Our society's
safety may be at risk, but the threat is not from
outside our borders.
We have had time now to absorb the "Fortress
Australia" Budget. But does anyone out there
actually feel the slightest bit better protected? Or
safer?
I, for one, feel less safe, knowing that critical
decisions about what actually supports and develops
a safe society are being made by people apparently
so out of touch with reality and basic commonsense.
The notion that threats to safety come primarily
from the outside would be laughable if it were not
so serious. Of course it is possible that a
September 11 disaster could happen here. But such
rare and extreme acts are not what undermine
people's lives on a daily basis. Most violence
happens between people who know each other. Or is
enacted by people against themselves: through
hopelessness, shame or despair. Or is carried out by
a small minority of people whose inward feelings of
emptiness and disconnection make them
extraordinarily dangerous to others.
Writing about such people, psychologist Alfred Adler
said: "It is the individual who is not interested in
his fellow human beings who has the greatest
difficulties in life and causes the greatest
difficulties to others."
And how does such disinterest develop? Analyst Harry
Guntrip says it powerfully: "If human infants are
not surrounded by genuine love from birth, radiating
outward into a truly caring family and social
environment, then we pay for our failure towards the
next generation by having to live in a world torn
with fear and hate".
We could add to that: if all human beings are not
treated with tolerance and respect, we will live in
a world torn with fear and hate.
It seems to me gravely deluded to imagine we can
protect our national security best by "guarding" our
vast physical borders. Even if we had the smallest
country in the world, that still goes no way towards
addressing the primary threats to a safe society.
A safe society has also to be just. Without an
explicit commitment to social equity - valuing all
lives equally - we can never be safe. And why not?
Because we are failing to create the circumstances
under which the greatest possible number of people
can grow up feeling at least somewhat self-accepting
and at least somewhat interested in the wellbeing of
others. Treat people as dangerous, contemptible,
"other", divide them on the basis of race or
economic "Utility" and you are guaranteed an
increasingly unsafe society.
Poverty threatens any notion of a safe society. But
it's not the only issue. What matters most is the
breadth of difference between rich and poor and on
what basis people are valued. The United States is
the richest nation on earth, with the highest
spending per capita on law enforcement, prisons and
armaments, yet its major cities remain frighteningly
unsafe. Life is most dangerous where there is least
social justice.
A glance at the world's hot spots, war zones and
disputed territories is testament to that. If we
cared about safety, we would focus far less on the
enemies without than on the enemies within.
Social injustice, racial ignorance and prejudice, an
almost total lack of parent education and support,
indifference to suffering and an absence of
commitment to social equity - these are real
threats, undermining our safety right now.
People are "safe", and keep others safe, when they
feel useful, connected and valued. They need paid
work for self-respect as well as income. They need
adequate services to support them in times of
crisis. Yet chronic, systemic unemployment
continues; at every level from preschool to
tertiary, our education system is going hungry; and
community, child protection and mental health
resources in every state and territory of Australia
are starving.
Let's talk about safety. Let's care deeply about it.
But let's also understand what safety is, what gives
rise to it and to whom it belongs
Stephanie Dowrick,
Sydney Morning Herald - 1 June 2002
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