Term 4-07
Consume, be silent, die!
Prominent during the 1970’s and fading on into the 1980’s the above was a piece taunting graffiti on the light rail cutting in Glebe. Its author was and remains un-known to me. In dripping white pre pressure pack paint, it glared out at me on bus journeys, mocked me as I drove my car and prodded and pinched me as my values began to slip into the 90’s. Some guilty soul eventually painted it out.
As we have now crossed over the first half of the first decade of the 21st century, it is interesting and heartening that we as a society seem to be ready again to respond to the embedded challenge of the anonymous taunt. Terms such as Green Credentials and Carbon Footprint are finding their way into the everyday lexicon of the newsroom and the boardroom. Television programs such as “The Carbon Cops” have invited the clearly non-revolutionary to think about their impact on the planet.
We do have a long way to go, just to return to the consumption levels of the decade when the taunt was beginning to fade on the wall. According to the ABS figures released this week (Aug 5th) “…Since 1985–86, real (i.e. adjusted for inflation) household final consumption expenditure per person has increased on average by 2% each year (from $17,500 in 1985–86 to $26,100 in 2005–06). The largest increases have been on communication services and goods for recreation and culture…”
Along with this increase in personal spending it is will be no surprise to you that obesity has also increased dramatically. “…The latest figures (2004–05) show that around 7.4 million Australian adults (54%) were overweight or obese. This was an increase of more than 2 million adults from 1995. The proportion of adults who were obese (up from 13% in 1995 to 18% in 2004–05) increased at a greater rate than the proportion of adults who were overweight (up from 33% in 1995 to 36% in 2004–05)…”
It could be argued that we are staying in more, cocooning in our comfortable comparative affluence. Interacting with the world passively, anonymously. Others have written of the impact of the iPod and mobile phone on our public availability arguing that these devices isolate us even further from each other. In staying connected to the wider world, we disconnect from the immediate locality.
Participation rates in community college activities have also fallen over the period 1995–2004. There may be many reasons for this, demographic shift being a likely suspect, however, the availability and attractiveness of home based entertainment of a high quality must certainly be credited with some causal effect.
I am by no means a profit of doom here. I am optimistic of our ability as a society to arrest any trend into absolute individualism. We humans are compulsive communicators. We need each other to make sense of ourselves. In isolation we become wary and anxious. I have written before on the subject of trust and how interaction and understanding encourages trust and good will.
In time, the warm glow of the lounge room will offer only limited solace in a world beset with challenges that we need to address as groups of people, communities of interest.
So, had I the chance to re-write the taunt it might read as follows:
“ Consume moderately, be silent only in order to listen, die happy”
Garry John Traynor
Principal
garry.traynor@scc.nsw.edu.au
The views expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
