My oma would read me Aesop’s fables as a child because she believed stories should always teach you something. And that something was always easier to learn through the lessons of someone else.

My favourite was The Wolf and the Lamb.

I would listen as she would tell me of the wolf looking to justify his actions by finding some blame in the lamb he wished to eat.

But the lamb did not feed from the wolf’s pasture, did not drink from his spring.  The lamb had not lived long enough to insult the wolf.  But still the wolf ate the lamb, citing his right to dinner.

The lesson; the tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless to appeal for justice from an unjust oppressor.

And so, how then, does one beat the wolf? After all, Aesop also told us of the shepherd who learnt once a wolf, always a wolf, after the one he trusted ate half his flock.

The answer, my oma would say, was to be brave.

Like the mice who lived in fear of the barn cat but could not find the bravery to hang a bell from its neck. Without bravery, things continue much as they always have.

The wolf will find the justification to eat the lamb no matter how unfair.

It wasn’t the tale itself that made it a favourite.  It was that the answer in beating the wolf was so obvious.

There is nothing to be gained in appealing to a wolf’s better judgment or their sense of fairness.  To the wolves, the world is fair – they win, no matter the game.

Power tends to be quite happy with the status quo. It won’t shift because it’s what’s fair. The only way to beat a wolf is to be brave enough to challenge it. Power doesn’t change because it wants to. It only shifts when people force it.

And, for that to happen, someone needs to be brave. When it comes to the political sense, to be brave, you need something to fight for. Something to believe in. Some hope that things can be better, backed by the action and the direction on how to achieve that.

We saw what happened with the United States election.  We know what happens when media and institutions try and treat threats to our democracy, our very way of life as business as usual.

None of this is business as usual.  Normalising tyrants and increasingly unhinged policy which only seeks to further divide us and increase inequality – while only benefiting a select few – is not objectivity.

Treating the dead cats being thrown on the climate policy table as serious alternatives, and not as attempts to delay and distract from the necessary urgent energy transition, is not being fair and balanced.

The election of Donald Trump makes everything we are facing even more serious. And in many cases, mainstream media once again showed it was not fit for purpose in addressing this moment.

Now is the time for bravery.  For calling a spade a spade and a wolf a wolf.

For breaking free of the shackles of Australia’s “exceptional friendship” with the United States and moving forward boldly, doing what needs to be done.

For that, we need a government brave enough to do what needs to be done – not because it’s popular (although much of it would be) – but because it is right.

A government brave enough to face down those invested in keeping things exactly as they are because it’s easier than having the fight.

A media brave enough to call a lie a lie and continually challenge power, access be damned. A political and media class brave enough to take on Murdoch’s influence and push through the culture wars, which only seek to target the vulnerable and maintain power among a select few.

It shouldn’t be considered brave to say tax is good and billionaires shouldn’t exist. That the fossil fuel industry not only needs to be wound back, it needs to happen immediately.  It shouldn’t be brave to state facts. To advocate for policies which ensure people are housed, fed and educated with access to healthcare no matter their income. That Australia is big enough to make a difference on global issues and doesn’t have to be a passive deputy waiting for instructions.

It shouldn’t be brave to say the solutions are there, we just need to reach for them.

That just because this is the way things are, it doesn’t mean this is the way things should be.

Bravery shouldn’t need to be a Big Idea. That it is, is the result of decades of doing things the wolf’s way.  Of fighting on the wolf’s territory.  Of giving the wolf the power to dictate the terms of engagement. Of pretending that working with the wolf is the only way to change how the wolf works.

Aristotle believed that bravery came from, well, being brave. That we became brave from performing brave acts.

Over the last 30 years, The Australia Institute has made bravery a habit, simply by allowing facts to speak for themselves. To allow research and evidence to guide the way.

In a world where facts are weaponised by those who who’d rather you ignored them, to not only stand by the facts, but fight for them, no matter who gets upset, is not just brave, it’s crucial.

There isn’t time to keep playing the wolf’s game.

But also … aren’t you sick of it?

Even in Aesop’s world, the wolf didn’t always win. A clever goat saved itself by distracting the wolf with its own vanity, encouraging it to play its flute until it became so caught up in its music, it didn’t notice the goat calling the hounds.

Aesop’s ass was even more direct.  It escaped by pretending to be weak and then kicking the wolf in the face.

If an ass can defeat the wolf, imagine what can happen when you put your whole arse into it.

That’s what I’m hoping to do.  I hope you join me.

Amy’s chapter in What’s the Big Idea? – a new book by Australia Institute Press – is titled “If Australia Could Be Brave”.

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