What is a good society?
*occasionally I write a piece with geopolitical commentary. I will be back to regular posts tomorrow.
This week the Australian Department of Education released a video on consent aimed at teenagers. They also launched a web site called The Good Society aimed at teaching children of all school ages about consent and respectful relationships.
This following massive backlash from rape allegations, still unresolved, within the Australian Parliament. Allegations that from my perspective the government are hoping the news cycle will forget so they do not have to address them.
It is no secret that the Prime Minister of Australia is a Pentecostal Christian. And that many of his ministers, predominantly of the dominant caste, are in his prayer group. Pentecostals believe in the second coming, the rapture, speaking in tongues.
Australia’s colonised origins are different than the USA. Religious freedom is not something we care much about. The evangelical power here is so far just a fringe movement. Exactly where the majority would like to keep it.
The complete inability for the Prime Minster and his government to respond with any empathy, or in an appropriate manner at all to the shocking allegations coming from within parliament, is the demonstration of his belief system in action.
Now we have this parody of education, an out-of-touch-with-the-majority-of-Australian-youth portrayal of what consent is. Not only does it lack any ability to clarify consent, in the opening minute, the young female actor is the perpetrator. It is confusing for even those who have a clear agreement with consent and boundaries.
My daughter could not get past the first minute. I couldn’t watch it. It was embarrassing, uncomfortable, and so lacking in anything remotely related to our current times. There was something dangerous and creepy about it.
In Syntropic World we teach that to understand a problem we need to go back to the Source Idea, the origins, the root of the root. What was the Source Idea for this video? Who held it? What were they seeking to convey? Who signed off on it?
Interesting that in the case of this material the writers, creators and signatories are all obscure. We know that $3.8Million was spent, and that two ministers signed off on the campaign, both of these ministers part of the Morrison prayer group.
Where there is obscurity there is likely a hidden agenda. It is that hidden agenda that creeps, literally, through the material.
To demonstrate the world view of our Prime Minster and his incapacity to understand consent, a parody video has been released showing the actual footage of Scott Morrison responding to people affected by the terrible bush fires in Australia prior to COVID, with some of the voice over from “The Good Society’ video overlaid.
https://twitter.com/kailaswild/status/1383995467843784704?s=20
Perhaps that is why we sense the creepiness of it. The Pattern Integrity behind the Good Society video reflects the Handmaid’s Tale puritanical intent.
Whoever said this was a good idea displays their own terror of speaking about sex. About rights. About physical desire. About boundaries. About women being sexual beings. About teenagers being people with opinions. Milkshakes and tacos and swimming in the ocean were the metaphors. As if the teenagers of today do not have access to porn? As if they do not know what sex is. As if they are incapable of having honest open discussions about one of the fundamental aspects of life.
Where was the input from teenagers? From a diversity of teenagers? Do we not respect young people enough to listen to their voice?
And why name this initiative “The Good Society?”
What is a good society? Is it this image of the Prime Minister and his wife doing a full “Handmaid’s Tale” media image as he writes a letter of condolence to the Queen?
In this good society where do women belong? Where does sex belong? Back in the dark ages?
Where are we celebrating great consensual safe sex? Where are we providing the discerning education and skills for young people to make informed decisions about life matters like sex, consent, boundaries?
I do not want to live in a Good Society. I want to live in a world where we celebrate diversity, dignity, respect, difference.
A “good society” is the place for conformity enforcers. Same same. No robust debate. No women out of place. No heat, desire.
I do hold integrity as the ground. But integrity is not a word, it is an act. And to be in integrity means that we create a space for polarity, critical thinking, difference. It means that we respect other people’s boundaries, their right of choice, their voice when they say no…no to sex, no to touch, no to having others’ beliefs shoved in your face.
This type of society is one we demonstrate through our actions every single day. Our Prime Minster might put his hand up to learn what consent means.
Photo taken April 21st 2021
*the offending video has now been taken down due to the backlash.
