Omnishambles

 

Omnishambles, a word that should be used more often to explain the bewildering array of evidence and opinion met in daily life, at macro and micro levels. Confronted with a situation that is beyond our immediate ability to process in all its complexity, most of us reach readily for the common expression: What a mess! A useful summation, but sometimes for truly unruly presentations of a mess, why not opt for its baroque synonym, omnishambles? This was the word used by the judge in the Bruce Lehrmann vs Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson case this week in the Federal Court to describe the height, breadth, and depth of confusion (read, information) that met his senses during this court hearing. He was stating his task, which was to apply common sense and a knowledge of the law onto an omnishambles, the prefix omni- indicating that the shambles was everywhere and all-encompassing through several dimensions. At least from his perspective. And probably most of the jury’s, the jury consisting of a goodly proportion of the Australian population. Like us the judge, Justice Michael Lee, was being told lies and to his credit he showed great insight in calling out quite a number, especially from Lehrmann, using simple objectivity and knowledge of the type. This dispersed much omnipresent fog while gratifyingly showing none of us are omniscient. Weeks of hearings tiptoed around the certainty, because it was forever being denied, that sex occurred on the ministerial couch in Parliament. This shambling around the main subject was clearly irritating to the judge. He made clear with clinical analysis just what this discussion was really about. His verdict left none of the jury in any doubt, as the omnishambles exited stage right and a hundred cameras followed the actors in this strange farce down a busy Sydney street. His actual characterisation of the case went, “given its unexpected detours and the collateral damage, it might be more fitting to describe it as an omnishambles”, itself a fitting description of the messy night in question. That alcohol has its own verisimilitude was known to the judge. That there are any number of afterhours venue choices more private than Parliament House. That true confessions may happen years later in unanticipated places and with unlikely listeners. His every sentence spoke to a shared reality about people and life. Deliver us from subterfuge. Amen. Omnishambles started life as a British political word, apt thinks the jury given the events of the case transpired during the lifetime of the so-so ScoMo moment. Like the judge, the Oxford English Dictionary turned this mess into clear English, awarding omnishambles the Word of the Year in 2012. Its definition: “a situation, especially in politics, in which poor judgement results in disorder or chaos with potentially disastrous consequences.”