Second Annual General Meeting Passive Complicity
By Quentin Cockburn

Without fanfare the second annual general meeting of Cockburn and Poole was held at Soggy Bottom this last weekend.  Amongst vital issues discussed none were more prescient than concerns related to our evolving readership and the interests expressed by contributors in relation to their audience.  The audience, represented by a stone and alabaster likeness of the former member for Indi was presented with numerous offerings in celebration of the commitment she has inadvertently made to stimulating the political conscience across regional Victoria.

Prior to the presentation of agenda items an excursion was made to ‘Powers Lookout’, the celebrated lookout of the bushranger Harry Power, variously known as pretender to ‘Captain Moonlight’, ‘Commander Dusk’, ‘Lieutenant Sunrise’ and ‘Corporal just between morning tea and lunch time’.  From this majestic outlook we observed the verdant pasturelands of the valleys, the serrated outline of distant mountains, the sunlit crags and defiles of rock smudged by whisps of smoke and brilliant skies, and wondered aloud as to what Powers may have seen, and why this remote spot was chosen.  Comparisons were made to the fictional accounts namely Bolderwoods ‘Robbery Under Arms’, and the reality that Powers spent most of his life behind bars.

Whilst cream was purchased by Cecil and Quantam, the other correspondents retired to the public Bar at the Whitfield Hotel.  It offered a fine selection of beers and local wines.  Above the bar the menu, indicated amongst the gustatory delights an array of smoked dishes, perhaps left over from a recent bush-fire.  The non smoke derived delights of the beer garden, the conveniences and the attentive staff served as a precursor to the engaging dinner enjoyed back at Soggy Bottom.

Dinner completed we settled on the the most important items for discussion, progress to date, our target audience, and comparisons, fair and objective to other blogs, their lifespan and audience. Among the several fine suggestions was that a donations box, whether in the form of a dog or perhaps a frog, should adorn the pages and readers be encouraged to make a donation as a gesture of support.  During the course of this debate it was agreed that the example set by the Scientologists though effective was not inducement enough for us to establish Passive Complicity as a religion.  The tax advantages are attractive and the unfinished text for a science fiction book would offer a good start, however an Australian version of the successful American financial model was duly deemed uncharitable.

After dinner general conversation related to religion, politics, and sexuality, reached its apogee and resumed the next day.  Contributions from all in attendance were remarkable, brief and straight to the point.  A morning excursion to the Kelly tree, (not the original tree) the shooting site, (not necessarily the original site) and the impressive utilisation of gratuitous detailing, interpretive signage, consultancies and an assumed corps of bureacrats, middle managers and sub consultants left us with the indelible impression that the telling of a standardised Australian history, shall prosper under the new government.

Lunch was finally (and finely) served in which the host Ira Main gave a spirited account of cider making, and the enthusiastic participation of locals in this pursuit.  Of even greater interest was his description of his annual local role presenting the interactive “Bash the Rat” event.  Ira enlivened this in the telling by describing the former member for Indi as arriving “dressed from a Fellini film”, though in the light of subsequent events we are not sure entirely which Fellini film he referred to.  Was it ‘La Dolce Vita’?  Perhaps, in reference to the swing against the celebrated member, the 1963 avant-garde autobiographical classic ‘8 1/2’ would be more apt.