The abuse scandal is a symptom of a much wider loss of authority... (Main Forum)

by Brian Coyne , LINDEN, NSW, Monday, August 20, 2012, 09:42 (273 days ago) @ Ian Lawther

Thanks, Ian. I agree that an institution that becomes populated by "yes men" is finished. What is presently happening to the Holy Roman Catholic Church might yet be the greatest lesson of that in all of human history. What was done to our own Bishop Bill Morris is NOT a sign of an institution "rising from some grave"!

On the general issue you raise of eliminating child abuse — to which I would also add bullying. I honestly think society is a long, long way yet from eliminating these things — particularly when we see in politics an elevation of bullying as a tactic for certain people to get what they want. These things are not going to be completely eliminated by Royal Commissions or new Laws. It can only be solved by a long, long process of education and somehow eliminating the lizard brain and this tendency in society of some people having this need to elevate themselves at the expense of others, particularly those who are perceived to be powerless.

Nick Bryant had an intelligent analysis in The Global Mail recently titled "Is the Political Talent Pool Shrinking?" [LINK]. I think it is and the statistics he produced would seem to bear that out. There was another report I read recently (sorry can't find the link) of the exit of talent from local government and the consequent mayhem beginning to surface in local government management. In a way I think we're watching the rise to the surface of the bully-type individuals and "main chancers" in society as others leave the field. How does a society "auto-correct" on that sort of phenomenon?

On television last night we watched Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" (Well we watched it until Julian Assange came on on ABC News 24). Capitalism and Western Civilization appears to be on the wane. The emerging powers seem to be from China, India or elsewhere in Asia. We have all the been fortunate to have lived in the era where we were part of the dominant culture and economic power in society. That is increasingly coming through in many reports and documentaries these days. Watching some of the segments in Moore's film last night you could be forgiven for believing it's not the zombies which have taken over but the bullies and main chancers who are pooping in their own nest and smashing the golden egg that delivered to Western society its economic clout and dominance in the world.

In another hundred or two hundred years will our offspring find themselves in a similar position to what the ordinary people of Greece or Spain find themselves in today? Remember they were once two cultures that were massive powers in the world.

I don't believe laws and prisons are what build great civilisations and communities. It is a very long-term thing gradually built up over centuries in the culture, values and set of beliefs shared by the broad mass of the ordinary people and also shared by their leaders. Once that nexus is broken between the leaders — those who have money as well as those who have wealth — and the ordinary people a society, or a church, is in serious trouble.

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/is-the-political-talent-pool-shrinking/320/

Brian Coyne
[Editor & Publisher]