Our very own heavyweight Gary Clark limbers up for the first round of the national mixed open social analysis championships. He’s looking fit, eating plenty of carbohydrates and training daily.
Taking part in the Australian conversation.
Power often dictates what stories are told within a society. As peoples how do we take part in the Australian conversation and express our views and our aspirations? As citizens do we have a voice and can it be heard? Too often we feel excluded and over time this exclusion can lead to alienation and cynicism. The tides of influence wash over us and leave us leveled to the lowest common denominator. As citizens living in a democracy it is our responsibility to ask ourselves is this of our making or are there relationships at work to ensure that the people, ordinary people with real aspirations, needs, desires and so on are voiceless and disempowered.
Every day there are events and conversations between people and the sum total of this is the reality of the society in which we not only live but are developing. This reality is more relevant than the reality that we consume through the existing power structures of our society. Government and the media bombard us with information. This information they claim is the majority view and today it is claimed you are unAustralian if your view is not the same. Is the information really relevant to us, or are we provided with information designed for their ends and their means? It is important for us to realise that information is generated at the centres of power not from the fringes of power where most of us live and work. The stories that we get on a daily basis are generated from power which by its very nature will provide information in its interest and generally not for the common good. The political and media wings of the globalised world are very powerful and in the history of humanity has there ever been a more powerful elite?
Perhaps it is the simple acts by ordinary people which constituents the fabric of a nation. We have our various backgrounds which are our strengths. We have had our moments but in general things have worked out okay for the ordinary person throughout our shared history. Perhaps the simple act of realising that it is us who are the masters of our destiny rather than some distant politician, bureaucrat or multinational executive that positive change can be organised at the community level not only for our own personal benefit and those close to us but even the buggers we don't really like. We all require a voice in the Australian conversation, let us not drown out those whose views we may find antagonistic or even stupid.
It is an insult to both our intelligence and our humanity that the political and media wings of our society wish to dictate what is good for us. This is not new within our society. As the Australian colonies moved towards a federated nation Lawson stated in the 1890's
'They lie the men who tells us in loud decisive tongues
That want is here a stranger, that miseries are none'
Have things really changed that much. Yes our material culture has changed and so have our beliefs and knowledge base. But we also have forgotten much. The loud decisive tongues are certainly there and one wonders was there ever a time where the common people had a voice that various powers did not try and drown out. Creative expression throughout our history has provided us with a rich heritage. I would argue that as more people of various backgrounds work together in collaboration that the human potential and the society in which we live will increase. An important collaborative area is that between indigenous peoples and others. (Rabbit Proof Fence was a beautiful example of this) By working together in a spirit of co-operation that we as peoples can develop our aspirations and society that will produce a society and landscape suitable for our children and their children's children.
Stories are not powerless and who we are is complex. Our stories govern our self image, are the basis of our actions. In choosing the stories of our society it is essential that they are relevant and based on a true reflection of fact. We owe it to all peoples to choose stories at the heart of our collective experiences, at the heart of our knowledge. We must open up our stories to include aspirations of all peoples and not just those of the privileged few. The relationship of humanity and the Australian environment is an area where existing power structures dominate the conversation and the resultant legislation. Working together in collaboration the various disparate groups that we belong to can produce a development paradigm offering an alternative to the 'slash and burn development' of the Australian environment. We need to consider the social, cultural, ecological, spiritual, economic, political and landscape consequences of our actions. The simplistic jargon that passes for debate put out by existing power structures will leave our children with a poor and depleted legacy.
Many of our present problems have arisen from a misdirected belief that it is the existing leadership paradigm which will chart our waters through history. Yet it is the sum total of us and our actions which creates both the present and history as the present makes way for the future. I'm buggered if I can get my head around this concept of leadership as the political and media wings wish for us to believe. In the industrial disputes and development of democracy in the Australian context of the 1890's it is the shearers who we remember in our traditions not the bloody sheep. In the 1990's it appears it is the sheep who are the 'leaders' and they know what is best for us. Sadly it was the Australian population which was shorn by the economic rationalists. How things have changed in time. Perhaps it is time to reflect that the aspirations of Australians at the turn of last century were butchered on the fields of Flanders, the Somme, Gallipoli and Palestine. What fields for our children?
What does the average 'joe' like you and I do in facing an such a disproportionate imbalance in power in telling stories of our society and our aspirations. I've scratched me head about this a bit of late and the more that I think of it, the greater is the need to do something. The simple act of supporting local story whether that is through the local art scene, reading oral histories, lobbying the local library for literature by ordinary people, writing our own stories, making our own documentaries, developing a localised media in print and film and radio, challenging the shock-jocks of talk back radio, developing local associations, alliances and federating with people of similar interests are means available to us to be part of the Australian conversation. Our lives as we live them on a daily basis can be conducted to bring out the best in all of us. The legacy that we create for all of our youth will be richer and more diverse than the current course that we are on. Will we rise to the challenge at the beginnings of this century?