Learning rites and wrongs

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.