Have you noticed that our political class, and the media which helps shape its discourse, is fixated on 'doubling down'?
2016 was a bumper year for the political double down: everyone seemed to lock into a stubborn defence of a favourite prejudice or frustrated demand.
Sydney Morning Herald journalist Mark Kenny witnessed a dramatic manifestation of the cult of repetition on 26 November: 'Mr Abbott was seen to double down on his recent indirect messaging to Mr Turnbull about a possible return to the frontbench.'
A combined 'double down with indirect messaging' manoeuvre: perhaps a uniquely Abbott adaptation, insisting on attention to his frustrated ambition, heedless of its impact on the Turnbull government, and reducing political discourse to a focus on personal resentment.
Doubling down — otherwise known as repeating yourself — is the public language of aggressive redundancy, drowning out alternative voices and ideas.
Mark Thompson might see doubling down as a further debasement of political language, which he argues in his recent book, Enough Said, has lost its power to persuade.
New York Times CEO Thompson argues that in the face of intensifying political conflict, economic disorder and technological change, political language in western democracies has become a blather of evasive spin and crude dogmatism.
In Australia, the absence of either an ethical or credible policy can be overcome by doubling down. The media will dutifully record an obstinate stand with a 'double down' marker. The evidence suggests politicians are comfortable with a DD badge.
"Doubling down is the diminished language of a political culture locked in its own prejudices and unable to articulate ideas to shape a better future."
On 21 November the ABC reported that Immigration Minister Peter Dutton 'doubled down' on his insistence that the Fraser government's immigration policies opened the door to Lebanese Muslim criminals and terrorists.
Having been attacked by Labor for an initial swipe at Fraser's recklessness, Dutton reiterated the claim in Parliament, and added that: 'The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background.' Dutton suggested a prolonged period of 'sleeper' terrorism, passed from one generation to the next until finally being unleashed nearly 40 years later.
Consideration of complexity — the force of recent circumstance, the role of western nations in destabilising the Middle East in the Iraq war, the susceptibility of the young to new discourses