australians deserve special status. Why? Purely because they are the descendants of the nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived on the Australian continent before the British laid claim to Sydney Harbour. The primacy of indigenous people in the hierarchy of cultural identity is seldom challenged. But it should be, as ethicist Nigel Biggar sets out in his recent book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.
Frankly, the more these people yammer on about “decolonizing,” the better colonialism looks in contrast.