SHOCK REVELATIONS: SIMPLE ACTS FOR ESD
What simple acts can we as a people do to create a better world for our children?
Such a question, I believe, most of us ask ourselves at different times. At an important level we are already doing many things that are improving the social fabric of our society for both the immediate and long term futures. We are a fairly supportive community that is continually in genesis and aspects of our society are good and others improving through the everyday acts and conversations of ordinary Australians. But to paraphrase an old pop song ‘if my eyes are not deceiving me there’s something going wrong round here’. In certain areas we have been on a slide over the last decade. How and why is this occurring? It is not an accident nor a natural progression of society. It is, I believe, a direct result of deep social divisions opening up through the direct actions of the political, business and financial elite of society. Plato, the philosopher, stated that the norms of society were those expressed by the elite. This is as true today as 2,000 years ago, when it was written. Alex Carey, an Australian academic studying American internal policies in the early part of the 20th century raised awareness of the actions of the elite to remove the risk to their positions of power, that was imposed by democracy. This he stated was by the development of appropriate ‘information’ through think tanks, which were financially supported by the elite and then this information was disseminated via the media, etc. This information was appropriate to the maintenance of power by the elite on their terms, not that of societies. Carey provided us with a warning of what was coming. This is not a conspiracy theory, rather a treatise of what occurred in the US during last century. This systemic action was imported onto the Australian scene in the late 1970’s and took hold throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. It produces the neo-conservative agenda by which this country now finds itself in. This has led to the social divisions we see in today’s society. This is wedge politics – divide and conquer.
Social divisions are the foundations of the neo-conservative or economic rationalist objective. It is through division that negative political action can be implemented to improve the lot of the elite. The concept of the redistribution of wealth has dropped from public discourse. Why? The answer is simple, wealth is being redistributed; it is being redistributed upwards, thus it is not appearing in conversations in the public domain. We must question both the journalistic integrity and lack of analysis within the media. Often they tell us as much by what is not being said as by what they do talk about. The elite, poor buggers, have increased their real and relative wealth substantially throughout the last two decades at the expense of the other ninety percent of society. I am not jealous of their wealth nor do I wish to be in a position of power over other human beings. I am, like many others concerned about deep social divisions, disparity of both opportunity and wealth in society. The course of political action that is being implemented in this country is authoritarian, undemocratic and nationalistic.
The rise of the neo-conservatives was not a natural genesis. It did not arise from public discourse, its origins were from right wing think-tanks primed with financial resources which are able to churn out ‘information’ and provide voices on the radio and TV. This agenda is authoritarian, it is not a popular movement. Our government is ideologically driven, an ideology based upon market forces which are a fiction. This has given rise to the neo-conservative agenda of contemporary Australia. It is nothing more than a US import – made in the USA. Sadly our existing political and social systems have failed us in trying to grapple with this situation and the social consequences of neo-conservatism.
We all have influence but do we have power? We have little power but this is within our sphere to influence and change. Part of the problem lies in the fact that we perceive ourselves as powerless and it is far easier to be a couch potato than to be active. Some days it is comfortable to be an emu, head down, arse up, surviving in a globalised world. But is this in the long term interests of our children? Do not we have more to offer future generations than more of the same? We need to do more than survive. Collectively, whether we are aware or not, we are developing our part of the world which is interdependent with the rest of the world. It is within our power to create alternatives to the dominant paradigm being forced upon us by the elite. Earlier Australians societies came up with new ideas. They developed political critiques which were new and created unique approaches to social problems. We of the antipodes have a strong history of developing human rights and alternative models of living such as a living wage, universal suffrage, secret ballot, etc. This heritage is being destroyed by the neo-conservative agenda of the government. I was bought up on the concept of egalitarianism which has served us well in the past. I acknowledge that various groups, Aboriginal people, immigrants, working class women have had a raw deal throughout our history. But our story has also had many triumphant times where we have displayed the better part of our character. We all have an innate capacity to contribute in a meaningful way to the economic, social, cultural and political development of our society. This is our strength. We can, as others did before us, develop practical, innovative stances to social and ecological problems by acting as social change agents. Even this period of neo-conservatism provides us with historical opportunities and possibilities. The challenge is there. As environmentalists we can contribute significantly in producing a new development paradigm to build a sustainable society which is locally relevant. In developing new and different forms of radicalism; politically, economically, socially and culturally we produce an alternative system of commerce, social interaction and a truly civil society. This will provide a diverse, culturally rich society rather than simply being part of a homogeneity, a coke-a-cola of humanity. An ecologically sustainable development paradigm displays the following characteristics: It is well within our capacity to produce a life-centred society and a social economy based upon people and community fulfilling the above criteria. At the local level by growing links between social and community groups we can produce a political critique that will provide an ecologically sustainable development paradigm. As custodians of our region we have a responsibility to do so for those who are to come after us. -Gary