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| One of the hazy images taken during the the so-called "Federation Square riots". |
Some immediate reactions about how we should discipline
those who crossed certain social mores are as inappropriate as the behaviour of
those so-called “rioters”.
Before rushing forward to damn participants, we need to step
back, and think for a moment, and in drawing what some might believe is a long-bow, consider it was generally the broader
behaviour of our society that contrived to create those events upon which many
have frowned.
“Impossible” I hear many readers muttering.
Society has failed when its narrow focus measures a person’s
success and usefulness to their respective communities on a scale that many
thinkers see as antithetical to the broader health of the planet and humanity
generally.
What we saw at Federation Square was little more than a few
voiceless people who ruffled the edges of what is considered normal to
illustrate, as best they could, that the workings of society favour only a few
and disillusion and disempower the rest.
Does Shepparton have an equal? Of course, but not yet
apparent or of the scale witnessed
recently in Melbourne.
A glance at Shepparton’s statistics will illustrate discontent
among a raft of people; people unable to find their place in our community;
people disengaged from education, work and who live without a sense of
belonging; they live with a sense of disconnect, a sense they are not a part of
our community.
The Melbourne ”rioters” and Shepparton’s disenfranchised
need to be included, embraced for nothing alienates a person faster or more
thoroughly than disinterest and sensing that indifference, people often go to
extremes, crossing social boundaries to remind us of their existence and that
they do matter and have opinions worth considering.
Inclusion is an illustration of care; a caring behaviour
produces better people running counter to our market economy that is morphing
to become a market society in which everything, even kindness is being
commodified, that is it can be bought and sold, it is given a market value.
So rather than seeing people as units of profit and loss, we
need to embrace them as mums and dads, brothers and sisters, family and
friends, workmates and colleagues, and simply as
people with feelings just like you and me.
Stand guard over everything that is public, from education
through to health and transport, and prevent, if you can, privatization (a
code-word for private profit and disregard for the public), for despite the
corporate rhetoric, the sale of public assets is not in our best
interests. Yes, stand guard, the financialization of society is driving myriad
wedges into our democracy.
And as clumsy as they might have been our Moomba rioters were a precise and timely
warning that all is not well with our governance, and it would be wrong of us
to casually discount that with “Ahh, that’s just city stuff” as the ingredients
abound here too.
Socrates the legendary
thinker quoted in Plato’s “Apology” said: “Are you not ashamed that you give
your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honour, and give no attention to
truth and understanding.”
The Melbourne “rioters” need our understanding and attention
to the truth.
