Security on our streets begins when we flick a switch

Finding security on Shepparton’s streets seems pretty straightforward – it begins with the flicking of a switch.

It is unlikely your
 television has a
  switch anything like
 this one, but if it had,
 then moving it to the
 off position initiates
 security on our streets.

However, that is reductionism taken to its extreme as the sought after security arises from a social paradigm of such complexity that it makes brain surgery look artless.
Safety on Shepparton’s streets, as is the case for any town or city, begins when we reach for the remote, turn off our televisions and effectively remove from our lives the programmed violence and its daily assault on human values.
We are born as empty vessels and as our lives take shape we are filled by the influences of those around us, the way of life of those who raise us and the philosophies and values of the institutions that impact on our lives, from our schools, the government, laws, the media and finally, and critically, our entertainment.
Television is unchallenged as the one form of media that has almost unimpeded access to our lives, influencing our values from the seemingly impossible cheery morning shows and attention grabbing frivolities throughout the day, to the early evening news and current affairs shows that pander to the corporatism of the world, and the endless blood, gore and drama of evening viewing that ignites and excites our emotions.
Television simply fills up all the emotional holes in life to make the road smooth, but in a strange contradiction it is also hardening our values making us less conscious of community and consequently less willing to step away from our addiction to support our fellows.
And so while the road is smooth it leads to nowhere, at least not to a place where our streets are secure.
Television seeps almost unknowingly into our consciousness, while newspapers, books and magazines demand a more active participation and leads readers into a line by line contemplation and judgement that encourages reflection.

Neil Postman

Being aware of our ever-reducing attention span, television doesn’t allow for such luxuries, hurrying from scenes of war, death and destruction to heart-warming images of a team of rescuers hauling a helpless horse from a bog.
This seamless shift from tragedy and scenes of human deviousness to images of human goodness confuses the intellect and as discussed by Neil Postman in “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, we become desensitized to death and other human difficulties.
That, aligned with a violent computer games and movies in which violence is celebrated, tells the viewers/participants that whatever troubles them can be resolved by bellicose behaviour and so as night follows day, aggression, in its many forms, stalks our streets.
Modern life has conspired with the liberty afforded by our streets to rob them of the what it is those public places allow, a social life that has the wonderful addendum of security.   

Building a lifeboat in Shepparton to survive the 'perfect storm'

To the Mayor and Councillors,
Economic difficulties have ricocheted around the world and although Australia, and by implication Shepparton, has avoided a direct hit, the collateral damage is growing as are the conditions for a perfect storm.
The City ofGreater Shepparton Council is one of many, but the most important of bulwarks to protect our community from the rigours of a failing and flailing economy.

The seven-strong City of
 Greater Shepparton Council, led
by its mayor, Cr  Geoff
 Dobson (right),
 who can build Shepparton into
 a "lifeboat city".

That “perfect storm” has arisen from a collision of circumstances that some skeptics still doubt – humans, that is you and me, have irreparably damaged our atmosphere causing huge shifts in weather patterns; our growth mandated economy is breaking down; the fossil fuels that underpin the energy on which the world as we know it depends are severely depleted, or becoming uneconomic or impossible to recover; and the technology that many pay homage to and declare our saviour, is bankrupt.
Bankruptcy is something that has crossed the minds of many recently and it is something that will devour entire communities in decades to come and so rather than scurry of to a secluded hut in the bush armed with a loaded gun and rations, people need to bond with their community and work with council to build hope and resilience.
Difficult times can best be surmounted if courageous and decisive leaders step forward and who better to do that than those already elected to such a role, our councillors.
Our unfolding future will be decidedly different from the immediate centuries past, which were awash with easily accessible and effectively free fossil energies.
Starting from today, council needs to build a community that will answer human needs and happiness without the fossil fuels that have lifted it to its present stature.
Food will be a priority and council needs to create several significant community gardens throughout the city; fuel being rare and expensive means significant effort should be applied to the creation of frequent, fast and reliable public transport and both cycling and walking should be made easier and encouraged; planning and zoning should encourage increased residential density in the heart of the city; and as the modern world edges towards collapse, council needs to instigate throughout the community, ways and means for people to learn about and understand the skills of yesteryear.
Applying the adage that it is never too late, council needs to engage with the community and so exploit our richest resource – people and their innovation and resilience – to build on the rich wisdom, and hard work, that fortified the Greater Goulburn Valley.
Difficulties beyond what is understood and expected will emerge with alarming rapidity and Shepparton, guided and cared for by the council can become what is known in post-fossil fuels era nomenclature as a “life-boat city”.