farmdoc's blog post number 392

Here in Tasmania, last Monday was cold, so I wore my ‘Emily – life is but a dream’ t-shirt – for the first time – beneath my windcheater and business shirt. Putting it on, I noticed it was made by Bonds (in Australia, too, stone the crows). Which got me thinking about bonding – the defining characteristic of herds. Sheep are herd animals. And though, like wombats, I’m not one myself, humans are too. Last Monday night in Sydney before the 2009 Vogue Entertaining +Travel Produce Awards presentation, darling Kate and Brendon socialised with the other finalists from the Daylesford area. Good bonding, I’d say, before the big event in the big city. Especially as all three were winners. But some bonding can be bad. The revelation by former rugby league coach and noted sports writer Roy Masters – in his 2006 book Bad Boys and on Four Corners last Monday – that group sex has been used as a vehicle of team bonding, are abhorrent. Disgusting. Beyond the pale. ‘A girl might’ve accommodated three or four players,’ Masters said. Only three or four? Aren’t there 13 players on a rugby league team? ‘They are at a golden triangle of celebrity status, a lot of money and too much time,’ Masters added. So what? After thousands of years of so-called human civilisation, and hundreds of years after the Renaissance, is this the best we can do? I despair.