| Friday, July 7
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Prejudice Across the Ages. |
Something has been plaguing me for quite a while now.
Did the use of a nuclear weapon cast the longest shadow on the post-war world?
Or was the biggest threat to Australia’s fair and equitable way of life yet to come?
It is my contention that, despite our quibbling about left and right, the issue is not philosophical but generational.
Australia is drowning in a sea of 60 something leaders arguing over outdated orthodoxies. Our business sector, the media, our educational and cultural institutions are awash with tired methods and ideas recycled from the 70s and 80s.
Australian public life has not only ignored the energy and ideas of young people, they have been shunned and derided. This trans-generational prejudice has inevitably led to a decent into across the board mediocrity. Not to mention the exodus of hundreds of thousands of talented young people to take up opportunities overseas, where younger people are given positions of responsibility, and where generations share more fairly.
The grotesque self satisfaction of the Baby Boomer generation is leading our country into a quagmire. They seem determined to maintain their hold on every key position, in nearly every industry, long after their usefulness has expired. What happened to this care free, drop out generation? When was it that they became such unbearable control freaks? Could it be that the insecurities attached to their advancing age is being brought to bear on us? Perhaps it’s just their unbelievable selfishness that informs their policy making?
I argue that both sides of politics are equally as bereft of a solution to the overarching issues of this age. I say that neither of our major political parties has the answer because their wretched self-obsessiveness renders them incapable of empathy with younger generations.
No doubt, they have achieved quite a lot. But, unlike their parents, they never had to do without. The Baby Boomer generation had the benefit of limitless free higher education, free public health care (without massive waiting lists), and under employment. There were no tests for welfare payments nor was there a “mutual obligation”.
In return, we have foisted upon us HECS, massive increases in the cost and availability of health care, the requirement for ever increasing educational standards as a prerequisite for the most menial of jobs, massive unemployment, and a general decline in the state of our communities as their fear of everything (especially young people) bubbles to the surface.
Are these economic realities of our generation really necessary or are we being made to pay for the continued self indulgence of our parents generation?
spource: www.chaser.com.au |
posted by ^%&^
@ 1:13 PM
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