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Much navel-gazing is given to the relentness nature of the 24-hour news-cycle; the desperate need to fill each hour, to rust-on each listener, to cut swathes through the advertising dollar. Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame is over in five. Mediocrity is the new black: it is plentiful; it is cheap; and, it is expendable.
One of the consequences of this desperate, lemming-canter to the abyss, is that the worthy of generations past, fade into obscurity. Brilliance is still celebrated, although through a mirror darkly, but 'worthiness' goes unremarked. So, travel with me for a few days, back into last century, whilst I muse upon the worthiness of two little-remarked Australians: Bill Dobell, and Mary Gilmore.
Bill Dobell painted a stand-out portrait of Mary Gilmore, which was subtley included in the background of our $10 note. Gilmore - poet, journalist, and socialist - died in 1962, aged 97. Dobell - sculptor and painter - died in 1970, aged 71.
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