Caption : By Maxine McKew @ Flickr
Article submitted by Seb, NSW for the What Would You Change? Challenge
Imagine if we had a world where people worked together to support each other and to overcome social problems, instead of complaining, blaming others, and waiting for someone else to clean up the mess. We are challenged with complex and significant social problems, such as local and global poverty, catastrophic climate change, and a growing mental health crisis in Australia. All of these are caused by a lack of social responsibility, by a lack care and support from fellow community members. And the only way that will change is if we all take part in creating change.
We are all happy to criticize politicians, and yet political party membership is at an all time low - 1.3% of the Australian population in 2006 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We are all happy to moan about the state of the world, but only 34% of Australians over 18 have participated in voluntary work (ABS, 2006). It begs the question – we know what we don’t like about the world, but how many of us are actually willing to actively participate in creating a better Australia?
In my ideal Australia, all people would take responsibility for the quality and direction of our society. We would work with each other to overcome the barriers to a full, equal and fulfilling society instead of complaining about it. We would hold core the important recognition that in order to have rights, we have to have certain responsibilities to each other and to society.
Politics would be about inspiration and opportunity, it would not be about fighting and negativity. By participating in political parties we would challenge them to have greater vision. As a country, we would value all people participating in our democracy and provide opportunities to discuss and engage in the processes of governing our society.
In essence, it would be about community, and not about competition.
To achieve such a world requires leadership – social and political leaders who are willing to paint a vision and frame the public discussion towards building a better community ethos of participation. For a look at the way in which a strong thought leader can change a society, we need look no further than former Prime Minister John Howard.
John Howard’s longest lasting legacy as Prime Minister will probably be the way he changed and formed our national identity as it is today. Through his speeches and rhetoric, he cast Australians as middle class, Christian people who love barbecues, beer and sports - putting those character traits on a pedestal as the core factors of Australian identity. Over Howard’s 11 years there was a fundamental shift in the Australian identity, which also led to an increase in racism and conflict, as is bound to happen when you raise one group of people above others.
(For more on John Howard’s impact as Prime Minister, I recommend watching the documentary series Liberal Rule: The Politics that Changed Australia, and reading Norman Abjorensen’s analysis)
Applying this same leadership and thought to developing a stronger community ethos in Australia could have a similar shift. We could be engaging our non-profits, businesses and leaders to co-operate in a national discussion and campaign. Online, we could challenge bloggers and influential people to have this same debate. Such a shift in societal values is not beyond us – if one man can have such an impact, a broader community effort of influencers can do the same.
Starting from where people are, through discussion and debate, we can change the way people view the world, and thus change the world.
