Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Learning rites and wrongs

By Harry Throssell - posted Monday, 21 July 2008


It is not uncommon to see young couples walking hand in hand while each chats away separately to other distant folk via the ubiquitous, insistent mobile phone. Hardly seems romantic. On public transport passengers make calls to announce they will be home in a few minutes, perhaps a warning the spouse should get the tea on and pour the drinks. Is it kindness or controlling? It certainly reduces uncertainty, fills spaces.

It is the rare home where there is no television, sometimes one in every room. Many are never switched off during the day, some have mammoth-sized screens virtually impossible to ignore.

A large proportion of the population gazes into computer screens at work or school, then again in study or bedroom at home in the evening and weekend for information, entertainment, to communicate with others known and unknown, near or distant. It is alleged many teenagers are not seen by the family after school because they are communing with the world via Facebook, or whatever, in their own room until they choose to go to bed. Youngsters accessing pornography is a worry to some parents.

Advertisement

This is the New World, the New Word, Holy Writ. The altar of modern life is the electronic gadget: computer at work, school and home, mobile phone in the spaces between, the cinema. Whoever controls the screen controls the world, for good or ill. How better to school the masses in what to think, what to prefer, how to spend their time, their money? How Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin would have welcomed such easy control of their populations’ cerebral processes.

A profound process is going on. Philosophers through the ages have maintained the human needs time and space to reflect on what is happening in the world, what politicians are up to, in the locality, in his or her own life, breathing space to allow unconscious and subconscious ideas to emerge into awareness. To ponder, dream, write and read poems, tales, think-pieces, to stop and smell the roses. But this meditation space is now squeezed almost to oblivion by the many forms of electronic communication pummelling the brain.

No doubt in times to come babies will be born with a phone as part of the ear, a mouse at the end of the arm.

Much of the seductive modern media is tailor-made for propaganda, subtly spreading often unchallenged values in the interests of sections of the community for financial profit or political influence. It is striking that on television there are regular daily bulletins of interest to those with stocks and shares, but only rarely for those in poverty, housing stress, or on long hospital waiting lists.

Inevitably what is posted often enough on these many screens is likely to influence what is the good life, what to think, how to vote, mostly what to buy. An electronic Big Brother, the all-seeing, all-controlling leader of the scarily oppressive “Oceania” in George Orwell’s 1984. Whereas reading requires concentration, television is often background wallpaper 24-7. In comparison those who attend traditional church services make a positive decision to do so but mostly it is a once weekly ritual for an hour or so.

Even old-fashioned readers of newspapers or books find it difficult to resist the pull of the new electronics. Undoubtedly we know through television more about wars and catastrophes in distant parts of Australia and the world than we used to.

Advertisement

The Internet has opened up new opportunities not only for the spread of information alongside government and traditional media sources, but also for conversations across the world. Fortunately there are still some media controllers with a commitment to the ethics of keeping the public informed objectively. This part of the new church has already been very valuable for understanding what is happening in war zones and other trouble spots.

Most forms of modern communication are laced with advertisements, selling goods, which can muddy the waters about the real intentions. SBS Television’s Insight program is interrupted several times to show advertisements, when you would think they would ensure such an important social issues program is devoid of such influences.

The invention of the motor-car changed the world. Initially the petrol engine mounted on four wheels gave those who could afford it greater freedom to travel over much greater distances in shorter time. But now our towns are throttled often to a comatose state by the number of cars, most of them absurdly carrying only one person. Every day the news includes deaths from crashes, frequently involving young people, yet television and other programs not only try to sell more but aim to show what fun it is to drive at excessive speeds and do stunts with the risk of death.

Taxes go increasingly towards more and more roads and bridges in the hope of overcoming the perils of the motor-car society. Perhaps we should be pleased the price of petrol is rising. Are we happier than when the horse was the main form of transport and we could walk anywhere?

Much of life is understood by its portrayal in screen fiction where police officers never turn a hair at viewing yet another battered or wasted body, carry out lengthy interviews and never make a note, are frequently engaged in gun battles but never get a scratch, are always young, good-looking, unmarried, never go home, and their professional partner is of the opposite gender. Or if older they are eccentric. In a boost for female emancipation most senior policemen are now women.

In the Middle Ages millions of people in Europe, mainly women, were burned to death or drowned after being “scientifically” diagnosed as witches and therefore a threat to society. Then it was discovered the science was mistaken. We always have to question what we think we know and what governments and other authorities want us to believe.

Brainwashing is still in fashion, and easier because of the monopoly of the silver screen at home and work. Modern society’s main cultural aim is to become richer than one’s neighbour - which is why in very rich countries like Australia and USA, those defeated in this competition, the poor, may struggle to survive. What we as a society don’t really believe in is sharing.

Australia is reported to be the fattest nation in the world with nine million people overweight. Life expectancy, increasing for 100 years, is now expected to go into reverse. Australians are going to die younger. According to nutritionist Rosemary Stanton and numerous other health authorities, takeaway or fast food, which is tasty and cheap, has a high proportion of fat, salt and sugar, and therefore has to shoulder at least some blame for the fatness epidemic associated with particular diseases, like diabetes, which contribute to premature death. Yet in spite of this scientific research it is almost impossible to avoid fast food advertisements.

Not surprisingly parents in Toowoomba are protesting because the local authority has approved the building of a new fast food outlet next to a school.

It says much about ultimate values when some of the richest millionaires in Australia, USA and elsewhere are in jail for cheating, trying to acquire even more wealth, land, property. Why do they need this? Is it to outdo the billionaire down the road? On SBS we heard how Bill Gates gave $25 billion to set up the Bill and Melinda Gates charitable foundation, with Warren Buffett adding more billions. It is fortunate Bill and Melinda use the money to improve the health of many who would otherwise have miserable lives and die at an early age.

But there remains an ethical question. There are now several people with greater wealth than Gates or Buffett, so we can only hope they are planning similar ways to share it - but they may not. If one person keeps $50 billion, that is $50 billion not available to others.

Competition as a way of life has its extreme forms. Some compete by shooting or spearing tribal rivals to acquire a food source for the family. It may be to gain control of the lucrative drugs market. Or it may be to make and sell increasingly powerful bombs to gain possession of the world’s oil while half the global population is struggling to survive.

At least when the church was dominant there was in most traditions consideration for the poor. Now the world’s richest national economy, USA, includes large numbers in severe poverty, giving rise to crime, a large prison population, and often little access to health services. The general philosophy is to compete, not to share, promoted via the new church of the electronic screen.

The traditional church in its myriad forms still exists, with outstanding servants like Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa and many humble religious people like nuns in Australia who work to assist young women trapped into the international sex trade. But in terms of affecting society it is tough competing with wall to wall commercial publicity.

Seeing that electronic screens seem to be here to stay, the hope is these new sources of news and comment can remain accurate and unbiased in the finest traditions of good journalism and community service.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

3 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Harry Throssell originally trained in social work in UK, taught at the University of Queensland for a decade in the 1960s and 70s, and since then has worked as a journalist. His blog Journospeak, can be found here.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Harry Throssell

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 3 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy