 Psychologically Speaking
with Stewart Hase
No Quick Fix for Global Ills
The human species is still very early in its evolution.
In fact it's not so long ago that we were living in caves and, on the evolutionary scale of things, a part of the primordial ooze.
So recent events in America, in Australia and in Lismore are not surprising in a psychological sense. Our primitive and very self-serving urges are poorly controlled and can be seen in everyday life. The centres in the frontal lobes of the brain that control these urges are yet poorly developed.
So what does this mean in a social sense?
It means that we go for the quick fix. Hunt down and kill the enemy in a terrorist attack. Retaliate and kill the terrorist and those who resemble him/her (New York). Paradoxically, be ethnocentric in a globalised world (the boat people). Allow thousands of jobs to be lost (Ansett, Telstra et al) at the altar of Keynesian economics, shareholders and the market economy. Ignore the social responsibility all communities have to the disadvantaged (the Soup Kitchen and the Neighbourhood Centre in Lismore).
We want instant gratification and have difficulty with the big picture.
Some of the big picture items are: the increasing gap between the poor and the wealthy (countries as well as individuals); isolationist and inward looking foreign policies by wealthy countries (including Australia) that deliberately alienate and antagonise less fortunate countries and people; the tendency to blame the victim of unjust systems instead of attacking the system itself; an inability to hold the mirror up to oneself (national and individual) and ask the question, 'What's my contribution' to this problem?'; and the failure to recognise that we are a community not an 'economy' and that people not dollars are important.
There have been a few leaders in the past and a few commentators who have been able to go beyond the quick fix and see the big picture. It is depressing to look around the globe and see not one, apart from Nelson Mandela, who can lead us well. Who can help us control our impulses and urges.
But, it is early in our evolution and it may take millions of more deaths and thousands of wars before we work it out.
I wish it could be sooner.
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