Sign leaves me wondering

The rather large electronic sign maintained on the burnt out shell of the Shepparton Hotel by Greater Shepparton’s Cr Milvan Muto leaves me wondering.

Messages on the high profile sign, it beams over Shepparton’s busiest intersection, are frequently less than complimentary of some people and certain institutions, but that, in itself, is not what ignites my wonder.
Many are celebratory about the behaviour of Cr Muto arguing his demeanour as being essential to the democracy and honesty of the council, of which he is a part, while providing a much needed voice, it’s argued, for the excluded, suppressed and unheard ratepayers of the city.

Shepparton's Cr Milvan
 Muto



That may or may not be the case, depending on your stance, but that is not really the point for what is truly interesting is the admirable tolerance of all in what might be termed the “Muto-affair”.

Most of us have not been privy to intimate details of what has been happening between the council and one of its brethren, but the details to which we have been privileged, point to a conversation within a breath of violence.

Contemporary understandings of violence are mostly about blood and bruises, but verbal violence can be equally damaging with the first line of defence being tolerance, but frequently the impact is on our emotions and sometimes that can be equally hurtful as torn skin or a broken bone.
I look at the sign and wonder about the tolerance that allows it to continue broadcasting to anyone, who cares to look at the often less than complimentary messages.
Freedom of speech, decency, civility, respect and a “fair go” are all values worth protecting, but I do wonder when the right to one’s opinion crosses a difficult to define line to become abuse.
The recognition and enactment of those values breeds tolerance and it falls to each of us, as best we can, to consider life from the position of the other and yet, at the same time, engage with and apply those things that make for a broadly happier, safer and stronger community.
Considering that, I wonder, does tolerance morph to become broader acceptance of an evil? Does our tolerance, something endorsed by most recognised religions, actually reinforce and therefore fortify the very thing that was both disruptive and surreptitiously destructive to the broader wellbeing?
The diplomacy inherent in democracy is to be lauded, but it takes special wisdom from an alert and adroit thinker to understand when the subtly of mediation is exhausted and further progress rests with an almost dictatorial-like decision.
Cr Muto is at first blush a pleasant fellow who appears to have the wellbeing of the city at heart, but he seems socially ill-equipped for the broad-ranging demands of a city councillor, the evidence of which is displayed most days on his sign.

Socrates knew he knew nothing, and died for that

Socrates knew he knew nothing, but those who imagined they knew everything put him to death.

We continue to harvest the impact of that centuries old error and today, it seems, the much-celebrated mediocrity of mankind has been substituted for wisdom.
We had our chance at greatness, but let it slip by and now we have a misunderstood unhappiness.
About two centuries ago we discovered how to access fossil fuels allowing us to unleash countless millennia of ancient sunlight, freeing us from endless toil and through innovation the lives of most were enhanced in hitherto unimaginable ways.
Although people can point to the wonders of the modern age and say “all is well”, in fact it is not as that error lives to haunt us.
Excited and blinded by the discoveries of about two centuries ago, we wrested the earth of its finite fossil fuels and luxuriating in that success and moment of excess, we choose to ignore the almost limitless energy resources provided by the sun, the wind and geothermal, an inherent life force of the earth itself.
Wisdom was absent and in its place was momentary pleasure and, particularly, profit. Socrates, metaphorically, had again been put to death, once more by those who imagined they had all the answers.
It is always easy to be intelligent after the fact, but rather than exploit and exhaust our finite fossil fuels, we should have metered them slowly out, using the energy they provided to allow us to develop and create a beautiful alternative energy system, that would be still serving the world today and ready for centuries to come.
Rather than creating personal mobility systems (cars) that made just a few rich, most subservient, severely depleted our oil resources and irrevocably damaged the world’s environment, we should have been conserving that “black gold” in order to build the ancillary equipment that a workable alternative energy system demands.
Some have articulated solutions for the future, but in most instances that solution needs equipment whose creation depends upon oil, that irreplaceable black gold.
Looking into the abyss, we wonder what Socrates would suggest. Probably, for a start, that we step back and then turn our minds to imagining a solution to a dilemma that has arisen from the lack of thought and a weakness that has seen us abandon all that is good as we have pursued short-term gains, profit and pleasure.
The future is long and will be undoubtedly tedious unless we understand and learn how to husband what ancient sunlight the earth has bequeathed and within that build a sustainable world that uses primarily renewable energy.
It was a grave error to put Socrates to death and yet we have again, metaphorically, made that same mistake.