At the risk of waxing lyrical about 'the good ol' days' and 'awfulising' about the current state of the world I am led to question how we come to be subscribing to living in such a fear based society. Now I am not suggesting that you don't tie up your camels, but I do recall a time in Melbourne when we had Tram Conductors and Concierges. Now we have Inspectors on our public transport and armed Security Guards outside of banks and hotels.
In the good ol' days on the trams, some of the Connies even sang. Many were able to provide directions, reassure unfamiliar travellers and give a stern warning to those whose behavior was unbecoming. Today Inspectors stride onto the tram in the great-coats, puffed with the pride of the powerful, sanctioned by law to strong-arm any resistance.
I always rued the demise of the tram conductor. Their loss I believe was a marker of society going in the wrong direction. It wasn't just the job loss for struggling university students, performers and artists. Something more sinister and pervasive is escalation of a fear based society that assumes people will do the wrong thing. There is no doubt that punishment is a deterrent as long as there is constant monitoring. I just think it would be far better if we are going to start a trend to make it towards personal responsibility and good relations.
Harry Palmer, creator of the Avatar materials calls it Living Deliberately.
Tram photo courtesy of Ryan on Creative Common Search on Flock
No comments:
Post a Comment